Harukaze Kurobane | |
---|---|
Kanji |
黒羽春風 |
Rōmaji |
Kurobane Harukaze |
Nicknames |
Bane-san |
Gender |
Male |
Age |
14 (The Prince of Tennis) |
Height |
184cm |
Weight |
73kg |
Birthday |
September 29 |
Horoscope |
Libra |
Blood Type |
A |
Family |
Father |
Junior High |
Rokkaku Junior High (3rd Year) |
Class |
3-A |
Club Position |
Regular |
Japan U-17 Camp |
Court 2 |
Dominant Arm |
Right |
Play Style |
Serve and Volley |
Doubles Partner(s) | |
Racquet(s) |
Made by Ojī |
Movies | |
Voice Actor |
Kazehiro Oguro (Japanese) |
Harukaze Kurobane (黒羽 春風, Kurobane Harukaze), or Bane-chan, is a very strong player with deep responsibility in everything that he does. Despite being a rough-looking player, he is very close to the kids who play around Rokkaku's playground and look after each in a brotherly fashion. Of course, he also looks after his kōhai (opposite of senpai),Hikaru Amane, whenever the latter gives stupid puns, and he cannot help himself but hit the guy as punishment.
Appearance[]
Kurobane has brown wavy hair that is styled in an upwards direction. He is alss has dark brown eyes and is fairly tall. His looks are fairly dull compared to some of his team members.
Personality[]
Kurobane has a very unique relationship with his doubles partner, Amane "David" Hikaru. David is a punster, but each of his attempts is followed by Kurobane's physical attack (usually a kick to the middle body).
Aside from controlling his partners horrible puns Kurobane has a fairly normal personality. He is very friendly to children though despite his looks.
History[]
Regionals[]
During the Kantō semifinals, Bane and David failed to capitalize on their 5-0 lead and lost the match in the tiebreaker.
Nationals[]
Bane and Rokkaku are knocked out in the first round by Higa Middle School.
U-17 Camp[]
Kurobane and several other Middle Schoolers received invitations to the U-17 Training Camp camp along with several other middle schoolers. While there, upon arriving, the Head Coach declares all those without a Tennis ball must go home and leave the camp after having a helicopter drop 200 balls. Kurobane and the rest of the 50 Middle Schoolers effortlessly retrieve a ball.
He watches as his fellow Middle Schoolers annihilate the weaker High Schoolers from the 10th Court and below who challenged them for the balls they obtained.
The Mental Coach arrives asking the Middle Schoolers to pair up. He then suddenly requests they play tie-break matches where the loser must leave the camp.
Tennis Record[]
Official Middle School Tournaments[]
Tournament | Round | School | Position | Partner | Opponent(s) | Score |
2008 Kantō Regionals | Semi-Finals | Seigaku | Doubles 2 | Amane Hikaru | Momoshiro Takeshi/Kawamura Takashi | Lost (6-7) |
2008 Nationals | Round 1 | Higa | Amane Hikaru | Lost |
Playing Style and Techniques[]
Kurobane is a right-handed Serve-and-Volleyer and is a power player, emphasizing his role as a Serve-and-Volleyer easily with his powerful pronation serve. Like everyone from Rokkaku, he uses a custom racket made by their coach, Oji. Kurobane's racket head is standard sized, but his racket has a closed throat, like Amane's. This in theory should add more weight to a racket, although Kurobane is able to swing the racket with one hand very easily despite this.
Kurobane is agile and powerful enough to turn around and return Kawamura Takashi's Two-Handed Hadōkyū with a one-handed backhand volley while still in the air. He's shown to be individually more powerful than Momoshiro and Kawamura. His doubles play with Amane is very solid, as he was able to gain an early lead against the Momoshiro-Kawamura pair to a very impressive 5-0. As with most big hitters, he prefers to return a serve down the center line.
Kurobane, however, plays a more straightforward playstyle than Momoshiro and Kawamura, and he was easily flustered by Momoshiro's guile and mental games in the latter half of the match. However, he's able to quickly re-orient himself with the help of Amane (via a slap on his face). Kurobane is skilled enough to make the cut for the 50 middle schoolers invited to the U-17 camp.
Pronation during a serve in tennis is the act of rotating your hand or forearm inwards during the point of impact via the use of your wrist. By straightening one's arm to make the most of the server's reach and twisting the wrist down and inward, it will result in a powerful serve with more speed and spin than most serves without pronation.
Kurobane's naturally long arm and reach allows him to hit his serves at his maximum power and speed. The power of his serve was enough to knock Kawamura off his feet when Kurobane (accidentally) hit Kawamura in the chest with the serve. The power of Kurobane's pronation serve seems to at least be on the level of Momoshiro's Jack Knife.
U-17 Camp Stats[]
- Speed - 3: Because he possesses the mainspring which allows him to make dunk shots in basketball, the speed at which he travels to the net is pretty good.
- Power - 4: He has the power you’d expect would go with his incredible physique. His serve that uses pronation is enough to blow his opponents away.
- Stamina - 3: As he believes strongly in firing all cylinders, he’s the type that usually goes all out with his abilities. To not have thought about the distribution of his stamina is his biggest weakness.
- Mental - 3: With his not-easily-fazed, manly disposition, his emotional strength is more than balanced. However, there are situations in which he is unsure as to how to proceed.
- Technique - 3: Rather than using techniques, he’s the type to capitalise on his physical ability in order to unleash his skills.
Kurobe’s memo: One might say that the hot-blooded type who can capitalise on his doubles partner is a rarity indeed. However, being unable to feel refreshed unless they can bring out each other’s full strength, I feel, could very well become a drawback hereafter.
Personal Information[]
Etymology[]
- The name Harukaze means "spring" (春) (haru) and "wind, breeze, way, manner, blaster, gale, gust, sirocco, method" (風) (kaze).
- Harukaze's surname Kurobane means "black" (黒) (kuro) and "feather" (羽) (hane/bane).