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Eiji Kikumaru
Kanji

菊丸英二

Rōmaji

Kikumaru Eiji

Nicknames

Golden Pair (together with Ōishi Shūichirō)
Dream Pair (together with Fuji Shūsuke)

Characteristics
Gender

Male

Age

14 (The Prince of Tennis)
15 (The New Prince of Tennis)

Height

171cm

Weight

52 kg

Birthday

November 28

Horoscope

Sagittarius

Blood Type

A

Family

Father
Mother
Grandfather
Grandmother
Two Older Brothers
Two Older Sisters
Dog (Pet)
Parrot (Pet)

Education
Junior High

Seigaku (3rd Year)

Class

3-6

Seat

7

Club Position

Regular

Elementary School

Hikarigaoka Elementary School

Japan U-17 Camp

Court 7 (Former)
Court 6

Tennis
Dominant Arm

Right

Play Style

Serve and Volley

Doubles Partner(s)

Ōishi Shūichirō
Fuji Shūsuke

Racquet(s)

DUNLOP (REVELATION PRO TOUR SERIES 90).

Shoes

WILSON (Slash DTmid)

Media
Manga Debut

Genius 4

Anime Debut

Episode 3 (The Prince of Tennis)
Episode 1 (The New Prince of Tennis)

Movies

Atobe's Gift
The Prince of Tennis - The Two Samurai: The First Game
Battle of the British Castle

Voice Actor

Hiroki Takahashi (Japanese)
Steve Staley (English)

Eiji Kikumaru (菊丸 英二, Kikumaru Eiji) is a 3rd Year Regular in the Seigaku tennis team and predominantly plays Doubles with his partner, Shuichiro Oishi. Eiji is well-known for his Acrobatic Play.

Appearance[]

Eiji has vivid red hair with the parting line in the center of his head and has a plaster on his right cheek. His eyes are brown in the manga, but dark blue in the anime. When he was in his 1st year, he had a plaster on his nose instead.

Personality[]

Eiji is a friendly, sweet-tempered and outgoing character and the youngest of a large family. Also unlike most of the characters, he is usually referred to by his given name. He acts like a cat, which shows in his acrobatics and how he likes to add a "Nya" (the Japanese onomatopoeia for a cat's meow) at the end of his sentences. This is especially evident in the chibi episodes where in the TeniPuri Family stories he is the family's pet cat.

He is also shown to be very playful, as proven when he helps Tomoka Osakada and Sakuno Ryuzaki cheer for Ryoma during his match against Reiji Shinjō using a special chant and in Episode 91, when he impresses the neighborhood kids with his acrobatic skills on Rokkaku's playground. When playing games, most character's concentration are broken up by attention and pressure. But Eiji loves the attention and actually focuses much more when he's being cheered on. When Eiji is seriously determind he has a habit of rolling his racket around his hand and catching it continuously.

Though the Golden Pair seldom play without each other, Eiji has been paired with his friend and teammate Shūsuke Fuji to form the "Dream Pair", as well as forming a makeshift Golden Pair with Momoshiro Takeshi. In the Nationals story arc of the manga, Eiji plays singles after Oishi gave his spot to a returning Kunimitsu Tezuka (Echizen in the anime).

He says that if Oishi will not be his partner, that he refuses to play doubles anymore. After his first match against Higa Middle School, however, he proclaims that playing singles tennis is "too lonely," and the Golden Pair becomes a team again.

Eiji's main weakness was his lack of stamina, which he overcomes through hard work and training later on in the series. His main rival is Hyotei Academy's Mukahi Gakuto, another acrobatic player who is extremely light and surpasses him in acrobatic play. Another weakness of Kikumaru is the slow speed at which he notices things. He does not pick up on things as easily as say, Tezuka or Fuji. Someone would have to explain to him what is going on or what they have noticed which he has not. This weakness can have its disadvantages, which is mainly losing in a match.

