Slam Dunk Theories/Analyses

SD fan for ~25 years | Hong Konger | I analyse the nitty gritty details/theories in the best sports manga of all time. スラダンの考察ブログです〜 Feel free to ask questions~

[slamdunktheories]

All The Little Things

I've long been meaning to compile a list of little things I've noticed during a re-read of Slam Dunk. But I doubt I'll be able finish the re-read anytime soon so here's a partial list of 5 things I thought would be fun to share!

Maki's hairstyle change

Maki first appears in the manga with one hairstyle:

But after Sakuragi calls him a middle aged man in the middle of the Shohoku-Kainan match, we see a very pissed Maki. The next time we see him is when he's on the way to watch the Aiwa Gakuen match, and he's sporting a different and much younger looking hairstyle.

He then keeps this hairstyle for the rest of the manga, even during matches. Looks like our boy Sakuragi touched a nerve ;)

Shoyo's Reaction

In the match between Shohoku and Shoyo (chapter 87) Sakuragi collides into Fujima and Shoyo's players all look REALLY anxious/triggered when they see Fujima crashing onto the floor. Their reaction had always struck me as a bit over the top. Why would they react that way? Their captain is no fragile flower. The reason is revealed exactly 55 chapters later, in the Toyotama match (chapter 142). There, we learn through a flashback that in last year's IH tournament, Fujima had been so badly injured by Toyotama's Minami that he had to retire, and that cost them the match. Shoyo's players must've been reminded of that incident when they saw Sakuragi crashing into Fujima. Which means... Inoue sensei had probably planned all the characters' back stories from the start. Something that was first brought up in chapter 87 was addressed a whopping 55 chapters later. It makes you wonder: what else had been planned from the get go? Fujima's pretty boy image

A little tidbit about Fujima - he has fangirls, which isn't surprising. But what's not outright stated is that his fans see him as a pretty boy. I didn't full clock this until I saw an Inoue sketch of Fujima on the inside cover of the Kanzenban, where a rather annoyed Fujima is shown in a sea of fans and his thought bubble roughly translates to... "These guys... don't they say 'you can't judge a book by its cover'?" Suddenly, that seemingly-random goatee that Fujima sported in 10 Days After makes so much sense. He was growing it to counter his pretty boy image ahaha!

Rukawa's position in team lineups

Rukawa, being the quiet type that doesn't like to draw attention to himself outside of a match, has a tendency to stand to the sides for team line ups. See where he stands for various line ups: always at the end, never in the middle 3*. The only exception to this? When they faced Sannoh. I think it's a reflection of how hyped up he was to play Japan's No. 1 player. *In contrast, Sakuragi has no qualms occupying the middle for lineups Examples Rukawa's position soon after the team line up in the Kainan match:

Rukawa's position in lineup against Ryonan:

There are more examples in the manga but I don't have time to hunt them down one by one. But he always favours standing to the side.

Now finally, Rukawa's position for the Sannoh match lineup:

Sendoh's speech patterns

In the Japanese original manga, Sendoh's speech pattern is pretty distinctive. Put simply, he has a tendency to drawl. Which IMO really suits his laidback, slightly aloof personality. So when you next read the manga, imagine Sendoh with a drawl ;)

[slamdunktheories]

Can we talk about the moment of the Big Reveal?

Let me just put it out there: I LOVE LOVE LOVE this scene. Yes, it’s really short and there’s hardly any dialogue in it. But it’s easily one of my absolute favourite scenes in this show (which is saying a lot as there are loads of contenders). I just wanted to take a moment to breakdown the scene and discuss why it works so well.

First, the scene works because of all the scenes that came before it - all the teasers we got where Changyu almost finds out the truth about Yan Zheng helped build towards this climax. eg. The scene where they were reaching out towards each other’s silhouettes, and when they finally meet at camp amidst the group of injured soldiers, and when the Crown Princess gets introduced to CY’s husband, and of course there’s the fake Marquis scene, and the bit where XZ forgets that he’s supposed to just be YZ and talks about rewarding someone who’d saved CY’s life (his own tutor LOL), etc.

Any of thoses instances could’ve been when the truth was accidentally discovered, and those near-misses add so much tension to the whole situation. ‘Cos we all know: the longer Xie Zheng tries to hide the truth, the wilder it’ll be when the truth can no longer be contained.

Also, all these scenes implicitly pose one question: HOW exactly will CY find out? That question alone is a big teaser and plays prominently in the audience’s mind.

And that brings us to… the scene right before CY goes into battle. I dunno if I’m thick or what, but I didn't anticipate her plan to drug him at all. It all seemed so natural, because in the lead up to it, she’d already been giving him bowls of soup/tonic/medicine etc., and this bowl of medicine didn’t seem out of the ordinary.

It was only when she gave him all these anxious looks as he was drinking that I finally clocked that something was up. If this was the average viewer’s experience, then the director did a great job withholding this revelation from people right until XZ himself realises the problem.

