Full-time comic artist

"And me? I only have this moment left!"

Sakuragi Hanamichi entered the game in the final minute.

……

Wow, that's so exciting!

Countless readers were filled with excitement.

I'm completely captivated by the charm of "Slam Dunk".

"Even ten or twenty years from now, I will still remember how I felt at this moment."

Kazuya Takasugi looked out the window. It was winter, but he felt as if he were in summer, in a passionate summer.

……

Torishima Kazuhiko looked up and asked incredulously, "736 votes?"

The reader questionnaire selects 1000 letters from each week, and since each letter can be voted on 3 times, there are a total of 3000 votes.

Of those 3,000 votes, "Slam Dunk" received 736 votes, almost a quarter of the total.

Weekly Shonen Jump typically serializes about twenty works.

Of the remaining nineteen works, only three-quarters of the votes can be contested.

This is an extremely alarming result.

It's almost touching the record for Jump's positive data.

Things are different now. Back then, excellent works were rare, but now it's an era of top-tier comics emerging one after another.

Having secured the undisputed number one spot among the strongest teams is enough to demonstrate the current glory of "Slam Dunk".

“Tori Akino,” Torishima Kazuhiko recalled Sakuragi Hanamichi’s line, “I hope your most glorious moment isn’t now.”

……

Two weeks later.

Jump has been updated.

Looking at the crowded checkout counter, Saito Takuya wondered which cashier was so unlucky to have to deal with so many customers so early in the morning.

"Oh, so it was me."

He looked at the excited junior high students and sighed inwardly.

"Please line up."

Soon, the line regained order amidst the pushing and shoving.

"Is this the Weekly Shonen Jump you bought?" Saito asked.

"Mmm!" The first junior high student nodded expectantly.

"Total 230 yen."

The junior high school student lined up five coins and placed them on the cashier's counter.

"Thank you for your patronage. Please take care."

And so, one issue of Weekly Shonen Jump after another was sold, and one customer after another left. At nine o'clock, Saito finally had a little free time.

He looked up at the world outside the shop window, at the people coming and going, including hurried office workers and beautiful female college students.

There were oddly dressed delinquents, as well as police officers maintaining order.

"In a city as big as Tokyo, when will I ever find a place to stay?" he sighed.

Saito is from Gunma Prefecture. He became fascinated with "Hikaru no Go" after reading Weekly Shonen Jump when he was in junior high school.

That's when I developed the dream of becoming a cartoonist.

He devoted himself to drawing throughout high school, neglecting his studies. After graduation, he chose to come to Tokyo to continue pursuing his dream.

However, Saito submitted his work to Jump several times but failed each time.

He currently works as a cartoonist's assistant and supports himself by doing odd jobs in his spare time.

"I wonder when I will become someone like Mr. Tori Akino."

He looked down, stroking Jump in his hand. On the cover, Sakuragi Hanamichi shone brightly in the stadium.

……

After Sakuragi Hanamichi entered the game, he blocked Kawata Mikio's shot.

Ryota Miyagi dribbled the ball to the Sannoh basket and passed it to Hisashi Mitsui on the outside.

Mitsui instinctively jumped, and Sannoh's Matsumoto panicked. He lunged at Mitsui, mistakenly believing that Mitsui's pitch was a feint, and the two collided.

However, the three-pointer had already been shot, the ball flew through the air, and went in successfully.

Matsumoto committed a foul, and an additional free throw is awarded.

At this point, the score between Shohoku and Sannoh was 74-76, and Mitsui naturally made the shot.

Xiangbei added 1 point.

With only 49 seconds left, Mitsui scored the only 3+1 in the entire "Slam Dunk" series, making a significant contribution to Shohoku.

In the final moments, there were still many exciting scenes.

Despite being severely injured, Sakuragi Hanamichi intercepted Sawakita Eiji's dunk.

Sakuragi Hanamichi's performance in the second half was truly outstanding.

In the final thirty seconds, Shohoku's ace Rukawa Kaede dribbled past Wada, who was defending him, and ignored Fukatsu's block attempt before jumping for a layup.

Unfortunately, at that moment, Wada swatted away Rukawa's seemingly certain goal.

"You're finished!" He Tian vented his emotions.

Despair enveloped Shohoku's main players, but it was Sakuragi Hanamichi again; he lunged towards the ball.

……

"Sakuragi Hanamichi is too outstanding. It's hard to imagine that he was the same Sakuragi Hanamichi who was full of flaws before."

Sannoh meticulously analyzed every single person from Shohoku, paying particular attention to the unpredictable Mitsui, but they knew very little about Sakuragi Hanamichi, regarding him as an outsider.

Little did they know that it was Sakuragi Hanamichi who became an exception to their calculations, breaking Sannoh's control and igniting Shohoku's hope for victory.

Saito thought to himself and started watching this week's episode of "Slam Dunk".

"The results should be out by now," he thought.

"I will learn a lot from Slam Dunk."

With the idea of ​​learning storyboarding, he opened the Jump manga.

Immediately, Saito's eyes widened and he couldn't close them again.

"This is……"

The two pages of "Slam Dunk" that he could see didn't have a single line of dialogue!

In silence, the next part of the story was drawn.

Sakuragi Hanamichi lunged at the basketball, his hands gradually touching it. He then turned around and looked at Rukawa Kaede, whose pupils constricted in shock.

He exerted his strength, twisted into the air, and threw the ball to Rukawa Kaede. Then he lost his balance and fell to the ground.

"These lines..."

Saito was stunned.

He could perfectly imagine the thoughts of everyone present just by drawing.

The audience cheered.

He could even hear the sound of basketball shoes rubbing against the floor.

Rukawa received the pass and leaped like the wind to make a layup. He did not let Sakuragi down; the ball went in.

Shohoku's score has finally surpassed Sannoh's!

Rukawa Kaede and Sakuragi Hanamichi were breathing heavily. In the absence of lines or narration, Saito Takuya seemed to be in a silent space, where only their rapid heartbeats could be heard.

Then came the shock of the entire audience, Haruko Akagi's tears of joy, the exhilaration of the Shohoku basketball team, and the despair and bewilderment of Sannoh Industrial.

It was clearly shown in the picture.

Saito flipped through the Jump app rapidly, his eyes darting around.

He didn't want to miss any detail, yet he was eager to see the next scene; he was in a state of excitement and anxiety.

He didn't end the state until he turned to the last page of this chapter.

"Even though there are no lines, I still got more involved. This kind of comic is really scary."

This chapter of "Slam Dunk" has no dialogue and no onomatopoeia, making the original manuscript appear exceptionally clean.

This allows Saito to focus more intently on the details of the movements and the characters' expressions.

"It is precisely because of his unparalleled confidence that Mr. Tori Akino dared to draw like this."

This also tests the ability of cinematic language; without the aid of narration, the reader can clearly see every step of the character's movement.

How did Sakuragi Hanamichi manage to catch the ball? How did he pass it to Rukawa Kaede? And how did Rukawa Kaede make the layup?

Feedback from the audience, feedback from the team members, and feedback from Sannoh.

The countless details allow readers to form a coherent picture in their minds, even if they only glance at them briefly.

"This is already art, the art of Japanese manga."

Saito read it twice more, feeling incredibly excited. He had much to learn from this chapter.

……

Nobuhiko Horie stared in shock as he watched the dialogue-free version of "Slam Dunk".

"Was this drawn by Tori Akino?"

This episode of Slam Dunk confirms Nobuhiko Horie's belief.