HAIKYUU TRIVIA

USHIJIMA WAKATOSHI

牛島 若利

• Height : 189.5 cm

• Weight : 84.8 kg

• Age : 18

• Birthday : August 13

• His favorite food is hayashi rice

• His star sign is Leo.

• He dislikes things that he doesn't understand, or that give him the feeling of "not knowing what he's going to do", like Hinata.

• He is a third year at Shiratorizawa Academy and the captain and ace of the school's boys' volleyball team. His jersey number is 1.

• He reads all of the ads in magazines.

• His current concern is none.

• He has commonly been referred to as Ushiwaka, and it is probably because of the Ushi in Ushijima and Waka in Wakatoshi. However, the source of this name and when it was created are unknown.

• Ushijima is well respected by his team, and gets along with them well.

• Ushijima recognizes Oikawa's talent and skills, and has stated that he is an excellent player and should have attended Shiratorizawa to cultivate his talent because he draws out the maximum potential of whatever team he is on; however, Oikawa aims to defeat him.

• Currently, he is the number one ace in the Miyagi Prefecture and one of the country's top three aces, along with Sakusa and Kiryu.

• He has strong jump serve that can truly pressure his opponents.

• Ushijima doesn't speak often but when he does, he bluntly says what's on his mind and usually comes off as tactless. He will apologize if he realizes that he has insulted someone, but he won't change his viewpoint.

• Ushijima usually has a stoic expression on his face and appears rather intimidating.

• His teammates usually can't keep up with him when they're jogging together. He was surprised when that Hinata and Kageyama can keep up with his pace while jogging.

• He shares his birthday with Takanobu Aone.

• He is one of the few characters in the series who are left-handed, allowing his firepower to be at the highest caliber.

• He hates baseless self-confidence, the main reason why he dislikes Hinata, who is confident about beating Shiratorizawa despite being short and a member of a formerly unknown team. However, his teammate Tendō seems to think Ushijima doesn't like Hinata because the latter's too unpredictable, something Ushijima hasn't experienced before.

• It appears that Wakatoshi is also adept at passing, seeing as he was forced to receive one of Hinata's quick hits.

• His father would describe the ace of his team as a tall, strong guy that everyone on the team trusted, something that Ushijima aspires to become.

• During his childhood, Ushijima's mother wanted to change his left-handedness because it was not something that usually occurred in her side of her family. However, Ushijima's father disagreed and implored her to let him keep it, stating that it could become the child's greatest power, and it did.

• His birthday, August 13, is international lefthanders day.

• Ushijima's father was a second division volleyball player who used to attend Shiratorizawa; his generation is rumored to have won first place at Nationals. However, Ushijima's father had to retire due to an injury and then married Ushijima's mother, taking on her surname in the process.

• He looks down on Kageyama because of Kageyama's playing style during middle school.

• It has been stated that a cross spike is likely to be Ushijima's forte.

• Ushijima bases his volleyball style now on an encounter with his father back when he was very young.

• His spikes are based on pure strength and since he's left-handed, they have a different ball rotation from right-handed players'. This causes his opponents to have trouble receiving or blocking his attacks. 

• When he was very young, Ushijima's parents divorced and his father moved overseas.

• He is one of the three most noticed high school volleyball players in the nation and is the only player selected from Tohoku to participate in the Youth World Championship as Japan's under 18 volleyball representative (Under 19 in the anime)