He is voiced by Hōchū Ōtsuka. The captain of the Shohoku judo team, Tatsuhiko Aota (青田 龍彦, Aota Tatsuhiko) is a childhood friend of the Akagi siblings, having argued with Takenori over which sport was better, judo or basketball, since their youth. A basketball player from Shohoku, he is 6'2 182lbs and goes to Kanagawa Prefecture. It was his pass that led to Sakuragi's buzzer-beating shot, winning the match. Fujima is referenced during the first round of the national championships when Shohoku plays against Toyotama High School. He is also the most academically talented starter and is considered a model student. After a year, barely a fifth of the new players remain. They have gone on some (what Sakuragi considers) non-official dates and have occasionally trained together. Haruko often appears at matches together with Sakuragi's cohorts and her two best friends, Fujii and Matsui. 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. Hanamichi Sakuragi Character » Hanamichi Sakuragi appears in 128 issues . Akagi considers Ryonan's Jun Uozumi to be his biggest rival, though their rivalry is not antagonistic. Although he is already in his second year and also a tall player, he can't deny that he can't keep up with the starters, as seen in the manga where he is beaten by Sakuragi's quick and skillful plays. He is one of the top point guards in Kanagawa and a force to be reckoned with. During Mitsui's collapse against Ryonan, Kuwata took care of him and stayed until Mitsui told him to leave and watch the game for him. Yazawa's mother gave Anzai a letter written four years prior, in which Yazawa expressed profound regret about his rebellious decision to leave, and was depressed as a result of the unsupportive American college basketball culture. I'll Be the One to Defeat Sendoh" "Rasuto Ni Bun! He originally used to be a center, but his slender build, slow movement and weak leaping ability never allowed him to perform well in this position. But Kagami is more skillful than Sakuragi as he can shoot anywhere and even shoot 3-pointers. 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. Sasaoka is also seen jogging with Kuwata and Iishi in the manga 10 Days After. Akira Sendoh (仙道 彰, Sendō Akira) is Ryonan's ace and small forward who is considered one of the top players in Kanagawa. Unlike Uozomi however, who starts to get emotional in encouraging his teammates to bring Ryonan further the next season, Ikegami is cool and collected. Because his team already has several scoring players, he is allowed to focus on rebounding. He is voiced by Shinobu Satouchi. The previous year, Takato also coached the team to the semifinal of the national championships, which they lost to Sannoh. One of Shohoku's bench players, Sasaoka is a first year student who plays as a forward. Tetsuo makes an additional appearance in the anime when on the morning of Shohoku's match with Shoyo, he is chased and cornered by the non-Shohoku members of his gang, who beat him up in a bid to challenge his leadership. Slam Dunk Contest Wikipedia. Akagi, together with Ayako and Haruko helps the four in reviewing for their make up exams in which they pass. Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Takehiko Inoue Talks about Visit to Kinokuniya", "Takehiko Inoue Unveils Mural at New Kinokuniya", "Slam Dunk (2005 TV Show) - Behind The Voice Actors", "How 'Slam Dunk' Manga artist brings characters to life", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Slam_Dunk_characters&oldid=999599458#Hanamichi_Sakuragi, Articles needing additional references from June 2009, All articles needing additional references, Articles containing Japanese-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 11 January 2021, at 00:46. Sakuragi takes advantage of this to try to get him off the game. Birthday 04/01 Hanamichi Sakuragi (桜木 花道 Sakuragi Hanamichi?) Despite their loyalty and willingness at offering a hand whenever convenient, they often tease Sakuragi, for which they receive headbutts. He is voiced by Kōzō Shioya in Japanese and Bill Houston in English.[5]. Despite his violent nature and rude personality, Sakuragi has a soft spot for girls and is extremely vulnerable and sensitive to them. Despite not thinking too much of Hanamichi Sakuragi (who addresses him as "Gori" due to his immense physical presence) at first, he realizes Sakuragi's potential as a basketball player. 