Introduction |
“ | Akagi we're basketball players. No matter if we win or lose, we musn't hate anyone | ” |
—to Takenori Akagi |
Tsuyoshi Minami | |
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Name | |
Aliases | Ace Killer |
Characteristics | |
Gender | Male |
Height | 184 cm |
Hair Color | Black |
Eye Color | Black |
Professional Status | |
Occupation | Basketball Player |
Team | |
Year | 3rd Year |
Position | Small Forward/Shooting Guard |
Jersey Number | #4 |
Personal Status | |
First Appearance | |
Voices | |
[v · t · e] |
Tsuyoshi Minami (南 烈, Minami Tsuyoshi) is the captain of Toyotama High School and one of the two aces (who Sakuragi calls "chick-face" after the bird), the other being Kishimoto. He is known as the "Ace Killer" and lives up to this nickname by hitting Rukawa in the face with his elbow as he once did to Kenji Fujima of Shoyo , leaving him with a black eye for the whole 2nd half of the game. Minami however makes up for it later, as the night before the match against Sannoh, he gives Rukawa an ointment to help his eye heal and warns him about Sawakita.
Personality[]
He and Kishimoto are very loyal to their former coach Jiei holding on to the "80% offense and 20% defense" system, despite having a new coach to make up for the team's weak defense. He is the most aggressive among the players, even going far as holding their coach to his neck.
He became pressured when he saw Rukawa not being afraid of getting hurt and started to miss shots until he fell straight onto the latter thinking he would dodge his knee but ended up bleeding a lot on the forehead. After the game, he apologized to Rukawa and gave him an ointment.
Plot[]
Minami first appeared when his team almost got into a fight with Shohoku High, while telling Takenori Akagi that they must not hate each other, no matter what.
Vs Shohoku High[]
Minami notices that Shohoku’s best player is a 1st Year and said that he’ll guard him. As the game starts, Minami intercepts a bad pass from Ryota Miyagi, Minami then scores his first 3-points of the game. Despite scoring a second 3-pointer, his defense is rendered useless against Kaede Rukawa, but then Shinichi Maki revealed what Minami is truly capable of as the latter elbowed Rukawa in the eye, like what he did to Kenji Fujima in a flashback. Later on, the team is getting physical in defending Shohoku.
As the 1st Half ends, Minami said that they shall go for 60 points in the next half but Coach Kanehira intervenes to criticize their lack of defense and former Coach Jie Kitano to which Minami chokes Kanehira for his actions
As the 2nd Half starts, Minami does a flashy pass to Minori Kishimoto for a shot while remembering the question on why Jiei left the team, the flashback shows that Jiei got fired, which infuriated everyone on Toyotama especially Minami. Minami tells Rukawa to rest on the bench, which fires up the latter even more despite struggling with a black eye. Then next, Minami does an airball 3-pointer, Minami’s 3-pointers haven’t been as reliable in the 2nd half and so during a timeout, he got into a scuffle with Kishimoto, who gave hims a harsh reality check on the situation now. According to someone, Minami’s struggles came from some type of pressure, when he hurt Rukawa, he is surprised that the latter is still performing well, the pressure also comes due to Jiei’s firing, Minami and the others from the past decided to not listen to Kanehira’s gameplan and focused on their signature Run-and-Gun offense in hopes of bringing Jiei back. An infuriated Minami then tries a layup, only to fall down hard to Rukawa just to scare him. While resting, he met Jiei, who is now the coach of an elementary team. After he decided that he made a mistake, Minami came back and scored back-to-back 3-pointers for the team to reduce the scoring difference to 4 but it isn’t enough as Shohoku came away with the victory anyway.
At night after the match, Minami came to apologize for his actions to Rukawa and gave him an eye ointment for his injury, while warning him of a powerful opponent that he must defeat in order to become Japan’s No. 1 Player.
Abilities[]
He is Osaka's #1 shooter and this was proven when he shot 2 straight 3-pointers, easily reducing their 10-point deficit to 4.
Weakness[]
Despite his shooting abilities, his violent nature can affect the team sometimes, he wanted to prove to everyone that Jiei’s offensive gameplan is the perfect way to win to the point that he forgot what the meaning of victory in the game of basketball feels like, it’s because of them that he can be pressurized sometimes and will miss multiple shots.
Physical Ability | 8/10 | |
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Technique | 9/10 | |
Stamina | 8/10 | |
Mental Strength | 8/10 | |
Special Ability | 8/10 | |
Etymology[]
- The name Tsuyoshi means "ardent, violent, vehement, furious, severe, extreme" (烈).
- Tsuyoshi's surname Minami means "south" (南).