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The Wait For It Podcast
Hosted by MrEricAlmighty and PhilTheFilipino, the guys discuss all things in Pop Culture from movies, gaming, anime and anything in between. New episodes every Wednesday, all you have to do is...WAIT FOR IT!
The Wait For It Podcast
International Feature: The First Slam Dunk
For this edition of International Feature, we dive into The First Slam Dunk, exploring how the 2022 anime film became the highest-grossing basketball movie of all time with nearly $300 million worldwide. They analyze the revolutionary animation style that blends 2D and 3D techniques while discussing whether it successfully welcomes newcomers to the franchise.
• Groundbreaking animation combining traditional 2D with CGI creates an immersive basketball experience
• Authentic basketball sound design captures the feel of being on the court
• Film's narrative structure alternates between championship game and character flashbacks
• Challenges in connecting with multiple characters within the limited runtime
• Comparison to other sports anime like Blue Lock and what makes sports stakes compelling
• The film's climactic final moments utilize innovative visual techniques
• Discussion of whether the film succeeds as an entry point for newcomers
• Box office success demonstrates the global appeal of sports anime
Letterbox'd Synopsis: Shohoku’s “speedster” and point guard, Ryota Miyagi, always plays with brains and lightning speed, running circles around his opponents while feigning composure. 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. And now, they are on the brink of challenging the reigning champions, Sannoh Kogyo High School.
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Speaker 2:Gaming. Wait for it Anime PLUS ULTRA.
Speaker 1:Mr Eric Almighty and Phil the Filipino.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they've got you covered, and all you gotta do is wait for it. This is the Wait For it Podcast. Hey, everyone, welcome back to the Wait For it Podcast. I am your co-host, phil Barrera, aka Phil the Filipino.
Speaker 1:And I'm your other co-host, mr Eric Almighty, and for this edition of International Feature, we are continuing to follow a trend when we're looking for international films, sometimes there are these high-profile, high-scoring movies on things like Rotten Tomatoes, letterboxd that just catch our eye. And, as two people who aren't really into sports, anime, but are a fan of a pretty big one that we're representing here tonight, we thought it would be a good idea to jump into a series that has been very popular, but a movie that is supposed to be pretty nice to new fans and trying to get them in, that movie is called the first slam.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is very familiar. If you've ever been to an anime convention, you'll see a lot of people representing it and it's something I've been familiar with and very aware of, but never really wanted to kind of take the dive until, of course, this came around. And, yeah, we'll see how this episode goes Because, based on scores and feedback, a lot of people love this one and you know, just remember that everything is objective. Just remember that people are allowed to like what they like. So I'll just start it off that way, I guess.
Speaker 1:We're off to a rough start.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I also didn't look up how to pronounce any of this, so I don't. I'm not 100% sure how to pronounce the director's name.
Speaker 1:Well, you know what? Well, Phil gathers himself and figures that out.
Speaker 1:Because I lean on him specifically for that I will add context to why we chose this movie. And obviously this episode is dropping around the time of Bulma Tsuri, which made us want to make the international feature episode an anime film or series. So the first slam dunk has been talked about in a lot of film circles by a lot of people and one of the things I was really scared about was that this is a this is a movie that takes place within an existing, longstanding and old anime series thing that I researched and reviews that I had read. It seemed to be catered to both existing fans and new fans of this story, with the scores behind it, the fact that phil randomly brought up like maybe we do the last dance as a option uh, you know, yeah I to say, was this your compromise?
