Why is THE FIRST SLAM DUNK told through Ryota Miyagi?

Anyone expecting the 2022 film to simply animate the manga's ending got a surprise in the first minutes. THE FIRST SLAM DUNK retells Shohoku's game against Sannoh, the manga's final match, but it rebuilds the film around Ryota Miyagi, the 168-centimeter point guard, cutting between the game and his childhood in Okinawa, his older brother Sota, and the loss that shaped his family.

Miyagi was the right instrument for three reasons. He was the starter the manga revealed least, so new material could be added without contradicting twenty six years of reading. His position runs the offense, so the camera can live at his eye level, close to the floor, where Inoue's 3DCG animation makes the game fast and physical. And his story is about playing in a dead brother's shadow, which turns a sports climax into a grief story without stopping the match.

The one-shot Piercing, Inoue's short manga about the young Miyagi and his earrings, shows the character had been on the author's mind for years. The film is less an adaptation than a completion: the last starter finally gets his interior life, a quarter century later.