Golden pair2

Golden Pair

Although Oishi and Eiji get along very well and the two together form the famous "Golden Pair," they do have their disagreements. When Momoshiro was dropped from the Regulars and stopped attending practice, Eiji was making jokes that Oishi found insensitive. Eiji then made fun of the fact that Oishi's shirt was inside out causing the co-captain to snap and shove Eiji, pushing him across the courts. The Golden Pair stopped talking to each other until Momoshiro returned to team practices.

In doubles, although it looks as if Eiji is the one who controls the flow of the doubles matches when the audience sees the "Golden Pair" play (due to his flashy style and the fact that Eiji is the one who gets the ball the most), people often mistake him as the game maker. However, Oishi is the game maker. In their game against Yamabuki Middle School, Eiji asks Oishi if they can start to attack their opponents; by doing so, it indicates that Oishi is the game maker in their combination (Eiji likes to play at the net while letting Oishi control the flow of the game).

ImagesCAB7Z0TO

Kikumaru's usual expression.

Eventually, Eiji matures as a doubles player during his Doubles 2 match with Momoshiro against Hyōtei, when Eiji learns that being a game maker is more difficult than he realized and appreciates Oishi's role in their partnership. During the match against Hyōtei Gakuen he realizes as Momoshiro's senpai, he must learn to be the game maker and give up his usual net play, in order to defeat Hyōtei and help Momoshiro control the flow of the game.

Eiji calls Ryoma "o-chibi", "little guy" , while the others call him Echizen or Ryoma. He also likes to hug Ryoma the most and sometimes likes to hang off him while watching a match. Momoshiro seems to adopt this movement, so that they simultaneously jump on Ryoma. During the matches against the American team, Eiji seems to be always having a hold on Ryoma in one way or another.

History[]

He is part of Seigaku's "Golden Pair" along with Shuichiro Oishi. Using his acrobatic play he can return almost any ball, even those that seem out of human reach. Eiji is also known to have the sharpest vision on the team, with an exceptional talent for seeing moving objects. The only other member of his team to have this talent is Ryoma Echizen. This proves to be both a strength and a weakness, especially when matched against St.Rudolph's team captain Yoshiro Akazawa. Other than his well known style of acrobatic play, he has his own signature smash move called "Kikumaru Beam", which is essentially a very high behind-the-back smash that is launched either at the corner of the opponent's court, or directly at the opponent.

Two Years Prior To The Storyline[]

The Golden Pair met in their first year at Seigaku. In the anime, Eiji was a flashy singles player and found Oishi's play style boring. When he challenged Oishi to a match, he lost and couldn't figure it out. Retreating to the green bins at the park - a place the Golden Pair always go to when they need to think things over after losing a match - he saw Oishi practicing there. Eiji then told Oishi he would play doubles with him until he was able to defeat Oishi at tennis. In the manga, Eiji met Oishi by bumping into him in his first day of school after Shūsuke told Eiji that Oishi was a nice person, then developed quickly a strong admiration towards him (he even defended Oishi when he found some teammates spreading ill rumors about him), and finally asked Oishi to be his partner. In the anime, when Eiji is first introduced, he launches into a full description of himself. "My name is Kikumaru Eiji. I am twelve years old. I was born on the 28th of November. My blood type is A. I have a grandma, grandpa, Mother, Father and two older brothers and two older sisters...."

Regionals[]

During their match against Niō Masaharu and Yagyū Hiroshi from Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku, Kikumaru sustains a minor concussion from a ball hit by Niō, who was at the time pretending to be Yagyū. He is temporarily knocked unconscious from the ball to the face. As he is being carried away by a stretcher to be rushed to the hospital, Kikumaru remembers how he had become Oishi's Doubles partner and the promise they had made together. Remembering those times causes him to wake up and flip off the stretcher to continue the match. He and Oishi are later shocked to learn that Niō and Yagyū had been pretending to be each other the whole time and that Niō was also capable of using Yagyū's Laser Beam. Kikumaru and Oishi use their newest formation, Oishi's Territory, to counter the two Laser Beams from Niō and Yagyū. They ultimately lose the match at 4-6.