Speaker 1:I was thinking I was like, oh, basketball Sabes, you know. And I was like, maybe Red jerseys, yeah, red jerseys, the Bulls. So maybe we could give this a shot. And I got to say that this isn't quite the movie I thought it was. But I am excited to dive into both the highs and the lows because for me, international feature at first, I think in conception, was like let's just highlight all these great international films. But that's not. That's easier said than done.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean and I think what this series has really been about is featuring international films that you may not know about and how we reacted to them, which is essentially what we do with Late to the Party in things of pop culture. Now, this movie is fairly successful. We'll talk about some of those numbers, I'm sure as well, but from a pop culture standpoint, while we see them at conventions, I don't know that. We talk about the slam dunk series in everyday life like we would other anime series. So that's why I ended up here. On International Feature and Phil, I know we'll get into synopsis and everything, so I will let us get started there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, aesthetically it's very, very iconic. Like you can be walking around and you'll see, like the manga or like a poster or some artwork, and you're like, oh, I, that's from the, the basketball anime. Uh, you know, even if you don't know necessarily, like exactly the name of it. So, um, yeah, first slam dunk came out in 2022 and it was directed by tahiko inoue. Look at that, look how fast I am a fast learner. Now the rest of this synopsis might be rough, so I apologize. I couldn't look up everything.
Speaker 2:But Shoku's speedster and point guard, ryota Miyagi, always plays with brains and lightning speed, running circles around his opponents while feigning composure. In his second year of high school, ryota plays with the Shoku High School basketball team, along with Sakuragi, rukawa, akagi and Mitsui, as they take the stage at the Inter High School National Championship, and now they are on the brink of challenging the reigning champions, shinokugyo High School. And one thing that has always kind of like drawn me to this, eric right, and probably you as well is the art style. And, regardless of how this thing has started off and how we're alluding to, how we responded to it, one thing that is undeniable, eric I've never seen an anime animated like this.
Speaker 2:It is insane down to you know that I'm a very big basketball fan Down to the feeling of like the sound design, like feeling like you're on the court, the importance of what that sounds like when people are like being really physical, like in the paint and also defense and, of course, the most important thing, which is this the ball going into the basket, the very, very like realistic sounds. When it came to the basketball hitting the rim and the backboard, it's insane. Like if you weren't looking at the screen and you were just listening, you would think that you were listening to like an actual, like high school or college basketball game and that was absolutely insane from the get-go. I was like what is this animation? This is crazy, and I think it's a combination of cgi as well as 2d, if I remember correctly.
Speaker 1:Correct yeah, uh, 3d, cgi and hand-drawn 2d animation and it's so funny that you bring that up as the first talking point, because that was going to be a question to you was like, how did you react to it?
Speaker 1:Because for me I definitely it took maybe two to three minutes and then I was in it Like, and that's a risky choice when it comes down to adding those 3D and CG elements, because they don't always work and in this movie it made it feel really special, skipping way, way too far ahead. In the same breath, they also do some special things towards the end of the film, which is such a sports cliche, you know, like that final minute or 30 seconds of a game. It was really really cool Some of the things that they did in that standpoint, in that scene. So there were like really really good scenes that showed that this blend can work. And I think when I saw the trailer I was worried about how I would feel about it, but I got over it pretty quickly, which is probably the most positive thing I can say is I overcame that kind of trepidation very, very quickly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're seeing this kind of because you know 2022. And I've also heard people talk about the difference in animation style from the original and some of that has been good. Some of that has been mixed as far as the response, but most people have said that they really enjoyed the upgrade in terms of the uh, the animation, and we're seeing, you know, post a lot of people credit, you know, of course, the Spider-Verse films, with this kind of renaissance we're seeing in animation, and I'm sure there are other examples, but that's the one that's the most prevalent. Like, right, like we're seeing people take risks when it comes to animation. And there is this new like obviously, put some boots to last wish, take a shot. We'll get out of the way early.
Speaker 2:But, eric, there is a movie coming out on netflix really soon. It's like a k-pop demon slayer anime. Have you seen the trailer for that? Um, but do you know what I'm talking about? No, yeah, it's a k-pop group. That's like. They're like demon slayers and the trailer comes out, I think, tomorrow. We're recording this on the evening of may 21st it's literally called k-pop demon hunters.
Speaker 2:I think k-pop demon slayer.
Speaker 1:I think k-pop demon hunters, demon hunters yeah, okay, it's a animated musical fantasy action comedy film. What?
