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Subaru Hasegawa
Subaru
Name in Japanese 長谷川 昴
Romaji Translation Hasegawa Subaru
Nickname/s Subarun
Onii-chan
Voice Actor (Japanese) Yūki Kaji
Personal Info
Gender Male
Birthday October 11th (Libra)
Class 1st grade, 3rd group
Position Coach

Point Guard (as a player)

Height 172 cm (5'8")
Blood Type A
Media Appearances
Anime Debut Here Comes an Elementary School Student! Yay! Yay! Yay!

Subaru Hasegawa (長谷川 昴 Hasegawa Subaru?) is the main protagonist of Ro-Kyu-Bu! Series.

He is a freshman from Nashiba High School, and an amateur basketball player, but has no team to play since the school's basketball club is deactivated. Later he is tasked by his aunt Mihoshi to coach an all female sixth grade school basketball team.

Devastated by his school's basketball club being suspended since the team got itself involved in a scandal: The captain elopes with adviser teacher's daughter who turns out to be an elementary schoolgirl, Subaru plans to quit playing basketball once and for all. Later he reluctantly accepts Mihoshi's offer for him to train the Keishin girls basketball team, initially Subaru only agrees to coach for three days, until learning the club is at the brink of being disbanded, and realizing how important this ragtag team to Tomoka.

After achieving their first victory, Subaru decides to stay with the girls, even turns down invitations from several high school's basketball clubs.

He has been given several nicknames by his girls, including Subarun[1] and Onii-chan.

Character Overview[]

Appearance[]

Subaru has brown hair, brown irises, and is relatively white-skinned, all inherited from his mother, Nayu. He doesn't look very alike to his father Ginga.

His physique is moderately muscular, well-toned, but not tall by standard of a basketball player.

Personality[]

Like most male protagonists in "harem" stories, Subaru is a gentle and caring person, however being passive and reluctant during initial stage of his involvement with the girls, but once his mind is made up, Subaru can be very determined and active. He also doesn't know how to be with his girls as lovers, for he prefers to be brother-like and friend-like in most of times.

Being devastated since his basketball club/team is deactivated for one year, Subaru once thinks about quitting his basketball career, if not regains courage and confidence by coaching Keishin Girls Basketball Team.

Still Subaru can be indecisive and weak-minded sometimes, as seen in Episode 8 of first season, he doesn't stand up to defend his coaching with steadfastness when Aoi threatens him (eventually girls bail Subaru out and avert this crisis via confronting Aoi in a basketball match).

Despite all girls in the team have feelings to Subaru to different extents, in light novel, anime and manga, he seemly only views Tomoka in a romantic way (which is dubbed as "Tomoka's Route" by some fans, comparing with a visual novel).

Abilities[]

He once made 10 free throws in a row in the arcade, and he is capable to make much more than that.

He is able to do at least 46 one-arm push-ups, if not disrupted by a certain Andrias Japonicus girl.

As a player, he led his historically winless middle school team all the way to the prefectural tournament final, where they lost the championship match. This fact alone speaks volumes of his basketball skills and abilities, making him suitable for the coaching job at Keishin.

As a coach, he trained a ragtag group of elementary school girls into a team capable of defeating their school's boys' team which was stated to have won the prefectural championship prior to the start of the series and taking to overtime Suzuridani Academy, the strongest elementary school girls' team in their prefecture and eventually all of Japan when they dominated the rest of their opponents on their way to the national championship after defeating Keishin.

Trivia[]

  • Light novel of Ro-Kyu-Bu! is mainly written from Subaru Hasegawa's first-person perspective.
  • By the reason above, large portion of contents in light novel are about Subaru's psychological activities and under a few occasions he can be slightly sarcastic, instead of being a total "Mr. Nice Guy" like his equivalents in anime and manga.
  • Subaru addresses himself with "Ore (おれ / 俺)", a common way of self-addressing used by many Japanese boys nowadays. However it's considered moderately arrogant and impolite at formal occasions.
  • His last name Hasegawa (はせがわ / 長谷川) roughly means "the Long Valley's River". While his surname Subaru (すばる / 昴) is named after a star - Pleiades, a star in the Twenty-Eight Mansions (二十八宿).
  • Interestingly, it is the name of the star which Tomoka wished to see in Winter. It is highly likely that her feelings for Subaru played a factor for her affiliation to Pleiades star.
  • Height-wise, Subaru is actually not ideal for playing basketball, but he makes up this crucial disadvantage by devotion and skills.
  • Although being the leading protagonist, Subaru never has an illustration (character setting/design) in light novel like his girls do. And he appears to be slightly "girlish" for a highschool boy, in both anime and manga, this is a common phenomenon shared by many male protagonists in "harem" stories.
  • Subaru's involvement with girls is frequently parodied by fans as a reflection of Hikaru Genji (光源氏), a high aristocrat recorded in The Tale of Genji (源氏物語), who is known for adopting young girls and train them into ideal women then marry them later. Coincidentally, such parody is also seen in Episode 6 of Ro-Kyu-Bu! SS, as Subaru and his girls portray Hikaru Genji's story.
  • Subaru's personality and character development match a typical male protagonist's specifications in a "harem" story: Initially having little to no enthusiasm of getting involved with his girls, but gradually finds inner strength and sense of responsibility during the progress of interacting with them, then he finds himself actually enjoys being with his "harem".
  • Subaru doesn't do a good job on his academic endeavors.
  • Subaru is ticklish on his feet.
  • Subaru is not a life-enthusiast, proved by he doesn't have widely diversified hobbies apart from basketball, and he handles his basketball club's suspension badly. His only confirmed hobby beside basketball is a handful of video games.
  • Subaru chose to join Nashiba High School's basketball club because his admiration to its captain, ironically, who later became the very person who caused the club's deactivation.
  • Despite potent skills he demonstrates, Subaru, as well as all basketball players featured in Ro-Kyu-Bu! are merely amateur athletics.
  • Although in the light novel, anime and manga, it's explicitly hinted Subaru only views Tomoka in a romantic way but it's possible for him to pursuit romantic relationships with other girls in the video games of Ro-Kyu-Bu!.
  • Subaru once said "まったく、小学生は最高だぜ!! (Just like I thought, elementary schoolgirls are definitely the best!!)" when witnessing the his girls are making progresses. This line eventually becomes the slogan of entire Ro-Kyu-Bu! Series, even partially incorporated into ending theme's lyrics of Ro-Kyu-Bu! SS. It's also parodied by fans as "まったく、ロリは最高だぜ!! (Just like I thought, lolis are definitely the best!!)" since Subaru's girls are classified as lolis.

Gallery[]

See Subaru Hasegawa/Gallery.

References[]

  1. Maho at 18m5s in episode 5.

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