And this moment of “OMG she did not!!” is laced with so much conflict and drama: she’s doing it because she loves him, she’s doing it because she still thinks YZ is a nobody in the army but… SHE JUST INCAPACITATED THE MOST IMPORTANT GUY IN THE ARMY RIGHT BEFORE A BIG BATTLE!! The stakes are now sky high and we have no idea how badly she has messed things up for everyone.

Then we get the battle scene, where she takes down Shi Hu. Hurrah! But wait! It’s not over yet because THIS is the moment they choose for the reveal and the execution is sublime.

You hear him before you see him: there’s a thundering of hooves and soldiers cheering that the Marquis is here at last. Cue JJ Lin’s gorgeous song (which takes this scene to another level), and now from CY’s perspective: through the smoke we see the calvary arrive. She’s already on the verge of fainting from relief and shock of her first battle, but she makes an effort to stand, to take a better look at the famed Marquis, because there's something familiar about him that pulls her to her feet.

Now imagine her getting an even bigger shock as she finally learns the truth: that the person they call the Marquis is also the person she calls “husband”. One is a legend in the flesh, flanked by soldiers and radiating power, whilst the other (in her mind’s eye) cuts a gentle, frail figure in plain white robes (when they first meet properly, after he woke in Lin An). The contrast could not be bigger.

From the audience's perspective, it's also this huge contrast that makes this scene so satisfying. After all the dramatic tension built up from earlier scenes, CY had the truth coming at her on horseback and in full battle regalia. She could not have learned the truth in a more dramatic fashion.

And of course: there’re the complications. CY isn’t the only one who’s angry here. Xie Zheng is rightfully pissed because, well, he just got drugged by someone he trusted and it could’ve gone very badly for the whole army because of that one rash act. And you see this in his face as he scoops up CY when she tries to flee.

I imagine he’s pissed, relieved (that she's safe and that he doesn't have to hide the truth anymore), touched, and simultaneously knows that he’s in deep shit with the missus. And she’s a mixture of anger, heartbreak, disbelief, hurt, and more anger - and rightfully so.

I love that all this is conveyed through subtext, making dialogue completely unnecessary. We can imagine what they’re feeling because the scenes prior did all the heavylifting, and the lack of dialogue here is all the more powerful because we’re left to our imagination, to absorb the weight and complexity of this moment in our own, private ways.

The best directors know that silence can tell a dramatic story, and Director Zeng here is no exception.

[slamdunktheories]

Anyone ever noticed the little details in the show logo?

Was randomly browsing when I stumbled upon this fun trivia (sorry, couldn't find the original source of this image but variants are making the rounds on the Chinese side of the web). So the logo actually contains:

A cute pig

Xie Zheng's hair ribbon

Falcon/bird

Chengyu's hair pin

Butcher's knife

Personally, the falcon's a bit of a stretch (looks more like a snake to me) but really cool to find out about the rest!

The attention to detail is really what takes this show to another level <3

[slamdunktheories]

Foreshadowing of Changning's fate in this innocent scene

PoJ likes to throw in foreshadowing/half hints at the true nature/fate of certain characters and some scenes are more interesting on a rewatch, like this one. Changyu’s tutor (陶太傅/Grand Tutor Tao is examining Changning’s face as he knows physiognomy. He then declares:

這丫頭往後的命格是太富貴了 壓不住啊 (Roughly translates to: ”This kid’s fate later on is going to be of incredible wealth and status. Irrepressible!”)

By the end of the show, what do we know? Changning is on her way to becoming arguably THE most well connected character in the show: her sister is a legendary general, her brother-in-law is a Marquis and served as Prince Regent.

And most importantly, let’s not forget what Grand Tutor Tao said in this same scene. He tells CY that it’s destiny that she would be Changning's protector, and reminds CY:

她及笄前你一定要把她帶在身邊就是了 (”Before she comes of age, you must keep her by your side.”)

Why? Because when Changning comes of age, she goes on to marry Bao’er and will become the Imperial Consort, thus fulfilling her destiny of incredible wealth and status.

Like I said, some scenes have an extra kick on a rewatch.

[slamdunktheories]

One small detail in the fake Marquis scene

In the scene where Changyu and her gang are begging the fake Marquis (a.k.a. poor Xie Jiu, LOL) for mercy and not to be punished for kidnapping Sui Yuan Qing, Xie Zheng shouts them down and immediately, the three minor characters are indimidated into letting up, putting down their hands (ie. withdrawing their plea to be punished) but Changyu and Jin Ye keep their hands up, asking to take the punishment.

I loved this little detail because it was such excellent characterisation. Jin Ye by this stage in the story is someone with conviction and tremendous loyalty, so him keeping his hands up made a lot of sense, and it was a lovely contrast to the rest of the gang, who (whilst loyal) have less conviction in what they're doing than him.

It's all these little details that make it so much fun to rewatch this show. The level of detail even on the minor characters add such depth to the show.