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. He is the leader of the feared "Sakuragi's Gang", which consists of his four friends Mito, Noma, Ohkusu and Takamiya. During the game against Ryonan, Yohei seems to be the only one to realize how Sakuragi felt humiliated after a lopsided loss to Fukuda. Later, the color of his tank top changed to black. The Japanese manga Slam Dunk was written and illustrated by Takehiko Inoue. As he starts learning how to play basketball, Sakuragi starts liking the sport and resolves to become the best player. It happens during Shohoku's 4th Round Qualifying game against Tsukubu High. Hanamichi Sakuragi ialah watak utama bagi siri anime Slam Dunk dan pemain bola keranjang bagi pasukan Sekolah Menengah Tinggi Shohoku. 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. The cover of Slam Dunk volume 1 published by Raijin Comics on July 2, 2003 in North America.. Thus, in the latter halves of games, he has not always been as reliable. As such, he lacks experience, and having such a talented player as Masashi for an older brother to look up to puts additional pressure on him. He also prided himself as the \"Rebound King\" when his rebounding ability had just started to surface, which was accepted and considered as valid. In the anime, Sasaoka often blurts out comical statements that make Sakuragi react and bully him or the other first year students. Akagi notes that Sakuragi is much stronger than Jun Uozumi of Ryonan despite being smaller. Despite being only 178 cm, he can dunk and block shots quite regularly. His younger and larger brother Mikio is also on the team. He mixes strength and tactical skill in his playing, being able to easily avoid defensive play. The team was seeded first in their respective division during the Interhigh Tournament, and is the only team so seeded not to make it into the final four because of their loss to Shohoku. [1] 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. At the beginning of the series, Sakuragi is a slacker, good for nothing other than fighting. He is voiced by Masaya Onosaka. He has not played in any real games yet. This carries over to the preparations he makes for the match against Shohoku even though they are ranked low as a C in comparison to Sannoh's AA ranking. Although not up to the level of Mitsui or Jin, he is still a good long range shooter. 1] However, his basketball skills advance throughout the series. Devastated over the loss of Yazawa, Anzai resigned from college basketball coaching and changed his strict attitude to his now mild temper, for which he is now known as the "White-Haired Buddha" (ホワイトヘアードブッダ, Howaito Heādo Budda). In the Kanagawa Inter-high Tournament, he was named one of the top five players, the only first-year player so honored.[ch. 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. His skills are typical of a point guard: strong passing, dribbling and stealing, as well as an understanding of the game that allows him to be a floor leader. Ryonan's coach Taoka Moichi encouraged him to continue playing though, and eventually Uozumi developed into becoming a fearsome center. After their loss in the practice match against Ryonan, he felt a bit depressed. Sakuragi's confession to Haruko during the match against Sannoh, is considered as a double confession. He is also Hanamichi Sakuragi's best friend from childhood, as well as a skilled fighter. Fukuda's personality turned out to be more sensitive, and after a year of criticism, he snapped, attacking Taoka during a practice match. Hanagata is known for his fade away shot, which is difficult to block. If he had his way, Taoka's dream team would have consisted of Sendoh, Uozomi, Mitsui, Miyagi, and Rukawa, with the latter three playing the same positions they now play for Shohoku. In spite of all this, along with Yohei they are among Sakuragi's most loyal supporters, going to his games to cheer him on, and helping him out when he had to make 20,000 shots in one week to prepare for the national championships. There were many coincidences during Rodman’s career that paralleled Sakuragi’s journey through basketball. It tells the story of Hanamichi Sakuragi, a teenager who falls in love with Haruko Akagi after being rejected by 50 other girls. Ayako (彩子, Ayako) is the manager of the team and object of Ryota Miyagi's affections. When Akagi is outplayed and discouraged in the match against Sannoh, Uozumi is able to restore Akagi's spirits. Having accidentally overheard this, the reawakened Mitsui went on to score 20 points, including five consecutive 3 pointers in the second half, to erase Shoyo's 12 point lead over Shohoku. (あきらめたらそこで試合終了, Akirametara soko de shiai shūryō). Strong-willed, somewhat tomboyish and good-natured, at first Ayako does not seem to reciprocate Ryota's feelings for her, which she knows of, and will not until the end of the series. When he went for help, he met with high school students whom he had fought previously, with eight students this time. Fujima