Speaker 2:there's a little 30 second snippet on net on a twitter that I saw today. I was like I'm fucking in. This looks cool, like I'm gonna watch this, so maybe that's our international feature for july.
Speaker 1:It comes out that might have worked out.
Speaker 2:Actually, I totally forgot about until just now. So we're seeing people be a little bit more uh, creative and out there with their anime, with their animation. We talk about pretty much every animated film that we talk about how disney is in this loop where we're like the animation is stale, so that right away for sure is a standout and I'm sure even somebody that jumped in for the first time, like like I said, will be a little taken aback. But ultimately I don't think that anybody could come away from this and think that they that it's not good.
Speaker 2:Yeah no, of course.
Speaker 1:And it's really interesting to see how audiences reacted to this film, because this movie grossed almost 300 million dollars worldwide, the sixth highest grossing Japanese film of all time, and it's the highest grossing basketball film of all time your Wikipedia facts for the day. So that is pretty interesting when it comes down to it, but I don't know To be fair when we talk about basketball films.
Speaker 2:I was going to say what are the other basketball films? Can I guess them Are there also, like it's just American basketball films on there too.
Speaker 1:I'm going to assume it doesn't really list it out, I might have to find it, we're okay. Yeah, I might have to go find that information.
Speaker 2:Uh, let me see if I can okay, because I'm just trying to think of, like, what would be the other top tier basketball movies. Like, obviously, like coach carter, space jam, space jam uh, I'm trying to think.
Speaker 2:Really, all we're saying is that the bar is low, right right, and here's the thing is I I think I would have enjoyed this more seeing it on a big screen because of the animation, and I didn't know anything else really about this anime, specifically going into it eric, what did you know? Other you know there's a basketball anime and a manga out there that's really popular.
Speaker 1:Not very much. I heard about this, and then it's like Korono no Basket or Karuko no Basket. I don't I'm probably butchering that, but there are two basketball series that I'm familiar with that one and then this one, and I knew it was like an older 90s anime and I had seen it represented in some fashion, which is why it was on my radar, but, like other than that, not very much on my radar. I didn't know when this movie came out. Phil, this movie is a 2022 film. I did not have that on my radar at that year but again, as we went into 2023 and beyond, this movie kept popping up in circles that I listened to about anime and film, so it was always kind of I don't want to say a bucket list movie, but it always was a movie that I thought we would eventually get to. Considering you're the basketball head, I'm the anime guy it seemed like potentially a match made in heaven, with the assumption that it was kind to new viewers, and we'll talk about whether or not it was in a moment. I do want to bring up other movies, phil, because the list came up. No site is referencing this movie, which is weird, but it does seem to be the highest one.
Speaker 1:Space Jam White man Can't Jump. White Men Can't Jump Like Mike Glory Road. Uncle Drew Semi-Pro.
Speaker 2:Semi-Pro.
Speaker 1:Eddie Hoosiers.
Speaker 2:Hoosiers okay.
Speaker 1:Love and Basketball Air Bud.
Speaker 2:Okay, Love and Basketball is a rom-com, so that shouldn't count. But, Basketball yeah.
Speaker 1:Listen, they have Inside Out 2 listed as a hockey movie.
Speaker 2:So there is hockey in it, there is hockey, there is hockey. So, yeah, there is hockey in it, there is hockey, there is hockey. So, yeah, here's my, also my thing, and I don't think I've ever actually voiced this before, but I don't really. I'm a big sports fan. We both are. We've talked about that here in the podcast, and sometimes a lot of those things don't really cross. There's not a lot of Venn diagram between anime and also a big time sports fans. As far as professional sports, that doesn't happen very often.
