Slam Dunk (灌籃高手)

Slam Dunk, is one of the three most famous Japanese sports cartoons, together with Captain Tsubasa and Touch. It focused on Hanamichi Sakuragi, who starts off as a delinquent outcast and later becomes the leader of a gang. His team eventually defeated the former champion of the national high school championship. The cartoon led to a huge basketball craze among teenagers in Japan as well as in China. Inoue Takehiko, the author of Slam Dunk, is a big fan of basketball. He used famous NBA superstars in the 1990s as models for the heroes in his manga. Hanamichi Sakuragi was welcomed by thousands of people because of his purity, loveliness and fearlessness.