Japanese manga artist Takehiko Inoue, best known for the basketball title Slam Dunk, said on Thursday (Jan 7) that the comic series will be made into a movie.

Inoue, 53, made the announcement via a short video on Twitter with the hashtag #slamdunkmovie.

There were no further details on whether it will be an animated or live-action movie, or its date of release.

The news has excited fans of the comic series, with some saying that it has made their day as the manga reminded them of their younger days.

Inoue's tweet has received more than 375,000 likes and has been retweeted more than 171,000 times as of Friday.

The announcement came on the heels of animated film Demon Slayer, which was first published as a manga comic in 2016, becoming Japan's top-grossing movie in December.

Slam Dunk was serialised in manga magazine Weekly Shonen Jump from October 1990 to June 1996.

It tells the story of a high school basketball team, centring on main protagonist Hanamichi Sakuragi. He joined the team to impress a girl even though he was a novice, but he excels in the sport eventually.

Slam Dunk has sold more than 121 million copies in Japan alone, making it one of the best-selling manga series of all time.

The manga was adapted into an anime television series which aired on TV Asahi from October 1993 to March 1996, gaining popularity in both Japan and several other countries in Asia.

There were four animated movies made in 1994 and 1995, and several video games were spun off from the series.