Slamdunk is a highly popular
manga and
anime created by the talented
mangaka Inoue Takehashi. Sadly it has never found its way to American shores, and although I have been informed that there is an
English version of the manga, I am doubtful it will cross the
Atlantic.
But while they continue to deprive us of this wonderful manga, I am fully aware that there are French and Italian translations abound in Europe.
Slamdunk is about basketball, (yes i know you hadn't already realised) and has a massive on-line fandom. It has huge fans from both yaoi and non-yaoi quarters, and although the bishonen content is not quite on par with CLAMP creations - it's good enough for the dedicated.
The story is not what I'd call typical manga stuff, nor is the artwork, but hey - who's complaining?
It is, ultimately, a shonen manga (meaning that it's a manga created for the younger boys market - note the absence of bishojo) and therefore is not entirely without it's fair share of fights, blood shed and generally typical boys stuff. But it does contain a kind of warped love story, which is more of a rare occurance in shonen manga.
The anime is, to say the least, poorly done. This may be because I have one of those crazy Chinese pirate copies, but even so, it looks like a victim of the 80s. The manga is significantly better, in my opinion, with a wide range of mediums used for the artwork - stretching from the average pencil-paper stuff to some fabulous watercolours and beyond. It is surely a crime that manga are in black and white.