Trivia / Slam Dunk

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• Acting for Two: Quite a few cast members from the TV series acted for two, or in some cases three or four, at various times.
  • Hideyuki Tanaka voices Kiminobu Kogure and the narrator.
  • Dr. T. and Ryota Miyagi are both played by Yoku Shioya.
  • Masaya Onosaka voices Yasuharu Yasuda, Tokuda (one of Norio Hotta's friends) and Hikoichi Aida.
  • Yuji Okusu, Kentaro Ishii, Tetsushi Shiozaki, Soichiro Jin, Minoru Nakano and Hiroshi Takatsu are voiced by Nobutoshi Canna.
  • Ryuji Yasuda and Dai Moroboshi are voiced by Michio Nakao.
  • Yuji Mikimoto voiced Chuichiro "Chu" Noma, Shoichi Takano and Kengo Murasame.
  • Hideo Ishikawa, in addition to voicing Kiccho Fukuda, also played Teruo Okawa and Hiroshi Morishige.
  • Norio Hotta and Akira Sendo are both played by Hōchū Ōtsuka.
  • Kōzō Shioya voiced Nozomi Takamiya, Tetsuya Naito, Tadashi Muto, Tomoyuki Uekusa and Kazushi Hasegawa.
  • Yohei Mito, Toki Kuwata, Nobutaka Kiyota and Kazuo Araki are all played by Toshiyuki Morikawa.
  • Shinobu Satouchi voices Satoru Kakuta, Hiroaki Koshino, Yoshinori Miyamasu and Taku Ito.
  • Nobuhiko Kazama voices Toru Hanagata and Ryu (one of Hisashi Mitsui's gang members) as well as some one-off characters.
  • Tetsuo and Riki Takato are both voiced by Masaharu Sato.
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub, Luis Daniel Ramírez voices Hikoichi Aida and Nozomi Takamiya.
• All-Star Cast:
  • The anime's Japanese voice cast includes many of Japan's most prolific voice actors, such as Takeshi Kusao, Kiyoyuki Yanada, Toshiyuki Morikawa, Ryōtarō Okiayu, Nobutoshi Canna and Hikaru Midorikawa among others, due to being produced early on in the actors' respective careers.
  • The First Slam Dunk featured Subaru Kimura, Kenta Miyake, Shinichirou Kamio, Maaya Sakamoto and Jun Kasama.
• Cross-Regional Voice Acting:
  • Kaleidoscope Entertainment's English dub of the TV series used voice actors from the Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver areas.
  • The English dub of The First Slam Dunk used voice actors from the New York metropolitan and Greater Los Angeles areas.
• Defictionalization:
  • An Animate store has a game machine made to slap an Anzai lookalike in the neck.
  • J.R. Sakuragi (born Milton J. Henderson Jr.) is an American-Japanese pro basketball player who took on the name of the protagonist of Slam Dunk.^note He became a naturalized Japanese citizen on July 2, 2007 with the name Sakuragi, in fact. Not only did he play for the Japan National Team and the NBA; he also competed in the 2007 FIBA Asia Championship. He recently announced his retirement on June 3, 2020.
• Denial of Digital Distribution: In North America, the manga didn't receive a digital release on Viz Media's official website.
• Died During Production: Yoshifumi Hatano, one of Toei's producers for the anime adaptation, died of oral cancer on February 28, 1995. Series director Nobutaka Nishizawa replaced him for the rest of the series' run.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes:
  • Most of the series remains unavailable on home video in North America. Toei Animation and Geneon Entertainment USA released the first 20 episodes across four volumes in 2005, but are now out of print. Two more uncut volumes were scheduled to be released later that year but were cancelled after Toei Animation and Geneon ended their deal. Cinedigm later released the first 14 episodes on DVD in May 2015, but they are likewise out of print.
  • At present, the Crunchyroll streams are the only official way to watch all 101 episodes in North America.
• Late Export for You: The anime didn't get a North American release until 2005, 12 years after its Japanese premiere.
• Life Imitates Art:
  • On Episode 59^note "Last 10 Seconds! A Perfect Conclusion" (aired in 1995) and Chapter 130 to 131^note "Heaven and Hell (Part 1 and 2)" (published in 1993), the desperation finger block on Hisashi Mitsui by Nobunaga Kiyota had shades of Hakeem Olajuwon blocking John Stark's potential game winner in Game 6 of the 1994 NBA Finals^note between the Houston Rockets and the New York Knicks.
  • According to Word of God, Sakuragi was originally based on Charles Barkley but many fans thought Dennis Rodman was more like him instead.^note The reason for this is because of Rodman's own development from bit player of the "Bad Boy" Detroit Pistons to a Hanamichi-style rebounder and stamina monster in the San Antonio Spurs. Soon afterwards, it seemed like Takehiko Inoue gave in to the comparisons and had Sakuragi get an Important Haircut that made him resemble Rodman more.
  • Hilariously enough, Life imitated Art even further by having Rodman (NBA Sakuragi) end up playing in the Chicago Bulls (NBA Shohoku) with Michael Jordan (NBA Rukawa) in order to win games for the three-peat championship gold in the late 1990s.^note One of the key rivalries of the show is between Sakuragi and Rukawa, who are unable to get along despite being teammates. The series ended when they were finally able to put their differences aside to do a game-winning play together. In turn, Jordan has past beef with how rough Rodman and his Pistons played against him care of their "Jordan Rules".
