SLAMDUNK ANIME

Slam Dunk is often considered as one of the most influential manga series in Japan and one of the greatest sports manga series of all-time. Its success is cited as a cause for the increased popularity of basketball among the Japanese youth during the 1990s. Alex Wong of Yahoo! Sports wrote that the work "inspired an entire generation of basketball players in Japan." In a dissertation, PhD student Dexter Thomas of Cornell University stated "The first wave of basketball in Japan was pushed forward by Slam Dunk." Professional basketball players Rui Hachimura and Yuta Watanabe have cited Slam Dunk as inspiring them. When he became a naturalized Japanese citizen, J. R. Sakuragi partially took his surname from the Hanamichi Sakuragi character.