The First Slam Dunk (ザ・ファーストスラムダンク), also stylised as THE FIRST SLAM DUNK, is a 2022 theatrical anime film based on Takehiko Inoue’s manga of the same name. The film was adapted by studios Toei Animation and Dandelion Animation Studio, and the staff credits include director & writer Takehiko Inoue, character designer Yasuyuki Ebara and music composed by Satoshi Takebe & TAKUMA of 10-FEET. The film was theatrically released in December 2022 for Japan.
Background:
“Shohoku’s “speedster” and point guard, Ryota Miyagi, always plays with brains and lightning speed, running circles around his opponents while feigning composure. Born and raised in Okinawa, Ryota had a brother who was three years older. Following in the footsteps of his older brother, who was a famous local player from a young age, Ryota also became addicted to basketball.
In his second year of high school, Ryota plays with the Shohoku High School basketball team along with Sakuragi, Rukawa, Akagi, and Mitsui as they take the stage at the Inter-High School National Championship.
Now, they are on the brink of challenging the reigning champions, Sannoh Kogyo High School.”
Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, March 2024.
If you’re not familiar with Slam Dunk, it’s a basketball series that serialised in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1990, the same magazine that was currently running Dragon Ball and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure at the time. For a sports themed manga it also did extremely well in sales and is considered to be one of the best-selling manga of all time which is an incredible feat for author Takehiko Inoue. Viz Media also brought over the manga to English audiences as well as his other works REAL, another sports series but focused towards wheelchair basketball, and Vagabond, a samurai series focused on Musashi Miyamoto.
Slam Dunk did receive an anime adaptation by studio Toei Animation, but it hasn’t had much accessibility in the west as Toei is pretty strict with how they handle things. As far as I’m aware, the UK still doesn’t have any form of legal accessibility to the anime series whereas North American owners have had a DVD release and a Crunchyroll stream. Which is why The First Slam Dunk is an interesting way to jump into the series because not only is it a theatrical film adaptation but it doesn’t adapt the story from the beginning despite its film title. Instead, it adapts the final story arc of the manga, though with new content and perspectives to make it more accessible.
North American distributor GKIDS picked up the theatrical and home video rights for The First Slam Dunk first in May 2023, followed by UK distributor Anime Limited having the same rights in the same month. GKIDS released the film on Blu-ray first whilst Anime Limited held off because they tend to put more emphasis on their special editions which takes time due to approvals, especially when you’re dealing with Toei.
However, this opened an opportunity for Anime Limited to release the film on 4K Ultra HD as it does have one in Japan, especially considering Toei was perfectly fine with them releasing One Piece Film: RED on that format before North America did. We did have to wait a while though, considering GKIDS released their Blu-ray in June 2024.
Collector’s Edition Contents:
The packaging for The First Slam Dunk is pretty similar to how One Piece Film: RED was presented by Anime Limited, and on top of that you also have licensing restrictions by Toei so the presentation itself also had limited assets by the looks of it.
This collector’s edition release is presented with a rigid slipcase containing a 4K amaray case to house the 4K Ultra HD disc, a Blu-ray amaray case to house the Blu-ray disc, an individually numbered art card, sticker sheet, A3 replica folded theatrical poster, and an 36-page booklet focusing on how the film was being marketed in Japan and the reception internationally.
The box art is clean with no ratings/information on all sides, with a sheet to cover the synopsis, information about the release and any ratings and specs. The artwork on the Amaray cases do include information and specs on the back but there’s no BBFC logos. The collector’s edition 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray combo pack release retailed for £79.99 SRP, with a limited edition steelbook version also available on the same day, retailed for £32.99 SRP, and a standard edition Blu-ray is available for £19.99 SRP. A standard edition 4K Ultra HD release will likely appear once this collector’s edition sells out.
The film was included as part of their February 2025 early bird line-up which I have ordered from. The set was on offer for £49.99 + £3.50 postage, with the Anime Unlimited membership lowering the cost down to £44.99 + £3.50 postage (totalling £48.49). My copy was bundled with Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 2, which experienced a bit of a delay so I hadn’t received my copy until a few weeks after everyone elses.
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Slipcase with clean artwork
- 4K Amaray case & Blu-ray Amaray case packaging
- Info sheet for specification and BBFC rating details
- A3 replica folded theatrical poster
- An individually numbered art card
- Sticker sheet
- 36-page Booklet
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 31st March 2025
The collector’s edition release for The First Slam Dunk contains the film on a single 4K Ultra HD disc and a single Blu-ray disc. All the discs were encoded and authored by GKIDS.
Both formats feature the original Japanese audio with English subtitles and the NYAV Post English dub commissioned by GKIDS with optional English subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
The 4K Ultra HD release features Dolby Vision High Dynamic Range and Dolby Atmos audio support. The white subtitles are unlockable during playback and the 4K Ultra HD disc is playable to 4K players of any region. The regions for the Blu-ray disc however is locked to players set to B.
4K Ultra HD Specs (Main Feature Film):
| Languages | Japanese, English |
| Audio | Japanese Dolby Atmos (TrueHD 7.1 for non-Atmos players) English Dolby Atmos (TrueHD 7.1 for non-Atmos players) |
| Video | 2160p Ultra High Definition format 1.85:1 aspect ratio Dolby Vision HDR |
| Region | All Region |
| Subtitles | English, English SDH |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | 1 BD-100 |
Blu-ray Specs (Main Feature Film + Extras):
| Languages | Japanese, English |
| Audio | Japanese Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition format 1.85:1 aspect ratio |
| Region | B |
| Subtitles | English, English SDH |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | 1 BD-50 |
4K Ultra HD On-Disc Extra Features:
No extras on this disc.
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
- Trailers & Teasers – 15s Teaser, 30s Teaser, English Trailer (02:14 runtime)
- Interview with the Director (23:56 runtime)
- Behind the Starting Line-up: English Dub Featurette (11:41 runtime)
- Color Commentary with the English Dub Team
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
The First Slam Dunk is available to purchase on 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray by Anime Limited in the UK & Ireland.
The collector’s edition 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray combo pack release is available exclusively through the AllTheAnime Store, while the steelbook edition is available on Zavvi, and the standard edition Blu-ray can also be bought through different retailers including AllTheAnime Store, Amazon UK, and Anime-on-Line.
(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)
The Normanic Vault 
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