Slam Dunk : The Best Sport Manga in My Version
SLAM DUNK
Discussions about the best manga are still ongoing today. Besides the difficulty of determining what parameters make a work the best work, of course many manga genres make too many choices available.
This time I will discuss one of my favorite manga, Slam Dunk. It was co-written by mangaka Takehiko Inoue from 1990 to 1996 with a total of 31 volumes. Slam dunk (as the name implies) is a sports comic that focuses on high school.
One of the interesting things about manga when the main character is not as genius in his field as (Tsubasa Ozora in Tsubasa manga), Hanamichi Sakuragi is told as a beginner in basketball who can only rebound and dunk, who has been rejected 50 times his love.
Hanamichi Sakuragi
The team captain is Takenori Akagi, a basketball-loving figure who is the older sister of Haruko, sakuragi's girl. Then there is Ryota Miyagi who is an agile point guard, a punk who can only be tamed by Ayako, the team manager he likes. Meanwhile, there is Hisashi Mitsui, a star player in junior high school but falls down due to injury.
The most important thing is Kaede Rukawa, a basketball player who became an idol because of her good looks and skills. The unconscious Sakuragi feels competing with him. For readers of this comic will realize that sakuragi actually wants more recognition by Rukawa, against his campaign.
From left to the right
Kaederukawa, Hanamichi Sakuragi, Hisashi Mitsui, Ryota Miyagi, Takenori Akagi
I'm not going to tell you the plot because it's one of the best-selling manga in the world, when it was published and when the anime was also made enthusiasm for basketball became high both in Japan and in my country Indonesia.
In Indonesia Slam dunk is more famous through its anime first that entered broadcast on one of the private TV in the prime time hours 18.00-18.30, and at that time also successfully hypnotized various circles of children to become basketball fans, it can be seen from basketball events in Indonesia crowded by new basketball fans.
Most controversial is the ending of Slam Dunk, at the end of the story Shohoku high school and Sannoh Kyogo copy face to face, Sannoh High School is considered the best and strongest high school at that time, he ended the story Sakuragi scored points in the last second through middle shoot through rukawa bait, unique isn't it? Though the manga title Slam Dunk
Why didn't the author close this match by a power dunk by Sakuragi, that's because Sakuragi is known to be unable to create points through shoots, so that the ending points of sakuragi's shoot can be felt to be special.
Will Sakuragi be the champion? It turns out that they did not stop in the round of 4 after defeating the greatest team, told on off screen they lost badly to their opponents due to extreme fatigue. Interesting isn't it? They don't want to be the champion team, but they're the team that beats the best team.
What's next? The ending of the manga tells the story of when Sakuragi was sitting on the beach to rehab the back injury she acquired in the last game while reading a letter. Point.
The inj-like ending has created a debate for fans to date. Many people wonder why the ending of this manga should hang like this. It's like dating again, breaking up again unfortunately.
At first I also thought the same, this manga should be processed better, and longer. But as I got older and older, I realized that this might be the right ending. Slam Dunk is not a work that produces sad ending or happy ending, but an Open Ending, which is a story ending that is freely interpreted by readers where it goes. As long as there is no continuation of the story, readers can imagine where the story goes from the rivalry between Sakuragi and Rukawa.