GKids and Toei Animation will host the North American premiere of The First Slam Dunk at this year’s Anime Expo in Los Angeles on 3 July at 12 pm pacific time. Anime Expo is the largest celebration of Japanese pop culture in North America, having hosted numerous premieres of top Japanese anime films, with regular attendance of over 100,000 attendees annually.
The First Slam Dunk opened domestically in Japan on 3 December 2022 and has gone on to break box office records in a number of countries during its current international release. Written and created by Takehiko Inoue, Slam Dunk is a beloved manga which was serialised from 1990-96. The original manga is one of the best-selling manga series of all time, with over 170 million copies sold globally, and has been adapted to various media and video games, including a hit anime series that ran from 1993-96.
The First Slam Dunk marks the first new feature-length film from the globally cherished franchise in over 28 years, as well as original manga creator Takehiko Inoue’s directorial debut. The film went on to be awarded this year’s Japan Academy Prize for Best Animation of the Year – marking the first nomination and win for Inoue.
The official synopsis reads: Shohoku’s “speedster” and point guard, Ryota Miyagi, always plays with brains and lightning speed, running circles around his opponents while feigning composure. Born and raised in Okinawa, Ryota had a brother who was three years older. Following in the footsteps of his older brother, who was a famous local player from a young age, Ryota also became addicted to basketball.
In his second year of high school, Ryota plays with the Shohoku High School basketball team along with Sakuragi, Rukawa, Akagi, and Mitsui as they take the stage at the Inter-High School National Championship. And now, they are on the brink of challenging the reigning champions, Sannoh Kogyo High School.
GKIDS will release The First Slam Dunk theatrically in the United States and Canada later this summer in both its original Japanese language with English subtitles and an all-new English dubbed version as well as French subtitles and dub in Canada.