Interest

The First Slam Dunk Anime Film Lets Schoolchildren Watch For Dirt Cheap This Week

The First Slam Dunk, the new anime film of Takehiko Inoue's Slam Dunk basketball manga, has been a big hit so far. The film ranked at #1 in its opening weekend, and is currently the 27th highest-earning film of all time in Japan.

To encourage even more eyeballs, the film is offering a dirt cheap deal to schoolchildren this week. Students in elementary, middle, and high school can watch the film at participating cinemas for just 500 yen (about US$3.80) rate from March 25 to 31.

The special rates are designed to take advantage of the spring break just before the start of a new school year.

The film opened in Japan on December 3.It sold 847,000 tickets and earned 1,295,808,780 yen (about US$9.50 million) over its opening weekend. The film won Animation of the Year at the 46th annual Japan Academy Film Prizes.

Inoue personally directed the film at Toei Animation and wrote the script. Among the listed staff members are character designer/animation director Yasuyuki Ebara (Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress) and technical directors Katsuhiko Kitada (Attack on Titan episodes, Major: Yūjō no Winning Shot), Naoki Miyahara (Digimon Adventure, Popin Q), Toshio Ōhashi (LayereD Stories 0), and Yū Kamatani (Looking for Magical DoReMi, Precure Super Stars!).

Daiki Nakazawa directed the CG, and Yūta Ogura produced the CG. Kazuo Ogura directed the art. Yota Tsuruoka directed the sound with Koji Kasamatsu.

Sources: Comic Natalie, The First Slam Dunk film's Twitter account