#tae ohtsubo

[ni-kol-koru]

KnB 30-Days Challenge

Day 10 : Favorite Team

Shūtoku High School BC 🏀🧡

Another very difficult choice for me. Every team in this show has unique characters, an interesting dynamic and their own unique playstyle and something special, like a quirk. I kind of know what my TOP 3 teams are, but choosing one of them seemed like an impossible mission... So, I made a little system that will help me pick my favorite team. When I added and substracted some points, Shūtoku won!     

Shūtoku, as a team, has some of my most favorite characters ever. It is also the only team (after Rakuzan) in which I love and adore absolutely every member! Since I rambled about Shintarō and Kiyoshi, and am going to ramble about Kazunari very soon, let me just talk about the forgotten two of Shūtoku: Taisuke Ōtsubo and Shinsuke Kimura. A lot of people seem to forget that these two guys exist. They don't look super flashy, like Shintarō and Kiyoshi for example, because they have dark brown hair and dark brown eyes and generic hairstyles. They don't have prominent personalities either, like the other 3 members, who have their own very distinctive quirks and personality traits. But, that is just the surface. I was very curious one day and decided to scratch it and dive a little more into the lives and personalities of these two handsome boys. Well, after researching about them, they turned out to be very interesting, and dear to me.    

Taisuke Ōtsubo. He is a serious, responsible, determined captain and a great sportsman. He is the pillar of his team on the court and is there to cover up the mistakes of his fellow members by saving every rebound he can. Everybody seems to think he is just tall, strong and scary and rough, but seriously, this guy is just a teddy bear. Other than being very kind and showing it in form of great sportmanship, he has some really surprising hobbies. It's cooking, cleaning, and knitting! In Extras, he is shown to be really skilled with needles and yarn, knitting a scarf almost 2 meters long during a boring class! He also carries things he made in his bag all the time, like mittens, hats... These things he does are not usually something that men do, and I just love how he looks like the manliest man ever and has these hobbies, breaking the patriarchal norms. He also really loves his team and always takes care of his teammates, knowing how to motivate them and cheer them up when it's needed, and tending to them when practices get tough and they feel sick. My favorite thing about him is that he likes spending his free time with his little sister, Ōtsubo Tae! Her age was never confirmed, but she is somewhere around 15, or maybe even 16, if we think about what Yūya said. Now, a lot of big brothers seem to, for some reason, find it boring, and even embarrassing, to hang out with their little sisters, but no, not Taisuke Ōtsubo. This guy loves it, we know it because he chooses to spend his free time in her presence! Taisuke is 18 years old, a grown man, basketball player, graduate student, preparing for college and adult life, and in a busy time like that, when he finds free time, he still spends time with his little sister. I can totally see them cooking together and cleaning together, but another activity that I can see them doing is just, talking. Taisuke can sit and talk with his sister all day, listening to her without feeling the need to interrupt her of mansplain anything if she just needs to let things out, or offering honest advice and support when she needs it. He is also surely protective of her, making sure to let everybody in her life know that if they hurt her in any way, he will find out and they will pay for it. He is just ready to do anything for his sister, I think. Another little detail about his character, that I really love, is that he is part of the Library Committee, which means he likes to read, and help people find books they like! Not only that, but his favorite subject is physcis, which means he is good at it, and that only reveals how smart he actually is! This man literally has the words 'Perfect Guy' on his forehead, how can people sleep on him like that? The only thing he can't do is kill a cockroach (actual canon and his actual only shortcoming).   

Shinsuke Kimura. Calm, hard-working, doesn't like the spotlight and prefers to stay out of trouble. That's pretty much the only things people know about him. Though, reading between the lines of his behaviour, I found a couple of really endearing character traits! I He is a really supportive person, but he is doing it rather quietly most of the time. In games, he sets up solid screens to give his teammates freedom to move and opportunities to score, though. He also brings delicious fruits when practices get exhausting, and he is there to help his teammates if they ever feel sick, like when he was rubbing Kazunari's back and called for help when he felt like throwing up. He is even supportive in the strangest way possible, by always offering a pineapple to Kiyoshi when he is irritated, supporting his dear friend's anger issues. When times call for it, he knows how to motivate his teammates and give them a reason to stand up on their feet and continue fighting. He is extremely hard-working and he proved it by practicing harder than everyone until he finally reached the starter line. That's a thing I really admire him for. Something that caught my attention when reading his Wiki page and exploring his character was how he likes to spend his free time. He spends it by helping at home. Now, if you know that his family owns a convenience store and grows their own fruits, it probably means that he helps with taking care of the said plants, carries heavy boxes, cleans the store, helps in organising new arrivals, works as a cashier and so on... However, if you ever happened to notice the fact that he doesn't have a mother, it adds another, whole different meaning. Having only a father means that all the house and store responsibilities fall onto him when his boys are at school, which is difficult to balance. So, taking care of the house, cleaning it and cooking meals, probably sometimes falls onto his two sons, and very likely Shinsuke, as the older brother, takes care of most of those things. This boy is another level of hard-working. We can even gyess that he gave up college to continue the family's bussiness, because he is never shown worrying about any college entrance exams, like the other two Third Years. He is just, wow. The moment I completely fell in love with him was when I listened to a Special CD. In the said CD, he reveals such a beautiful side of himself and he tells us about something really important for him. He talks about wrestling. He has been doing it since he is 8 years old, it's something that he loves a lot and is extremely passionate about! I wish you guys could hear his voice when he talks about wrestling, he just sounds so happy and passionate! Oh, and he gets so excited when he finds out Shintarō knows a thing or two about his sport! Listening to that part of the CD always makes my little heart melt! Shinsuke is so precious to me and I just love him so much!

