Slam Dunk is a Japanese sports manga series written and illustrated by Takehiko Inoue. It was serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from October 1990 to June 1996, with the chapters collected into 31 tankōbon volumes. It tells the story of a basketball team from Shōhoku High School in the Shōnan area of Japan.
Manga author Takehiko Inoue was inspired to write based on his high school years.
Cover of the first DVD volume of Slam Dunk, published by Geneon and Toei Animation
Sports manga is a genre of Japanese manga and anime that focuses on stories involving sports and other athletic and competitive pursuits. Though Japanese animated works depicting sports were released as early as the 1920s, sports manga did not emerge as a discrete category until the early 1950s. The genre achieved prominence in the context of the post-war occupation of Japan, and gained significant visibility during and subsequent to the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Noted as among the most popular genres of manga and anime, sports manga is credited with introducing new sports to Japan, and popularizing existing sports.
Japan's gold medal in women's volleyball at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo increased the popularity of sports manga among female readers.
Yōichi Takahashi, whose 1981 association football series Captain Tsubasa is credited with popularizing the sport in Japan