Speaker 2:I am not a big fan of like sports movies, because one thing that we really don't like here on the podcast, eric, is what Cliches and every sports movie. It just cannot beat the real thing. So, like what just happened yesterday again to give non-sports fans an idea, like what happened between the knicks and the pacers yesterday, eric, cannot be scripted, it just happens and that's what makes sports so incredible. The jaguar is coming back from 27. Nothing in a. If it happened in a movie, you'd be like this is bullshit, this is, this is stupid. But when it happens in real life and there's real life consequences, it cannot be beat. That's why, like, it is cinema in and of itself. So like I don't watch a lot of sports films because, again, they can just write the way you know somebody is going to win, right, like films, such, uh, like exceptions would be like, um, remember the titans, where it's not really about the football.
Speaker 1:You know, or the rookie, or the or the rookie, which is an excellent film.
Speaker 2:Um, also true stories, so things like that, that, that where the sports of it aren't necessary, like Coach Carter, aren't necessarily like the crux of the film, so like that's that's always a tough thing for me too, because you kind of know how this is going to end Like, oh, the character scores the winning touchdown, makes the winning shot, scores the winning goal, something like that. And I'm interested to see like why that works for us in something such as Blue Lock, which we are representing here today, and why it maybe didn't work as much here in the first slam dunk.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah for sure, and I want to, before we get into some of the criticisms of this movie, talk about any other positives that maybe we wanted to highlight. The animation is a big part of it. I do also think that the structure of the movie is interesting, I will say, for not knowing anything about these characters having the back and forth between the game and the flashbacks, I will say, worked more times than it didn't for me. I don't know that it was a fully positive element, but we were introduced to quite a bit of characters, quite a bit of characters, in a two hour and four minute runtime, and I will say that that felt like a healthy runtime for the story that they were trying to tell within a singular game. So we'll keep some of the key plot points pretty spoiler-free for this one, but those are probably some of the other big positives.
Speaker 1:I also did like the camaraderie between the main team, at least some of the core members of that team. For the most part, we'll talk about the voice acting on the other side of it. I did watch this in dub and you know I love a good dub. They're not all good, though, so we'll talk a little bit about that, phil, what any other kind of call outs. You want to mention stuff that you did enjoy about the film that maybe I didn't touch on just there.
Speaker 2:Was this meant to be like a jumping off point for non-manga and original anime viewers, or no? Yes, so that was.
Speaker 1:That was okay that was like a direct quote from the director. I believe I will try to find that exact quote if I can here. Okay, but when I was researching this, I was was looking to see like is this something that new fans can enjoy? And the answer was supposed to be yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because here's my and because it's the only other sports anime I can reference, I'm going to bring up Blue Lock a lot, Because they do this in Blue Lock obviously over the course of episodes. So they'll be in a game, but then we'll get a side story of a character and then they'll sprinkle in some soccer, you know, and I think that works in a long episode format and, like you said, I think for the most part it was. I think it was like mixed results as well as far as doing it here in the movie and in a two hour runtime. So I thought you know that it was going to be all about. Uh, you know the protagonist that we meet in the beginning, who goes through tragedy, and then it turns out that we're going to get a little bit of actually every single one of these characters, and it's at one point I'm like wait, this character doesn't have red hair.
Speaker 2:And this flashback is this the same characters? Am I still following the same person? Oh, this person is someone's brother. I don't't know. There were just things in there that I wasn't following, and that wasn't necessarily because it was confusing. It's because by that time I was a little uninterested. And again, we're kind of jumping ahead. I know you told me to put up some positives, but I'm trying here because I'm not trying to like be completely negative. It's like one of the worst things that can really happen when we watch anything whether it be movie, tv show, video game is you get a little bored, and that's kind of what happened here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's definitely been my line of thinking. For sure, the way I believe this was the art director or the color designer, somebody that worked on the film, potentially the director it's not very clear here. But the reason the title the First Slam Dunk was chosen. It's a movie that wants the audience familiar with the story to experience it as if it was their first time, but those unfamiliar with it to have this be their first slam dunk experience. So that was a key statement that led me, in addition to some of the reviews by people who had watched it and not watched it, to think that this would be a good introduction.
