Rino Kita

**"Insignificant being be gone!"**

## Character Information

### Epithet

Ri-Ri (manga), Riu (anime) (by Atsumu Miya & Girls' Volleyball Team)

### Also Known As

Ri-Ri (manga), Riu (anime) (by Atsumu Miya & Girls' Volleyball Team)

## Background Information

### Family

* Yumie Kita (Grandmother)
* Unnamed Older Sister
* Unnamed Younger Brother
* Shinsuke Kita (Older Brother)
* Tsutomu Goshiki (Boyfriend)
* Unnamed Niece
* Unnamed Nephew

### Likes

Tofu Hamburger
 School Accomplishments
 Her Teammates

### Dislikes

Bullying
 Fighting
 Miya Twins
 Osamu and Atsumu's Fangirls

## Professional Status

### Position

Outside Hitter
 Captain
 Defense Specialist

**Rino Kita** (Japanese: **北 (きた)  理乃 (りの)** , *Kita Rino*) is a second-year student attending Inarizaki High. She plays as a wing spiker and the team captain of the girls' volleyball team.

As of 2018, she is one of the new girls' volleyball team's coach at Inarizaki High, alongside some of her former underclassmen.

## Appearance

Rino is of slightly above-average height with an athletically-inclined build. She has dull brown eyes and thin eyebrows, traits typically inherited by members of the main Kita household. Indentical to her older siblings, Rino's hair is short, being light gray and having black tips at the ends. She doesn't have a fringe in the middle of her forehead, instead sporting a hime-type hairstyle with drastically shorter bangs in the middle of her forehead and over her eyes. She is typically shown in either her school uniform or her practice clothes.

## Personality

Described as a "loner" by her older siblings, especially Shinsuke Kita, Rino typically keeps to herself but will sometime (on a whim) help others; having taught many of her teammates valuable lessons about volleyball, but saying it with the most blunt delivery of words as possible. Her preference tends to lean towards solitary activities and her trust is hard to earn; due to various bullying incidents that happened to her when she was younger, Rino is quite reserved. Underneath her reservations of the people around her, Rino yearns for the unknown and delights in adventures, especially ones based in nature. Though seemly a cold and reserved person, Rino is actually warm and gentle despite what her outward demeanor may project.

Despite her calm and cool-headed demeanor, Rino has been shown to have a short temper (in extreme situations) and will often yell loudly, sometimes even saying all of her words in a chilling tone. This side of Rino is not usually displayed and only comes out when she is extremely frusterated, compared to an exploding volcano. The moniker of "Demon Senpai" for Rino was born due to several incidents in which Rino completely lost her cool or when her anger was too much for her body to contain, to the point where she brought it out against her team's opponents.

Highly overprotective over her teammates, due to the orphan nature of much of her team's members - she treats them akin to family and frequently enages in light-hearted scuffles with them. As a result, many of her underclassman refer to her as if she is their biological mother, even getting annoyed when random male volleyball players from other teams come up to her in order to try and get her phone number. Due to being orphaned herself after the death of her parents in a car incident, Rino has matured greatly from her younger years and has become a motherly-like figure for the team, with Hayama being considered the "fatherly-like" figure of the team.

On the court, Rino is a sterwart pillar of defensive and offensive prowess, allowing herself to be a sounding board which her teammates can bounch ideas off of, in order to faciliate plans and cut down on ineffectiveness while playing matches. Knowledgable about every single good and bad habits of her teammates' habits, as well as other 'tells' ingrained in their body movements and motions, allows her to make split-second decisions and strategize effectively, in order to have all of her players playing at their peak. Any possible mishaps that may occur during any match or really, any of the gameplay is handled accordingly by Rino.

## Background

When Rino was only seven, with her parents having gone away on a vacation for their wedding anniversity and leaving her and her older brother Shinsuke to stay with their beloved grandmother Yumie Kita; their vacation ended in tragedy when their car was struck by a truck that went into the wrong traffic lane and didn't see the smaller car. This tragedy is what caused Rino to mature into a highly reserved person, that had attachment issues. Growing up, she was called clingy and often bullied for her hair color, in the end, her grandmother decided to switch her to home tutoring and that is what caused Rino's issues with interpersonal connections.

When she moved to Inarizaki, having been scouted as a potential candidate for the girls' volleyball team, the coach and managers informed her that nobody had signed up in the year before her, due to the devestating and greatly humilating losses that the Inarizaki High girls' volleyball team had suffered at Nationals the year preceeding her and as a result, they had decided to quit the club. Consequently, the second years were forced to act in the shoes of the third years. In this way, the volleyball club struggled until their second year, with Rino now officially elected as their captain Believing the volleyball club to be in good hands, the former second years (now third years) left the club but made a promise with all of their underclassmen to come watch them at Nationals. Due to this, Rino is known among the high school volleyball circuit as the youngest volleyball team captain ever having attained her captainship in the middle of the former second years (now third years)'s school year.