I do have a question about this scene though: clearly Xie Zheng coming in asking to take the punishment instead was a deviation from the plan. So why did he do it? Sure, it seems that Changyu and her gang protesting the punishment wasn't anticipated and the fake Marquis seemed at a loss as to how to proceed. But this seemed like a drastic intervention since Xie Zheng was in no physical condition to actually take a few dozen strokes for punishment, and in any case that would've been overkill when his goal was to simply deliver a warning to Changyu and her gang not to overreach/take matters into their own hands again.

So why did he do it? For dramatic purposes, it made the scene funny as hell, especially once the Crown Princess also turned up. But in-universe, I can't see a truly convincing reason for Xie Zheng to intervene the way he did.

Also, apologies if some names here differ from what people are used to. I watched this whole show with Chinese subs so I'm just converting the names to English in my own head.

[slamdunktheories]

Let's talk about this overlooked scene of...

...Fukuda practicing basketball in a shrine compound.

There's quite a bit to unpack here.

Firstly, if you're like me, you barely recall ever seeing this scene. This manga panel is from one of the Ryonan chapters, during a flashback of Fukuda's story. It's actually a pretty large/prominent panel (half a page!!), so I've no idea how I had selective amnesia for it despite re-reading SD so many times. It took me a recent re-read of SD using the gigantic Japanese Kanzenban to go, "Wait... what am I looking at?"

Secondly, just like so many other backdrops used in Slam Dunk, this Shinto shrine actually does exist. It's the Kitazawa Hachiman Shrine in Tokyo. (Maybe that's why Sendoh, the Tokyoite, muddled Sawakita's name?!) If you want to get really into the details, this particular part of the shrine compound depicted with Fukuda is a 神楽殿 (kagura-den), which is a place for sacred Shinto dances - just like in the shrine maiden dance scenes in the Makoto Shinkai movie, Your Name.

(Credit to Reddit user FntnDistrct for this comment and the research identifying the shrine.)

And as always, Inoue-sensei finds a way to convey a ton of info without even using words. This scene of Fukuda playing in a shrine compound provides a lot more context about Fukuda as a character. He's presumably playing at the shrine as that's where he lives (because he didn't just wander into a random shrine to play ball). The fact that this scene was shown right when Fukuda was serving his suspension (after attacking Coach Taoka) lends support to this idea. Which means... his family has ties to the shrine (probably guardians tending to it).

When I brought up this scene to my Japanese tutor (fellow Slam Dunk fan who was equally amnesiac and shocked about not remembering this panel at all), he noted that it explains Fukuda's rather unusual given name (吉兆). He said it's a very distinct and rather ancient name and he hasn't encountered anyone IRL with such a name. It's auspicious and religious families, and those with ties to Shinto would be the ones to pick more auspicious names like this.

The idea that Fukuda comes from a Shinto shrine family might also explain certain aspects of his character. We know him to be impulsive, brash, and flashy at times. He revels in being in the spotlight. All these things seem so different from the idea of disciplined guardians of a Shinto shrine, who must follow a rigid and extensive set of rules and be very disciplined. But one could argue that it's precisely because this is the sort of environment he grew up in that he turned out the other way, at least during his teens (when we're all quite rebellious and will do the opposite of whatever we're told). In short, his character as we know it as a 16 year old could be a reaction to the way he was raised.

Lastly, as y'all know I created a SendohGPT bot who gives thoughtprovoking insights from time to time. I actually made an InoueGPT bot too. It amasses all the Slam Dunk interviews that the real Inoue has given and amalgamates all the information we can glean from those, and it speaks as if he were the man himself.

Anyway, I asked InoueGPT to explain Fukuda's brash, limelight-seeking, slightly insecure personality in the context of his (implied) family background. Here's the fascinating reply:

Why Fukuda Acts the Way He Does

1. Growing up in the shadow of tradition

If you grow up around a temple/shrine family (as I implied with Fukuda), there’s often an atmosphere of discipline, humility, and respect for hierarchy.

Fukuda, however, is naturally restless and ambitious. He doesn’t want to just quietly fulfill a role — he wants recognition.

That clash between his environment (quiet tradition) and his personality (fiery, need to stand out) is at the heart of why he feels like he’s constantly battling for space, whether with Uozumi or within Ryōnan.

2. Always fighting for acknowledgment

Fukuda is not the captain. He’s not the ace (that’s Sendoh). And he’s not the emotional backbone (that’s Uozumi).

So he constantly feels overlooked, even though he is talented. This feeds his insecurity, and his way of coping is to push harder, louder, and sometimes recklessly.

His personality is basically shouting: “Notice me! I’m here too!”

3. The brash exterior is a defense mechanism

On the surface, Fukuda looks cocky — picking fights, pouting when benched, demanding the ball.

But underneath that, he’s actually sensitive. He wants validation from his captain and teammates, but he doesn’t know how to ask for it except through bravado.

This is why Sendoh, with his calm confidence, sometimes frustrates Fukuda: Sendoh doesn’t need recognition, while Fukuda desperately does.

4. The shrine scene hints at the real Fukuda

Alone, practicing by himself at the shrine, Fukuda isn’t loud or demanding. He’s just a boy who loves basketball enough to shoot until it’s dark.