is so respected by his teammates that as much as possible they try not to make it necessary for him to get on the court, and even the hint of his getting off the bench to join them inspires them to play harder. Hanamichi Sakuragi always calls Anzai "Oyaji" (おやじ, lit. )is the younger sister of Shohoku's basketball captain; Takenori Akagi of Slam Dunk series, and she is also the love interest of the protagonist of Slam Dunk; Hanamichi Sakuragi. Toyotama's ace is Minori Kishimoto (岸本 実理, Kishimoto Minori), who earns not only Hikoichi's enmity for Toyotama after he dismisses Sendoh's abilities as a player, but also from Sakuragi, who spends the first half under intense pressure and can not perform well enough, being substituted for by Yasuda early in the match. Sakuragi is probably the first opponent who beat him on rebounding by psyching him out and with his timing and jumping ability, scoring an alley-oop dunk over him. Before the match, Hasegawa stated that he would hold Mitsui to no more than 5 points. It is also because Domoto wanted to prevent Coach Anzai from having a timeout, which a substitution will surely be done. The character himself is based on the author Takehiko Inoue and voiced by Yoku Shioya. He has not played in a single game. He begins regarding himself as a \"genius\" even though he has not learned any skills. However, their one weakness is the lack of a dedicated coach with Kenji Fujima playing the roles of both coach and point guard. Haruko was responsible for uncovering Sakuragi's athletic talent after seeing him try to dunk a ball at her request - she was impressed by the height of his jump and considered him good enough to join the team. Dia sangat menyukai Haroko iaitu adik kepada ketua pasukan bola keranjang. Taoka also realized that when Sendoh and Fukuda joined the team that they would become key players. 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 makes him realize that he has actually come to love the game, leading him to give his all for his team and bring them victory. An imprudent early return to the court severely compounded the injure in that knee, leading to a basketball hiatus of over a year. Hikoichi's older sister Yayoi is a reporter for a weekly basketball magazine. Ichinokura's accomplishments include never skipping any of the team's training camps, winning the school marathon over members of the track team, and finishing a test despite having a ruptured appendix. In the anime he is voiced by Takeshi Kusao in Japanese and Robert Tinkler in English.[5]. He was hospitalized for a while after his fight against Hisashi Mitsui's gang. As of August 2018, the cumulative circulation of the domestic series has exceeded 120 million. He is voiced by Toshiyuki Morikawa. Despite spending a lot of time on the bench, Kogure brings experience and considerable firepower to the team when on the court and is most likely to be subbed in to replace one of the starters. Sawakita plans to go to America following the national championships. Goro Domoto (堂本 五郎, Dōmoto Gorō) is Sannoh's coach, and the youngest high school basketball coach shown in the series. Sawakita was taught basketball by his father, who played him one-on-one since he was four years old. 1 Shohoku 2 Ryounan 3 Shoyo 4 Kainan University 5 Sannoh 6 Other characters Hanamichi Sakuragi Aborted Declaration of Love: A sincere variation. In his initial appearance, Sakuragi had short, distinctive, pompadour styled red hair with fringes at the center of his forehead, and brown eyes. Sendoh succeeds Uozomi as captain after he and Ikegami left the team. "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. They are an A ranked team and almost all of their starters are third years. Because of this, they prefer to play their own way rather than listen to their new coach, who they threatened with violence. His determination to keep playing despite the back injury was the main factor for Shohoku's victory against Sannoh. Em sua primeira aparição, Sakuragi tinha cabelos vermelhos curtos, distintos e com estilo pompadour, com franjas no centro da testa e olhos castanhos. He is the leader of the feared "Sakuragi's Gang", which consists of his four friends Mito, Noma, Ohkusu and Takamiya. Ryota Miyagi (宮城 リョータ, Miyagi Ryōta) is the point guard of the Shohoku team and Hanamichi Sakuragi's closest friend on the team. One of Shohoku's reserve players, Kuwata is a first year student who played as a forward in junior high school. Sakuragi manages in one occasion to surpass Maki in physical strength while scoring a dunk, despite Maki fouling him. Kakuta is a second year student who plays as a center. He is able to read Sakuragi's character well enough during