Enter a Rotten Tomatoes movie slug to inspect the stored movie, batches, snapshots, and reviews.
Movie ID: 802
RT slug: the_first_slam_dunk
RT URL: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_first_slam_dunk
Release year: 2023
Runtime: 124 mins
Wide release date: 2023-07-28
Limited release date: —
Festival premiere date: —
Streaming release date: —
Tomatometer final: 100%
Audience score final: —
Genres: Anime, Comedy, Drama, Sports
Directors: Takehiko Inoue
Writers: Takehiko Inoue
Producers: Toshiyuki Matsui
MPAA rating: PG-13
Executive Producers: —
Created: 2026-06-17 18:59:52
Updated: 2026-06-17 18:59:52
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. And now, they are on the brink of challenging the reigning champions, Sannoh Kogyo High School.
A heart-pumping, breathtaking, wonderfully crafted manga adaptation, The First Slam Dunk shoots and scores.
Canonical reviews: 47
Canonical fresh: 47
Canonical rotten: 0
Canonical calculated Tomatometer: 100%
Latest snapshot UTC: 2026-06-17 15:25:45
Snapshot Tomatometer: 100%
Snapshot review count: 47
Snapshot fresh count: 47
Snapshot rotten count: 0
Source note: Imported from manual review paste batch #1431 (full_snapshot)
| Company | Role |
|---|---|
| GKIDS | distributor |
| Dandelion Animation Studio | production |
| Billing | Name | Character |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shugo Nakamura | Ryota Miyagi |
| 2 | Jun Kasama | Hisashi Mitsui |
| 3 | Shinichiro Kamio | Kaede Rukawa |
| 4 | Subaru Kimura | Hanamichi Sakuragi |
| 5 | Kenta Miyaki | Takenori Akagi |
| Batch ID | Status | Mode | Created | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 818 | processed | — | 2026-06-17 18:59:52 | Processed successfully into movie_id=802 using update_mode=merge_non_empty. |
| Batch ID | Local Snapshot | UTC Snapshot | Entered % | Entered Count | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1431 | 2026-06-17 10:25:00 (America/Panama) | 2026-06-17 15:25:45 | 100% | 47 | processed | Mode=full_snapshot. Processed 47 row(s); 0 row error(s). Parsed unique reviews in this batch=47, fresh=47, rotten=0, tomatometer=100%. Net new reviews added=47, fresh=47, rotten=0. Current canonical totals=47 reviews, 47 fresh, 0 rotten, tomatometer=100% (100.000%). Entered review count matched parsed batch count (47). Entered tomatometer matched parsed batch value (100%). |
| ID | Critic | Outlet | Fresh? | Score | RT Time Raw | Approx Published UTC | Quote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 178933 | Anya Couture | Geek Vibes Nation | Fresh | 9/10 | 2025-08-09T22:57:08Z | 2025-08-09 22:57:08 | The First Slam Dunk strikes a perfect balance in showing what can make the sport so exciting. At the same time it delivers a gripping story that will charm you with its emotional trajectory, whether or not you’re even a sports or anime fan. |
| 178934 | Yasser Medina | Cinefilia | Fresh | 8/10 | 2025-02-21T08:35:01Z | 2025-02-21 08:35:01 | The two-hour basketball game, rendered with solid animation that redefines the standard in the sports genre, moves at a fast-paced pace that never loses its pulse or excitement. [Full review in Spanish] |
| 178935 | Tom Spoors | Loud and Clear Reviews | Fresh | 4.5/5 | 2025-01-07T00:25:54Z | 2025-01-07 00:25:54 | Takehiko Inoue’s The First Slam Dunk is a sports movie done right, with one of the best climaxes of the year that’s guaranteed to leave you fist-pumping the air. |
| 178936 | Diego Batlle | Otroscines.com | Fresh | 4/5 | 2024-08-27T00:34:27Z | 2024-08-27 00:34:27 | The First Slam Dunk's biggest finding is how well it conveys its nuances multi-dimensionally, and details the physical and emotional experience of a basketball game. [Full review in Spanish] |