Speaker 1:So, phil, kind of transitioning into some of the opportunities for this movie, I don't feel this is a good introduction to the franchise. I don't think so either. I don't feel this is a good introduction to the franchise. I don't think so. There's too much going on. They try their best with flashbacks, but I would assume those would be more effective on a second watch and more context of the anime. So it also is like not just any game, it's like a game to get them to a championship. You know what I mean. Like it feels like we needed to spend some pretty decent time with all of these characters together. So, like I, like their camaraderie as much as we got, but it wasn't very fleshed out and I think that is a key issue. There is also a lot of drama that happens here. I mean Jesus Christ, that poor mother, that poor mom yeah, she was going through it.
Speaker 1:She was going through it, the first therapy session. That's what movie she needs to be in, also, surprisingly, lack of slam dunks, for, being honest, not enough slam dunks.
Speaker 2:Right, the main character can't even slam dunk. The main character can't even slam dunk. Yeah, I can't even. I thought I would at least maybe connect with that kid because I also was a short player. I'm still short, but I was also the shortest player on the court when I played basketball. But you know, I also, I also didn't tell my brother to go out into the sea and kill himself. I never returned.
Speaker 1:that never happened to me, so maybe I needed more trauma. Kind of crazy. Just you know in another world. You're in the Philippines and you're the center, that's true.
Speaker 2:That is true. I'm dominating out there. So another life.
Speaker 1:But what are some other opportunities, phil, that you want to maybe discuss, because I know you have maybe a little bit more of them uh than I did uh, but not by much yeah, because here's the thing.
Speaker 2:So in I think with probably I'm sure this is the case with a lot of sports anime, like there's that volleyball one I can't imagine that any of the stakes are like life and death, which is what a lot of the anime that we consume is. There's something on the line like people could die. You know what I mean. Like I can't imagine. Why am I blanking on the name of the solo leveling main character, uh jinwoo. Imagine jinwoo like crossing over a demon, like, like, something like that, like that's not gonna work. He's just gonna like stab in the heart.
Speaker 2:So, in order to make up for the lack of really consequences, there has to be something, something else like really at stake, like here, I just did not feel that. So, like with blue lock, these players are playing for their soccer future, their, their football future, right, if they get eliminated from blue lock, they can never play on the national team and play in the world cup, and that is huge. So like it's difficult for me to really care about one. A high school, two high schools I've never heard of, a bunch of characters I've really never heard of as well, and they're throwing all this backstory in which would have been more interesting in the long form as like like episodes, like they do in Blue Lock.
Speaker 2:So we get attached to characters and then when they get essentially Blue Lock's version of killed off, like we're emotional about it because we've gotten to know them, we've gotten to spend time with them and those relationships get to build up. So I just don't see how people can say this is a good introduction when there's so much layer that can definitely tell these are layered characters. But doing it in this format and in a two hour runtime, that doesn't really feel like it does justice to them. And now I'm coming away from it not wanting to watch the anime or read the manga because I had a subpar performance in the movie and that's not fair to what has gone into this story. But that's what happened.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I wonder what it would be like reading a sports manga, like I've never wanted to fully read blue Lock for that reason, although I really enjoy the characters, you're probably reading it for that, like the characterization, the dramatization of those characters and what they're going through.
Speaker 2:What's happening in between the match. That's what we're reading.
Speaker 1:Yeah. But I mean at the same time, like, could you make that argument about fight scenes in manga? Like I don't know, you know, that's maybe a conversation for another day, I think for me. I don't know that I was ever gonna get invested enough to go back to watch an older anime, especially given you know some of our history, the hits and misses more misses than hits when it comes to that. So I don't know.