the Interhigh Tournament to substitute in Yoshinori for Jin, which causes Sakuragi to lose focus and allows Yoshinori to compound this by being effective at shooting. However, he started as a very weak player, and was ridiculed and bullied by his upperclassmen for only having height but very little of everything else. Instead, he ends up with a taped number 16 in his shirt, while tearfully wondering why he became the sacrificial lamb. However, he does sometimes calls him a "fox" or "sleeping fox" due to his sleepy nature. At the beginning of the series, Sakuragi is a slacker, good for nothing other than fighting. Tetsuo (鉄男) is a biker and the only adult member of Hisashi Mitsui's gang, which included Norio Hotta and his cronies, in addition to some other delinquent high school students. Shoyo High School (翔陽高校, Shōyō Kōkō) is considered the main rival of Kainan. Hanamichi Sakuragi in the picture was actually a member of a band named X Japan. Pada awalnya Sakuragi tidak menyukai basket karena dia pernah ditolak seorang gadis yang lebih menyukai anak basket, tetapi setelah bertemu dengan Haruko Akagi (adik perempuan Takenori Akagi) dia mati … Due to Uozumi's physical build, Sannoh basketball team player Masashi Kawata mistook Uozumi as Akagi's father when he saw him encouraging Akagi to continue playing during the match between Shohoku and Sannoh. However, their major weakness is their weak bench, and as a result must rely completely on their starting lineup. Sakuragi's gang, also known as The Sakuragi Legion (桜木軍団, Sakuragi Gundan), act like a Greek chorus. Anzai is also very charismatic and able to inspire his players to greater heights. During basketball training, Sakuragi wears a blue tank top, tucked into his white shorts, and his white running shoes with two blue linings. In the series he is often pitted against taller point guards but is able to beat them with his incredible speed. However, his style is criticized as being too selfish and lone wolf, and he sometimes gets into conflict with his teammates for various reasons. [7] In the anime he is voiced by Tomomichi Nishimura. Yohei is the sole member of the gang who is able to help with actual advice, and is also the best fighter out of the four (aside from Sakuragi himself), having beaten up Mitsui all on his own during the gym fight. He tries to get Hanamichi Sakuragi join the judo team because he considers his fighting skills exceptional, and to achieve this, "bribed" him with some photos of Haruko when she was younger. He is the only starter shown to wear glasses, though they are knocked off his face when Sakuragi commits his fourth foul, and Hanagata plays the rest of the match without them. Haruko Akagi(赤木 晴子,Akagi Haruko? They also take advantage of him by frequently placing bets on whether his endeavors will succeed, and even charge admission to see Sakuragi's new hairstyle. The remaining starters for Ryonan are the guards Tomoyuki Uekusa and Hiraoki Koshino. He is often referred to as the "super-rookie" and the "ace of Shohoku". Slam Dunk adalah sebuah seri anime yang diadaptasi dari manga berjudul sama karya Takehiko Inoue. He is voiced by Hisao Egawa. Akagi was aware of Sakuragi's crush on Haruko, which made him feel irritated over Sakuragi's advances towards Haruko in some times they were both together. Hanamichi serves as Shohoku's power forward. 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. Rodman was a fierce defender while Sakuragi is somewhat a weak on-ball defender as he is easily thrown off with a feint. Hanamichi Sakuragi catches his attention on the first day of school when he gets into an altercation with two of his cronies, resulting in his issuing a direct challenge to Sakuragi by interrupting one of his classes.[ch. Hanamichi Sakuragi is the main character of the Slam Dunk series. Reminded by this conversation Rukawa had with Sendoh, Rukawa is able to change his playing style to include more passing, which helps Shohoku beat Sannoh. Against Kainan, Sendoh is deployed as a point guard to match-up Maki, but transforms himself into a deadly scorer when the game is on the line. [5], Chuichirou Noma (野間 忠一郎, Noma Chūichirō) is one of the members of Sakuragi's Gang. 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. Jersey no.