Hanamichi Sakuragi

Hanamichi Sakuragi is the main protagonist from the Slam Dunk anime and manga.

Hanamichi was a slacker, good for nothing but fighting delinquent, and leader of the feared "Sakuragi Legion" (Hanamichi's Army in the English Dub), consisting of his four friends Mito, Noma, Ohkusu and Takamiya.

Sakuragi was reluctant to join the team at first because he had no previous background in any sports and thought that basketball was game for kids and losers. Sakuragi's quest for love is nothing but humiliating. He is always trying to ask girls out, but is rejected constantly, the fiftieth rejection occurring at the start of the series. He then met Haruko Akagi, a friendly basketball fangirl, whom he fell in love with, immediately.

Haruko's encouragement led Sakuragi to join the Shohoku basketball team. Despite his hot temper, he proves to be a natural athlete with great potential, even though he only joins the team in order to impress Haruko. However, as a complete beginner, he is not able to keep up with the rest of the team at first, despite his physical attributes (great height, athleticism, stamina, speed and leaping ability). With just four months, he became a fully realized basketball player and is considered a player that Shohoku cannot afford to lose.

Sakuragi later realizes that his love for the sports equals his crush on Haruko. He finds a bitter rival in Kaede Rukawa, who is also on the basketball team. Haruko's love for Rukawa makes Sakuragi jealous, resulting in mocking or infighting. Ironically, Rukawa doesn't acknowledge Haruko's crush on him.

Appearance
In his initial appearance, Sakuragi had short, distinctive, pompadour styled red hair with fringes at the center of his forehead, and brown eyes. After his personal mock fight with Rukawa, he shaved his hair semi-bald to remember his mistake in Shohoku's match against Kainan.

He wears a dark blue standard Shohoku winter school uniform from his initial appearance until their match against Shoyo. Later, he wears a white short sleeve loose shirt until he swaps to a white short sleeve openly loose button shirt.

During basketball training, Sakuragi wears a blue tank top, tucked into his white shorts, and his white running shoes with two blue linings. He later wears the Nike Air Jordan Basketball shoes after his running shoes are destroyed in the end of the practice match against Ryonan. Later, the color of his tank top changed to black. His basketball jersey uniform is red and black and alternately red and white.

When he was at Wako Junior High School, Sakuragi's uniform was olive green, but in later flashbacks when he fought other delinquents from other schools, his uniform was purple.

Personality
Throughout the manga, he is very short-tempered, boisterous, arrogant, aggressive, rude, and immature. He begins regarding himself as a "genius" even though he has not learned any skills. He also prided himself as the "Rebound King" when his rebounding ability had just started to surface, which was accepted and considered as valid. His most recognizable trait is his red hair, which he shaves as reparation for an error that led to a loss in the interhigh tournament against Kainan.

Despite his violent nature and rude personality, Sakuragi has a soft spot for girls and is extremely vulnerable and sensitive to them. This was seen when he was unable to defend himself from Rukawa fan girls' provocations and insults. While talking with girls, Sakuragi always speaks in a formal and polite way. He also uses honorifics, as he always addresses Haruko as "Haruko-san", which is a way to address a person of higher status.

He is also a simple-minded and naive person. After their loss in the practice match against Ryonan, he felt a bit depressed. However, as soon as Haruko began to compliment him for his hard efforts in the match, he immediately returned to his senses. Another time, when Miyagi explained fakes in basketball, he showed amazement and described it as terrifying for deceiving opponents. His naivety and simple judgement earned him the nickname of "Simpleton King".

He is not the type to accept losses. His persistence started to get into Fukuda when he was totally outplayed at the first half of their game, though it was settled during the practice match against the combined team of Shoyoand Ryonan.

