Slam Dunk, Volume 9

What a great story it is!

英語に慣れる良い教材です。私は、スラムダンクが大好きで、全巻日本語バージョンを暗記するくらい読んだので、絵柄とアルファベットを見ただけで、英単語がわからなくても意味がわかっていたので、英語取得にとてもよい教材でした。このコミックで覚えた英単語は多いです。ただ、安西先生を日本語では「オヤジ」と言っているのに、英語で「OLD MAN」は少し、桜木と安西先生の距離が日本語版より離れているようで、嫌でした。それ以外は特にはないです。よって、星４つとします。

If you love basketball, you will love “Slam Dunk”.The story of a brute named Hanamichi who has his issues finding a girlfriend (or any girl to like him), but has fallen for Haruko Akagi, the sister of Shohoku High’s Takenori Akagi, the team captain of the basketball team. But knowing that she loves basketball and likes star player Kaede Rukawa. So, Hanamichi is determined in proving to her that he can excel in basketball but also hopefully winning her heart.But because of Hanamichi’s lack of manners and basketball knowledge, will he be able to prove to Haruko and the team that he deserves to be a player for the team? Or will he be the laughing stock of Shohoku High School?In volume 9, the intensity of basketball and the strategy is the main focal point for “Slam Dunk” as the Prefectural Tournament is now here and for Shohoku High School to advance to the nationals, they must win!For this volume, we get to see Shohoku High School playing in three matches and to see how each player does in competition but as Hanamichi Sakuragi, he has one major problem and that is his defense is good but he gives to many fouls, in fact, he fouls out in every game. But can he keep his fouls to a minimum?His illustrations have always been a highlight for me and I was always amazed of how he captured movements, the offensive and defensive stances to how the players penetrate the perimeter and score. But what I enjoyed about this latest volume is showing Hanamichi’s progression as a player. While he has learned the game quickly, he is still learning the fundamentals and finds himself worried because he fouls out of a game too quickly. So, it’ll be interesting to see how he improves from this latest challenge.As for the manga, the detail of Inoue’s artwork is just wonderful, the action, the sweat, the emotions are captured amazingly well on each page.Overall, “Slam Dunk” is an enjoyable manga series that is not just for basketball fans but for those who want a manga series that captures the spirit of basketball, competition, the strategy involved in the sport but a captivating storyline with cool characters that makes this series worth recommending!Takehiko Inoue’s “Slam Dunk” vol. 9 is highly recommended!