#10 189.2 cm/6'2.5"/74.5in 83 kg/183 lb Power Forward. Kicchou Fukuda (福田 吉兆, Fukuda Kitchō) is a power forward of the Ryonan team and one of their aces. File:Slamdunk cover1.jpg. After being rejected fifty times, he then met Haruko Akagi, who … Norio Hotta (堀田 徳男, Hotta Norio) is the leader of a gang of fellow Third Year students who are the reigning delinquents at Shohoku. He is rather loyal to Takenori when the need arises, cheering him on when he is outplayed and hard-pressed during the second Ryonan match. Anzai had given him the courage to win in the Junior High tournament by encouraging him during the last seconds of the match. Before he met the current Shohoku members, he had to overcome ridicules from his classmates (for dreaming of winning the national championship), doubts from bystanders, and the frustration of losing his teammates, as they found Akagi's training regime to be too difficult and harsh. His naivety and simple judgement earned him the nickname of "Simpleton King". Their personality changes were completely opposite. Hanamichi Sakuragi. [5], Yuji Ohkusu (大楠 雄二, Ōkusu Yūji) is one of the members of Sakuragi's Gang. Kainan University Affiliated High School (海南大附属高校, Kainan daifuzoku Kōkō) has won the Kanagawa Interhigh Tournament for 17 years running and are known as the "Champions of Kanagawa" (神奈川の王者, Kanagawa no Ōsha). During the practice game against Ryonan, when Ayako distributes the official jerseys, Sakuragi was angered by not having his own jersey. This incident resulted in Fukuda's suspension from all games up until the Interhigh Tournament, thus explaining his absence in the practice match against Shohoku until Ryonan plays Kainan. Both men are still friends, but are also rivals. However their rivalry is not antagonistic, as there is a mutual respect that borders on friendship. Moichi Taoka (田岡 茂一, Taoka Moichi) is Ryonan's coach and a contemporary of Kainan's Riki Takato, who is a year younger than he is. Kainan's training regimen is so tough that it weeds out half the incoming players within the first week, and another half within the first month. However, their main weaknesses are the lack of a star point guard and a three-point shooter. Hotta and his cronies later become supporters of the basketball team during the National Championship Tournament (though even they get scared by the aggressiveness of the Toyotama crowd), largely because of their friendship with Mitsui, who they give the epithet Honoo no Otoko (炎の男, lit. Mikio Kawata (河田美紀男, Kawata Mikio) is the younger brother of Masashi Kawata and the largest player in high school basketball. His unimposing presence distracts opponents from his basketball skills, especially his reliable three point shooting, the accuracy of which is comparable to Jin's and Mitsui's. Ryu (竜, Ryū) is one of the non-Shohoku members of Hisashi Mitsui's gang and the only other non-Shohoku member besides Tetsuo given the most depth. Eiji Sawakita (沢北栄治, Sawakita Eiji) is the small forward and also the ace of Sannoh and best all-round player in Japanese high school basketball. As with Haruko Akagi, he recognizes Sakuragi's potential early on and decides to make him a starter even though some of his basketball skills are not yet up to par. Haruko, yang mengetahui kecergasan Hanamichi memperkenalkan Hanamichi kepada pasukan bola keranjang Shohoku. He also attended Wakoh Junior High with Sakuragi. Nobunaga Kiyota (清田 信長, Kiyota Nobunaga) is the small forward of the Kainan team who closely resembles Sakuragi in attitude but has the skills to back up his boasting. First he develops his basic skills, such as dribbling and layups. The DVD releases were cancelled after 4 volumes, only going up to Episode 20. Il a été prépublié dans le magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump de l'éditeur Shueisha entre 1990 et 1996 et a été compilé en un total de 31 tomes. However, he also injured his back during the match against Sannoh when saving the ball from going off the court, and underwent rehabilitation after Shohoku's subsequent loss to Aiwa Academy. Off-court, Miyagi has a reputation for being a bad boy. This is mirrored in the character of Hanamichi Sakuragi, who starts playing basketball to impress the girl he likes.[4]. Hanamichi Sakuragi was born in 1968 in a family of the common working class. The contest was Satoshi Ichinokura (一ノ倉聡, Ichinokura Satoshi) is a defensive specialist who has the most stamina and endurance on the team, and is quite proud of it. Hanagata and Nagano are knocked down by Sakuragi after the latter dunked on them, but despite the effort Sakuragi still got his fifth foul. She confronted Sakuragi when she mistakenly thought that he had attacked Rukawa, and she also defended him many times from his most rabid fangirls (one of them even knocked her to the ground in the anime series). 