Slam Dunk makes me teary

To be fair to Harry Pottter fans, who are really no worse than Mike Patton Fans except that the subject they are fans of is less intrinsically cool and far far more popular, when I am in borders it is usually a brief perusal of the Historical Autobiography section, or a business book (so lng as you avoid Donald Trump, books with purple on the cover and anything on real estate you can find some real good reading there) and more often than not purchase something, then I head to the graphic novels. I used to read all the batman ones, then exhausted almost all of the western comic book universe without any significant updates and I maintain, DC, Marvel, Dark horse and Image still produce a greater diversity of artists in comics and in general more variety of styles. Possibly for a ratio of published works versus no of artists a much more frequent innovater of comics than Japan.
But Japan has such profound cultural respect for the genre, the medium. Formulaic though the drawing styles may be, the story telling is on another level. I really hope to produce some kind of hybrid one day, if I ever get my first fucking zine done.
I had a beautiful journey though, for a short time Vagabond the manga serielisation of the life of Musashi Miyamoto was published in the western comic book format. That's where I got into it, but rather than buying the comic I just bought Musashi's book, the book of Five Rings.
Years later I discovered Borders stocked Graphic Novels with the bonus of not wrapping them in shrinkwrap so as to prevent anyone from reading them. This surprisingly lead to me buying far more graphic novels of batman than I ever did at stores that did shrinkwrap them.
But Vagabond never/seldom appeared on borders shelves. One day though I picked up 'Slam Dunk' just to settle my curiosity as to why anyone would buy a manga about a sport, not people struggling with the responsibilities of being a superhero, gradually worn down by years of trauma tacking a toll on their fragile psyche's. just a fucking sport, just a fucking game.
I recognised instantly the main character as being virtually identical to Musashi in Vagabond and realised it was by the same author/artist. Similar to the first time I saw Misaki, reading Slam Dunk I knew I was seeing something, my mind nor eyes could just not discern what it was exactly that I was seeing.
And then this small comic book, singlehandedly reignited a love afair, infact if anything did that 'love is blind' shit where it pointed to something I'd always had but never appreciated, never gave in to the depths of my love: basketball.
My love of the game. Slam dunk became the first ever manga I was determined to own in entirety so my children could read it when they were young.
I read most of the series before I bought it. But ended up buying it because I got so emotionally involved in the game that I would be moved almost to the point of tears in a store. Like recieving really bad news in an inconvenient place, to find yourself ambushed emotionally amidst heartless consumers.
I started buying it to read alone in the comfort of my room. I bought each successive book in increasing frequency, then tonight, I have no more so I thought it prudent to write about it here.
I guess I've got to peg that up to the dream list, write a manga that moves people. I've already decided I'll invest in the more expensive Vagabond series when I can, although it may take some years before it is finished.
It probably tells the Book of Five Rings more visually than I can even imagine though and borrows stylistically from zen ink paintings which is bordering on lethal innovation for a manga artist.