The official Twitter account of GKIDS announced on June 29, 2023, that they will be releasing The First Slam Dunk film in the North American theatres.
The First Slam Dunk hits US & Canadian theatres starting July 28, 2023, in Japanese dub with English subtitles and English dub.
New English dub trailer and cast were revealed along with the announcement.
The First Slam Dunk film English dub cast includes:
- Paul Castro, Jr. as Ryota Miyagi
- Jonah Scott as Hisashi Mitsui
- Aleks Le as Kaede Rukawa
- Ben Balmaceda as Hanamichi Sakuragi
- Aaron Goodson as Takenori Akagi
- Zeno Robinson as Kiminobu Kogure
- Kelsey Jaffer as Ayako
- Mike Pollock as Mitsuyoshi Anzai
- Adam McArthur as Sota Miyagi
- Alicyn Packard as Kaoru Miyagi
The First Slam Dunk movie released in Japan on Dec 3, 2022.
Cast members includes:
- Shugo Nakamura as Ryota Miyagi (point guard)
- Jun Kasama as Hisashi Mitsui (shooting guard)
- Shinichiro Kamio as Kaede Rukawa (small forward)
- Subaru Kimura as Hanamichi Sakuragi (power forward)
- Kenta Miyake as Takenori Akagi (team captain and Center)
The opening theme song was performed by The Birthday, while 10-FEET performed the ending theme song “Zero Sensation”.
The First Slam Dunk movie was directed and scripted by mangaka Takahiko Inoue himself at Toei Animation.
Among the listed staff members are character designer/animation director Yasuyuki Ebara (Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress) and technical directors Katsuhiko Kitada (Attack on Titan episodes, Major: Yujo no Winning Shot), Naoki Miyahara (Digimon Adventure, Popin Q), Toshio Ohashi (LayereD Stories 0), and Yu Kamatani (Looking for Magical DoReMi, Precure Super Stars!).
Daiki Nakazawa directed the CG, and Yuta Ogura produced the CG. Kazuo Ogura directed the art. Yota Tsuruoka was in charge of directing the sound with Koji Kasamatsu.
The First Slam Dunk debuted at number one at the Japanese box office, and grossed ¥1.296 billion ($9.5 million) during its first two days. As of Feb 7, 2023, the film grossed ¥10 billion ($76.2 million) in Japan.
It had become the highest-grossing anime film of all time in Korea for a brief period of time. It was then surpassed by Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume No Tojimari.
The film also won the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year in 2023.
Inoue published his iconic sports manga in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine from 1990 to 1996 for a total of 31 volumes. The manga inspired a television anime in 1993, and it received four anime film sequels.
Source: Twitter
