Kotesashi High School (都立小手指高校)

An ordinary metropolitan high school in terms of both academics and club activities. Located near Kichijoji, it belongs to the West Tokyo district for high school baseball. Five years ago prior to the start of the series, there was a baseball club in the school but it was no longer active. When the series started, several students started a new baseball club to get together to play baseball casually. However, after Kaname and the rest joined the club, they started to compete competitively.

In the summer of the first year, the 10-member team advanced to the regional tournament and lost to Teitoku in the fourth round. In the fall, the team did not join the tournament because the coach felt that their current team was not good enough to win.

Currently, in the summer of the second year, they are participating in the regional tournament.

Support Staff

Coach: Sako Yuusuke (佐古 優助)

He became the coach of the baseball team at the recommendation of his niece, Reira. He is a “loosey-goosey old man” but leads the team with precise judgment. He is regarded as somewhat dangerous by General Kaname because he “blows strange ideas” into Kiyomine.

Advisor

He acted as the club advisor (ie. the adult person) for the baseball team until Coach Sako joined the team.

Sako Reira (佐古 レイラ)

One of the managers of the baseball team. She used to play baseball (as a pitcher) but eventually quit because females cannot go to Koshien.

Himekura Sayaka (姫倉 清花)

One of the managers and cheerleader for the baseball team. She is a “reverse goddess” or “Okurihime,” famous on social networking sites in the investment industry for causing stocks she buys to plummet. In junior high school, she quit cheerleading because she was blamed by other club members when the team she was cheering for had lost, but she regretted quitting because of the words of others.

Players

Chihaya Shunpei (千早 瞬平)

He is a second baseman with weak shoulders, but boasts skillful bat control and quick feet. He made a desperate effort to compensate for his disadvantageous physique with technique and theory during his Little Senior baseball days. However, when matched up with the Kiyomine-Kaname battery, a “genius with both technique and theory”, it led him to a decision to quit playing baseball. He is quite a strategist and served as the brains of the team before the appearance of the General Kaname.

Hinomoto Teruya (陽ノ本 照夜)

As Hinomoto Ataru’s younger brother, he always lived under his brother’s shadow. He started baseball because he admired his brother and joined the same league as him. His brother eventually shot up in height but he never did. Although he was a pretty decent player himself, on the team, his nickname became “Younger brother” (otouto) and all attention was on his older brother.

One day, while reading a baseball magazine, he learned about the Kiyomine-Kaname battery, who were childhood friends and noted that Kaname was shorter than Kiyomine – drawing similarities to him growing up together with his brother, and also being shorter than his brother. He was intrigued by them and chose to attend Houya Senior when he started junior high. He is skilled at both batting and fielding, having a serious playing style. Like his brother, he has a sincere personality.

Although he was accepted to Teitoku Private High School, he chose to join Kotesashi High School at Kiyomine’s invitation.

Kaname Kei (要 圭)

He is childhood friends with Kiyomine whom he first met through a neighbourhood playdate session. Considered a genius catcher, he attended Houya Senior League with Kiyomine where their achievements gained them national attention and scholarships to most of the top baseball high schools nationwide. Strangely, they both chose to attend Kotesashi where they joined the newly formed school’s baseball club. When he started high school, he had no memory of his baseball years and actively dislike having anything to do with baseball.

During his days at Houya Senior, he led Houya Senior to victory with his calm and collected approach. But due to amnesia, he has lost all knowledge and interest in baseball, and his personality has become a simple-minded and jovial character. However, it is later revealed that this change was not a memory problem but a personality shift caused by dissociative identity disorder.

Personality Profiles

“Idiot” / “Master”

Kaname’s main personality that appeared after “amnesia”. His knowledge and skills in baseball are almost amateurish. His teammates call him an “idiot” and although he is always saying and doing stupid things, he contributes to the team’s atmosphere with his somewhat lovable personality. Initially, he was reluctant to be involved in baseball, but through various experiences, he was awakened to the joys of the game and acquired a vast amount of knowledge as a catcher from the “Zettai Notebooks” that he had written during his days as the General.

Although he is not very aware of it, he is actually sensitive to the subtleties of other people’s emotions, and often hits the bull’s-eye with a sharp remark. Even though he appears later in the timeline, he was originally the main personality. Currently, he is struggling to surpass the “General” with the advice from his “General” personality.

Among the fans, he is also known as「恥将」(also pronounced as chishou), meaning the shameful (or embarassing) general.

The General (智将)

The personality when Kaname was called a genius catcher. He is calm and collected, overflowing with confidence and has a certain charisma. He is a top-notch catcher and hitter, armed with the techniques and theories he has mastered through extraordinary effort and persistence. At the same time, however, his ruthless stoicism has often caused friction with those around him.

His personality was born out of an unusual determination to make Kiyomine “the top baseball player in Japan” and to “abandon everything but baseball to achieve that” when he was first exposed to Kiyomine’s baseball talent at a young age. The negative emotions he encounters in his pursuit of baseball took a tremendous mental toll on him, and in the third year of junior high school, he goes beyond his limits and falls into a dormant state. His main personality then emerged, which was interpreted as “amnesia” by those around him.

He has been recovered to the extent that he can occasionally switch personalities, and while teasingly calling his main personality “Master,” he is currenty working on his main personality’s baseball education in order to prepare for his own disappearance.

