Tsukishima ⁰⁰²

appearance

Tsukishima is very tall and has an incredibly thin build for a volleyball player. Despite being a first-year student, he is the tallest player on the volleyball team, standing at 190.1 cm tall. He has short blonde hair, pale skin, thin eyebrows, and golden-brown eyes. He is often seen with a frown or a condescending smile on his face. After joining the Karasuno volleyball team, Tsukishima wears the standard Karasuno volleyball uniform (black, orange, and white uniform with the number 11 on the back) during matches. He also wears knee pads and white volleyball shoes with green detailing. He is also the only player on the Karasuno team who wears glasses. Since Chapter 109, Tsukishima began wearing prescription sports glasses given to him by his brother. Outside of matches and practices, Tsukishima wears a black gakuran, the male uniform of Karasuno. He is usually seen wearing white headphones around his neck. The brand name of these headphones appears to be "Somy", which is a pun on the actual brand name "Sony". He has been seen wearing several T-shirts with half moons on them, referencing his name "Tsukishima", where tsuki means "moon". During a flashback Hinata has while in Brazil, it is shown that Tsukishima grew his hair a little longer in his third year. When he is shown later during the match between the Adlers and the Jackals, he is now wearing new glasses.

personality

Tsukishima is very outspoken and sometimes irritates his teammates due to his antagonistic nature (most notably Hinata, Kageyama, Nishinoya and Tanaka) and sometimes other teams due to his smug and casual attitude, taking pride and pleasure when his opponents view him as a nuisance as seen with Tendō and Shirabu. Whenever someone does or says something stupid or foolish, he is seen chuckling. However, he seems to be intimidated by his superiors, and is not seen when Daichi reprimands Tanaka for antagonizing Aoba Johsai despite the fact that he did it as well, or when he backs off when Ennoshita reprimands him. Despite appearing arrogant, Tsukishima has low self-esteem and considers himself inferior. Kuroo first notices this and accidentally angers him by suggesting that he will lose to Hinata, to which he says that he is already beneath him. After the match against Shiratorizawa, despite being the MVP, he is seen calling himself a fool for only being able to block Ushijima's spikes once, which only increases how little he believes in himself and his accomplishments. Although Tsukishima maintains a personality of someone who shows little interest in everything and wouldn't do something he doesn't like or enjoy, he truly enjoys volleyball. He initially refrained from putting too much effort into volleyball and being too passionate about it for fear of suffering the same fate as his brother. However, after his clash with Yamaguchi and hearing Bokuto's inspiring words at the Tokyo training camp, he began to take the sport more seriously and eventually found his passion and motivation for volleyball when he blocked Ushijima. Tsukishima remains calm, most of the time, but can be seen getting visibly upset when people underestimate him or tell him what he can or can't do, and uses this as motivation to prove them wrong. He also says things like "It's not a competition" with Shoyo.

relationship with Yamaguchi

Tsukishima is shown to be a close friend of Yamaguchi, who calls him by his nickname Tsukki. When they were younger, Tsukishima helped save Yamaguchi from bullies by saying that they were pathetic, though it is unclear if he intended to help him or simply insult the bullies. Because of this, Yamaguchi later began to stay close to Tsukishima, longing to be as cool as him. Yamaguchi and Tsukishima are rarely seen apart and are often portrayed making fun of each other together. However, as time went on, their relationship began to grow apart in terms of training and desire to improve. While Yamaguchi persevered in working on his jump float serve, Tsukishima did not push himself any harder than necessary. This worried Yamaguchi and some of the other members, but they did not say anything at first. Later, during the Summer Training Camp Arc, Tsukishima still refused to push himself in his training as he did not see why he should. His behavior angered Yamaguchi, who, for the first time, yelled at Tsukishima and asked him what other motivation he needed besides pride. This changed Tsukishima's mindset and impressed him; he even called Yamaguchi "cool" for the first time. Tsukishima began to work harder and their relationship returned to normal after this event.

