Slam Dunk Wiki
Advertisement

Tatsuhiko Aota is a third-year student at Shohoku High and the captain of the judo team. He is a childhood acquaintance of Takenori Akagi's, and has a crush on his sister Haruko Akagi, who calls him "Tat-chan". Aota tried numerous times to inveigle Hanamichi Sakuragi into leaving the basketball team and joining the judo club, going so far as to bribe him with pictures of Haruko, but Sakuragi refused each time. Aota continues to believe that Sakuragi would make a great judo player because of his physical strength and athleticism.

Aota continually taunts Akagi about not making it to the Nationals, since the Judo team has always had greater success in their regional tournament than the basketball team. Nevertheless he shows up to support Akagi and the Shohoku basketball team during their final game against Ryonan in the Kanagawa Tournament.

Aota is sensitive about the fact that his upper body is disproportionately big and his legs are disproportionately short, and was made fun of for it in junior high. Akagi attributes this to judo.

In the Filipino dub he is often reffered to as Judoy by Sakuragi.

He is voiced by Hideyuki Umezu in the Japanese version. He is voiced by Kumiko Watanabe as a child. He was voiced by two voice actors in the English Dub. He is voiced by Robert Norman Smith in both Episode 8 through 9 while in Episode 61, he is voiced by David Louza.

Plot[]

Aota was hiding behind the bushes and watching girls during their physical education class. When he jumped out to help Haruko, Sakuragi also jumped out from another bush. Multiple physical education teachers restrained them, but Sakuragi broke free and ran. Such display of strength only hardened Aota's desire to recruit Sakuragi into the judo team.

Aota initially sent three of his judo teammates to recruit Sakuragi; they tried to intercept and intimidate him on his way to school, but instead got beaten up (likely headbutted based on the bruises on their foreheads).

During Shohoku v. Ryonan, Aota arrives during the 2nd half in his judo uniform. He urges Akagi and his team to perform better. For the remainder of the match, he sits next to Haruko and continually remarks on how Sakuragi (and even Kogure) should join the judo team.

When many characters are congregated at the Shohoku High's entrance area, Aota reveals that he and his team got 1st place at the Kanagawa Regional Tournament (for judo), and mocks the basketball team for only obtaining 2nd place (which irks Sakuragi). He then tries to recruit Sakuragi yet again, but gets headbutted instead.

When Shohoku basketball team's starters were at risk of not being able to participate at the nationals due to bad grades, Aota was also in the same situation. Initially appearing and mocking the basketball team, he ended up begging for make-up exams as well. He barely passed just like the basketball team members.

Advertisement