Neru Takahashi

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## Character Information

### Height

165.1 cm. (5'5")167.1cm (5'5"8) 170.2cm (5'7") - Post-timeskip

## Background Information

### Family

Unnamed MotherUnnamed FatherHaku Takahashi (Older brother)

## Professional Status

### Teams

Balli Hieolo (Former)MSBY Black Jackals(Current)

### Number

1. 1 (Former)
2. 19 (Current)

## Seiyu Information

### English Actor

Ricco Fajardo

**Neru Takahashi** (Japanese: 寝る高橋 *Neru Takahashi*) was a 2nd year student at Kamomedai High. He was the ace of it's volleyball team and was ranked number 2nd in Nagano Prefecture and ranked 5th among the country's top aces. He was the main antagonist of the first half of the Winter Tournament Arc. He is the younger brother of Haku Takahashi. A highly-skilled player, he was invited to the All-Japan Youth Intensive Training Camp.

In 2018, Neru became a member of Balli Hieolo, a professional team in South Korea alongside with his best friend, Yuki Otake. He also became a member of the new Japan Men's National Volleyball Team during the 2023 Olypmics. As 2024, he is now a member of the MSBY Black Jackals a Division 1 team in the V-League.

## Appearance

Upon entering the first-year of high school, Neru had average height and an average build. He stood at 165.1 cm and grew to 167. 2cm throughout his second-year, then he started following his older brother's routine on how to be tall and grew to 170.5cm. He was the 6th tallest on the Kamomedai volleyball team, which he truly hated. Neru has unkempt white hair and sharp light blue eyes, he has medium tanned skin and is mostly seen with a stern look. Due to his angered expression all the time, he is mostly teased for being a "Human Pomeranian" by his fellow teammates. Neru typically dresses in his Kamomedai school uniform, a white jacket designed with light blue stripes and white baggy pants. Beneath his jacket is a white sweatshirt.

During matches, Neru wears his volleyball uniform-- a white jersey and corresponding shorts with white and dark blue stripes on the sides. On the back of his jersey is his position number 1 and his school's name written in kanji. On the court, he wears kneepads and white volleyball shoes with red accents.

Post-timeskip, Neru's hair grew longer, being styled a bit more messier. Neru has undergone intensive training in South Korea. As a result of doing intense exercises and following a strict diet and health regimen, Neru has grown to 176 cm and developed a more muscular and bigger body, but not as big as the other members of Balli Hieolo. During his free time, he is seen wearing a black, unzipped hoodie over a white shirt, baggy black pants, and black shoes.

## Personality

Neru has a cold and aloof personality. Stated by some students at school, that they barely see him smile nor show signs of excitement or happiness. He started playing volleyball because his brother told him to. Sometimes, Neru can be seen with a determined look on his face, only when he's playing Volleyball. At school, he had many admirers due to being the younger brother of Haku Takahashi. Neru is often seen scolding his teammates for their playful and childish antics and is also seen hitting them with a ball if they don't train properly nor take their training seriously. Even with a cold facade, Neru can be very confident and determined when it comes to wining, he loves the feeling of wining and wants to experience it forever because it gives him some kind of "Feeling" that he's obsessed with, he hates seeing his enemies be all cheerful and happy when they win a match and absolutely hates people who trash-talk or are "too confident" in themselves.

Neru can be seen sometimes saying rude things to his enemies, like "Don't get to excited" or "Just you wait" and other stuff. He is a hardworking person and sees his Nii-chan as someone as both his rival, and his friend. Stated by Yuki that "Even if Neru may not be approachable at first glance, once you get to know him, he will start showing signs of affection towards you". Neru's coldness resulted in some people being scared of him, other students say that he is both "Rude" and "Nice" at the same time, he often has mood swings and can get very whiney when not getting what he wants, this was because he was spoiled rotten as a child and sees everyone around him to be "inferior" and "weak".

Neru can also be said to be an "Older Brother" by some kids at the daycare center, whenever he passes by, kids would swarm over him asking if he won a match or how is he doing, and of course Neru would always respond positively, not like the same negative person he is in school, he is also mostly seen hanging out with kids.