Kinoshita (木下)

First year student who is the reserve catcher on the team. He initially made fun of Kaname after seeing his Boob Hair gag. However, his attitude changed after meeting the General Kaname.

Kiyomine Haruka (清峰 葉流火)

Considered a prodigious pitcher and is only interested to partner with Kaname. He attended Houya Senior with Kaname during his junior high years where their achievements gained them national attention and scholarships from seventy-four high school baseball teams. He began playing baseball as a child under Kaname’s tutelage. However, before entering high school, Kaname suddenly lost his memory and said he would never play baseball again and ended up joining Kotesashi, which did not have a baseball team. He followed Kaname’s lead and enrolls himself in the same school, where he tries to start playing baseball with Kei again, who has become a complete amateur. He is very confident in himself because he has always been devoted to baseball and has always been the best in the senior league.

As a child, he was very timid until he met Kaname who promised to make him the “best pitcher in Japan”. He also lives with his older brother whom he is very afraid of. He has trouble communicating with others, extremely uninterested in other people, and is often found causing trouble to those around him by hurting others without malice. He is absolutely obedient only to his brother and Kaname, though he is sometimes rebellious toward Kaname after he developed the amnesia.

He only has interest in “playing baseball with Kei” and “pitching”, and relies almost entirely on Kaname for training, physical condition management, and team communication.

Kusuda Tatsuki (楠田 竜樹)

He was considered one of the “shitty senpais”, together with Mitarai, because he was not interested to participate in the club activities at all. He would skip club activities with the excuse that he has a date, even though he did not have a girlfriend. He also has a complex about his short stature.

However, he still likes baseball itself and practices at the batting center with Mitarai. When Mitarai started attending practices, Kusuda himself was too proud to join the practices. However, he is simple-minded at heart and gradually begins to participate in the practices as a way to help the club, which is suffering from a lack of members.

Mitarai Yuusaku (御手洗 優作)

He is good friends with Kusuda, to the extent that they are always together. When the first years joined the club, he was arrogant towards them but soon realized that his abilities were too different from theirs and stop coming to practices. However, after Kaname praised him, he started to attend the club practices and eventually participated in team matches.

Sarukawa Kotachi (猿川 小立)

He joined Kotesashi because “I can become a regular team member at Kotesashi!”. He used to look down on Tsuchiya and the rest of the lower batting lineup, but changed his mind after the intra-team game.

He wanted to be a pitcher for the team but lost the position to Taki, and was assigned to be an outfielder.

Satou (佐藤)

Earnest and kind senpai.

Suzuki (鈴木)

Earnest and kind senpai. Like Satou, his baseball skills are low, and he recruited Kaname and Kiyomine without knowing about them. He had some experience as a pitcher in elementary school and is a sidethrower. His pitches are fairly slow but steady and he also “a curveball that does not curve”.

Taki Masayuki (滝 正雪)

He was a member of the Houya Senior League, and friends with Teruya from then. He has a “smokey” pitching style, which makes it difficult to see his release point. He also performs very well under pressure.

He has seven girlfriends, all of whom he is serious about. He is the only one in the team who has “a” girlfriend.

Toudou Aoi (藤堂 葵)

A member of Oozumi Senior League. He tends to wears his school blazer around his waist, which combined with his appearance, often leads people to mistake him for a yankee. However, he is a diligent, hardworking person, and focused on producing results. Because of his personality, he was very much adored by Takasu and other seniors during his time in the senior league. However, in his second year of junior high school, he made a big mistake during a game against the Houya Senior League and their team lost the match.

Feeling a strong sense of remorse over this defeat, he developed yips which prevented him from throwing the ball to first base. He tried to overcome the yips but was unsuccessful, leading him to turn down scouts from Teitoku Private High School and eventually quitting from the senior league altogether. As if to escape from baseball, he decided to go to Kotesashi High School which did not have a baseball team (then). Despite this, he did not neglect his training during the period that he was away from baseball.

His mother died early in life, and he lives with his father, older sister and younger sister. Therefore, he is responsible for all household chores at home and is a good cook.

Tsuchiya Kazuki (土屋 和季)

He used to play softball in junior high. Unable to get used to the “system” that existed in the world of sports, he quit his team and escaped into the world of fictional sports. Having a thin frame, he has explosive running speed almost equal to Chihaya.

A self-confessed otaku who is interested in matters of the occult.

Yamada Tarou (山田 太郎)

During his time in the Akitsu Senior League, he played catcher and was considered pretty good (by his own estimation) until his team was soundly defeated by the Kiyomine-Kaname battery. Following that defeat, he decides to quit baseball but bumps into Kiyomine and Kaname in high school. Kaname (who subconsciously recognizes him) immediately latches on him and Kiyomine continually depends on him to convince Kaname to play baseball. Since Yamada really admires Kiyomine, he is unable to ignore Kiyomine’s demand and helps them out.

Although he does not consider himself a good player, the General-Kaname considers Yamada to be a formidable player who is reliable, level-headed and knows how to play baseball. His teammates call him “Yama”. During his second year, he becomes the captain of the baseball team.

He was named by his father who was a fan of Dokaben, a long-running baseball manga from the 70s. He also has a younger brother.