Haruko Akagi

Haruko Akagi is the pretty, basketball-loving girl who catches Hanamichi Sakuragi's eye on his first day at Shohoku High, and whose casual question — do you like basketball? — is enough to talk him into joining a team he has no real interest in. She's cheerful, a little oblivious to the chaos she causes, and genuinely devoted to the sport.

She's less a romantic prize than a hinge the whole plot turns on, and the show is honest about that without ever making her feel like a device. Akiko Hiramatsu plays her with a bright, unfussy warmth, so her enthusiasm for basketball reads as real rather than as bait, which is exactly what makes Sakuragi's infatuation, and his slow actual love of the game, believable.