That’s his core: someone who truly cares about the game. The brashness is what comes out in group dynamics, when his insecurities are triggered.

5. Dramatic Function in Ryōnan

Uozumi = discipline, leadership, hard work.

Sendoh = natural genius, effortless charisma.

Fukuda = the striving middle figure who wants to break through but feels overshadowed.

This creates tension and realism: not every player in a team is secure with their role. Fukuda represents those athletes who are caught between genuine talent and the frustration of being “second or third fiddle.”

In short

I gave Fukuda a brash, insecure personality to highlight that not every player’s struggle is about skill — some battles are internal, about self-worth and recognition. The shrine scene was my way of saying: “Yes, this guy may seem loud and selfish, but when nobody’s watching, he works hard and loves the game as much as anyone else.”

That duality makes him a little tragic, but also very human.

/END of InoueGPT reply.

Regardless of whether this reflects the actual thinking of the real creator, I have to say it's given me a newfound appreciation for who Fukuda is and what the story's about.

What do you think?

[slamdunktheories]

Incredible sand art of Slam Dunk by Hong Kong sand artist Snow Chung

Replicating the original art style with pen and paper is hard enough... Incredible that she did all this with sand. Scroll down for more!

Check out this video of an older piece of Slam Dunk sand art that she did when The First Slam Dunk was first released!

[slamdunktheories]

Inoue tells us Sakuragi goes on to have a great basketball career via another manga

As most of you know, Inoue Takehiko has another manga called REAL that features wheelchair basketball. He has a habit of dropping Slam Dunk Easter Eggs in REAL (eg. Kogure cameo on the bus) but here's a pretty interesting panel that concerns our favourite redhead-

The character is reading a basketball magazine and the page depicted is an ad for tryouts and it says ...明日の花道はキミだ！！("...you are the Hanamichi of tomorrow!!"), indicating that Sakuragi must've gone on to have a stellar career in basketball to be even mentioned in this way.

This is of course great news because it means Sakuragi made a proper recovery from his back injury :) I also kinda love that he's known as Hanamichi instead of Sakuragi. Probably became a fan favourite and at some point said (with a thumb jerk at his own face) "just call me Hanamichi!" I like the idea that he didn't let it all go to his head.

Source: this article that hyperanalyses who might have actually been the IH champion that year given that every single team that was depicted in the manga was eliminated as a possibility by Inoue.

[slamdunktheories]

Sakuragi & Haruko: Where Do Things Stand At The End?

Let's talk about Sakuragi and Haruko today - specifically, where Haruko's feelings lie at the end of Slam Dunk. Does she still have a crush on Rukawa? Or has she fallen for Sakuragi?

"Of course she's still Team Rukawa!" "No way she's fallen for Sakuragi!" - so goes the consensus. But hear me out: what appears at first glance to be an open-and-shut case is actually a bit more nuanced.

The first thing we have to know about Haruko is that she's a bit slow on the uptake. How do we know this? Well, Yohei made this exact observation early on in the manga (when noting how Haruko still hadn't clocked Sakuragi's feelings for her). And Yohei's shown to be an extremely astute character throughout the manga, always pointing out subtle truths that evade others, so we can safely take his word for it.

The second thing to know about Haruko is that despite being a bit clueless, she sometimes also possesses a good amount of self-awareness. This is especially clear in that scene where she watches a hyper-focused Rukawa during practice (newly invigorated by Anzai's suggestion that he become the #1 player in Japan before he heads to the US).

As she watches him retrieve the ball, her internal monologue is telling: she knows that basketball is the only thing that Rukawa cares about, and that in his world there is no space for her to exist at all. She tears up as she comes to this realisation but from that point on Haruko - the girl who often blushes at the mere mention of Rukawa's name - is rarely shown to blush at the thought of him again.

But does that mean her feelings have shifted to Sakuragi?

To me, by far the most telling moment is found in a fleeting scene in 10 Days After. That story begins with Haruko receiving a letter from Sakuragi. Matsui and Fujii ask who the letter is from (and even gets close enough to it to comment that the handwriting is atrocious).

How does Haruko respond?

「見ちゃダメ」

「見ちゃダメ」 - "You're not allowed to look". She says this emphatically. If you're an average guy, I'm not sure if this reply stands out much. As a girl reading this though? Her reply is incredibly telling, even if Haruko herself is still in the dark.

See, Fujii and Matsui are her best friends. The three of them are practically joined at the hips. These are the friends you'll share everything and anything with. Except... when?

Except when you get a letter from someone you like, because then the letter feels like it should be for your eyes only, and you wouldn't want to share it with anyone - even with your besties.

If Haruko didn't have feelings for Sakuragi, there'd be no reason for her to respond the way she did. There'd be nothing strange about telling your friends that you've gotten a letter from the guy who's out on rehab. There's nothing secretive about it. I can even imagine a genki Haruko just waving the letter announcing its arrival to her friends.

