The Japanese manga 日本漫画 series Slam Dunk was written and illustrated by Takehiko Inoue 井上雄彦.[1] The series tells the story of a teenager named Hanamichi Sakuragi 樱木花道 who becomes a basketball player from the Shohoku High School 湘北高中 basketball team in order to make Haruko Akagi 赤木晴子, a girl he likes, fall in love with him. However, as he learns more about basketball and plays several games, he starts liking the sport.

Slam Dunk  is a Japanese sports manga series written and illustrated by Takehiko Inoue. It was serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from October 1990 to June 1996, with the chapters collected into 31 tankōbon volumes. It tells the story of a basketball team from Shōhoku High School in the Shōnan area of Japan.

The manga was adapted into an anime television series by Toei Animation which aired from October 1993 to March 1996 and has been broadcast worldwide, enjoying much popularity particularly in Japan, several other Asian countries and Europe.

Slam Dunk has 170 million copies in circulation, making it the seventh best-selling manga series in history. In 1994, it received the 40th Shogakukan Manga Award for the shōnen category. In 2010, Inoue received special commendations from the Japan Basketball Association for helping popularize basketball in Japan.

Hanamichi Sakuragi 樱木花道

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

Hanamichi serves as Shohoku's power forward 大前锋. At the beginning of the series, Sakuragi is a slacker 懒虫, 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 赤木晴子, a basketball fangirl. This and Haruko's encouragement lead him to join the Shohoku basketball team.

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 流川楓, 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 背心, 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 抢篮板球之王" when his rebounding ability had just started to surface, which was accepted and considered as valid. His most recognizable trait is his red hair 他最明显的特征是他的红头发, 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 敬语, 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傻瓜王".

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 大猩猩" 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  流川枫 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  扣篮，灌篮 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. 虽然他对晴子的爱和与流川枫的竞争是他在篮球事业上取得成功的主要动力，但在与山能的比赛中受伤让他意识到自己实际上已经爱上了篮球，并为球队付出了一切，为球队带来了胜利。

Abilities

At first, he can only do dunks and lay-ups 单手上篮 but under Akagi's training, his rebounding  抢篮板球 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 反败为胜.

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 耐力，持久力，毅力

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 球衣号码. 

樱木花道原型：丹尼斯·罗德曼（Dennis Rodman），1961年5月13日出生于美国新泽西州特伦顿，前美国职业篮球运动员，司职大前锋，绰号“大虫”（The Worm）

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.