Ryuta Koike and the Making The First Slam Dunk
by Earl Gertwagen,ANN's coverage of Anime Expo 2023 sponsored by Yen Press!
GKIDS will release the film in theaters in the United States and Canada this summer, but some of the production staff were in attendance at the show to witness the film's unveiling to eager Anime Expo attendees. Among them is music producer Ryūta Koike, who made the music for this new entry in the Slam Dunk series and worked closely with the staff as associate producer to meet not just the expectations of long-time fans but of the creator of the series itself.
Anime News Network had the opportunity to ask Mr. Koike about his work on the film.
Anime News Network: Slam Dunk has had an anime TV series and multiple movies. How important was it for you to make sure the music in The First Slam Dunk felt new and fresh for new audiences but still familiar and nostalgic for viewers who already know and love Slam Dunk?
Ryūta Koike: Of course, the director and I both wanted to value the fans from the 1990s. For the music, we just happened to be able to find the right music after we focused on selecting the most fitting music.
What were some of the challenges you faced in producing the music for The First Slam Dunk?
KOIKE: In a basketball setting, there's a lot of action while a game is taking place, and there are lots of moments where the tempo of a scene changes very quickly. A game will suddenly go into slow motion or speed up really fast. Basically, it's a lot of quick cuts. So what we did instead was create the music first and then get it to match up during editing, not creating the film score strictly according to the visuals
Did this make it more challenging than other types of anime?
KOIKE: Well, for instance, today, you see a lot of anime with theme songs that don't really have much to do with the content or the actual story. I've always been curious to hear how people outside of Japan receive theme songs because a lot of them are made as commercials or for marketing purposes. It's not always the case, but it's because they want to market it well, so they try to make the theme song more marketable.
For The First Slam Dunk, we wanted everything to be in sync – the tone and the mood and everything – so I really focused on making sure the music itself didn't end up seeming disconnected from the core of the film.
KOIKE: While I did feel some degree of pressure from fans' expectations, what I felt more strongly, and what the production staff all shared, was a sense of pressure around what the director, Mr. Inoue would think about things since he was the creator of the original manga. We had this mantra of “let's surpass the original,” so the pressure of taking the music and going, “OK, how do I take this past 100%?” was far greater for me.
Is there a particular scene or sequence that you felt was a triumph, one that came together perfectly despite how hard it was to get right?
KOIKE: Personally? The opening sequence, I'd say, came together perfectly, just how the director would've wanted it to turn out.
When the director sat down with us at the very first orientation as production on the film got started, he reminded everyone that it had been 26 years since Slam Dunk had been adapted into an anime. He made sure we all understood that the most important thing for the opening was for audiences to think, “Wow, these characters have been dormant for 26 years, and they just started moving again!” So I did the opening trying to evoke those feelings as much as possible.
Speaking of the characters moving, I know The First Slam Dunk uses cutting-edge animation techniques. How did that affect how you produced the music?
KOIKE: This is probably common in America, but in Japan, for producing music based on the Dolby Atmos format, I think this film may be a first. We created the Dolby Atmos first, then created 2-channel and 5.1-channel formats, so I think that was something new in Japan.
Something that I think is unique to this film is that the original creator of the manga directed it, and he would paint over that CGI himself, so even though the visuals are CGI, there's this analog element on top of it all. No matter how new the animation technique was, the director aimed to bring the characters alive, so there was the need to add the analog and hands-on process, including retouching by the director himself.
Did that affect how you worked at all? Or did that not really affect the music production?
KOIKE: Because the visuals were already so amazing, I didn't want to interfere with what was happening on screen. And also, the policy to not have the music speak for the visual was already stated from the start. It needed to be something complimentary.
What sort of things influenced the music for The First Slam Dunk? Musical artists, genres, anime or film scores, etc. Was there anything like "I want it to be like THIS" or "I don't want it to be like THAT"?
KOIKE: What we really tried to avoid was choosing music based on current trends or what would be the most marketable. I really didn't want to use anything trendy just to chase popularity.
The reality of creative work means you sometimes have to make compromises. Were you able to achieve everything you wanted for the film?
KOIKE: When we completed the film, I felt like everyone had done their best, and there was nothing I personally could have done better. But maybe now that it's been several hundred days, maybe when I or the rest of the staff watch it, we might think, "What if we could've done this or that?"
Slam Dunk has been around since the 1990s. Is there anything about the music from that era that you wanted to have represented in the film?
KOIKE: I think there was some degree of influence, though I wouldn't say it was so direct. For instance, the director Mr. Inoue is about 56 now, so his interests are sort of baked into his own DNA because he grew up in that era of music. So I personally wasn't keeping a specific era in mind when I was working on it, but we can't really escape having some of those interests emerging in the work we do.
Are there any easter eggs or hidden musical nods you think audiences should look out for while watching The First Slam Dunk?
KOIKE: There are some places I would want audiences to listen closely to, but I feel like saying which ones might cause them to watch the film in a different way. So I'll just say: there's some hidden stuff, so please look for it!
Are there other properties you're dying to work on?
KOIKE: Well, I had the role of music producer on The First Slam Dunk, but I have a background in anime production, so I'm looking forward to the next challenge I can take on in that role again.
I used to work for Universal Music for 15 years, so I'm an experienced music producer. But for The First Slam Dunk, I actually had double duty, as associate producer and also as music producer. Music production is usually more for post-production, but because I was taking the role of associate producer as well, I was able to be involved with the project for a long time, so that was a huge benefit.
How did that benefit you? Did you have moments in your role as associate producer you're thinking, "OK, later, when I'm doing the music, I'll know exactly what to do!"?
KOIKE: Yeah, typically during production on an anime, the director will casually drop suggestions or thoughts, like "and then the music could come in here," or "I want to evoke this emotion here," or "I want [the audience] to jump out of their seat here." It might not be something he'd request directly, but there'd be these comments about the feeling he's aiming for. Then on the storyboards, there would be these written-out sound effects like "da da da da," like the ones you see in manga.
So some of those little bits of info wouldn't necessarily get conveyed to whoever was doing the music, but since I was filling both roles, all of the notes I took about all of these things helped inform the music.
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history