  • Rukawa passing to Sakuragi to get the game-winning buzzer beater in 1996^note Publication Time, not In-Universe Time against Sanno High actually happened for real when Jordan passed to Steve Kerr to get the game-winning buzzer beater in 1997 against the Utah Jazz during the NBA Finals.
• Milestone Celebration: Kids Station's premiere of the HD remaster coincided with the 20th anniversary of the anime's premiere.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Satoru Sasaoka was initially voiced by Shinobu Satouchi in episode 22. For his later appearances, he was voiced by Yoshiyuki Kono.
  • Fujii was voiced by Etsuko Nishimoto in episodes 1 through 24. She was replaced by Tomomi Sugimoto from episodes 27 to 42. Beginning with episode 75, Machiko Toyoshima took over the role.
  • Yoko Shimamura was voiced by Yuko Minaguchi in the first film. From episodes 47 to 49, she was voiced by Yuri Shiratori. Mizue Otsuka took over the role for her final appearance in episode 95.
  • In Kaleidoscope's English dub, Robert Norman Smith voiced Tatsuhiko Aota for his initial appearances, which were included in the DVD releases. After his arrest, Daveed Louza voiced the character for his later appearances.
  • Happened a lot in the Latin Spanish dub during the anime's second half, due to the change of dub direction. The most notable examples among the main cast were José Gilberto Vilchis taking over as Kogure from Jesús Barrero, Benjamín Rivera as Mitsui from Jorge Palafox, and Óscar Flores as Rukawa from Sergio Bonilla.
  • The Japanese voice actors for the Shohoku team and some supporting characters were recast for The First Slam Dunk: Takeshi Kusao (Sakuragi) was replaced by Subaru Kimura, Hikaru Midorikawa (Rukawa) by Shinichirou Kamio, Kiyoyuki Yanada (Akagi) by Kenta Miyake, Yoku Shioya (Miyagi) by Shugo Nakamura, Ryōtarō Okiayu (Mitsui) by Jun Kasama, and Akiko Hiramatsu (Haruko) by Maaya Sakamoto.
  • The North American English release of the TV series was dubbed at Toronto's Kaleidoscope Entertainment. For The First Slam Dunk, it was instead dubbed at NYAV Post in New York and Los Angeles.
• The Original Darrin: In the Latin American Spanish dub, Sergio Bonilla retakes his role as Kaede Rukawa in The First Slam Dunk, after being replaced by Óscar Flores during the second half of the TV series.
• Posthumous Credit: Despite dying of oral cancer three days after episode 57 aired on TV Asahi, producer Yoshifumi Hatano is still credited for his work on episodes 58 through 61.
• Real-Life Relative: Yoku Shioya (Ryota Miyagi) and Kōzō Shioya (Nozomi Takamiya, Tetsuya Naito, Tadashi Muto, Tomoyuki Uekusa and Kazushi Hasegawa) are brothers in real-life.
• Recast as a Regular:
  • Nobuhiko Kazama had minor roles before appearing as Ryu starting with episode 24. He would later go on to voice Toru Hanagata beginning with his first appearance in episode 33.
  • Hōchū Ōtsuka first appeared as Norio Hotta in the first episode and would later go on to voice Akira Sendo beginning with episode 13.
  • In the Latin Spanish dub, Benjamín Rivera started out voicing Shiozaki, a lesser member of Shohoku, during the first half. For the second half he voices Mitsui, one of the main starters.
• The Red Stapler: The manga is often credited with making basketball considerably more popular in Japan, and even other countries throughout Asia.
• Role Reprise: René García reprises his role as Hanamichi Sakuragi for the Latin American Spanish dub of The First Slam Dunk.
• Screwed by the Network: The anime didn't get renewed for another period, so the nationals had to be cut. As a means of compensating, the remaining episode slots were made into a Fanservicey practice match with a few scenes mirroring the nationals.
• Self-Adaptation: Takehiko Inoue wrote and directed The First Slam Dunk.
• Unfinished Dub:
  • The dub produced by Animax Asia only went up to 83 episodes before it was cancelled.
  • In North America, only 20 of the 101 episodes dubbed in Toronto were released on DVD before Toei cancelled them in 2006.
• Unspecified Role Credit: Though Toei and Geneon's North American DVD releases list the English voice actors, their characters aren't listed.
• What Could Have Been: The anime almost ended up airing on Toonami back when the block was still on Cartoon Network hours.
• Word of God: According to Takehiko Inoue himself, Hanamichi Sakuragi was based on Charles Barkley instead of Dennis Rodman.
• Word of Saint Paul: According to Jay T. Schramek, who voiced Satoru Kakuta and Shoichi Takano in the short-lived North American dub of Slam Dunk, over 100 episodes were dubbed in Toronto before it was cancelled.
• Written by Cast Member: In Kaleidoscope's English dub, Tim Hamaguchi was both the voice actor for Yuji Okusu and Ryota Miyagi, and also the dub's translator.
• You Sound Familiar: The anime series reuses quite a few voice actors for major and minor roles. For example:
  • Hōchū Ōtsuka, who first appeared as Norio Hotta, would later appear as Akira Sendo.
  • Nobuhiko Kazama appeared in the first episode as a teacher in Sakuragi's class. He would later voice Toru Hanagata in episode 33.
  • Masaharu Sato, who initially voiced Tetsuo, would later appear as Kainan's coach Riki Takato.

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