Tashikani Shinkei

"*Once he's in his rhythm, he's unstoppable*."

Him, getting ready to serve.

**Tashikani Shinkei** (たしかに しんけい, Shinkei Tashikani), also referred to as "Dento's Sun" is a second year student from Dento High. He is not only the ace, but the middle blocker, too.

## Appearance

Shinkei has dark hair, in a hairstyle which seems to be a mix of a pompadour and just bangs. He usually tends to make confused faces and generally act stupid, but, when in volleyball, he acts serious with a large grin at the heat of the moment.

He is extremely tall, at nearly 6'04, making him one of the tallest players in the series. When he gets a good spike, he stands proud.

## Personality

He usually gets fired up when doing good, and always just wants to win. He is very hot heated, but, above all else, he wants to have fun with his teammates. In fact, his best friend, Oshaburi, has gone on to say that he also gets fired up when his teammates score. However, he hates when he loses, as when his team lost to Karasuno in the first round of Nationals, he got very upset, as if the sun stopped shining. But, he thought that next year, he would win the Nationals.

Shinkei is very fun-loving, and often participates in many of the team's antics with Natsura. He rarely gets mad, but when he does it's only when he loses. He supports his teammates' weird styles and doesn't feel any malice towards anyone (except Tsukishima).

## Background

Shinkei is known as an outstanding blocker and the only blocker in all of Japan who is the ace. Hinata reads about him in a volleyball magazine before Nationals, with Tanaka commenting how he's seen how Shinkei play and that he plays and acts like Hinata, but with height. Hinata then goes onto look at the Nationals roster and realizes that he's against Shinkei in the first round.

## Plot

### **Tokyo Nationals Arc**

**Preparation for Nationals**

Shinkei is present at the All-Japan Youth Intensive Training Camp with Natsura. Hoshiumi takes a glance at him, being overwhelmed by his height and intimidating aura. However, during their practice match Shinkei is baffled that Hoshiumi is equal to him, if not stronger in terms of volleyball prowess.

On the second day, Shinkei uses his counter blocking to everyone, showing off his unique technique. However, he sees that everyone is focused on Hoshiumi and goes onto block the latter. He is satisfied when he realizes that people saw his blocking prowess. However, his practice match team goes onto lose the game, much to the annoyance of Shinkei. He finds Kageyama and tells him that he needs to improve his setting abilities in order to not only beat Dento, but to beat the best setter Atsumu. Kageyama is motivated by Shinkei's words to become a better setter in the future.

Later that day, Shinkei plays in a match where the players shuffle their positions around. Shinkei plays opposite and shows how he is an ace and demonstrates his powerful spikes, to the surprise of everyone.

He is last seen saying "At Nationals, you'll see why they call me the Sun." to Kageyama.

**Nationals**

On the first day of Nationals when his match had yet to start, he bumps into Hinata, who he says reminds him of himself. Hinata proudly exclaims that he's going to win, even if he knows Shinkei's the better player. Shinkei tells him good luck before leaving.

Before his match, he is seen practicing with his team. He gets in trouble for pranking Shurui by lacing his shoes in glue with Natsura and Oshaburi and promptly gets yelled at by Tochimura. His team begins to practice on jump serves and receives, and while doing this Shinkei remembers that Kageyama and Hinata form an incredible duo. He's heard of their infamous fast attack, and knows that he should prepare when they use it. Shinkei then goes on to warn his team of Karasuno's tactics, and that they should be extra careful.

Once his match begins, Karasuno starts with the ball. Kageyama and Hinata execute their fast attack in the beginning, but not before blocking it with ease to the surprise of everyone. For half of the first quarter, Shinkei blocks every attack they throw at him, with his team only losing points when their attacks go out of bounds. However, Kageyama and Hinata execute their fast attack, which actually succeeds. Despite Karasuno breaking through Shinkei's defenses, they cannot stop Natsura saving the ball and lost the first quarter 25-22.

