Is Tabuse Yuta really Miyagi Ryota?

Whenever I find out that the person I’m talking to is an avid Slam Dunk reader, the topic always comes up as a sort of greeting.

Who do you like?

“The feeling changes every time I read it,” said Yuta Tabuse, a member of the Utsunomiya Brex of the B League, in a video on the club’s official YouTube channel, as he spoke with glee about his favorite character.

Tabuse is the symbol of the team that won nine championships at Noshiro Technical High School, a prestigious basketball school, from 1996 to 1998, winning all three major tournaments: the Inter-High School Championships, the National Athletic Meet, and the Winter Cup. The first character Tabuse mentioned was Miyagi Ryota, a teammate of the protagonist Sakuragi Hanamichi at Shohoku High School.

A 168cm tall point guard, Tabuse and Miyagi often compare themselves to each other, as they play the same position and are both small at 173cm.

This monumental basketball manga that took the world by storm in the 90s was also the subject of a huge hit when its feature film version, “The First Slam Dunk,” was released in theaters last December. Tabuse and other basketball players who lived through the “nine-crown era” at Noshiro Technical High School are part of the “Slam Dunk” generation. Even now, more than 30 years after the original manga began serialization, their eyes still sparkle when they see their favorite characters.

The captain, Hatayama Yoichi, who is one year older than Tabuse, chose the 210cm center?

“Currently, I think it would be Kawada Mikio?”

In the movie version, he is portrayed as an opponent of Shohoku, and is a first-year center for Sannoh Technical High School. The man who named him, a 210cm tall giant, was Yoichi Hatayama, a year older than Tabuse and the other team captain.

It’s been 26 years since he graduated from Noshiro Technical High School. He laughs, as if concerned about his slightly wider figure since then, and says, “When people ask me, I answer that as a joke.” He says that he will be showing off the “Sorry, Big Bro” phrase he uses to refer to Mikio’s older brother, third-year center Masashi, in a humorous way.

The king of Hatayama is the Kawata brothers and his teammate, captain Kazunari Fukatsu. Fukatsu, a point guard with a calm and collected playmaking and wide-eyed passing skills, is reminiscent of Hatayama from his days at Noshiro Technical High School.

“I wasn’t on the same level as Fukatsu, but I think our playing styles were similar. I never ended my sentences with ‘pyon’ though.”