Reactions visible to anyoneReactions visible to owner’s Close FriendsReactions only visible to youDraft entryVisible to anyone (with link)Visible to the member’s friends (with link)Only visible to you
In many ways both a level up for the average anime and also a restatement of the genre’s fundamentals. Director Takehiko Inoue, together with Toei Animation, have fashioned a visually remarkable look for this adaptation of Inoue’s own original manga novels. In fact, there’s a narrow but rich spectrum of visual styles here; some are more sketchy, others more precise. The character designs for the leads is particularly accomplished; they’re rendered with a lovely hybrid of 3D modeling and hand-drawn animation that feels both exacting and fluid at the same time. This is especially true in the frankly stunning basketball action and choreography, where the figures each retain their specific body language while moving with almost improvisational grace. Technically it’s all so transcendent that it has the makings of something entirely different from the usual conventions of anime movies, but ultimately the filmmakers choose instead to double down on those tropes. So you get lots of pivotal moments in the action drawn out or even extravagantly suspended in time so that faces can can register stunned reactions and flashbacks can ensue; you get lots of melodrama and youthful angst; you get lots of wistful yearning from various characters along with comedic bit parts from background players. In short, take away the aesthetic achievement and it still looks and feels like what you would expect from a manga adaptation. But that’s not a complaint; it’s done with more commitment and verve than the vast majority of its kind.
Rented it from iTunes but unfortunately there was only an English dub available.
Letterboxd is an independent service created by a small team, and we rely mostly on the support of our members to maintain our site and apps. Please consider upgrading to a Pro account—for less than a couple bucks a month, you’ll get cool additional features like all-time and annual stats pages (example), the ability to select (and filter by) your favorite streaming services, and no ads!
