Slam Dunk‘s creator has been honored with a special award alongside some other big time manga and anime creators! Takehiko Inoue first kicked off the Slam Dunk basketball manga series in the pages of Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine back in 1990, and it has since gone on to be one of the most influential sports manga releases of all time. It was such a massive hit, in fact, that the franchise even returned with a brand new anime movie telling a new story not seen in the original anime releases. And all of this success has net its creator some big recognition.
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Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs announced this year’s winners of the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award for Fine Arts, and it was revealed that winners of the Media Arts category included the likes of Slam Dunk creator Takehiko Inoue and Don’t Call It Mystery creator Yumi Tamura. It was also announced that animation artist Jun Wada won in the Rookie category for the award as well. Winners will be officially awarded on March 12th in Japan.
What Award Did Slam Dunk’s Creator Win?
This is a special award given out to standout achievements in the arts and winners in each category are given a certificate and cash prize of 1.2 million yen (around $8,000 USD) for the Media Arts category and 800,000 yen ($5,330 USD) for the Rookie category. Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs was honoring Inoue for the success of The First Slam Dunk across the world last year, and explained their choice for winner as such:
“‘THE FIRST SLAM DUNK’ is a film adaptation of the climax of the original manga, which had never been visualized, directed by the original author, Takehiko Inoue himself. The majority of the film was made using 3DCG, but Inoue himself drew a great deal of the pictures and gave instructions so that his vision was beautifully captured in the film. This is a true work by an ‘animation film director.’ The domestic and international success of the film can be attributed to this contribution. The family drama newly depicted in this film also shows the depth of his artistic development from the time of the manga’s original serialization to the present day.”
What do you think of Slam Dunk‘s creator getting this big win? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animation and other cool stuff @Valdezology on X (formerly known as Twitter)!