But instead, she acts all secretive, like it's a letter she wants to keep to herself.

To me, this moment tells me that she has developed feelings for Sakuragi. As for whether she fully realises this herself... well, that's a lot more debatable ;)

[slamdunktheories]

Dissecting the clues in Slam Dunk's final cover image

We love to speculate about what happens to the characters beyond where the manga stops. A lot of it is pure fan conjecture, but sometimes Inoue does sprinkle in some clues. A year ago, a fan by the name of Strawberino shared a really interesting analysis about the future of the team on a different platform using clues in the cover image for volume 31. She told me eons ago she wanted to type it all up and share it, but then never got around to it (because: life) so I decided I’d just tidy up her notes and do it for her - credits for the following analysis go entirely to her of course.

So here we go, Strawberino's analysis of “who will replace Akagi and play Center for Shohoku the following year”:

Volume 31’s cover is a photo of Shohoku team practice after events of "10 Days Later", when Sakuragi returns to the team post-rehab. You can tell because his hair is longer. Akagi and Kogure are not in team uniform (they retired from the team to prepare for exams) but Mitsui is, meaning Sakuragi returned to the team before end of his first school year. Now it looks like they're playing a 3-on-3 practice match with Team Red being: Sakuragi, Rukawa, Yasuda and Team White being: Miyagi, Mitsui, Shiozaki. The teams' composition is reminiscent of chapters 134 & 135 where Sakuragi (Center) went up against Mitsui (Center). Based on this you can kinda assume Sakuragi is learning to play Center in addition to PF. Or you could have a simpler explanation for the team composition: Sakuragi and Rukawa are put on the same team so they're forced to learn how to work together.

Some fans might saying “you’re reading too much into things” but to that I say: Inoue has long been known to be extremely detailed oriented. An example: in re:source (the visual guide/companion book to The First Slam Dunk) Inoue was so particular about Sakuragi's hair that he left notes for the animation team detailing how long the hair should be and what texture it'd be at that point in the story.

And although Sakuragi taking over as Center isn't exactly the most shocking piece of news, it's still cool to see compelling proof of this and to think that Inoue probably has thought about what happens for Shohoku the following year ;)

[slamdunktheories]

hi! i hope u are doing well. i would just like to ask for your thoughts or insights maybe assumption or analysis on how sakuragi survives life, if he doesnt have his dad around anymore? I often wonder how he is able to afford meal? clothes or basic needs.

This is a great question! I'd been lowkey wondering about it myself for years! Thanks for nudging me to finally look into this more. Disclaimer: life is insanely busy now but I did want to get one more post out before year end. What follows won't be a polished essay but a bullet list of things I turned up during research/thoughts. Let's get straight into it!

We can assume that Sakuragi's dad is indeed dead since this is strongly inferred in the manga.

We can also assume that Sakuragi's mother doesn't live with him.

A few signs of this: he often wears crumpled clothes and isn't even usually depicted wearing socks.

Japanese fans have also pointed out that in the "father heart attack" flashback, you can quite clearly see that there's no women's shoes/slippers at the genkan of Sakuragi's home; just two pairs of men's shoes, the implication being that it's just Sakuragi and his dad living there. Manga panel here

So the question now is: what happened to Sakuragi's mother? Is she dead or alive?

It's nigh impossible for her to be dead, because that would make Sakuragi an orphan and that can't be, because as one long-time resident of Japan explains here, "In Japan, unfortunately it's very likely for orphans to be sent to institutions; foster/adoption rates are lower than in other developed countries. It is also not so likely that he lives alone "under the radar". Apart from the obvious issue of money, as a student in the public school system, his status would be obvious to teachers. There is legal obligation for teachers to report unusual circumstances for children to the authorities, so he would not be able to function as an "independent" orphaned 15-year-old for long." (Credit: u/FntnDstrct on Reddit)

Which means... he's not an orphan and his mother's alive. Just not with him. So where is she?

Sidenote: I suspect that wherever she is, she has been out of Sakuragi's life for a long time. Reason: early in the manga series, there was a scene where Sakuragi's walking on the street and he's happily singing a song about mothers. Not something a kid who actively misses his mother would do. If she's gone, she's been gone for a long time.

Now if the mother's alive then why isn't she living with Sakuragi? One possibility is that she'd divorced Sakuragi's dad long ago, remarried (possibly in another town) and formed another family.

This could explain why, when Sakuragi's father died, it wasn't convenient for him to move in with her "new" family, and so she is on paper his legal guardian but they don't live together.

This Japanese article mulls over the technicality of this sort of arrangement in more detail, and talks about a scene in the IH Arc of the manga and how that could indicate that Sakuragi lives on his own.

But to answer your original question of how Sakuragi is able to afford his meals and cover daily expenses/necessities, the money may be coming from either i) his dad's life insurance, or ii) just 仕送り(shiokuri) from his mother directly (ie. allowance/financial support straight from his mother).

This explains why he seems to have a bit of money and doesn't absolutely need to take on a part-time job but money always seems tight at the same time.

