I have returned to the world of red pompadours, goofy antics, cheesy speeches, and high schoolers that are in no way, shape, or form drawn like actual high schoolers. It's been a while since the last review; I was admittedly reeling from my expectations clashing with what the show did. A lot of modern-day sports anime have spoiled my expectations. Considering it took a while to get an actual basketball game in the series (and even then, it was a relatively low-stakes match), I was worried the series would be boring. Fortunately, it won me over with its goofy charm, eccentric characters, and cheesy atmosphere.

This batch of episodes carries on what I liked from the previous season and gave me exactly what I wanted when I first started the show. The first twenty-four episodes established our main cast of characters, their dynamic, and the baggage they carry with them off the court. Now that we have the whole team together, it's time to see how this group of stressed-out high schoolers fare on the court. Here, we finally get an effective balance between the exciting sports angle of the series and Slam Dunk's coming-of-age story. Almost all of these goofy teenagers want to prove themselves. Basketball is just as much an outlet for them to prove themselves as it is a sport they genuinely enjoy, so when one of those elements gets challenged, it affects the other.

Take Mitsui, who was so desperate to prove himself that he almost ruined his ability to play basketball altogether. After feeling lost, he ended up joining a delinquent gang but managed to rediscover his passion for the game, rotating him back into the main cast. However, just because he manages to find himself doesn't mean that he's not still dealing with the consequences of his actions, which can still affect everybody on the basketball court. His story alone solidifies my love for the show. Nothing feels forced or gimmicky here, especially when you remember that these are all just high school kids trying to find their way.

Whether it's Rukawa realizing that he can't win games all on his own or Akagi doing his best to act as a good leader to the rest of his team, I love these goofballs and want to see them succeed. If you were like me and disappointed by the lack of basketball—the number of actual games we see throughout this next batch of episodes effectively triples. I give the show credit because it does something unique, even for modern sports anime. While there is much more focus on the games, the staff knew how to keep them engaging with faster pacing. Most games only last a handful of episodes, and much of what we see on the court is skimmed over. This helped establish some of the bigger games later in the season when they got more attention than the earlier national qualifiers' rounds.

While the pacing of the games is a marked improvement, there are remaining issues with the show's overall pacing. I'll reserve final judgment until I finish the show, but certain things dragged on much longer than needed. Some flashbacks can last three episodes when the show could've told that story in half the time, and while I like a lot of the off-the-court gags, some episodes feel like filler. This could also be attributed to some running gags that didn't age well or didn't feel that funny after a certain point, like Mitsui being popular with women or Sakuragi going on about how much of a genius he is despite being arguably the most inexperienced player on the team. None of it is terrible except for some dated insults that made me roll my eyes. It's a bit too long, which is a shame because it's exciting when we finally get the payoff to specific setups.

The best example of this is Sakuragi's character arc. Initially, he's like a joke of a protagonist in a sports anime. He doesn't even like basketball for a significant chunk of this series, and he's only in it to impress a girl who is not romantically interested in him. That's fine in certain situations, especially since he is established to be a hard worker who can see through people's façades. The problem is that it's underwhelming when the story establishes many other driven and passionate characters, and then we cut back to Sakuragi. However, that frustration pays off when he finally begins to question whether or not he is the genius he claims to be. He never loses that confident demeanor, but he is still humble. When we got to that epic game between Shohoku and Kainan, I was cheering at the screen despite the occasional awkwardness of the Toei subtitles.

Finally, when it comes to the animation and audio quality, there is a significant improvement across the board. While nothing is technically impressive, given its episode length, the series finally has a better sense of its resources. There's less focus on fancy animation and more on framing. The most animation fluidity is shown during the more comedic moments. There's the soundtrack, which feels ripped right out of a coming-of-age movie from the '90s, and it fits incredibly well, accompanied by sick guitar riffs that get to flex their muscles during the basketball games. It's cheesy yet incredibly addictive, and that's the best way to describe my experience with Slam Dunk.

While some aspects, like its pacing and some of its humor, haven't aged well, the show is spearheading its main appeal. The growing pains that come with realizing that the world doesn't revolve around you and that sometimes you need to work with what you're given to accomplish your dreams is a great message that is still relevant today. I love this cast of characters and their dynamic with each other, and Sakuragi's character arc helped win me over despite the rather drawn-out setup for it. Now the question is, can it stick the landing with its finale?