Speaker 1:Like, again, I was kind of hoping this would be a fresh story, kind of a clean cut story that we would get, that would pay homage to it, because it's also all new voice actors. From what I understand, they did not bring back the original voice care voice actors. Very similarly, for that reason, this was kind of supposed to be a new storytelling of these characters. So very interesting choices overall, I think, trying to have your cake and eat it too. Try to make your existing fan base happy and also introduce it to brand new people. I again, we also only know blue lock really as our sports anime. But there are so many things about that and I do want to mention as a positive the last minute of the game for me. I want to know what your thoughts were definitely bumped up my score a tad bit because I was invested. Now I was also almost in the same boat. I was like borderline bored. I wasn't quite there. That's why when that last minute happens in the game, I was actually kind of invested and I really enjoyed it. And I know you haven't finished watching season two of Blue Lock. But Blue Lock and it's so much better.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately, Blue Lock has a final matchup in the last bit of the final match of the season and it's some of the best animation I've ever seen. It's some of the best storytelling and how everything happens. I'm obsessed with it. The first slam dunk didn't quite give me that feeling Cause you know you spend all this time with the characters in a show and you get to that moment. Even if it's a little cliche, it's executed really well and I think that's why we like blue lock as a show. The first slam dunk doesn't quite do that for me, but there were elements of it, you know, elements of that sports intensity, that moment you feel in crunch time and I don't know it was something about that last minute of the game that like really elevated it for me. Did it do anything like that for you, and then maybe just the sports in general, like how did you react to the basketball of it all?
Speaker 2:yeah, so first I'll answer the first part and as far as at the end, at that point I had already kind of like, was already really disinterested and was going on and obviously you know what's going to happen when, with the comeback, and again, that's just, I think that's just a sports movie thing for me personally, that I cannot really get into it or get excited. Now, like putting in like, mixing in like manga panels and and then making it silent, like all that is really really cool and I think it would have definitely I know it would have hit much more if, yeah, I had been invested the first hour and 45 minutes, you know. So, um, it didn't do anything to affect my score because at that point I had already kind of made up my mind, because I had checked and not checked out, but I had already been relatively disinterested. But it is a really, really cool sequence. It's just it came at the end of like a story that I wasn't really interested in and characters that I hadn't really bought it.
Speaker 2:The basketball of it I touched on that a little bit in the beginning it's sound design and just the pure nostalgia and the kind of what's the word that I'm looking for, the feeling you get when you just like hit a shot and there's just, it's just nothing but net. That type of euphoria that's the word I was looking for is unmatched and they nailed it in this and it is so good and you really feel like the importance of every single basket. And it's a tech, from a technical standpoint, from if, like an actual basketball fan, a lot of this looked really good. Of course there's some stuff in there that is, you know, overblown for for, uh, anime purposes and and um, but for the most part, all of it was really technically sound. I will just say that the coach was pissing me off for not calling a timeout sooner. When they're doing this full court press, I'm like call a timeout Also probably medical malpractice, to let the red hair guy come back into the game like a teenager.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like possible career ending, injury, injury yeah.
Speaker 2:So some of that's frustrating, but the basketball love it. Yeah, I can't really speak on soccer because I played soccer as like a kid, but I can't, there's not. We like blue log because it is fantastical, because it is absolutely ridiculous, because we do see a character sprint down the field and like flames come out of their feet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's like a missile.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that in Blue Lock. But for this, as somebody who played basketball and is still a really big basketball fan, yeah, it was really cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I was just very curious how that kind of weighed into your score, because I kind of gave you the heads up before you had watched it, like I don't know if you're gonna like this one. I don't know, I don't know if you're gonna like it. I watched it and I was like I did like it, but I'm curious how much the basketballness of it all is going to weigh into your score, either positively or negatively. So I'm glad to see, at least on that aspect, from watching it from a fan of the sport, it was at least worth a watch.
Speaker 1:As far as the reception of this movie and what our scores were, I think that's a great transition point. Unless there were any other kind of criticisms you had for the movie, I think the biggest crime is that this is not as catered to someone unfamiliar with the story and I think for that reason it can make the story more bland than it already is for being a traditional sports story, right, and I think it doesn't do the movie any favors. So anything else you want to call out before we go into reception and scores no, because anything else is not fair, and I understand why people enjoyed this.
