Hanamichi Sakuragi

Hanamichi Sakuragi, also known as The Basketball Genius and The Rebound King, is the main protagonist from the Slam Dunk series.
== Charactah Account ==
Hanamichi serves as Shohoku's power forward. At the beginning of the series, Sakuragi is a slacker, good for nothing other than fighting. He is the leader of the feared "Sakuragi's Gang", which consists of his four friends Mito, Noma, Ohkusu and Takamiya. After being rejected fifty times by girls, Sakuragi meets and falls in love with Haruko Akagi, a basketball fangirl. This and Haruko's encouragement lead him to join the Shohoku basketball team.
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.
== Appearance ==
=== Anime ===
* Slam Dunk
* Slam Dunk (Movie)
* Slam Dunk: National Domination! Sakuragi Hanamichi
* Slam Dunk: Roar Basketman's Soul! Hanamichi and Rukawa's Burning Summer
* Slam Dunk: Shouhoku's Greatest Danger! Sakuragi Hanamichi
=== Manga ===
* Slam Dunk
=== Video Games ===
* From TV Animation - Slam Dunk 2: IH Yosen Kanzenban!!
* From TV Animation - Slam Dunk SD Heat Up!!
* From TV Animation - Slam Dunk: Gakeppuchi no Kesshou League
* From TV Animation - Slam Dunk: I Love Basketball
* From TV Animation - Slam Dunk: Kyougou Makkou Taiketsu!
* From TV Animation - Slam Dunk: Yonkyou Gekitotsu!!
* Jump Ultimate Stars
== Trivia ==
* Sakuragi is considered to the main member of troublemakers, along with Kaede Rukawa, Ryota Miyagi and Mitsui, due to his violent and brute strength in his fighting history.
* Sakuragi could've broken 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 has an estimated running vertical leap of 140cm (55.3").
* 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 of Sannoh, 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'. Sakuragi, however, is a far better rim protector and shot blocker, to the point that he can block dunks and hide behind Takenori Akagi and perform a second-wave block. He also has Michael Jordan's ability to poke jump shots away for blocks and steals. Like Rodman, Sakuragi is a poor free throw shooter, however, Rodman shoots poorly to maintain a high paced match, but can still hit clutch free throws. Sakuragi's free throws were so bad that he had to learn to shoot underhanded like Rick Barry to improve his percentages. Long term, however, his back issues could become similar to Larry Bird due to their hustle play playstyle. As a young player, Larry Bird famously brushed off advice from Artis Gilmore, a Bulls center in the 80's, to take better care of his body.
* While Rodman understood the triangle offense more readily than Jordan, Sakuragi is taught by Akagi about the triangular spots under the basket for rebounds because more shots come off for short rebounds at the time.
* 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. Rodman's father, a military man, walked out on him early in his life early, which made him very quiet and reserved. His decision to adopt a more falmboyant persona is a way to break his shyness, but it hides his deep-seated adandonment issues because he had drug issues after Chuck Daly (Detroit Pistons Coach) and the Bulls (coached by Phil Jackson) disintegrated in 1999. Also: Rodman was later inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame on April 1, 2011, also on Sakuragi's birthday.
* Before Rodman turned pro, he was actually a decent scorer and a good shooter, Sakuragi is not a shooter, but he has bigger hands and greater grip strength, as proven by Sendoh's hand hurting after their parting handshake.
* Before playing basketball, another interest of Sakuragi besides fighting was Pachinko, a pinball game where you can exchange money for tokens to play on the machine, then use the extra tokens to exchange for a gift, and that gift can be sold elsewhere for money. The indirect exchange of money made Pachinko borderline legal as gambling was illegal in Japan.
* While Michael Jordan had superhuman eyesight (he once read a baseball box score from a 27" TV from 50 feet away), Sakuragi has excellent hearing, albeit very selective.
* 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 became a Jordan Sneakerhead from Chieko of Chieko Sports store. His first pair that he bought for only 30 yen was white Air Jordan VI with red streaks. This was the same pair Michael Jordan wore in 1991 en route to his, and the Bulls' first championship.
* 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 but it turns out to be false.
* Sakuragi is known to never wear socks.
* Sakuragi and his friends' favorite restaurant was Denny's (stylized as Danny's for anti-product-placement measures), a 24/7 diner.
== Gallery ==
File:Hanamichi Sakuragi Render 01.png
File:Hanamichi Sakuragi Render 02.png
File:Hanamichi Sakuragi 01.png
File:Hanamichi Sakuragi 02.png
File:Hanamichi Sakuragi 03.png
File:Hanamichi Sakuragi 04.png
File:Hanamichi Sakuragi 05.png
== External Links ==
* Hanamichi Sakuragi at Slam Dunk Wiki
Category:Characters
Category:Males
Category:Slam Dunk