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. They have mastered the run and gun style of play and divide their effort between 80% offense and 20% defense. However, he was outplayed by Eiji Sawakita back in junior high. He has an odd habit of adding "yo" to almost everything he says. Initially, he’s depicted as the arrogant, egocentric, delinquent leader of the Sakuragi Legion (a gang comprising of his 4 personal friends) with a soft spot and vulnerability towards pretty girls. Sendō wa Ore ga Taosu" (ラスト2分! These were tested when Totsuka Tetsuya of Ryokufu High School challenged him in a battle of speed. Five years passed and Anzai learned from the press that Yazawa died in a high-speed head-on car collision, reportedly under the influence of drugs. Fukatsu possesses great passing skills, an accurate three point shot, and excellent defensive skills. Hisashi Mitsui (三井 寿, Mitsui Hisashi) is the starting shooting guard of the Shohoku team. Having learned from his mistake, Taoka uses Fukuda to great effect during the match with Kainan. However, Yazawa became dissatisfied with Anzai's tough training for him alone and against Anzai's wishes, left Japan to play in the United States, where he thought he would have better opportunities to show his talent. He also knows how to carry a will of a teammate. His catchphrase is "gotta check it," aside from shouting "Unbelievable!!!" Still, Sakuragi refused, saying simply, "because I'm a basketball player" (actually because he knew he would actually be closer to Haruko if he stayed with the basketball team). Fukuda is seen throughout the series doing alley-oops with Sendoh as the passer, but his defensive ability is weak and can be easily exploited. He has been known to pose for Ayako during matches. In the anime she is voiced by Eriko Hara in Japanese and Caitriona Murphy in English.[5]. E Sakuragi Hanamichi mibagsak ya kareng singkuwentang (50) babae. Hanamichi Sakuragi (桜木 花道 Sakuragi Hanamichi) é o protagonista da série Slam Dunk. He begins regarding himself as a "genius" even though he has not learned any skills. In his first year at Shohoku High School, he finds out that Haruko Akagi is the girl of his dreams, and is happy when she is not scared of him like all the other girls he has asked out. He also attended Wakoh Junior High with Sakuragi. Aborted Declaration of Love: A sincere variation. Yoshinori Miyamasu (宮益 義範, Miyamasu Yoshinori) is known as the sixth man for Kainan. He might also be Miyagi's classmate, as seen in the anime where he tells Kogure that Miyagi hasn't been in class, but his classmates have seen him hanging around. While Sakuragi has learned to control his temper on basketball as the series progresses, that was not the case for Rodman. For this, he is quite a trustworthy player for Shoyo. Soichiro Jin (神 宗一郎, Jin Sōichirō) is the shooting guard of Kainan and one of the best sharpshooters in Kanagawa, matched only by Mitsui. Toru Hanagata (花形透, Hanagata Tōru) is considered one of the top centers in the Kanagawa along with Akagi and Uozumi. When Sakuragi and Mitsui where stuck in a melee with Tetsuo's former gang, Kogure asked Kuwata to call Sakuragi's phone. Jin has a very mild personality and always looks calm and agreeable. Despite this, the only one doing the same thing to Sakuragi is Kiyota who calls him "red haired monkey". He is also a simple-minded and naive person. Then, trained by Akagi, he becomes a formidable rebounder, which becomes his claim to fame throughout the latter half of the series. He personally recruited them, but each turned him down for various reasons: Both Mitsui and Miyagi turned him down due to respect for Coach Anzai, Rukawa simply chose Shohoku over Ryonan because Shohoku was closer than Ryonan in distance. His greatest weakness, though, is his lack of stamina due to his long break from basketball. He is voiced by Nobuhiko Kazama. He calls Akagi "Gori" (ゴリ),[ch. However, Kogure makes a three pointer which pretty much sealed the victory for Shohoku. He also attended Wakoh Junior High with Sakuragi. He is voiced by Hideo Ishikawa. He wears a dark blue standard Shohoku winter school uniform from his initial appearance until their match against Shoyo. He is voiced by Kouzou Shioya. Though Hotta and his friends failed to win in fights against Sakuragi's gang or even Rukawa, they are portrayed as among the best fighters in Shohoku. He is also a weak on-ball defender and can easily fall for fakes, however, his athleticism somehow makes it up for it. He and Akagi are the only two players who have been on the team for all three years, as Mitsui left during their first year, and other players quit the team because they found Akagi's training regimen to be too strenuous. Like Sakuragi, Miyagi is motivated to play by his love for a girl: his best friend and classmate Ayako, the manager of the team, whom he refers to as "Aya-chan". Though he wears glasses, when called to play, he replaces them with a pair of goggles.