Sakuragi has a habit of making fun of other players by giving nicknames. He calls Akagi "Gorilla" or "Gori" (a nickname that catches on, much to Akagi's irritation), Uozumi "Boss monkey", Kiyota "Wild monkey", Maki "Uncle" or "Senior", Masahiro "Totem pole", Masashi Kawata "Bald Gori", Mikio Kawata "Meatball", Miyamasu "Alien" and Fujima "substitute" or "bench warmer". Despite this, the only one doing the same thing to Sakuragi is Kiyota who calls him "red haired monkey". The only one who was not given a nickname by him is Kaede Rukawa whom he considers his rival in basketball and love. However, he does sometimes calls him a "fox" or "sleeping fox" due to his sleepy nature.

In spite of the setbacks he has had to face, Sakuragi displays a great deal of tenacity and determination that carry him through and helps compensate for his failings, both on and off the court. He also knows how to carry a will of a teammate. These was shown when he told Kogure of postponing his retirement for a while because of him, who is a genius.

As a basketball player, he became a person with a great determination and resolve. Sakuragi began to gain respect from the audience during his dunk against Shoyo, and during the match against Sannoh, when he saved the ball from going out of bounds and injured his back, making the audience cheer for Shohoku, managing to win everyone's heart with his determination and resolve. His determination to keep playing despite the back injury was the main factor for Shohoku's victory against Sannoh.

Although his love for Haruko and rivalry with Rukawa are the main driving forces motivating him to succeed in basketball, his injury during the Sannoh match made him realize that he has actually come to love basketball, leading him to give his all for the team and bring them victory.

Abilities
At first, he can only do dunks and lay-ups but under Akagi's training, his rebounding prowess became the main support for the team, which earned him another nickname now known throughout all of the Kanagawa prefecture because of this, "The king of Rebounds". Then with Coach Anzai's training, he is able to finish 20,000 shots in a week to further improve his shooting range. Despite this, Mito notes that standing at 45 degrees to the right gives Sakuragi higher success rate at shooting jump shots.

Jumping Power and Rebounding
As seen and witnessed by Haruko and Hikoichi, the skills Sakuragi really excels at is his jumping, speed and power. Masashi Kawata of Sannoh notes that he has never seen a person with that kind of leg power. The height of his jump is incredibly high as noted by Coach Takato of Kainan High, as he was able to jump back to block Sawakita's dunk attempt and stop the alley-oop to Masashi, despite falling to the floor. His jumping ability makes him a formidable rebounder under the tutelage of Akagi. With this, he is more than enough to outrebound strong centers such as Toru Hanagata, Jun Uozomi and Masahiro Nobe of Sannoh. Coach Domoto was even forced to put Masashi Kawata into him just to stop him from rebounding. Despite the obstacle put upon him, he is still able to hold on to his rebounding against the big men of Sannoh, which became as the starting key factor that Shohoku made a comeback victory.

Strength/Power
He gained his abnormal strength from his fights as a delinquent and some power training that hardened him before playing basketball. Akagi notes that Sakuragi is much stronger than Jun Uozumi of Ryonan despite being smaller. This was shown when he easily threw Koshino Hiroaki of Ryonan in their practice game, when the latter attempted to take the ball from him. He is also noted for being strong as Akagi says that in a battle of strength, no one can beat him. When he is and his gang came to Mitsui's rescue (though he never fought) against Ryu's gang, he was able to stretch down the pipe held by one of Ryu's men. He is able to hold his own against Mikio Kawatawho weighs 130 kg.

Speed and Stamina
Beside his jumping power and strength, he is also fast as he can catch up to defend, combined with his large amount of stamina. These were tested when Totsuka Tetsuya of Ryokufu High School challenged him in a battle of speed. While he managed to outrun Sakuragi in the 1st half, he tires out first when Sakuragi continously ran faster in the 2nd half. Even Sendoh of Ryonan, considers Sakuragi's endless stamina as a huge threat, noticing that despite everyone nearing their limit in the second half, Sakuragi acts as if the match has barely started showing no sign of tiredness.