## Background

Neru's older brother used to be a second division volleyball player who used to attend Fukurōdani Academy; his generation is rumored to have won second place at Nationals. It was rumored that Nero's brother used to be rivals with Wakatoshi Ushijima's father. After Fukurōdani Academy lost to Shiratorizawa Academy, just one point away from victory. Nero's brother quit volleyball and soon after his retirement, he started to mentor Neru and made him do strict training to get revenge on the new generation of Shiratorizawa Academy.

A young Neru was once born with all types of riches, having been spoiled as a kid, he developed a narcissistic and rude personality. He developed hatred towards his father for having been scolding him all his life and not being like his mother who showered him with love and affection. His relationship with his father have been strained for his whole childhood, the resulted into the young Neru to grew cold and distant towards everybody, acting like he doesn't give a care in the world and always prefers to be alone or to be with his best friend, the only one who understood him, Yuki Otake. Upon entering Yukigaoka Junior High, after watching his brother playing volleyball and wining a match, this resulted into the young boy developing a love towards volleyball and wanting to feel what his brother felt upon wining a match, this made him more determined and confident in himself.

After entering Yukigaoka, Neru wanted to join the boy's volleyball team and be just like his brother, but since he lacked height and experience of volleyball, the coach didn't allow him to join, this resulted in him being made fun of. Neru hated the feeling of not getting what he wants, so he pounced on the coach and started forcing him to let him join, Neru then became someone feared of in Yukigaoka, but at least he got to join the volleyball team and be able to train with them. Neru started doing good, his brother taught him all kinds of cool tricks and how to spike or serve, but he forgot to teach the young Neru the rules of how to play volleyball, this resulted into Neru stepping on the line while serving, touching the net, and accidentally hitting the ball more than 3 times, making him commit faults during games.

However, due to these mistakes, Neru started seeing that mistakes were just a way for him to push forward. This made him a bit careless when he makes a mistake, he followed a strict diet and intense exercising for his whole junior to high school year, after he finished junior high, he started joining the boy's volleyball team again but in high school, due to the training, Neru became the best in the team.

Taking his brother's strict advice and training, Neru grew to be one of the strongest players in Kamomedai, some students rumored him to be the next Kōrai Hoshiumi. Even just in middle school, even with little to no experience in volleyball, his spike was off the charts, almost having an identical spike to Wakatoshi Ushijima. He gained a wide reputation of being the next Kōrai and beating any team that challenges Kamomedai.

Besides being the ace of Kamomedai, Neru is also an under 19 representative for Japan for the Youth World Championship.

## Plot

### Karasuno High Team Formation Arc

After the 3rd years of Karasuno graduated, a new team started to form with the same goal but different enemies. Karasuno was practicing inside the PriME Training Camp with other volleyball players from different schools, as Shintarō was walking around and exploring the place with his fellow member, Daimon, he saw a magazine with a picture of Neru on it. Described by Daimon that he saw one of his matches before and that he was not a monster, but a beast in court.

### Interhigh Arc

#### Kamomedai vs Ajintikuri

At the start of the tournament, Kamomedai plays against Ajintikuri and easily beats their opponents in straight sets. The news of their victory was broadcasted live, even the infamous Kōrai and can't help but feel amazed by how much the team improved, even he stated that this time might be able to win nationals and that Neru might become the next generation's best spiker.

#### Kamomedai vs Aoba Johsai

Just like Aoba Johsai's lost with Shiratorizawa, Neru controlled and dominated the court, making another win for his team, Aoba Johsai was only 5 points away from victory, the score was 24-20, with one last spike, Neru ended the game with the following scores of each sets. Neru, with the help of Yuki's amazing sets, the 2 dominated the court using the Yin and Yang method.

* **1st Set:** 25-19 (Kamomedai's win)
* **2nd Set:** 25-21 (Kamomedai's win)
* **3rd Set:** 25-20 (Kamomedai's win)

#### Kamomedai vs Fukurōdani

Yet another win for the Kamomedai team, not only did Fukurōdani lost 1 set, they were also close to almost reaching Kamomedai's score, but due to Yuki's trap set, the team was unable to catch the ball and they lost 2 sets, the 1st set they won because Kamomedai wasn't ready to prepare yet due to exams, but the team managed to take back 2 wins, but Neru was completely frustrated having Fukurōdani win 1 set. Neru, Yuki and Aiko were the game's headliners, the trio ended the game with the following scores.

