the solitude of ryota miyagi
While I consider Slam Dunk a perfect series, with amazing characterization, I believe that the weakest aspect of the story is the lack of backstories. While a backstory is not needed for every character, it would have added much more to the main characters and their development. The main team members of the series are already very well developed and they had plenty of development (especially throughout the Sannoh match). However, Ryota Miyagi, Shohoku’s point guard, seemed like a static character in comparison to his other teammates.
While he isn’t a badly written character by any means, we didn’t see much of his story throughout the manga. His main thing was being the short boy who had a crush on Ayako.
During his introduction arc, Miyagi was overshadowed by Mitsui, who had his whole backstory revealed in that arc. In comparison, all we knew about Miyagi was that he was a problem child who liked Ayako, and became friends with Sakuragi.
Throughout the rest of the series, we don’t truly see much of Ryota’s struggles, aside from his height leaving him at a disadvantage. This issue is shown throughout the Sannoh match. The readers are shown how Ryota is concerned about if he can even match up to Fukatsu, but we aren’t shown much of Ryota’s inner thoughts compared to Akagi’s thoughts of comparison.
More of Ryota’s story is revealed in a spin-off chapter that was released after Slam Dunk’s serialization, titled Piercing. We finally learn more details about Ryota’s life, such as how he had known Ayako since he was young and about his brother’s disappearance. This added some depth to Ryota and potentially explains why he’s a problem child, but it is still rather vague and left many questions unanswered.
However, over 20 years later, Ryota’s story was finally revisited. In The First Slam Dunk, Ryota is the main character and we finally learn about his background and even his inner thoughts.
What shocked me the most was learning just how passionate Ryota was about basketball. Aside from Sakuragi (who himself became serious about basketball towards the end of the series), I felt Ryota was the most casual about basketball. He had even explained to Sakuragi that he wasn’t sure he wanted to play basketball in highschool until he saw Ayako. However, it’s shown Ryota had played basketball since he was a child, and his older brother had taught him. And despite Ryota’s mother disliking basketball (due to it reminding her of her late son), Ryota continued to play it.
His family life which is hinted at in Piercing is fully revealed in the movie. Ryota’s brother is confirmed to be dead, and we truly see how much it affected Miyagi. While in the manga he doesn’t seem depressed or anything, we learn how it deeply affected him and led him to become a delinquent. He was even bawling in his cave hideout that he used to visit as a kid. And the fact he wrote to his mother that he wished he was the one who died instead speaks volumes.
Ryota had always come off as a very nonchalant person. While he did get pissed at times, he didn’t seem like he had serious issues. Ayako even states to him that he always looks like he’s fine. I think that this shows how strong Ryota was mentally, he always looked okay in front of his teammates and the average reader wouldn’t figure he had anything too serious going on,
As stated in a lyric by Taylor Swift, “No one sees when you lose when you’re playing solitaire”. Ryota seems to keep his problems to himself, similarly to Sakuragi. It seems like nobody in the team has any idea what happened, aside from maybe Yasu and Ayako. And Miyagi doesn’t act depressed either. However, I believe that his background reveals that Ryota tries to keep his feelings and struggles under control.
Something I think is notable is Ryota’s friendship with Sakuragi. It’s shown that they don’t get along, until they open up to each other one night regarding their bad luck in love. Their entire conversation that night wasn’t revealed (and I believe there is a possibility they could’ve talked about things outside of their love life), but it still shows that Sakuragi was the first one Ryota opened up to on the team. Additionally, Ryota was the first one on the team that Sakuragi confided in about any struggles he was facing. As a result, I believe that this was why they were able to become friends so easily.
While Miyagi is already a stand out character in Shohoku, the additional information regarding his background makes him an even better written character.
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