Genre Sports
Age Rating Teen
Price $7.99

Publisher's summary of volume from the back cover: He may be a pain in the butt, but Hanamichi's athletic prowess and monstrous strength have not gone unnoticed by the captain of Shohoku's judo team. Hoping to take his troupe to a national title, the judo captain is willing to go to great lengths to lure Hanamichi away from the court and get him on the sparring mat. Will out-and-out bribery convince Hanamichi that judo's the way to go, or will he stay a basketball man to the very end?

There was a huge gap between the releases of the first and second volume of Slam Dunk but thankfully the second volume is out. The first thing that catches the eye (or rather doesn't catch) of those familiar with Takehiko Inoue's other work (Vagabond, Real) is that there's a certain roughness to this manga. It's not refined or as gorgeous as his other titles but that's not to say the artwork here is bad. Rather, Inoue seems to be still finding his own style, and here he attempts a more caricature technique (typical of most manga) rather than his photo-realistic drawings that he'll be later known for. Speed lines and white backgrounds are typical while characters have their not-quite-super-deformed look (more of anthropomorphism rather than inflated heads).

As far as story is concerned, this volume is concerned with drama.  A recurring theme is Hanamichi's dedication to the sport of basketball. It's a plot point at the beginning of the manga (because where we last left off, he gave up on basketball) and at the end (where the Judo team attempts to recruit him). As far as sports characters go, Hanamichi is interesting. He's talented in his own way but he's not the main character who excels in sports. Instead, Hanamichi is in many ways the reader's entry point into the world of basketball as he's a newbie and is ignorant of many rules. This is also definitely a shonen manga because despite the focus on Hanamichi's dilemma of continuing to play basketball or not, this is resolved rather quickly with little elaboration and instead we get many action-packed scenes including a basketball match and a couple of fight scenes.

To make it easy on the reader, Inoue introduces sections like Dr. Takehiko's Useful Basketball Trivia although admittedly there's not a lot of those in this volume. There's a full-color spread at the end of the manga, Viz's tie-up with the NBA. How effective this is, I don't know. The first page features a popular basketball player--in this case Steve Nash. The write-up is basic and accessible, although I will complain about posting his stats. Honestly, a chart of the player's start is incomprehensible unless you're an already a basketball fan. Not the best way to introduce it to newbies. The other colored page attempts to teach readers how to play basketball by giving tips on some techniques, in this case the free throw. It's partly based on the events in the manga and thankfully the writing is catered to a manga audience.

Still a relatively easy jumping off point for unfamiliar readers, it has enough elements to pique your curiosity although not by any means a title that's enough to wow me on its own merits. Rather, it takes on a slow and steady pace, foreboding things to come.

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