| 178937 | Carla Hay | Culture Mix | Fresh | — | 2024-02-23T23:27:58Z | 2024-02-23 23:27:58 | The First Slam Dunk is one of the best basketball movies you could ever see. It's a suspenseful and emotionally gripping film that balances a story of achieving sports greatness and coping with grief. |
| 178938 | Rachel Wagner | rachelsreviews.net | Fresh | 9/10 | 2023-12-26T04:38:48Z | 2023-12-26 04:38:48 | The game scenes are so well done...what a compelling film that almost anyone will enjoy. |
| 178939 | Rich Cline | Shadows on the Wall | Fresh | 5/5 | 2023-09-05T18:20:34Z | 2023-09-05 18:20:34 | Mixing hand-drawn art with digital trickery, the characters have real weight and presence on-screen, and the story is structured like a beefy biopic. |
| 178940 | Wendy Ide | Observer (UK) | Fresh | 3/5 | 2023-09-03T13:19:28Z | 2023-09-03 13:19:28 | While it leans a little heavily on baffling basketball strategy and court-based machinations, it's a dynamic and unexpectedly affecting animation. |
| 178941 | Alistair Harkness | Scotsman | Fresh | 4/5 | 2023-08-31T23:10:38Z | 2023-08-31 23:10:38 | ... The film may not be covering new ground thematically, but Inoue does take the novel step of dispensing with any build-up and filtering all the usual off-court drama through the action of a single championship game. |
| 178942 | Edward Porter | Sunday Times (UK) | Fresh | 3/5 | 2023-08-31T21:57:59Z | 2023-08-31 21:57:59 | Even if the film lacks the emotional wallop of the best sports movies, it brings a nifty new style to the genre. |
| 178943 | Victoria Luxford | City AM | Fresh | 3/5 | 2023-08-31T09:40:06Z | 2023-08-31 09:40:06 | The First Slam Dunk will appeal to those with Hoop Dreams, or fans of the source material; a flawed but affectionate journey. |
| 178944 | Esther Rosenfield | Little White Lies | Fresh | 4/5 | 2023-08-30T11:21:18Z | 2023-08-30 11:21:18 | Like the title says: a total slam dunk. |
| 178945 | James Hanton | Starburst | Fresh | 4/5 | 2023-08-28T19:01:47Z | 2023-08-28 19:01:47 | The First Slam Dunk uses breathtaking, blended animation to bring basketball to life like no other film has previously. |
| 178946 | Rendy Jones | Rendy Reviews | Fresh | — | 2023-08-26T16:44:07Z | 2023-08-26 16:44:07 | Apologies to Looney Tunes and Michael Jordan; this is the best animated basketball film ever. |
| 178947 | James Croot | The Post NZ | Fresh | 4.5/5 | 2023-08-22T16:12:06Z | 2023-08-22 16:12:06 | ... A rare sports movie that captures the tensions and chaos of sometimes conflicting characters and personalities coming together as a team in a serious (and not just comedic) way. |
| 178948 | Phil Hoad | Guardian | Fresh | 3/5 | 2023-08-22T12:25:54Z | 2023-08-22 12:25:54 | The CGI-led courtside portions (as opposed to traditional 2D for the real-life stuff) are miraculously kinetic, with beautifully shaded character models. Inoue orchestrates it all into a rousing, garage rock-powered finale. |
| 178949 | Tara McNamara | Common Sense Media | Fresh | 4/5 | 2023-08-14T18:36:41Z | 2023-08-14 18:36:41 | Heart-pounding and heartrending, first-time director Takehiko Inoue's adaptation of his own manga proves that he has the skills of a pro. |
| 178950 | Lael Loewenstein | FilmWeek (LAist) | Fresh | — | 2023-08-11T00:48:13Z | 2023-08-11 00:48:13 | The sound design brings up every squeak of a sneaker on the gym floor. It really feels like you're at a basketball game. |
| 178951 | Charles Solomon | FilmWeek (LAist) | Fresh | — | 2023-08-11T00:47:06Z | 2023-08-11 00:47:06 | Complicated emotionally and very exciting visually. I really enjoyed it, and I think basketball fans will get off on it. |
| 178952 | Mario Alegre | Próxima Tanda (Substack) | Fresh | 4.5/5 | 2023-08-04T18:34:16Z | 2023-08-04 18:34:16 | There's never been any truly great basketball feature films. Boxing? Sure. Baseball? Definitely, but not basketball. In his directorial debut, Takehiko Inoue not only gives us the first, but one of the best sports movies ever. [Full Review in Spanish] |