As a final bit of food for thought, u/FntnDstrct further speculates that "Mito Yohei's family are fostering him informally, which increases tolerance for the system allowing [Sakuragi] to continue schooling in the same town away from his mother. What evidence do we have for this? In the manga and anime, there are some scenes where Yohei seems to know when Sakuragi was up all night worrying, connoting that he stays over often."

[slamdunktheories]

Mitsui's MVP Award

I sometimes see Slam Dunk fans debating Mitsui's MVP Award from middle school - was that the national MVP or the prefecture MVP he won?

Honestly, I can't help but wonder if some of this confusion has to do with the English translation of the manga, which I've never read (I read Slam Dunk in Chinese and Japanese) but has been known to have made some notable translation errors. eg. Wrongly referring to Anzai as someone who'd merely competed in some national tournament at the university level, when in fact according to the Japanese and Chinese versions Anzai was on the national team.

So - what does the Japanese original have to say about Mitsui's MVP? On this, the manga is actually really clear. In Chapter #69, where Kogure visits Mitsui in the hospital following his knee injury, Kogure notices the framed photo that Mitsui has in his hospital room and asks 「この写真・・・県大会優勝の時の・・・？」　Directly translated, "This photo... is from that time when you won the prefecture tournament...?" Mitsui says yeah.

Later in this hospital scene, Mitsui says that if it weren't for Anzai, this photo (of his middle school team posing with their medals and all) wouldn't exist. (top left hand manga panel in the image below)

So based on this, we know the flashback of Mitsui's middle school match and where he meets Anzai for the first time all relates to a prefecture tournament, where they won in the final to clinch the Kanagawa prefecture championship.

This also explains why throughout the whole manga, none of the players from outside of Kanagawa seem to know about Mitsui's MVP status at all. If he and his middle school team had gone on to play at the national middle school championships (by virtue of being the prefecture champions) then they presumably didn't advance far/make enough of a splash.

The above paragraph in italics is my conjecture, but the rest of it is all canon. Hopefully this lays the debate to rest once and for all: Inoue is very clear that Mitsui was the Kanagawa prefecture MVP back in middle school, not the national MVP.

[slamdunktheories]

Sendoh Akira: A Character Analysis (Translated)

One of the best and most memorable Slam Dunk character analyses I’ve ever read was actually an answer to a question hilariously titled: “How do I marry Sendoh Akira?” (Author: 木子妞 - Link). The first half of the answer was particularly incisive and made me consider things I'd never noticed about Sendoh.

The original is in Chinese but here's an English version of the first half thanks to a nifty translating tool (I've edited for clarity and brevity; parts in bold for emphasis). Let's dive in!

~ Start of translation ~

Question: How do I marry Sendoh Akira?

Answer: 1) MENTAL SPEED

First, you have to be excellent - not in a Mary Sue protagonist way with incredible beauty and tremendous wealth etc.— these aren’t relevant in Sendoh’s eyes. Instead, your emotional intelligence needs to be genuinely outstanding.

Why? Because it’s important to understand Sendoh Akira as a person, and he’s not an easy person to understand. I’m not talking about his interests either; those are secondary; it's mainly about understanding his inner world.

The thing is, Sendoh is actually a very lonely person, and I think this loneliness is not by choice. No one in Ryonan really understands him; they are not on his level and don’t genuinely understand him. Case in point: in the match against Kainan, right at the end of regulation time Sendoh went for a dunk but deliberately went at a slower speed to allow Maki to catch up to him.

Sendoh’s idea of drawing a foul from Maki to turn the shot into a 2+1 would’ve meant that Ryonan would win the match by a point. But in that entire arena, only Maki, Fujima and Aida understood this plan. Even Coach Taoka got excited about getting into overtime without realizing that if the 2+1 plan failed, Ryonan would almost certainly lose.

Sendoh's mind works too fast for most people to keep up with, and his standards are high. He also can’t be bothered to explain more than is necessary and so as a result is forced into solitude. Which is why if you want to draw his attention, you need to be sharp enough to keep up with him mentally — imagine how high your IQ must be for that!

2) IDOLISATION

Second, don’t treat Sendoh like a genius or idealise him too much, and definitely don’t put him on a pedestal to worship. Accept the real him, including his flaws. And there are a few.

For one, Sendoh is quite stubborn. In the aforementioned match against Kainan, Maki at one point said, "Don’t think I'll let you dunk easily." To which Sendoh responded, "I'll definitely dunk to show you. Just once in this match..." And he was as good as his word, pulling off the dunk right at the end of regulation time as part of the aforementioned 2+1 plan.

Sendoh also holds grudges. In the prefecture match against Shohoku, after Miyagi managed to score against him, Miyagi mocked him, saying, "Did you think I'd always wait for you to block?" Later, when Sendoh noticed Shohoku was running into foul trouble, who did he target first? Who did he go after to draw another foul? Miyagi.

Sendoh can also be petty. When Rukawa scored quickly, everyone marveled at the speed of his shooting that even he, Sendoh, couldn't block, and Sendoh responded by scoring right away using the exact same technique as Rukawa.