## Plot

### **Tokyo Nationals Arc**

#### **Karasuno vs Inarizaki**

Rino makes her first appearance with the rest of the Inarizaki girls' team on Day 2 of the Spring Interhigh Tournament, which sends up a stir among the girls' volleyball teams. When asked a question by the crowding interviewers about the current condition of the team, Rino is interrupted from answering the question by the antics of her team, who are fighting. Attempting to answer the questions of the interviewers is proving to be pointless with Rino asking the coaches to step in, while she handles her teammates. The attention of much of the upcoming game's audience is redirected towards the Inarzaki girls' volleyball team, when Rino begins to loudly scold her teammates for causing a commotion.

## Statistics

 Stamina
 Game Sense
 Technique
 Speed

Rino is known as the "Supreme Defense Specialist" and a self-created volleyball genius for her finely developed techniques and game sense. As a high-caliber defense specialist, Rino is considered one of the few reasons why the Inarizaki High girls' volleyball team is so highly ranked. According to fellow defense specialists Daichi Sawamura and Shinsuke Kita, Rino is known as the "Ultimate Defense Specialist" for the female side of the high school volleyball circuit. A safe and reliable player who constantly improves her defense qualities, but can also serve in other roles on the volleyball court.

### **Skills**

* **Receives**: Leaning almost exclusively towards defense, Rino specializes in receives and among the various high school girls' defense specialists, has the highest ratio of receives. During the match against Itachiyama Institute, Rino is shown making receives of spikes from the outside and inside wing spikers. It is noted that Rino specializes in the area of receive returning.
* **Setting**: She is capable of setting from the back of the court, middle, or front of the court. Additionally, she is shown to be capable of producing a mid-caliber-strength jump serve.
* **Jump Serve**: Unusually for a defense specialist, Rino has shown experience with utilizing a jump serve and consequently by association setting as well. Due to not being used to the power and strength behind one, she has a little trouble with aiming her jump serve.

## Relationships

### **Inarizaki High**

* **Miyu Hikasa**: Close friends and classmates, Rino and Miyu grew up together in Hyōgo Prefecture, having played volleyball together since they were very young. Due to growing up (at first) without any female friends, she was often lonely and longed for the companionship of her older brother (Shinsuke Kita), though he was often busy with his own life and friends; consequently this led to Rino's growing unhappiness and the start of her depressive period. Bullied by the other girls in her class for her nerdy behavior and other such problems, resulting in Rino's many suicide attempts. Miyu found her while she was doing one of these suicide attempts and saved her from dying that day, earning her Rino's friendship. Miyu would fiercely defend Rino from all of the girls who bullied her into severe depression and brought Rino out of her shell. Miyu's bond of friendship with her was so impactful that she decided to join their junior high's girls' volleyball team, just to become closer to Miyu. As a result of this close relationship, Miyu is highly overprotective over Rino and is knowledgable about all of her nervous habits, as well as her bad habits (on the court) as well as her good habits (on the court). This close bond has allowed Rino and Miyu to preform at high efficency and effectiveness while on the volleyball court.
* **Inarizaki High**: Though widely feared by her own team for her immense temper problems and harsh spitting words, Rino is considered the "mother" of the Inarizaki girls' volleyball team and is respected for her leadership abilities. Most members of the team fear Rino and are quick to obey any order that she dispens upon them and are willing to stop any frivelous activities at the mere sight of her. The third-years (managers) express no such tribulations towards her and the only people who are shown using her given name, in fact they are the few people who are able to stand up to Rino's temper and come out unscathed. She is quite judgemental towards her team when they are doing stupid things though heavily enjoys their company, even leaping to their defense when people say hurtful things about them; having given a first-year Shiratorizawa girls' volleyball team manager a tongue lashing for saying Miyu a "hardass bitch".

## Trivia

* Favorite Food: **Matcha** (Japanese: **抹茶**, *Matcha*)-flavored snacks
* Hated Food: *Tofu* Hamburger (Japanese: **豆腐ハンバーグ (とうふはんばーぐ)** , *Tōfu Hanbāgu*)
* Current Concern: Her bean allergy is getting worse
* She has severe allergies to beans (of all kinds), yeast breads, and a severe milk intolerance, which forces her to drink almond milk.
* Miya Rino is another character with the given name of "Rino", though her name is written with the kanji ("宮 凛乃" *Miya Rino*)
* Kita's name is derived from the Ezo Red Fox, also known as "**キタ**キツネ " or **kita**kitsune
* **Nomenclature**:
* Rino (理乃) - *Reason, Logic; Field*
	+ Kita (北) - *North*

## References

1. ↑ Rino was already the actual captain of the volleyball team in the middle of the volleyball team (due to her talent, charisma, and analyzing talents) and was considered the "court captain" of the volleyball team up until the third years left. Due to the second year captain still being there, she was never referred to as the official captain in matches, even though she was.