After Oishi gives up his spot prior to the Nationals and temporarily retires, Eiji is left without a partner. He swears that he'll never play doubles again if not with Oishi, therefore he starts a very rigorous training to overcome his flaws as a player and prove to Oishi that he's not a burden.

Regional Select Invitationals Camp[]

Oshitari Yushi along with several other players from the Kanto Region accepts an invitation to the Junior Kanto Regional Select Camp. He trains with several other players there and is amongst the Eight players selected to represent the Junior Kanto Japan region against the Junior West Coast USA region. He is put into Hanamura-Sensei's group along with his captain Atobe Keigo and Kabaji Munehiro.

Regional Select Invitationals[]

Kikumaru plays in Doubles 1 with Yushi Oshitari for the Junior Kanto Select team against Terry Griffey and Tom Griffey of the Junior West Coast USA team. They ended up losing the tight match 7-5. However Kanto Region Japan Juniors come out as victors and win with 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss.

Nationals[]

In Seigaku's first match against Higa Chuu, he plays in the Singles 2 spot against Yūjirō Kai, and eventually wins 7-6. During the match against Hyōtei, Eiji and Oishi are back as a doubles pair and even play for their last doubles match against Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku's Marui/Kuwahara pair.

Prior To U-17 Camp[]

Kikumaru and the rest of the Seigaku tennis club are invited to train with Shitenhoji in Osaka at the school ground. The training session was to help prepare the 2nd and 1st years get ready to become regulars once the 3rd years leave. Seigaku were meant to have a match against Shitenhoji without any 3rd years.

Kikumaru and Echizen

Kikumaru welcoming Ryoma to the joint Seigaku and Shitenhoji training session.

Momoshiro Takeshi and Kaido Kaoru the next vice-captain and captain of the club respectively panicked that it would be impossible to do well without Ryoma, and can only look on when Momoshiro and Kaido deal with things incorrectly as the next vice-captains and captains of the club respectively.

Eventually, the two realize that they need to be fair to the rest of the 2nd years and 1st years who arent as good as them which is helped by the arrival of Echizen who comes halfway during the the training session.

U-17 Camp[]

Kikumaru Eiji in uniform

Kikumaru in his All-Japan Junior Camp Uniform.

After the Nationals, the Seigaku regulars, along with several other middle school tennis players, are invited to the U-17 camp. Which for the first time, allowed Middle Schoolers to compete for Representative places along with High Schoolers. Kikumaru like all the 50 middle schoolers, was able to obtain a ball that fell from the helicopter where the conditions were those without a ball must go home.

They are all tricked into participating tiebreaker-style Singles matches with the partner of their choice, with Eiji being Oishi. Eiji was at match point 6-2 when he started to double-fault purposely, then started to play seriously after a reprimandation from his partner. Eiji goes on to win the match 7-4, but requests Oishi to leave his racket behind so he also would not be left out of the U-17 camp.

In the anime, during Ryoma, Kenya, and Kei's special mission for Coach Nyudo, Eiji wakes up after Kei causes the alarm system to sound after running through the lasers. He is confused as to why the alarm was sounding, but they never find out that it was because of their fellow middle schoolers.

Team Shuffle[]

Kikumaru looks on, with close friend and fellow 6th Court member, Fuji Shusuke, as part of the large audience made by the rest of the Camp that watches the Team Shuffle between 5th Court and 3rd Court where the 5th Court became victors and swapped places with the latter. Later on, he is reunited with Oishi. The middle schoolers then get involved in a massive pillow fight upon the return of the middle schoolers that lost their tie-break games.

U-17 Camp Revolution[]

Eiji is then present at the camp for the return of the Top 10 and the shock upset news that No.s 11-19 have all been replaced by Middle Schoolers.