relationship with Hinata

Tsukishima initially had a rather antagonistic attitude towards Hinata. He has expressed his dislike of the latter's energetic and passionate nature towards volleyball despite his lack of height; he even went so far as to try to crush Hinata's spirit during their 3-on-3 match at the beginning of the series. It was later revealed that this was due to his brother's past playing volleyball at Karasuno and Hinata's idolization and desire to become the Little Giant. During the summer training camp, Tsukishima was found to consider himself inferior to Hinata's skills, as noted by some of his teammates and Kuroo. After finding his own love for the sport, Tsukishima began to have a bit more of a competitive rivalry with Hinata and became determined not to be outdone by him.

relationship with Kageyama

Tsukishima and Kageyama had an incredibly rough start when they first met to the point where it almost led to violence. Tsukishima would use Kageyama's past as a terrible teammate to insult the latter and would often call him "King/Your Majesty", which angered the setter. When Kageyama began his changeup, Tsukishima was at first surprised that the setter had started sending him the shots he wanted, as he had stated that he didn't want Kageyama to control things. Since then, their relationship has improved and the two began to see each other as teammates. While they still tend to argue with each other, they work well together during a match but often refuse to complement each other.

relationship with Karasuno in general

As for his relationships with his teammates, they vary, though he treats some members with disdain. This disdain is mostly applied to his second-year senpais Tanaka and Nishinoya, who are hot-blooded and loud most of the time, traits he found irritating. However, he respects the two and acknowledges their incredible abilities. Tsukishima respects his third-year students Daichi, Sugawara, and Asahi, but likely because they are more mature and level-headed, though he is shown to be wary of Daichi when the captain is angry and sometimes keeps his distance from Sugawara as he finds the vice-captain just as scary as Daichi. Unlike most of his teammates, Tsukishima is not attracted to Kiyoko nor does he have that much interaction with her. Like Daichi, Tsukishima is respectful but cautious towards Ennoshita, as he too recognizes the second-year as the next team captain and is seen eager for what Ennoshita is capable of.

relationship with Kuroo

Tsukishima first met the captain of Nekoma during Karasuno vs Nekoma's practice match, where he dismissed Kuroo's suggestion that he needed to relax more. During the summer training camps, Tsukishima would actively seek Kuroo's guidance in improving his blocking once he began to get more involved in volleyball and started learning how to better utilize read blocking and proper hand and arm placement; thus, he became known as Kuroo's pupil. Much of Kuroo's help and advice would aid Tsukishima during critical moments of matches. Despite this, Tsukishima feels that he would not be able to beat Kuroo alone in a match and admits that Kuroo's skills are far above his own. Tsukishima greatly respects Kuroo, but shows annoyance when the captain occasionally mocks him.

relationship with Bokuto

When Tsukishima was beginning to struggle to find the motivation to put more effort into volleyball, he learned from Bokuto that he can become completely addicted when he experiences "that moment", something he would feel during the match against Shiratorizawa. Bokuto often calls Tsukishima by his nickname Tsukki, something Tsukishima has tried to get him to stop doing but has been unsuccessful. Regardless, while Tsukishima may be annoyed by the ace's forceful personality, he respects Bokuto as a person and as a fearsome opponent.

relationship with Akiteru

He is Kei's older brother. During their childhood, Tsukishima greatly admired his brother for being the star player of their high school and it seemed that his interest in volleyball was due to Akiteru. The two were incredibly close and Tsukishima would often ask to go watch his brother's matches once he started attending Karasuno, but was always asked not to. When Tsukishima discovered his brother's deception, their relationship became incredibly fragile and Tsukishima began to distance himself from Akiteru. After Tsukishima attended training camp in Tokyo with the rest of the team, the brothers finally had a meaningful conversation and are starting to rebuild their relationship. Since then, Akiteru would continue to help Tsukishima out by inviting him to join practice with his team. Despite Tsukishima telling Akiteru not to attend his matches, Akiteru would still go to support his brother, but Tsukishima could always see through his disguise if he wore one in an attempt to not be noticed.