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The basketball manga Slam Dunk has endured for years. The 1990 series from Takehiko Inoue with Shonen Jump has become an iconic sports story long after it’s ending in 1996. With NBA players like Rui Hachimura listing it as an influence despite it being well before his time. It’s recent feature film The First Slam Dunk opened to warmly received critical reception and was a blockbuster box office hit. It has sparked a new interest in readers for the old series. New readers will be introduced to the red head problem child Hanamichi Sakuragi, the talented but spacey ace Kaede Rukawa, the reformed sharpshooter Hisashi Mitsui, and the rest of Shohoku High. They will see the highs and lows of our protagonists as they try to challenge the nation in a country wide tournament to see whose the best of the best.
Which leads up to a linger questions that all fans have had about the series even decades after it’s end and the point of this whole post; who actually won the National Championship in the end?
Fans of the series will know that Slam Dunk ended on a bit of a shocker. Our protagonists Shohoku High School had just upset the perennial champions in Sannoh High School. As sweet as…