Genius 10 Challenge[]

They were seen giving each other confused glances along with other middle school Doubles Specialists before the first match against the top ten first stringers- Super High School Double Specialists, No. 10 Juzaburō Mōri and No. 9 Tsukimitsu Ochi, indicating that they didnt know which Middle Schoolers were going to pair up and take on the High Schoolers in the match, and like the rest of the camp is surprised to see Keigo Atobe stepping up with Masaharu Niō as the pair to take them on

Kikumaru is present in the audience with the majority of the camp as the Genius 10 and the Middle School challengers engage in a long and drawn out Player Shuffle. 

Tennis Record[]

Official Middle School Tournaments[]

Tournament Round School Position Partner Opponent(s) Score
2007 Nationals Unknown Unknown Unknown Doubles Shuichiro Oishi Unknown Won (Unknown)
2008 Tokyo District Quarterfinals Gyokurin Doubles 1 Oishi Shuichiro Suzuki/Iguchi Won (6-0)
2008 Tokyo District Semi-Finals Mizu no Fuchi Doubles 1 Oishi Shuichiro Sawaguchi/Kaneda Won (6-0)
2008 Tokyo District Finals Fudomine Middle School Doubles 1 Oishi Shuichiro Uchimura Kyōsuke/Mori Tatsunori Won (6-2)
2008 Tokyo Prefectual Round 3 Kamata Doubles 1 Oishi Shuichiro Yamamoto/Yano Won (6-0)
2008 Tokyo Prefectual Round 4 Akiyama 3rd Doubles 1 Oishi Shuichiro Suzuki/Honmura Won (6-1)
2008 Tokyo Prefectual Quarterfinals St.Rudolph Doubles 1 Oishi Shuichiro Yoshirō Akazawa/Kaneda Ichirō Lost (6-7) (3-7)
2008 Tokyo Prefectual Finals Yamabuki Middle School Doubles 1 Oishi Shuichiro Minami Kentarō/Higashikata Masami Won (7-5)
2008 Kantō Regionals Round 1 Hyōtei Academy Doubles 2 Momoshiro Takeshi Oshitari Yūshi/Mukahi Gakuto Won (6-4)
2008 Kantō Regionals (NOTE-1) Quarterfinals Midoriyama Doubles 1 Momoshiro Takeshi Minamoto Takuma/Habu Itto Won (6-3)
2008 Kantō Regionals (NOTE-1) Quarterfinals Josei Shonan Doubles 1 Oishi Shuichiro Daichi Kiriyama/Shou Oota Won (7-5)
2008 Kantō Regionals Semi-Finals Rokkaku Doubles 1 Shusuke Fuji Kojiro Saeki/Marehiko Itsuki Won (6-2)
2008 Kantō Regionals Finals Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku Doubles 1 Oishi Shuichiro Masaharu Niō/Hiroshi Yagyū Lost (4-6)
2008 Nationals Round 2 Higa Chuu Singles 2 None Yūjirō Kai Won (7-6) (7-5)
2008 Nationals Quarterfinals Hyōtei Academy Doubles 1 Oishi Shuichiro Shishido Ryō/Chōtarō Ōtori Lost (6-7) (7-9)
2008 Nationals Semi-Finals Shitenhōji Reserve Player None None None
2008 Nationals Finals Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku Doubles 1 Oishi Shuichiro Bunta Marui/Jackal Kuwahara Won (7-5)
  • NOTE-1 The match against Midoriyama only took place in the manga, while Jōsei Shōnan's match existed only in the anime.