In the second set, they sub out Tsukishima for Yamaguchi, who's serves actually score points. This is when Shinkei had to resort to counter blocking, which gave Dento the early lead. Though, not long into the second quarter, Coach Ukai realized that Dento relies on Shinkei and Natsura and that the team should aim for the weaker receivers and use wipes. This strategy worked, as Karasuno shifted their attacks from Shinkei to the weakest receiver of Shurui. This allowed Karasuno to win the second set.

In the third set, Shurui is subbed out for Basho and Seichou is subbed out for Aito. These subs allow Dento to get an early lead, however at this point Shinkei was getting tired out. He still kept fighting though, and could steal block the fast attack. At the final point, Shinkei's legs gave out and he couldn't jump to stop Hinata's spike.

After his loss, Shinkei was devastated and vowed he would return in his third year to decimate Karasuno and maybe even become the captain. He was last seen telling Hinata, "Next year I'm going to destroy you!"

5 years later, he is on the Japan National Volleyball Team with Kageyama and has become friends with him. He is still a middle blocker but has lost the title of ace. He is 6'06 and is 22 years old.

## Statistics

 Stamina
 Game Sense
 Technique
 Speed

An amazing player at his talents, he is not an all around player, and has trouble doing plays which he does know how to, but a quick learner, nevertheless. However, he is not called "Dento's Sun" for nothing, as he is said to move like one of the sun's rays, which is hyperbole, but he moves very fast, enough to run up to Azumane, who was about to do his spike, when he was at the end of the court trying to receive a spike from Hinata. Described as having a "natural aptitude for the sport of volleyball, a prodigy", it's said he's the strongest middle blocker in all of Japan.

Along with Natsura, the two form the "lightning defense" of Dento. Natsura, who is the fastest high schooler partners up with Shinkei, who has the Best Blocker award to have Shinkei try to stop the spikes with his counter blocking. Though, if the opponent lands the attack in one of Shinkei's blind spots, Natsura will quickly sprint over to receive it. The point of this strategy is so that if Shinkei fails, he can have backup from Natsura.

### Blocking

However, his spike is not as good as his blocks. His blocks are so quick and good at stopping the ball, that for half of the first set between Dento and Karasuno, it didn't even get to anyone besides him. But, his actual talent is returning the ball, which is how he created his own type of blocking: Counter Blocking.

### Read Blocking

Shinkei is a powerful read blocker who can quickly anticipate his opponent's attacks. He is shown being able to read one of Hinata's fast attacks and catch up with him.

### Monster Spikes

Shinkei can perform fast spikes that are able to score points with ease. His height of 194 cm allows him to easily spike past almost all of the blockers he faces. His jumping reach when attacking allows him to not be hindered by the pressure from blockers and gives him the freedom to spike with full force.

### Counter Blocking

Counter blocking is when someone does a spike formation instead of a block formation to perform a one-attack. It' very useful for a quick attack without having to receive the spike. Shinkei can also change his counter block into a regular block at the last second.

Jumping Reach: 346 cm

## Trivia

* He has a younger brother, Hanakita Shinkei, who wants to be a great of a volleyball player like his older brother.
* In his free time, he watches NASCAR.
* His favorite food is Okonomiyaki, which is like a pancake with a variety of ingredients.
* His current concern: One time, he tried to cook steak, but he accidentally threw the steak at his face. He's trying to find a way to prevent that.
* According to Oshaburi, his IQ is 155, but he says Shinkei doesn't anyone to know.
* His two nicknames are "Dento's Sun" by Various and "Too Bright-san" by Shoyo Hinata.
* In Haikyuu!'s first popularity poll, he ranked 13th with 1,458 votes. In the second poll, he increased to 8th with 4,761 votes.
* One time, he was forced to lick fire.
* According to *Monthy Volleyball*, Shinkei's favorite quote is, "If he doesn't work, he eventually will."
* After the game, he and Nishinoya became friends.
* His star sign is Gemini.
* His birthday, June 13th, is national Random Acts of Light Day, referring to his sunny personality.
* It is stated that his rival is Kotarou Bokuto, but that Shinkei is a lot stronger.
* **Nomenclature**
	+ Tashikani (確かに) - *Surely*
	+ Shinkei (神経) - *Heart Lineage*