| 178953 | Dan Tabor | Cinapse | Fresh | — | 2023-08-04T17:30:39Z | 2023-08-04 17:30:39 | THE FIRST SLAM DUNK is a Shōnen Masterwork! |
| 178954 | Aaron Neuwirth | We Live Entertainment | Fresh | 8/10 | 2023-08-04T05:09:10Z | 2023-08-04 05:09:10 | Director/writer Takehiko Inoue chose the right level of stylization here, as it kept the film grounded instead of depicting a heightened reality. As a result, seeing the struggle for our lead plays to win this game was truly a sight to behold. |
| 178955 | Kristian M. Lin | Fort Worth Weekly | Fresh | — | 2023-08-03T00:22:20Z | 2023-08-03 00:22:20 | Not only one of the best movies I’ve ever seen about basketball, and maybe one of the best movies of the year. |
| 178956 | Panos Kotzathanasis | Asian Movie Pulse | Fresh | — | 2023-08-01T06:36:58Z | 2023-08-01 06:36:58 | 7.5 “The First Slam Dunk” is a very entertaining movie that will appeal particularly to fans of sports anime and of the particular series, while there are elements that will also touch a different audience, in an overall excellent title. |
| 178957 | Victor Recinos | Cine Premiere | Fresh | 4.5/5 | 2023-07-30T17:12:20Z | 2023-07-30 17:12:20 | It's the old Slam Dunk but new, with painstaking details that the author manages to bring from its pages to the big screen. It's a movie that anyone will love, and it will definitely make fans of sports and 90s anime vibrate. [Full review in Spanish] |
| 178958 | David Ehrlich | IndieWire | Fresh | B+ | 2023-07-28T20:42:43Z | 2023-07-28 20:42:43 | No movie has so literally reduced basketball to “just a game,” and no movie this side of Hoop Dreams has so ecstatically conveyed why it’s also so much more than that. |
| 178959 | Rafael Motamayor | IGN Movies | Fresh | 9/10 | 2023-07-28T20:41:42Z | 2023-07-28 20:41:42 | The First Slam Dunk is what sports anime are for. The film delivers an exhilarating basketball game full of the thrills and drama of an NBA final, with mind-blowing visuals and camera angles live-action couldn't replicate. |
| 178960 | Siddhant Adlakha | JoySauce.com | Fresh | — | 2023-07-28T18:33:32Z | 2023-07-28 18:33:32 | The First Slam Dunk allows its sporting sections to unfold with panache... turning, zipping and charging between bodies in ways that capture, at once, the enormousness and intimacy of a team sport in close contact. |
| 178961 | Jacob Oller | Paste Magazine | Fresh | 7.8/10 | 2023-07-28T15:55:54Z | 2023-07-28 15:55:54 | The First Slam Dunk, with familiar characters, an innovative art style, and a narrative that’s helped structure an entire subgenre of anime, plays both sides of the court as it finds a delicate balance between flash and fundamentals. |
| 178962 | Jared Mobarak | Hey, Have You Seen ...? | Fresh | 7/10 | 2023-07-28T13:24:16Z | 2023-07-28 13:24:16 | It may feel like your usual run-of-the-mill David vs Goliath sports drama, but Inoue choreographs it with an electric pace and infectious humor. The draw is what happens between these teenagers' ears—the memories conjured by each conflict on the court. |
| 178963 | Anthony Greene | Spectrum Culture | Fresh | — | 2023-07-28T05:16:03Z | 2023-07-28 05:16:03 | Adapting a beloved anime series for the big screen, the film will make you cheer. |
| 178964 | Eli Friedberg | The Film Stage | Fresh | B+ | 2023-07-28T01:11:58Z | 2023-07-28 01:11:58 | Inoue’s film is not just an effective youth melodrama––much as it is that––but a fully sensory action film that deeply understands the raw appeal of its subject beyond wide-angle shots from the bleachers. |
| 178965 | Mike McGranaghan | Aisle Seat | Fresh | 3/4 | 2023-07-27T18:47:24Z | 2023-07-27 18:47:24 | A stunning technical achievement, a solid sports story, and a heartfelt rumination on grief all rolled into one. |
