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Maaya Sakamoto Voices Haruko Akagi in The First Slam Dunk Anime Film
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The staff of The First Slam Dunk, the new anime film of Takehiko Inoue's Slam Dunk basketball manga, revealed on Saturday that Maaya Sakamoto voices the character Haruko Akagi in the film.
The film stars:
- Shugo Nakamura as Ryota Miyagi
- Jun Kasama as Hisashi Mitsui
- Shin'ichirō Kamio as Kaede Rukawa
- Subaru Kimura as Hanamichi Sakuragi
- Kenta Miyake as Takenori Akagi
The film opened in Japan on Saturday. The movie has IMAX screenings in 40 cinemas all over Japan, and Dolby Atmos screenings in 34 cinemas. The movie will get Dolby Cinema screenings starting on December 10.
Inoue personally directed the film at Toei Animation and wrote the script. 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: Yūjō no Winning Shot), Naoki Miyahara (Digimon Adventure, Popin Q), Toshio Ōhashi (LayereD Stories 0), and Yū Kamatani (Looking for Magical DoReMi, Precure Super Stars!).
Daiki Nakazawa directed the CG, and Yūta Ogura produced the CG. Kazuo Ogura directed the art. Yota Tsuruoka directed the sound with Koji Kasamatsu.
The group The Birthday performs the film's opening theme, and 10-FEET performs the ending theme song "Dai Zero Kan."
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. Crunchyroll is streaming the series, and it describes the story:
Hanamichi Sakuragi is a delinquent with a long history of getting dumped by girls. After enrolling in Shohoku High School, Hanamichi becomes interested in a girl named Haruko who loves the game of basketball.
Viz Media released all 31 volumes of the manga in English.
Cinedigm released Slam Dunk season one, volume one on English dub-only DVD in May 2015. Toei released four DVD volumes of the anime with an English dub in 2005 before ceasing its direct distribution plans in North America.
Source: Cinema Today (西村重人)