If you get into typology, Shinsuke and Taisuke both have a Kanji in their names that means 'Support', showing how important they are for the Shūtoku team. Also, they are really handsome, and it's a hill I will die on. If anyone disagrees with me on this one, I am willing to argue until the end of time.   

Now, the characters aren't even the best part of this team. What I endlessly love is the chemistry and all the different friendships between all of them!

Three Third years and two First years in a single team is a really interesting combination itself. Almost like parents and children. Getting along with each other, as two separate generations, was probably something that they had to work on a lot, but in the end, they did it! Since the beginning, the First years had respect for their Seniors by listening to them and respecting their opinions. Sometimes, the Third years had to pick their younger members up and give them motivation to keep fighting. They are also there to tend to the boys when they feel unwell and are always willing to offer their help when they get in trouble, like in the Midorima's Unlucky Day Extra! An important step towards the team working well was Third years getting along with the fact that the First years, were indeed, special, and needed to be cut some slack for such behaviour from time to time. Honestly, realising that they will be on the same team only for a single year breaks my heart every time, it breaks theirs as well... The moment Shintarō and Kazunari pointed that out in their game against Rakuzan was the only time I cried in the show. Seriously, I love these guys so much.     

Shūtoku has some really interesting friendships as well, one of the most precious friendships being the one between Kazunari and Shintarō. It is obvious that these two are inseparable! After all, they are always there for each other, on the basketball court, in school and even in private life, offering support and having fun! Kazunari cares for Shintarō really deeply, and he shows it by carrying some of his neccesities, such as tape for fingers and sometimes even lucky items with himself, and always being there to cheer him up and protect him if the upperclassmen are picking on him. Shintarō is pretty tsundere, usually trying hard to not show how much he actually appreciates Kazunari and his thoughtfulness, but every time he softly smiles and relies on his dear friend he reveals to us how much he appreciates him.

Another friendship that is very dear to me is the one between Kiyoshi and Shinsuke! These two share the same story on how they got their well deserved positions as the starter members of the basketball team. They worked harder than everyone, stayed late to practice and got close because of that, possibly practicing with each other a bunch of times. But that's not everything, The Extras really reveal just how close these two are! They are actually classmates as well! Being in the same class with someone surely brings two people together, so these two being in the same classroom for 3 consecutive years surely did its wonders! Now, their personalities might clash a little, because Shinsuke is calm and Kiyoshi is rather uptight, Shinsuke prefers to stay out of trouble while Kiyoshi attracts a lot of trouble, but they are also similar in their determination, seriousness and hard-work, which is why they can probably get along. In the anime, we can also see these two tease each other sometimes, in the besties way, of course. The Extras also show how sometimes, when paired up, these two know how to 'have fun' by poking at their underclassmen (which is a little mean, but they never really hurt anyone, as far as I know, so they are forgiven). Oh, and of course, they have this famous pineapple/pick-up truck deal, where Shinsuke always offers his fruits or vehicle to his dear friend when he is irritated. It is just so iconic, like their own little inside joke!

There is also something very interesting going on between Taisuke and Kiyoshi. At one point in the anime, Taisuke reveals to Shintarō and Kazunari that they go to idol concerts together and that idols are actually their common interest! As someone who is into idols myself, I can see them collecting albums, CDs and photocards and trading them with each other all the time, which is something that is fun when done with friends! But that's not quite it... Remember when Taisuke said he was really used to seeing Kiyoshi work so hard? Well, I somehow came to an idea that they practiced basketball together, more specifically, that Taisuke helped Kiyoshi with polishing his fundamentals and mastering dribbling against an opponent with good defense. This duo kind of makes sense, because Taisuke is just supportive like that, he is the type of a guy who would help others in need with no hesitation, and Kiyoshi just screams 'someone help' as a character and a person, and especially in that period of time, I think. So, naturally, they were kinda drawn to each other, and later when they realised they have some things in common, they became good friends! I can kind of see Kiyoshi always feel so grateful for Taisuke because he supported him and helped him in some really tough times, and probably even picked him up when he fell. Also, before Taisuke revealed their shared interest to his underclassmen, he was about to say something about Kiyoshi, but he cut himself in the middle of his sentence and never said it. I can feel that he was about to say something really nice about him, groundbreaking for their relationship even, and I am still mad he never finished it...

Shūtoku is also a team with a lot of brothers and sisters, where every regular memeber we know has a younger sibling! Shintarō, Kazunari and Taisuke have younger sisters, while Shinsuke and Kiyoshi have younger brothers! Sadly, we never got to truly meet any of them. We only know something little about Yūya, only know Tae's name and looks, and the appearance of little Kimura. Unfortunately, we have nothing for little Midorima and little Takao. Well, still, it's really something interesting to think about, all the possible big brother tropes that the regulars of Shūtoku might be! It's sad that we don't have almost anything for some of these younger siblings, but that doesn't have to be all that bad! It leaves room for our own imagination and creativity to shine, we can make up our own fun headcanons for their looks, ages, personalities and relationships!

I just love this team so much! 🧡