Weakness
Sakuragi has difficulty facing off against a weak opponent as he is unable to show his true skills and abilities. Mito notices this when Yoshinori Miyamasu of Kainan subs in as Sakuragi starts to miss shots. Another weakness of Sakuragi for the majority of the series is that his shooting presence was not highly accurate which changed just before the Nationals. He is also a weak on-ball defender and can easily fall for fakes, however, his athleticism somehow makes it up for it. His arrogance and daydreaming often causes the ball to hit his face while in a game, leaving him unaware of a pass. This is also the main reason he doesn't succeed in his plots and always end up being an embarrassment for the team.

Trivia

 * He is considered to the main member of troublemakers, along with Rukawa, Miyagi and Mitsui, due to his violent, brute strength in his fighting history.
 * He could've broke the High School record in number of rebounds against Tsukubu High School if not called for a charging foul due to his physical contact with Koichirou Rango, which knocked the latter down the floor.
 * Sakuragi is based on NBA player Dennis "The Worm" Rodman because of his rebounding and his dyed hair (it was red at one point). They both share the same jersey number. Rodman wore number 10 during his time with the Detroit Pistons and later on, the San Antonio Spurs. Rodman was a fierce defender while Sakuragi is somewhat a weak on-ball defender as he is easily thrown off with a feint. He was better at shooting and jumped higher than Rodman. The rebounding style of Rodman was different from that of Sakuragi’s who rebounded with his jumping ability, whereas Rodman get the rebounds using his physical mass or chipping the ball until he gets it. However, when he was matched up against Masahiro Nobe ofSannoh, he utilized his jumping power combined with chipping the ball and totally outrebounds the latter. The bigmen of Sannoh got a hard time rebounding because of him. Coach Anzai pointed this as his 'true ability'.
 * There were many coincidences during Rodman’s career that paralleled Sakuragi’s journey through basketball. The Chicago Bulls were the counterparts of the Shohoku team, a clear reference since the two teams jerseys were completely identical. Rodman did play for the Bulls, but interestingly only began in 1996, which was the year “Slam Dunk” ended in. There was also an incident in the same year where Rodman headbutted referee Ted Bernhardt; a recurring gag throughout the series was Sakuragi’s deadly headbutt, used most often on his own gang or on his enemies whenever he's infuriated. Their personality changes were completely opposite. While Sakuragi has learned to control his temper on basketball as the series progresses, that was not the case for Rodman. Rodman changed completely into a bad boy that often get into on-court fights, always picking up technical fouls and gets ejected. His dyed hair and tattoos shows the complete change in his personality.
 * Sakuragi's capabilities and drive to win have contradicted the predictions of Coach Taoka of Ryonan and Coach Domoto of Sannoh, which led to their teams' losses. Taoka disregarded him as a threat for he is just a mere beginner in basketball and considers him as a major weakness for Shohoku. Coach Domoto, on the other hand, disregarded him because he was hurting his back and would not be able to do more, which is supposedly a 5 on 4 situation in their favor. It is also because Domoto wanted to prevent Coach Anzai from having a timeout, which a substitution will surely be done.
 * Sakuragi has similarities with Kuroko no Basuke's Taiga Kagami. Both are red-haired, power forwards, jump high and wear the same jersey #10. But Kagami is more skillful than Sakuragi as he can shoot anywhere and even shoot 3-pointers. Kagami also has signature skills due to the manga's concept, as every player has their very own signature skills. But Sakuragi has a stronger physique and stamina than Kagami.
 * Sakuragi's confession to Haruko during the match against Sannoh, is considered as a double confession. "I love it very much.", which refers to his love for basketball. "This time i'm not lying", in which he indirectly reveals his love for her since the first reason he started playing basketball was his affection for her.
 * It is presumed that after the game against Sannoh, Coach Anzai didn't let him play against because of his injury in the back. Because of his absence, Shohoku was easily trashed by Aiwa.
 * Former PBA basketball player, Marc Pingris is the Filipino version of Hanamichi Sakuragi when he plays basketball in every PBA seasons and cups as well as his funny antics. In the upcoming 2018 remake version of the anime, he will go on to voice Sakuragi in the ABS-CBN dub.
 * His personality is almost similiar to Naruto Uzumaki of the Naruto series.