Seigaku Ranking Matches[]

Day Block Opponent Score
4/2008 Block B Momoshiro Takeshi Unknown
6/2008 Block C Hiratsuka Kazuya Won
6/2008 Block C Yoshimura Yū Won (6-1)
6/2008 Block C Yoshimura Shun Won (6-0)
6/2008 Block C Arai Masashi Won (6-0)
6/2008 Block C Shusuke Fuji Unknown

Unofficial Matches[]

Day Location Type of Match Opponent Score
Year 2006 Seigaku Singles Shuichiro Oishi Lost (4-6)
5/2008 Unknown Singles Oishi Shuichiro Lost (Unknown)
7/2008 Seigaku (Paired up with Kaido) Doubles Uchimura Kyōsuke/Mori Tatsunori Unknown

U-17 Camp Results[]

Type of Match Partner Opponent Score
Tiebreaker-Style Elimination Match None Shuichiro Oishi Won (Note-1)
Player Shuffle None Unknown 6th Court High Schooler Won
  • NOTE-1 In the Manga, Eiji won with the score 7-4, while in the anime, he won with a score of 8-6.

Playing Style and Techniques[]

See: Playing Style & Techniques

Personal Information[]

  • Hobby: Strolling past pet shop, brushing teeth
  • Father's Occupation: Company employee (Newspaper reporter)
  • Spends Allowance On: Funds for buying rare sneakers
  • Motto: Catnip
  • Best subject: Japanese History
  • Worse subject: English
  • Committee: None
  • Most often visited spot in school: Gymnasium
  • Favorite color: Red
  • Favorite food: Soft omelette, tender fried prawns, shaved ice
  • Favorite movie: Anime, Fantasy
  • Favorite book: Idol magazines
  • Favorite music: J-Pop
  • Favorite type: A cheerful girl willing to laugh together with him in his presence
  • Favorite Date spot: Amusement park
  • Most wanted item now: A new knitted hat
  • Daily routine: Fighting over TV channel with brothers
  • Dislikes/bad at: Going to the toilet at night
  • Special skills aside tennis: Cooking, fly-swatting, collecting bugs
  • Favorite line: "Zannen, Munen, Mata Raishuu" meaning "Too bad, no regrets, see you next week!"

Daily School Life[]

  • 05:50 - Wakes up because his older brother wakes him up
  • 06:00 - His turn to make breakfast
  • 06:50 - Goes to school. Morning practice
  • 08:40 - First Period: Art
  • 09:40 - Second Period: Society/Japanese History
  • 11:00 - Third Period: Physical Education; Basketball
  • 12:00 - Fourth Period: Mathematics 3
  • 12:50 - Lunch break. Eats homemade bento together with Oishi in Oishi's classroom
  • 13:20 - Fifth Period: Science 3/ Chemistry
  • 14:20 - Sixth Period: English/Grammar
  • 15:20 - Supplementary English
  • 16:00 - Independent practice, Coaches the underclassmen
  • 17:30 - After buying things for dinner, returns home
  • 18:00 - Helps with dinner
  • 19:00 -Gaming (One hour every day)
  • 20:30 - Goes out for an aimless stroll in the evening
  • 22:00 - Returns home, takes a bath, watches drama or variety shows
  • 23:30 - Goes to sleep

Note from Fuji Shuusuke: Speaking of Eiji, he dozed off in class and was scolded by the teacher. Of course, in Class 6, Eiji is also the mood maker.

Note from Ryoma: He has stamina now. Now now, not too bad. Really, he's becoming more and more like a cat.

Tennis Bag Content[]

  • Writing implements
    Just in case something happens, he carries these writing implements around. The probability of their usage is quite low.
  • Dental set
    In order to constantly keep his teeth white and shiny, he always has this dental set handy.
  • Snacks
    He gets hungry after exercising, so on days with club activities, he almost always brings snacks.
  • MP3 player
    To enjoy himself on his way to school, it's music appreciation! It's listening to music on the forefront of fashion!
  • Hair wax
    He quickly restores his messy hair that's due to intense exercising with his favorite hair wax.
  • Hair brush
    When he fixes his hair, it's used with his hair wax! Due to his art of dexterity, he is able to set it in approximately 3 minutes.
  • Adhesives
    It's a mystery as to why he always has it affixed to his cheek...
  • Trump (playing cards)
    He plays with everyone during club activities, and he brings it to show off a trick he had learned.