Speaker 2:It just wasn't for me, but it certainly is for a lot of other people. Like you said, eric, it grossed a ton of money in the box office and I do think it would have been a more enjoyable experience on a big screen. When it comes to Rotten Tomatoes, it is pretty much as high as you can possibly get Tomato meter wise, 100% certified fresh, and a 99 popcorn meter score over on imdb. It is currently carrying an 8 out of 10, which anything above a 7.5 on imdb is really good, and then when we get to letterboxd it is sitting at a 4.2 out of 5.
Speaker 2:I ended up giving this a two and a half out of five, and really most of that, if not all of it, is specifically the animation style and, like I've already talked about, the basketball itself is really really good. But when I find myself not really caring too much about the characters, when there is obviously a very emotional plot point not only the emotional through line for what is essentially the main character but also these other characters, if I'm not buying into that, then I can't really give it at least a three, which is like a movie that I would possibly watch again. I don't really have any interest in looking into this anymore and going back and learning more about the characters of the film. So yeah, two and a half for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, understandable for me. I was right there with you at a two and a half for this movie Uh, I would say almost unrecommendable to anyone who hasn't seen it. But I was invested enough in the characters, in the story and enjoying the animation and the basketball enough that by that final minute like again, I cannot stress that final minute and the way that that was executed I couldn't help but get invested and I think that at least gave it enough to bump it up to a three for me. I think this movie I can understand it at two and a half. I have a little bit more of a hard time understanding how someone could think this is great in any way, shape or form, putting it at a three. I could still kind of see that. It's definitely far from a perfect film, I think, in general, but I can at least see it.
Speaker 1:And Phil, for a movie that is ranked number four on Tomatometer for anime films. I think I was just expecting a little bit more and I'm a little disappointed. But I also have to understand with this particular series it's molded into something where when we're featuring international films, international films are just like everything else there are going to be highs, there are going to be lows. There's going to be good films and there's going to be films that don't quite vibe with us. I do recommend at a three, though, that you make your mind up by watching it, and that's kind of. That's kind of where I ended. And if you're curious, phil, on my international films, we have 33 ranked through Letterboxd. This fell in between Blue Eye, samurai and the Host.
Speaker 2:Let's see where I have it here. I have it pretty low. What number is that for you?
Speaker 1:I was at number 27.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we're not too far off. I'm at 29. It is right behind Bell and in front of Bahubali, which I forget that we've watched all the time.
Speaker 1:All the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'm curious to know, like, how many of these scores, how much crossover there is between yeah, crossover, forget it how much is there in terms of people that are real basketball fans and then also enjoy this? I'd really like to know because obviously, in you know well, all over the world basketball is really popular, but Japan, specifically basketball and then, speaking as a Filipino in the Philippines, like basketball is huge. So I really would like to know some of that crossover and how many people also watch the NBA or international basketball. Some of these reviews are pretty funny. Japanese Top Gun Maverick I thought was pretty funny. I saw one earlier today I can't find it now and it was like damn, if only basketball were real. So I thought that was pretty good. But yeah, I mean people really enjoy this and certainly would implore others to check it out and form your own opinion. Do we have some comparisons for other sports movies, eric or basketball movies? We kind of went over some of them, I guess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, some of them, I mean we're not going to Do.
Speaker 2:You wish we had watched the Last Dance.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was going to say the Last Dance. Let's see. The Last Dance does have a slightly higher Letterboxd score, so maybe that was the choice. It's a 10-part documentary. Phil and I just don't know.
Speaker 2:I just figured that you care enough about Michael Jordan that you would be interested in watching it.
Speaker 1:No, for sure I get that, but does our audience care? I'm going to watch it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm going to watch it regardless.
Speaker 1:No, you should, yeah, for sure you watch it and let me know if you really are determined. I'd rather watch like air I would like to see. I've seen an eighth of air with ben affleck and matt that's the one with yeah davis.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've seen an eighth of that on tiktok I would like us to maybe venture into a, a documentary that is about pop culture. You know what I mean. Like there are, there are documentaries about like um, like the older video games and stuff like that. I think that would be fun. But yeah, I don't know if the last, if the audience would yeah. And again a 10 part, as much as I would a 10 part documentary is a lot to ask when it comes to that.