| 178966 | Calum Marsh | New York Times | Fresh | — | 2023-07-27T16:45:12Z | 2023-07-27 16:45:12 | “The First Slam Dunk” is a great basketball movie because it understands what’s great about basketball. |
| 178967 | Aaron White | Feelin' Film Podcast | Fresh | 4.5/5 | 2023-07-25T21:26:53Z | 2023-07-25 21:26:53 | Gorgeously animated with its mixture of hand-drawn and CGI styles. Brilliantly structured with a deeply moving core story about overcoming grief and chasing dreams mixed with exhilarating detailed on-court action. It is in fact, well, a slam dunk. |
| 178968 | Carson Timar | ButteredPopcorn | Fresh | — | 2023-07-25T20:41:23Z | 2023-07-25 20:41:23 | The First Slam Dunk is a strong sports anime feature film that will work well both for those who are a fan of the anime and those who have never even heard of it. |
| 178969 | Avi Offer | NYC Movie Guru | Fresh | — | 2023-07-25T17:58:36Z | 2023-07-25 17:58:36 | A mildly engaging, somewhat clunky and overlong, but often poignant underdog sports story. |
| 178970 | Ross McIndoe | Slant Magazine | Fresh | 3/4 | 2023-07-23T15:43:07Z | 2023-07-23 15:43:07 | The First Slam Dunk is able to throw a relentless series of new gambits, twists, and reversals at the screen that will keep even seasoned sports film fans on the edge of their seat. |
| 178971 | Matt Hudson | What I Watched Tonight | Fresh | 4.5/5 | 2023-07-23T14:20:53Z | 2023-07-23 14:20:53 | The First Slam Dunk takes its underdog story and imbues it with real profundity and emotion, without losing sight of the spectacle of the game at hand. It’s a brilliantly crafted and compelling film, you could say…it’s a…slam dunk. |
| 178972 | Alan French | Sunshine State Cineplex | Fresh | 8/10 | 2023-07-23T02:54:59Z | 2023-07-23 02:54:59 | Adopting the visual language of intense fighting stories, first-time feature director Takehiko Inoue brings unique images to life, turning the basketball court into a stage for vulnerability. |
| 178973 | Douglas Davidson | Elements of Madness | Fresh | 4/5 | 2023-07-23T00:17:22Z | 2023-07-23 00:17:22 | A certain amount of excitement does come from the performances from the voice actors, but one cannot discount the visual style, cinematography, and direction that makes first slam dunk as exciting as the last. |
| 178974 | Jeff Nelson | Guy at the Movies | Fresh | 4/5 | 2023-07-22T22:16:11Z | 2023-07-22 22:16:11 | The First Slam Dunk is a rare sports gem that will leave you with sweaty palms and the realization that you’ve been unintentionally holding your breath. |
| 178975 | Abhishek Srivastava | The Times of India | Fresh | 3.5/5 | 2023-07-07T22:58:19Z | 2023-07-07 22:58:19 | With breathtaking CGI animation, it authentically portrays the world of sports and the challenges teenagers face during their formative years. |
| 178976 | Mariló Delgado | Espinof | Fresh | 4.5/5 | 2023-07-06T17:56:50Z | 2023-07-06 17:56:50 | Brutal and thrilling entertainment that will have you agonizing until the last second of the game. [Full review in Spanish] |
| 178977 | LaNeysha Campbell | But Why Tho? | Fresh | 9.5/10 | 2023-07-05T14:15:00Z | 2023-07-05 14:15:00 | The First Slam Dunk continues the legendary legacy of the franchise. The updated animation style and technology work tremendously well for this storytelling and action in the film. |
| 178978 | Julio Plaza Torres | Cinemanía (Spain) | Fresh | 4/5 | 2023-07-03T21:57:51Z | 2023-07-03 21:57:51 | The perfect way to revive a classic for fans old and new. [Full review in Spanish] |
| 178979 | Casey Chong | Fiction Horizon | Fresh | 10/10 | 2023-02-23T13:27:55Z | 2023-02-23 13:27:55 | [A] 124-minute cinematic ride of thrillingly-staged basketball court action [and a] heartfelt, yet involving story [of] determination and never-give-up-attitude. |
Showing the latest 100 canonical reviews for this movie.