* **1st Set:** 23-25 (Fukurōdani's win)
* **2nd Set:** 25-2 (Kamomedai's win)
* **3rd Set:** 25-17 (Kamomedai's win)

#### Kamomedai vs Date Tech

Neru's sickness was in the way of his performance, due to his arm weakening a bit due to his sickness, Neru's spike was slightly weaker than before, but he managed to win all 3 sets against Date Tech, breaking their iron wall with a weak arm. Neru was the only one who dominated the court all by himself wining all 3 sets with the following scores.

* **1st Set:** 25-20
* **2nd Set:** 25-12
* **3rd Set:** 25-17

## Statistics

### High School Statistics

 Stamina
 Game Sense
 Technique
 Speed

Neru is overall amazing at volleyball, he is said to be called "The Perfect Genius" and is an expert at blocking, spiking, setting, receiving and many more, the techniques he uses in court were all made by himself, he copies his brother's techniques and how he plays and uses it using his own way. He is a quick observer and can easily copy his enemies techniques, these are one of his most annoying ways to win said by one of the members from the Ajintikuri Boy's Volleyball Team. Even with average height, his jumping is off the charts, he can easily get pass blockers who are taller and larger than him, he is said to have similar abilities to Kōrai Hoshiumi and Wakatoshi Ushijima. Neru is able to do a jump serve with intense power and extreme accuracy.

#### Jumping Reach

* **Pre-timeskip**: 349 cm.
* **Post-timeskip**: 355 cm.

### Skills

* **Jump Serve:** Neru demonstrated many times before just how powerful his serve is, his jump serve is nothing but a hole filled with accuracy and power. His jump serve is almost at the same level as Wakatoshi's and Tōru. He is mostly feared by his enemies, not only because of his high speed and powerful spike, but also because of his deadly and accurate serving. Neru can do any kinds of serves without it hitting the net or going outside the court, sometimes, he would do a net ball serve and a serve that hits right on the line, which makes his enemies wonder if it's going out or not.

* **Blocking:** Just like his brother and his idol, Kōrai. Neru also heavily relies on read blocking, Neru can easily read if his enemy is going to do a feint or not. Even if his hands are smaller than other players, it's very strong and hard. Neru's eyes can easily scan how powerful a spike is or if the enemy is going to feint or not, this makes his the most useful member out of all.

* **Spikes:** Extremely powerful, Neru's spikes are absolutely accurate and strong, even stronger than Wakatoshi's spikes, like mentioned earlier, his spikes are almost identical to Korai's and other famous and powerful players. Neru's spikes and serves are the reasons why he is always the headliner and MVP (Most Valuable Player) when it comes to matches. There wasn't a single person that had a bruise on their arms when trying to receive or block his spike. His spike is at god-like level that he believed that nobody could beat him, even his brother.

* **Feint:** Like Kōrai, Neru barely feints during matches, even his teammates stated that they have never seen him do a feint before. Since Neru only feints when the timing is correct, whenever he feints, he catches players by surprise.

* **Setting:** Another one of Neru's most famous and best-known skills, even if he is a spiker, Neru's setting is way better than other setters that played in Kamomedai's Volleyball team, Neru's setting is also one of the reasons why he got accepted to join the 19 representatives of Japan.

## Trivia

* Some students say that he has mother's genes (Having long eyelashes, a feminine face, slim and slender figure, white hair), whilst his brother has his father's genes.
* His favorite food is vegetable soup.
* His favorite drink is Pepsi.
* His hobby is going on walks, training, exercising, and listening to music.
* His favorite artist is Fuji Kaze.
* His favorite song is Matsuri by Fuji Kaze.
* He has a crush on Amari Akizawa.
* He doesn't like eating spicy foods.
* He is more determined to be tall than to win a competition.