The MLB hasn’t been shy when it comes to dipping its toes into the anime world in recent years. The Boston Red Sox have teamed up with One Piece for special anime nights, while anim series such as Major, Cross Game, and Ace of Diamond help bring the sport to the anime medium. Most recently, Los Angeles Dodgers’ superstar Shohei Ohtani has teamed up with legendary manga artist Takehiko Inoue for a new project that sees the Slam Dunk and Vagabond creator test out their skills on the baseball diamond in a new wild crossover.
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The crossover in question sees the Dodgers’ pitcher Shohei Ohtani teaming up with Takehiko Inoue to create a new logo for the company, New Balance. Sharing the logo on his official Instagram page, Shohei revealed the following message to the Slam Dunk creator, “Inoue-sensei, thank you for designing the logo, Pyong.” Ironically enough, this is far from the first time that Ohtani has been a part of an anime collaboration as earlier this month, the MLB teamed up with Demon Slayer studio, Ufotable, for a special video. In the video, various characters from the Demon Slayer Corps witnessed Major League Baseball in action, with Ohtani being front and center in the collaboration.
[RELATED: Demon Slayer Takes on the MLB’s Best Players in Wild New Short: Watch]
Ohtani’s Love of Anime
On a taping of the podcast, The Chris Rose Rotation, fellow Dodgers pitcher Alex Vesia detailed playing with Ohtani along with his love of Shohei’s love of anime, “He’s great, you know, and it’s like, you would never know that he is who he is, right? If you’re just sitting there next to him—like, the guy’s watching anime, he’s cracking jokes, he loves to laugh. And he’s a great teammate. So that’s something I definitely got to learn from him this year,”
Slam Dunk & Vagabond’s Futures
Unfortunately, neither of Takehiko Inoue’s biggest creations have future anime projects in the works that have been announced. Following the colossal hit of The First Slam Dunk in theaters, Toei Animation hasn’t stated that they plan on further exploring the basketball-centric universe. Unlike Slam Dunk, however, Vagabond has never released an anime adaptation to call its on. While the creators of Arcane, Fortiche Studios, have expressed interest in someday depicting the wandering samurai epic, nothing has been confirmed.
Luckily, if you want to check out Slam Dunk’s anime, there is far more material than the recent film. The original Slam Dunk anime adaptation, which ran for over one hundred episodes, is available to stream on Netflix, further fleshing out the characters that have become some of the biggest sports icons in the anime world. There’s a reason why the basketball epic is routinely in the conversation when it comes to greatest sports anime of all time.
Want to stay up to date on the wild ways that the anime world crosses over into the world of sports? Follow along with Team Anime on ComicBook.com for the latest updates on sports anime and hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.
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