The sad truth was that before the real life Sakuragi could ever get the chance to live the dream he was run over by a car on his way to visit his father in the hospital. The anime character's look resembles his real-life inspiration and they even share a similar backstory of having no basketball experience (albeit the anime went with a few alterations here and there). The character was inspired by an actual person of the same name who was considered 'The Hope for Japan Basketball'. Probably the most interesting detail from the series comes from the protagonist Hanamichi Sakuragi. A lot of places where Rukawa and Sakuragi were in the anime were actually real roads and places. The anime takes inspiration from real life as most of the locations are found in the city. You can even view the website online and its considered quite a prestigious school.

Kanagawa City is at the center of Japan's main island. The team, despite their differences and struggles eventually developed chemistry which sent them on a dream run that garnered the attention of many teams and basketball fans.īelieve it or not Shohoku High School in Kanagawa Prefecture is actually a real school.

A freshman, Kaede Rukawa, who was considered a 'super rookie', also joined the team. This would become the start of a turnaround for Shohoku with Sakuragi's arrival lining up with the return of point guard Ryota Miyagi and former Junior High MVP Hisashi Mitsui. The Shohoku basketball team during this time was at an all-time low, and was mostly considered a one-man team held down by Captain Takenori Akagi. He is introduced to the school basketball team after Haruko Akagi noticed his potential. The story centers around Hanamichi Sakuragi, who doesn't know anything about basketball. Slam Dunk is known to be an inspiration for a lot of modern day sports-based anime and we wouldn't have as much variety as we had now if it wasn't for this series' great run. The comedy, drama, action and deep story line went on to attract both basketball and anime fans from around the world. It's one of the first anime that centered on a sport. Slam Dunk is considered as one of the classics of both manga and anime.

Shonku somogro