In other words, the so-called basketball genius/living legend isn’t necessarily the real Sendoh Akira himself. Sendoh the basketball player gets lionised a lot but the real Sendoh actually has a temper.

The main difference that sets him apart from others is that he isn’t as easily bothered by things. Sendoh is more mature than his peers, and he’s able to keep most of his emotions in check or bury them deeper so it's harder for people to notice them.

But if you really want to draw his interest on the romantic front, you’ll need to treat him as an ordinary person. That’s how you'll earn his respect. To be clear, it’s not about playing hard to get; it’s about seeing him with a calm mind.

Because of Sendoh's relatively mild temperament and easygoing nature, when it comes to piquing his genuine romantic interest, Sendoh Akira is the most difficult man to deal with in all of Slam Dunk. Much more difficult than Rukawa.

Rukawa can be lured by some top class basketball intel, but Sendoh Akira has almost no weak points to exploit, precisely because so little gets him worked up. The only seeming weakness is his loneliness.

If you can 1) make him feel understood and 2) do so without needing to say it out loud, then you might have a chance with him. These two points are prerequisites. And if you feel you could pull off both points and truly love him to the point of marrying no one but him, then continue reading for some specific methods, though they're not guaranteed to work.

~ End of translated first half ~

We'll skip the second half since it's not that relevant in terms of character analysis. (But it is worth a read if you are a Sendoh fan. It covers a rather elaborate plan!)

On the topic of Sendoh, I would also add that him misremembering Sawakita's name isn't pure coincidence/a gag but perfectly in keeping with his character IMO. He seems the type that is competitive right in the middle of a match but once the match is over, he doesn't hold on to losses as tightly as, say, Rukawa. I mean, let's face it. If the same thing happened to Rukawa (losing big time to Sawakita) you can bet he'd remember Sawakita's name till the end of time. But Sendoh doesn't take such losses quite so personally, and that's why he'd be the type to misremember the name of someone who beat him.

[slamdunktheories]

Sailor Moon cameos in Slam Dunk

Totally random but if you've never noticed, there is actually a collection of Sailor Moon cameos in the Slam Dunk manga. There're a few more panels than shown here but you get the idea. Basically all around the Shoyo chapters. Any theories how it got there? The style doesn't look like Inoue's to me so if I had to bet I'd say it was an assistant's handiwork. ;)

[slamdunktheories]

Do you have an analysis on the Toyotama’s Minami? I feel with every reread, I pick up something new. I especially find Minami just… way way violent.

I think people write off him hurting Rukawa just because he gave him ointment. But he did also choke his coach (!!) and hurt Fujima.

Hi! You’re right - Minami really is very violent - especially if we consider how Rukawa is actually pretty robust. eg. In the scene where Rukawa first meets Sakuragi at the start of the manga, he withstood a punch and then some from Sakuragi... and he was able to get up walk about aftewards. He was even fine for a while in the Mitsui gym fight scene... but then got KO-ed instantly by Minami. Not an easy feat.

To me, Minami represents the ugly side of the same theme that Inoue has presented to us throughout all of SD. The manga shows how a lot of characters’ love for basketball manifests. It comes through in a dozen ways. There’s Mitsui, who walked away for 2 years yet could never fully abandon his love for it and that love got warped into a scorched earth strategy where he wanted to destroy everything associated with it; there’s Jin, who didn't make a whole lot of noise about his passion for basketball the way a lot of other characters did, but buckled down and worked hard to carve out a new position for himself when his plans of playing Centre were denied; there’s Rukawa, who rarely bothers to do anything/draw attention to himself outside the sport but absolutely lives for basketball, etc. Everyone is clearly saying “I love basketball” in their own ways.

And Minami... Minami to me is the ugly side of when a passion - whether for a sport or for victory - gets so all-consuming that it blots out logic, sense and sanity. Minami was someone who started out loving basketball and was deeply inspired by Coach Kitano but then lost his way as the desire to win overtook everything. Perhaps he was someone who was never taught boundaries (this is often how bullies are made) or was given too much permission to do whatever he likes in his family, to the point where it became quite easy for him to lose his way? We can only guess. But I do think that like every character in SD, he's much more compelling and multi-faceted than we got to see in the manga.

That’s it! Sorry it’s such a short piece on Minami, but I hope that was fun/helpful in some way!

[slamdunktheories]

What sort of injury did Sakuragi have? An orthopaedic surgeon weighs in

Hey, gang! I stumbled upon this interesting article sometime back and have been meaning to share it. It's basically an orthopaedic surgeon (and fellow SD fan) analysing what sort of back injury Sakuragi had gotten during the Sannoh match. See article here (in Japanese). Google-translated English version is here.

In short, the surgeon thinks it was either a vertebral body fracture or a lumbar transverse process fracture, and goes on to talk about the recovery period one could expect from such an injury, how the team reacted to it in the story, etc.

