Anime Profile: Slam Dunk

Slam Dunk is not just about basketball (as its title obviously implies). It is also a funny and inspiring look into the development of a character, as he learns and matures through adolescence. This is the story of Hanamichi Sakuragi, a freshman high school student in Shohoku High, who has the dubious honor of having been rejected by fifty (that's 50!) girls he courted in his junior high years. Hanamichi, being a proud one, hated having such a dismal "batting average" with girls. His last rejection was from a girl who chose a basketball player over him. So, any mention (or even hint) of the word "basketball" from his classmates gets them a lump on the head courtesy of a Hanamichi head-butt!

Thus Hanamichi wallows in despair... until he bumps into Haruko, who notices Hanamichi's height and athletic build and innocently asks, "Do you like basketball?" Hanamichi is instantly smitten by Haruko's beauty and confidently answers, "Of course I do!" when the reality of it is he has never even held a basketball in his entire life!

So like any other lovestruck boy, Hanamichi goes about proving his love for basketball in order to impress Haruko. But it is easier said than done, as he encounters many obstacles, primarily another freshman named Kaede Rukawa. Rukawa was a basketball MVP player in his junior high years and a strong contender for Rookie of the Year in their district, and he is the one who Haruko admires! Likewise, things don't go easy in the basketball club when he decides to join and show off after inadvertently butting horns with the club leader and Shohoku High basketball team captain Akagi, who just happens to be Haruko's older brother!

But for Haruko's love Hanamichi will endure anything, and thus begins his trials of learning basketball from the ground up and getting along with his teammates in the basketball club, and eventually the Shohoku High team, which include both Rukawa and Akagi!