Slam Dunk The Movie 4

Genre: Sports / Comedy
General Audience
1993-1996 Takehiko Inoue / Toei Animation / TV Asahi

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Skysenshi's Description:
Roar Basket-man's Soul! Hanamichi and Rukawa's Burning Summer!

Ichiro Mizusawa has always looked up to his Rukawa-senpai. He dreams of entering Shohoku, of joining its fast-rising basketball team, of winning the nationals along with the one man he has envisioned himself to be playing with. Alas, dreams have a way of shattering themselves with incidents beyond one's control. When Mizusawa is diagnosed of having articular tuberculosis, he quickly realizes that his life is over.

No one else could put him back to rights. No one, but three people: Haruko, Hanamichi. and Rukawa himself.

Ah, Rukawa shows that he's not a complete asshole! >>> by skysenshi Have I ever written how much I love Slam Dunk movies? Ah yes, I said it in Slam Dunk Movies 1, 2 and 3. It's just that the pacing is so fast; there isn't any time for those long dialogues where everybody else says the same thing Dragon Ball style. That aside, I would like to give a round of applause to the creators of Slam Dunk Movie 4 for showing us that Rukawa, as irritating as his showy attitude could be, is not the complete asshole that we all love to think he is.

Of course, you start off thinking that he's so cruel. Actually he is, because he wasn't the one with a damaged knee and he had the gall to talk as if getting over a permanent injury could be so easy. Then again, Rukawa had never been a subtle character. Sleepy, yes, but subtle he is not-which is just one of the good things that I can say about Takehiko Inoue's characters.

One noticeable aspect of this movie is that it has shown maturity, depicting the painful travails of reality and how a person should be able to bounce back from a mishap that's beyond anyone's control. It talks about resiliency against the storm, without the various evil honchos and magically intertwined twists and turns. It also spells goodbye for Slam Dunk the series, with undertones that spoke volumes about growing up, graduating, moving on and being replaced by a younger generation. Let's just say that Slam Dunk finished with a feel-good ending, and that makes the series all the more memorable in my eyes.

OMAKE: Mitsui Hisashi shoots and scores - a lot! Sorry, can't help adding that last bit.

Individual Rating: Art/Animation 8; Story 9; Characters 10; Sounds 9