‘Slam Dunk’ movie to premiere in 2022

Hanamichi Sakuragi and the rest of the Shohoku basketball team are officially returning next year with a brand new movie.

In a 30-second teaser video, the official website of Slam Dunk confirmed that the highly-awaited anime movie will premiere in Japan sometime in 2022.

First announced last January, the upcoming anime film will also see the return of manga creator Takehiko Inoue, who is directing and writing the script for the movie. Toei Animation, which produced the anime adaptation of Inoue's manga in October 1993, is also involved in the project.

Other details about the anime film are still being kept under wraps up until now. There's still no word yet if the movie will be a reboot or a sequel to the anime series.

Inoue's Slam Dunk originally debuted in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump from Oct. 1, 1990 to Jun. 17, 1996. The manga later paved the way for an anime adaptation, which ran from 1993 to 1996, and four animated films.

Slam Dunk follows the story of Hanamichi Sakuragi, a delinquent high school student who ends up joining the Shohoku basketball team in a bid to get closer to his crush Haruko Akagi.

The series features the journey of Sakuragi and his teammates Takenori Akagi, Ryota Miyagi, Hisashi Mitsui and Kaede Rukawa towards their goal of becoming the best basketball team in Japan.

(Images from Viz, IMDB)