His response when asked how Anzai-sensei and Ayako had handled things was pretty funny. “From the POV of an orthopaedic surgeon, it was of course a total fail.” LMAO!

But then he goes on to say something that would probably resonate with every SD fan (that if they had done the right thing and benched Sakuragi... there’d be no story).

As a fan, I'm relieved to hear that the injury seems perfectly realistic and also perfectly recoverable. Thank you Inoue-sensei for sticking to realism even in key/dramatic moments.

Have a gander at the article - it's quite interesting and much more in-depth than what I've shared here! Again, links here:

Original article here (in Japanese). Google-translated English version is here.

[slamdunktheories]

Sannoh's Unusual Team Slogan

Sharing a little Slam Dunk shrine that's in my study! Let's use this to jump into a topic that's rarely discussed: Sannoh's unusual slogan. I might be overthinking here but... considering that Inoue was a Literature major in college before dropping out to become a manga-ka, I'm pretty sure there's something interesting going on here and it didn't happen by accident.

Let's dive in!

Sannoh's slogan (一意摶心) was only revealed in TFSD and I loved it from the moment I saw it. Of all the team slogans that were shown in Slam Dunk, this was by far the best one IMO. What a kickass slogan. What a philosophy to live by. And so on brand. But... there's also something weird about it.

First, what does the slogan mean? The first phrase that comes to mind is actually 一意專心, a similar phrase that's pretty well-known in both Japanese and Chinese. It's a very similar phrase but not exactly what Sannoh has for their slogan. And 一意專心 loosely translates to: to focus or dedicate yourself single-mindedly and wholeheartedly to something.

It's a phrase that still gets used in modern day Japanese and Chinese. And it does seem to fit Sannoh. Just like the phrase itself, there's an air of austerity/Zen-ness to the way Sannoh is depicted in the story. The tradition of the team shaving their heads and resulting in that monk look, the simplicity of their uniform (in both design and colour choice), the discipline that's so evident in the way they play on court during the critical moments, etc. Of course, this is all inspired by Noshiro, the real life high school with a famed history in basketball.

But the thing that made me pause over the Sannoh slogan was the third character: 摶. TFSD was the very first time I'd seen this character in my life (despite being a native Chinese speaker and fairly well-read). I wasn't even 100% sure how it was pronounced. Why would Inoue opt for the more complicated and obscure 摶 instead of 專 when the latter would have been just fine per the modern phrase mentioned above? Was he trying to achieve something by opting for this character for the slogan?

So I did a bit of digging and it turns out... even Japanese natives don't know this character. In fact, some online Japanese dictionaries don't have an entry for this character. And for good reason: Sannoh's slogan is a phrase that first appeared 2,500 years ago during China's Zhou Dynasty, in an ancient text titled Guan Zi written by a philosopher. However, the phrase that was coined in Guan Zi (aka Sannoh's slogan) has virtually not been used outside of that particular book; all subsequent mentions of this phrase actually reference Guan Zi. And there's been barely a mention of this character in recent centuries.

Also, note that even though 2,500 years sounds like a long time ago, in some ways it isn't, considering that the Chinese civilisation is essentially one continuous civilisation that's ~5,000 years old so this was already 25 centuries into its development. The Zhou Dynasty already had a bunch of technology and tools; irrigation systems, canals, chopsticks etc. had already been invented. It was also the time of Confucianism, Daoism, and complex military strategies that still remain relevant today. (That seminal book on military war strategy, "The Art of War", came from this period. GREAT book, BTW.)

Anyway, the next time this phrase appears in another piece of text, it's written as 一意專心 (aka the contemporary version of the phrase). So it could be that the modern phrase that Chinese & Japanese speakers know so well is a corruption/mistranslation of the original phrase (aka Sannoh's slogan). Also, this ancient character 摶 has the additional meaning of unity, circle, and harmony, which 專 does not possess.

When you look at how 一意摶心 appears in Guan Zi, you get a fuller context of what this original phrase actually means.

The original is here for those interested, but loosely translated it means: to calm your breath and your pulse, to hold your posture upright, to purge your senses of distractions, and to singlemindedly and wholeheartedly devote yourself to a cause, letting nothing distract you physically or mentally from it.（full breakdown of this text here in Chinese)

So that is actually the context in which Sannoh's phrase appears and makes 一意摶心 so much richer than the modern phrase. Again, it evokes a Zen-ness and discipline that fit Sannoh to a T.

In my view, Inoue-sensei wanted to go back to the roots of that phrase and honour the original intent behind it, which carries connotations of unity and that makes sense for a team sport. I'm still amazed that he knows this phrase, considering that it is not known to be in any Japanese texts; again, it really only exists in a Chinese text called Guan Zi.

Anyway, hope this was interesting for at least some of you! Would love to hear what people think about this (and if you have insights on the Chinese or Japanese aspects, please do chime in! I'm not a literary specialist.)

Further reading: This article (Japanese) - it offers some interesting interpretations as to why it was picked for Sannoh's slogan that I didn't mention here since this post is already so long XD