Shinichi Maki

Shinichi Maki
Name
Characteristics
Gender	Male
Height	184 cm
Weight	79 kg
Professional Status
Year	3rd year
Personal Status
First Appearance
Voices
Japanese Voice	Hisao Egawa
English Voice	Jeff Lumby
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|anime debut = |manga debut = |hair colour = Dark Brown |eye colour = Black |team = |position = Point Guard |jersey number = #4}} Shinichi Maki (牧 紳一 ,Maki Shin'ichi) is the captain of the Kainan basketball team, and reputedly the best player in the region. He was crowned MVP of the prefecture twice. As captain of the team, he commands a lot of respect, and his teammates follow his orders to the letter. Although his personality differs from that of Takenori Akagi, he occasionally has to be strict when dealing with Nobunaga Kiyota.

Appearance

He has a cool appearance, tanned skin and has a mole near his left eye. It is revealed in Slam Dunk: 10 Days After that his tan is a result of the fact that he surfboards. He is of average height for a basketball player. He is often made fun of by Sakuragi and his friends for looking older than his age.

In the anime series, his dark brown hair appears slick back with two small fringes in each sides. But in the battle against both Ryonan and onwards. His hair is no longer slick back and has long fringes in each sides of his head.

In his initial appearance when he was encountered by Akira Sendoh during the basketball eliminations between Shohoku and Miuradai, he wore a standard Kainan winter school uniform; a light blue formal suit jacket under a white long sleeved button shirt with a red tie on the collar, light blue formal pants and black dress shoes. He also wears a summer school uniform during the second movie and the final episode of the anime wearing a short sleeved button shirt tucked into his light blue formal pants and the red tie on the collar of his button shirt.

His overall Kainan jersey uniform is the moniker white, yellow and purple.

In the beginning of the basketball match between Shohoku and Kainan and during off-courts while watching a basketball match, Maki wears the blue and yellow openly Kainan jersey jacket with a white short sleeve loose undershirt, blue jersey trousers and his basketball shoes from his jersey attire.

Personality

He is a very shrewd player, and does not hesitate to exploit his opponents' weaknesses to the fullest, as demonstrated in the Kainan vs. Ryonan game, when Uozumi gets tricked into fouling out. In the same game, he narrowly avoids losing the game by divining just in time what Sendoh's intentions were, and thus saves himself from committing a foul. He is shown to be sensitive when Sakuragi and his friends made fun of him for looking older than his age on at least 3 occassions: the first time is when Sakuragi first comments on his age, he tells Sakuragi that Akagi looks older than he does, surprising Jin; the second is when Sakuragi calls Coach Taoka an old man ( "an old fool" in the English Dub or "gurang na amoy lupa" in the Filipino Dub), leading Maki to say that at least Coach Taoka is old. In the English Dub, his speech is the same but in a different tone as he says "At least he is old. Think how I feel?"; and lastly when Sakuragi's friends are making fun of him because of his age when both Sakuragi and Kiyota had encountered each other outside at the Pachingko shop.

Despite his shrewd and being sensitive, Maki is also strict similar to Takenori Akagi when he was strict towards Nobunaga Kiyota in few occassions to a degree by punching Kiyota's head when he makes an embarassment to their team and his troublemaking antics much like how Akagi did to Sakuragi.

Abilities

His main advantage is his broad physique which he uses to drive into the lane to score while drawing a foul. He also has great control in the air to score despite being fouled. Even though he mostly play as a point guard, he has the all-around skills to virtually play any position. His scoring ability is incredibly strong as 4 players from Shohoku are needed to completely shut him down. He uses his height and power against other Point Guards to create mismatches which his team usually capitalizes on. His skill and abilities even in the same level as Sannoh's Fukatsu as Miyagi aware that during watching Kainan vs Sannoh match video, he stated that if the PG wasn't Maki, the ball would have been stolen quite a while ago. It's Suggestes that Maki is in the same level as Fukatsu in term of skill.

Rivals

Kenji Fujima

Maki's main rival is Kenji Fujima of Shoyo, although Maki is decidedly better than him. Maki was named the MVP of the Kanagawa tournament.

Takenori Akagi

During the match against Shohoku, when Akagi had an injury and continues to play, he is gained respect for his determination and a tough player. Before their basketball match, he and Akagi are the ones to punch both Sakuragi and Kiyota's heads respectively for making an embarassment towards both teams and their troublemaking antics.

Akira Sendoh

During the fight with Ryonan High, Ryonan's Coach Taoka decides to have a man to man defense to keep Maki facing Sendoh for he believes Sendoh is capable of defeating Maki.

Trivia

• Maki's counterpart is most definitely Magic Johnson as the characteristics and playing style of both are similar. At 2.06m tall, Johnson was bulkier and taller than most Point Guards and was reknowned for his incredible skill at passing. As Maki could play all the positions, so could Magic Johnson. In the 1980 NBA Finals, the then center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was injured and Johnson (still a new player at that time) not only stood in as a replacement center in the game, but also played the other four guard and forward postions as well at different points. His legendary skills at assisting and bringing out the full potential of his teammates, as well as overall ability has caused him to be regarded as the greatest player in the point guard position in basketball history, much like how Maki is known as one of the best (if not THE best) Point Guard in the prefecture and possibly the country.
• If Maki was Magic Johnson, then it can be said that Fujima's counterpart was Larry Bird. Bird's team, the Boston Celtics had a jersey that was completely the same as the Shoyo jersey (except for the wording and player's numbers). Johnson and Bird had a very fierce rivalry during games, but were close friends off-court; this parallels how the Maki-Fujima rivalry and their relationship outside of basketball matches (although it is not explicitly described).
• During the match between Kainan and Shohoku, Sakuragi ask him how old he is and if he is really in High School but Instead Kyota response and tell hims that Maki is actually a third year and 17 years old but Sakuragi doesn't believe and tells him that is not fair in bringing an alumni in their team (kainan) but Maki response and tells him that Akagi looks older than him
• Sakuragi calls him "Gramps". In the Filipino Dub, he calls him "Lolo" and is a filipino term of grandpa or gramps.