Hanamichi Sakuragi

The manga and anime series Slam Dunk features a cast of fictional characters created by Takehiko Inoue. The series takes place in Japan, with the main characters being high school basketball players from Kanagawa Prefecture.

It tells the story of Hanamichi Sakuragi, a teenager who falls in love with Haruko Akagi after being rejected by 50 other girls. However, as Haruko is in love with Kaede Rukawa, a popular and talented basketball player, Sakuragi decides to join the Shohoku High School basketball team to surpass Rukawa and make Haruko fall in love with him. As he starts learning how to play basketball, Sakuragi starts liking the sport and resolves to become the best player. On the team, Sakuragi meets Haruko's older brother, Takenori Akagi, who is also Shohoku's captain, and two other players with violent pasts that caused them to leave the sport, Ryota Miyagi and Hisashi Mitsui. Together these five players help make Shohoku one of the best high school teams in Japan.

Inoue became inspired to make Slam Dunk as he had liked basketball since high school. With the series, Inoue wants to demonstrate the feelings of an athlete such as their thoughts when they win, lose or improve at their sport. As part of the character development, Inoue wants the readers to experience achievements as well as love for the sport. Inoue's own basketball experience also influenced the story: when he was younger he started playing basketball to be popular with girls, but later became obsessed with the sport. This is mirrored in the character of Hanamichi Sakuragi, who starts playing basketball to impress the girl he likes.

Shohoku High School (湘北高等学校, Shōhoku Kōtō Gakkō^?) has long been regarded as an underdog and a one-man team solely dependent on team captain Takenori Akagi, with no competition success whatsoever even at the prefectural level for two years running. It is not until Akagi's third and final year in the team that things begin to turn around for Shohoku, and they start to become a team to be reckoned with. They are the only non-seeded team to make it to the final four of the Kanagawa Inter-high Tournament, their sole loss being against eventual prefecture champion Kainan. Despite being the runner-up representative for Kanagawa, they are ranked as a C-class team and placed into a tough tournament bracket during the National Championship, facing Toyotama and the reigning champion Sannoh. Shohoku favors a run and gun style of play and have a wide breadth of offensive capabilities. However, their major weakness is their weak bench, and as a result must rely completely on their starting lineup.

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