Relationships[]

Oishi Shūichirō - Eiji and Oishi are best friends and often playing doubles together as the "Golden Pair" thoughout the years Oishi and Eiji spend more time with each other more than the other members of the team, whenever playing tennis or not the two pairs are never apart.

Fuji Shūsuke - Eiji and Fuji are in the same class and there also seatmates, Eiji and Fuji ociasonially play doubles together, aside his friendship with Oishi, Eiji also shares a strong friendship with Fuji.

Other seniors (Tezuka, Inui and Kawamura) - Eiji shares a common friendship with his fellow 3rd year regulars even doesn't talk to Tezuka every often, much to Tezuka's strictness as the captain, Eiji ociasionally joins Inui in stalking his teammates specially Ryoma and judges his bad relationship with the girls who are intrested in him. Eiji has a good friendship with Kawamura despite when he changes personally he enjoys the sushi in Kawamura's sushi.

Momoshiro and Kaidoh- Eiji is very close to his two 2nd year teammates even though they both fight a lot he cares for them both trying to keep them from fighting so much. Eiji is also very close to Momoshiro ociasonially treating him and Ryoma after practice.

Ryoma Echizen - Eiji really love his 1st year teammate often calling him "ochibi" Eiji usually seen hugging and cuddling Ryoma tightly as much to Ryoma's annoyance, despite the occasional suffocating hugs, Ryoma is vey close to Eiji and Eiji occasionally treats him and Momoshiro even Ryoma and Momo takes advantage of him sometimes.

Etymology[]

  • The name Eiji means "excellent, fine" (英) (ei) and "two" (二) (ji).
    • There is a grand total of eleven members in the household. His name, however, means 'excellent second son'.
  • Eiji's surname Kikumaru means "chrysanthemum" (菊) (kiku) and "round, circle, pills, purity, suffix for ship names, complete" (丸) (maru).

Trivia[]

Character Trivia[]

  • At the age of 12, Eiji breaks the record speed for sidestepping during the sports test.
  • Eiji made a gigantic omelette during the Culture Festival and won second place in the cooking department.
  • At the age of 13, Eiji travelled to Taiwan and Kamakura for a field trip.
  • During a sports festival, Eiji participated in the obstacle course and makes his acrobatics widely known.

Other Trivia[]

  • Eiji has been shown to be quite popular in the Prince of Tennis series. He came in 3rd place in the first poll, and repeated that feat in the second one. He then came in 8th in the third poll, and 11th in the fourth.
  • Eiji is the very first person in the anime (in the manga, it is Kaidoh Kaoru) in the Seigaku team to have tasted Inui's concoctions.
  • Because Kikumaru is bad with dealing with Kunimitsu Tezuka, he rarely gets close to him. The two of them have never been drawn in a conversation scene.

Quotes[]

  • "Too bad, no regrets, see you next week!" ("Zannen munen mataraishu!")
  • "Nanjoro hoi hoi~"
  • "Nyahahahaha~"
  • "Kikumaru Beam~"
  • "Hehe no Kappa~"
  • “Oishi, sorry for the wait. I finished recharging!” (“Oishi, omota he! Jyuden kanryo dayo!”)
  • "Perfect, perfect, really perfect!" ("Kanpeki, panpeki, perfect, to te ne!")
  • "Oishi..Providing support is pretty difficult after all. Since you were always there to cover me at the back, I was able to freely perform my Acrobatic Play without worries. This time, as a senpai, I have to fully support Momo as much as I can!"
    • ("Oishi..Kekkou support te taihen nano ne. Itsumo Oishi ga ushiro ni itakara koso, ore wa anshin shite Acrobatic Play ga dekitan dara. Konkai, senpai toshite, tettei teki ni Momo wo support shiteya naku ja!")
  • "Prepare to be punished by Kikumaru-sama's acrobatics!" ("Kono Kikumaru-sama no acrobatic te, seibai shichau!")
  • "Kikumaru Bazooka!"

Gallery[]

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