A popular and good-looking guy, and unsurprisingly has a bunch of fangirls. In fact, he made the school's "Top Three Hottest Guys" for three years in a row. He lives together with Nao because of the whole renting fiasco. He's very aloof and antisocial, and gets straight A's without studying. Because he is very mature looking, he is commonly believed to be older than he looks. In Good Morning Kiss, it is stated that he looks a lot like his mother. Both of his parents died while he was still an elementary school student. He had had a big crush on Yuri for 6 years but was heartbroken when she had married his older brother despite her knowing about his crush on her. He then started to date Nao later in the story. He gets mad or jealous whenever Abe shows up out of nowhere or whenever he or any other boy hangs out with Nao. Continuing to give off the cold shoulder, he's outspoken and slowly lightens up after dating with Nao Yoshikawa. To make him confess that he liked Nao, in Chapter 15, Yuri hid Nao in her room and asked Uehara why he did not want to come home. He admitted that it was because he liked Nao, and that although his original reason for leaving home was because he was heartbroken from his older brother's marriage with Yuri, he has gotten over his crush on her and had wanted to be with Nao. Nao slipped down by accident, and he hears her. He tells her he really meant it after Yuri leaves, and does not get his feelings replied back to until Valentine's Day, when they officially become a couple. He lies about his age to get a job and has a surprisingly large appetite. In the end of the manga, he and Nao move into different apartments because the landlady of their previous apartment had a son who came back from America and had wanted to rent out a room for him and his girlfriend. When they agree, Uehara tells Nao that he wants to live alone because he wants to be more independent but tells her that they will never be apart. This ends up as a rumor that Uehara had proposed to Nao and had spread across the entire town. Uehara clarifies to Nao that he did not propose to her but wants them to still be together. When he and Nao move into their apartments, they learn that they live next door to each other because of the help of the landlady of their previous apartment and Nakatsugawa.  (source: Wikipedia)

__Height:__ 165 cm 
__Dominant Hand:__ Right 
__Play Style:__ Counter-puncher 

Ibu Shinji is the renowned genius of Fudomine. He was able to defeat the star players of Tokyo-based schools which helped Fudomine reach the district finals. His Spot was responsible for Echizen's accident during the game. Ibu has the habit of mumbling and talking to himself, much to his teammates' annoyance.

40-Yard Dash: 5.5 seconds  Bench Press: 65 kg  Position: Kicker  Jersey Number: 99    2nd Year Student (Grade 11)   The kicker for the Bando Spiders. He is a direct rival of Musashi, and as noted by Hiruma, he has never missed a try-for-point kick. He even once kicked a soft drink can right into a rubbish bin made specifically for cans - off of a bridge railing (even more impressively -and unfortunately for Kotaro- it wasn't empty at the time). His skills as a kicker is seen when he could easily get a field goal from 50 yards. It is because of him that the Bando Spiders adopted the philosophy of a kicking team, a team that relies on kicks to win the game. However, his accuracy can also be used against him since it's easy to predict where his kicks will land and they can then be returned. Furthermore, in the match against Deimon, Kōtarō stresses out and actually misses a field goal attempt, which could have won the game.   Koutarou's most famous quote is, "That's smart" (Smart daze) (Otherwise "That's not smart", etc.), and is seen combing his hair whenever he has time, even during a match. He seems to dislike Akaba Hayato because he keeps talking about music. Koutarou used up a time-out just to explain the history of the Spiders to Deimon. His last name is the same as a famous samurai, Sasaki Koujiro, a rival of Miyamoto Musashi. He asked Bando's manager, Sawai Juri, who is also his childhood friend to go out with him 3 times, but was refused with "Whatever, stop saying stupid things, moron!", but she never actually said "No".   In an interesting note of trivia, a poll conducted in Japan had Koutarou as the only non-Deimon player to win in a showdown, with him winning in the "coolest character" battle against Taki.   (Source: Wikipedia) 

Eiji Moriyama

Characters