Toei Animation has announced that they will release all 101 episodes of Slam Dunk anime for free on their YouTube channel, Toei Animation Museum Channel, from Aug 10 to Nov 19 in Japan.

One episode will be released everyday and each episodes will be available for a period of two weeks.

Slam Dunk anime was directed by Nobutaka Nishizawa. It was first broadcast on TV Asahi from Oct 16, 1993 to March 23, 1996. The anime followed the manga storyline, but left out the National Tournament games. It enjoyed much popularity particularly in Japan, several other Asian countries and Europe.

The free watching campaign will conclude two weeks before Slam Dunk movie hit the big screen in Japan.

The First Slam Dunk feature film will release in Japan on Dec 3, 2022. The movie will be directed and scripted by mangaka Takahiko Inoue himself at Toei Animation.

Slam Dunk (stylized as SLAM DUNK) is a Japanese sports manga series written and illustrated by Takehiko Inoue. It tells the story of a basketball team from Shōhoku High School in the Shōnan area of Japan. It was serialized in Shueisha’s shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from October 1990 to June 1996, with the chapters collected into 31 tankōbon volumes.

Slam Dunk has 170 million copies in circulation, making it the seventh best-selling manga series in history. In 1994, it received the 40th Shogakukan Manga Award for the shōnen category.

In 2010, Inoue received special commendations from the Japan Basketball Association for helping popularize basketball in Japan.

VIZ Media describes the series as:

Winning isn’t everything in the game of basketball, but who wants to come in second? It takes dedication and discipline to be the best, and the Shohoku High hoops team wants to be just that. They have one last year to make their captain’s dream of reaching the finals come true—will they do it? Hanamichi Sakuragi’s got no game with girls—none at all! It doesn’t help that he’s known for throwing down at a moment’s notice and always coming out on top. A hopeless bruiser, he’s been rejected by 50 girls in a row! All that changes when he meets the girl of his dreams, Haruko, and she’s actually not afraid of him! When she introduces him to the game of basketball, his life is changed forever…

Source: Comic Natalie

(c) Takehiko Inoue, IT Planning, Toei Animation