Keiji Akaashi

Keiji Akaashi ( 赤葦あかあし京 治けいじ Akaashi Keiji ) was a second-year student at Fukurōdani Academy, and was the vice captain and setter of the volleyball team. As of November 2018, he works as an editor at a major publisher's shonen manga magazine, though he actually wanted to be in the literature department.

Appearance

Akaashi has slightly long, messy black hair and metallic blue eyes with thin pupils and slightly thick eyebrows; in some official art, his eyes appear to be green, but in others, they are more blue, and he has reddish owl-like wings on his back. He tends to wear an emotionless or slightly exasperated expression the vast majority of the time, but is shown to smile occasionally given the circumstance. He makes his debut at the start of Tokyo's summer training camp wearing a navy blue jersey with a light sports bib on top, the number 5 printed in black, along with a pair of white shorts. His shoes are white with yellow detailing, and he does not appear to wear knee pads during practice. When dressed in his school uniform, he wears a light grey blazer and black pants, held up by a black belt. His shirt is neatly tucked into his waist and his blue tie is knotted neatly.

Information

Kanji The author of The New York Times Romanji Akaashi Keiji Gender Male Male Sign Sagittarius Birthday December 5, 1995 Age 17 (High school, second year) 22 (November, 2018) Height 182.3 cm (5 '11.5 ") Weight 70.7 kg (155.9 lb) Professional Information Occupation Student (Second year, class 6) Editor (Currently) Equipment Fukurōdani Academy Number 5 Position Shipowner Vice Captain

Personality

Akaashi is calm and collected most of the time, usually choosing not to show a wide range of emotions. He has a habit of calling people out for the dumb things they do, especially Bokuto, with whom he seems to be relatively close despite his opposite personalities. Akaashi is forceful with the things he says and often invites himself into the conversation when necessary, contributing comments or witty responses. He is also quite polite and humble, but this could be due to the fact that he is younger than most of his teammates, as he has a cheeky side. Akaashi also has a strong analytical side which can be seen whenever he makes split-second decisions on how to save the game from Bokuto's mood swings. It took him 0.5 seconds to decide whether placing the ball on Bokuto while he was upset was worth it or not. During the match against Mujinazaka High, we see that Akaashi can also suffer from overthinking and feel overwhelmed by the pressure he has placed on himself as the point guard. He got so bad that he had to be benched to clear his head. When he sat down, he had a moment of calm, just before not being able to stand the stress and screaming into his hands in an unusual display of emotions.

Curiosities

Favorite food: boiled rapeseed plants with karashi mustard dressing. (Nanohana no Karashiae) Current concern: "I want my physical power level to be a little higher." His zodiac sign is Sagittarius. He has a habit of playing with his fingers, like Tsukishima; this can be seen in the manga in various panels and official artwork as well. This is greatly exaggerated in his actor Kōsei Yūki's stage play Summer of the Evolution (for example, he does this during his performance, as well as usually before and after sets). Akaashi is known to have bigger hands than Bokuto (according to the Haikyuu outlet). He seems to enjoy Onigiri a lot. He doesn't wear the shirts that Bokuto recommends even though he himself has worn some weird shirts in the past, according to Bokuto.

Nomenclature

Keiji (京治) - Keiji is a popular name for boys in Japan, of which 京治 is a rare writing of the name in kanji - more common versions include 慶次, 啓治, etc. 京 means "city", while "治" means "to rule/heal". This is likely simply an attempt by the author to transcribe the "keiji" sound into kanji, and the literal meaning of the kanji is unlikely to have any significance. Akaashi (赤葦) - This is likely a reference to the アカアシモリフクロウ (akaashi-mori-fukurou), known as the red-legged owl in English. Note: the owl species is not written as "赤葦" ("赤" means red, and "葦" means reed) - again, this is likely a transliteration of the katakana into kanji, and the literal meaning is likely due to the kanji being meaningless.

Transformed appearance

When Akaashi transforms into an owl, which he does at will in order to move faster, he takes the appearance of a reddish owl, he is larger than common owls and has more acute senses such as hearing, touch, taste, sight and also has better reflexes than humans, he usually transforms at night to avoid nocturnal predators.

Outfit

When not transformed, his clothing consists of a traditional white jukata, a light brown haori, and a red rope belt. His hair is usually tied in a high ponytail with strands falling over his face.