Speaker 2:But listen, if you tell us we might, uh might, do it since blue lock and then, now that you've watched this, are there any? Do you have any desire to go into the other sports anime like?
Speaker 1:obviously, haikyuu is the big one right man, I've wanted to get into haikyuu. This it's just too much, man, there's too many there's like you, baldy ball one piece yeah, yeah and there's.
Speaker 2:How many episodes of that are there?
Speaker 1:there are man there. It says 85. That can't be right, though, because there's also like ovas, there's anime films like there's like four to five seasons of this thing. It's it's not quite one piece in sports anime. I think you would compare it to that. Yeah, yeah, but yeah, others, other sports anime like I don't know. I'm looking at a couple of these and I think slam.
Speaker 2:I mean, I was surprised when you told me about blue lock.
Speaker 1:So there's been a couple that you were enjoying that. There's been a couple of boxing ones that I've wanted to see.
Speaker 2:See boxing I can buy into. I think there's something about a fight that's just very anime-coded. Obviously it's anime-coded that I can buy into. When it comes to something like this, I just think it wasn't meant to be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, kuroko's basketball, I think, is what uh, kurako no basket.
Speaker 2:So there are other movies as well in this series, right, I think, isn't there? Isn't there actually a second slam dunk?
Speaker 1:there were. There were several slam dunks early on, uh like when the series was out.
Speaker 2:Slam dunk four, I think slam dunk in the movie slam dunk two, slam dunk three, slam dunk four. Yep, yeah, see. And also at the end and this is spoilers, but you know it's fine. So at the end, are they on, are they in college? I don't know. Did that transfer? And I don't think I care to know. Is there aau basketball in japan?
Speaker 1:I don't know, I don't think so, but uh, those were our thoughts, guys, on the first slam dunk. Uh, again wanted more from it, but like the first layup more like the first layup yeah, that's, that's we probably should have thrown that in earlier instead of at the end of the episode. That was a, that was a layup and we missed it.
Speaker 2:But uh, phil uh dove into the audience and broke her back yeah so I'm gonna, I'm gonna lay up.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna to lob the closing of this episode to you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let me throw this down so we can just wait for the comments to come in. Good thing this is. You said this is dropping. Oh, this is the week of Bold, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like a couple days before Bold, so we'll see if we get to test who's actually who's listening?
Speaker 2:If you're listening, I think Alex Lee is. Is isn't alex going to be?
Speaker 1:alex lee, isn't it? He is going to be in there. I don't know that any of the voice actors will listen to this I will say that's such a he wasn't voice actor.
Speaker 2:He was great. No, he wasn't. His character is very good uh, the dub it's overall.
Speaker 1:I kind of wish I would have watched it in sub I do too.
Speaker 2:Actually, I got halfway through and I was like, man, I probably should have, should have watched it.
Speaker 1:It's more the dialogue. It's more the dialogue than the voice acting performances.
Speaker 2:So I feel bad and you got to do what you got to do with voice flaps, and it's hard and it's tough, that's not so.
Speaker 1:But yeah, no, that and that's one of them. So there you go. But yeah, this came out 2022, based off an older anime. I just think there were so many elements working against it that it was just too much to overcome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Well, one thing you don't have to overcome is how to find the rest of our content. It's really easy to do that. Find the rest of our content it's really easy to do that. Actually, you can go to the link tree link in the show notes of this episode. And one thing you can do, of course, is follow us over on social media, the most important ones being Instagram, tiktok, our thriving discord community, as well as Twitch. We are on Twitch a lot now, so we're having a lot of fun over there. You can also find all of our episodes Spotify, apple podcast, pretty much wherever.
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Speaker 2:This is the wait for it podcast.
