Nao Tsukinose

* Tennis
* School
* Casual
* Original

**Nao Tsukinose** is a member of Shijo Minami Boys’ Soft Tennis Club. He plays as the front player with Taiyo Ishigami as his partner.

## Appearance

Nao has smoke coloured hair and matching coloured eyes.

## Personality

Nao is a hard working player in the Boys’ soft tennis team. Feeling behind compared to the other pairs, he and his partner Taiyo pushed themselves really hard during practice sessions. Their dedication pays off as they manage to put up an excellent performance during the summer tournament. In addition, Shingo and the rest of the team praised them for their effort.

Nao is very supportive to other members of the team. During the first practice match against Maki, he didn’t hesitate to praise his abilities despite him being a new member of the team and disliked by the others. When it comes to cheering for his teammates, Nao is the one who cheers the loudest. He enjoys cheering for them because he considers the team as a part of his family.

Nao is infamous for telling unrealistic tales among his friends and lying pathologically. These behaviors are the result of his fantasies of living a happy life, unlike his current one where he lives under the shade of his parents, especially his mother, who controls everything about him. Due to this condition, Nao is often seen with a depressive haze and falls silent in school.

Nao is also known to be the most laid-back member of the Boys’ soft tennis team. Due to his pessimistic behavior, he often relies on his other friends to win a match. This is why Toma and the other club members often reprimand him for being unsure of his abilities and throwing responsibilities to others.

## Plot

### Childhood

Nao is the only son in the Tsukinose family. He is mostly raised by his overprotective mother while his father is reluctant to come into conflict with her. His parents once had a big quarrel which could end up in a divorce. However, they both say in front of Nao that they won’t get divorced for his sake. This puts Nao under a great amount of stress.

### Shijo Minami Junior High

Initially, Nao’s mother wanted to send Nao to a public school. However, his father didn’t agree with her and sent Nao to Shijo Minami Middle School instead. During the first grade, Nao became a member of the Boys’ Soft Tennis Club. He joined the club because he had no interest in other clubs and he simply wanted to spend more time in school with his friends, avoiding the stress that he undergoes at home, partially due to the fact that his mother doesn’t approve of him joining the soft tennis club.

In the second year, Nao and Itsuki were greatly outperformed by the Girls’ Soft Tennis Club. After the match, Toma tells the group that they will get disbanded if they don't win a match during the soft tennis summer tournament. The teams are desperate to find new members to join the soft tennis club, but their efforts are futile since there are no first-year students who are interested in joining the club.

In order to accustom Maki to soft tennis, Toma suggests a practice match against the other pairs of the club. Nao paired with Itsuki are up against the Maki – Toma pair in the third game. Although Itsuki managed to take an early lead by aiming the ball towards Maki, they soon became overwhelmed as Maki continuously ran all over the field. This causes the pair to lose their advantage and ultimately lose the match. Nao praised Maki for becoming stronger in every match he participated in, beating every pair he and Toma faced. Days later, Maki notices that their pair combination is what makes them awful, so he decides to change them all. Rintaro paired with Itsuki, Tsubasa paired with Shingo, and Nao paired with Taiyo. Maki then suggests a 15-point game to test the new pair combinations.

During the match, the Nao – Taiyo pair are overwhelmed by Toma’s serve. After losing 5 points, Nao came up with an idea where he and Taiyo both played in the back. They constantly use long shots aimed at Toma, draining his stamina and leaving him exhausted. The Nao – Taiyo pair managed to score a point through this method. However, the Toma – Maki pair turned the tables which caused the Nao – Taiyo pair to lose with a short margin. Even though they lost the match, the team was satisfied with the result because they didn’t expect Nao and Taiyo could barely score a point against Maki and Toma.

The following days, Nao and Taiyo regularly spend their time together to improve their pair combination. Nao wants to improve his shot accuracy while Taiyo wants to improve his rally. The club became livelier during the next practice session and they seemed to have found their motivation to practice soft tennis harder than before. At the end of the practice session, Sakurai-sensei showed up and informed the team that he arranged a practice match against Misaki Academy. The team became pessimistic about winning against them but Maki tells them not to worry about it because the team has changed a lot and through the practice match, the team could find out each of their strengths and weaknesses.

Several days later, Sakurai-sensei briefs the team about their practice match against Misaki Academy the next day. Toma tells them to believe in their abilities because tomorrow will be the day to see how much they’ve improved. The next day, as the team arrived at Misaki Academy, they were astonished by how big the Misaki Academy tennis court is, with a lot of members in their soft tennis team.

The team decided that Nao and Taiyo will be the first to play against the Ayumu Ooi and Kazumi Miwa pair. As the Nao – Taiyo pair became pessimistic to even score a point, Maki tells them that Yuuta had been scouting in the Misaki Academy for a week and briefs them about their opponent's playstyle. Shingo asks the team to do a victory dance created by him and his little sister.

The match begins with Nao and Taiyo serving first. They are using the double back strategies against Ooi and Miwa which proved successful to drain their opponent's stamina and become emotional toward each other. The pair managed to win the first set with a perfect score. In the second set, the Miwa – Ooi pair started to play seriously. They caught Nao and Taiyo off guard with their slice serve and easily won the second set. Miwa and Ooi managed to maintain their advantage in the third and fourth set, winning the match. Despite losing all the practice matches, the boys are still happy because each of them managed to take a single set from Misaki Academy and even force their ace player, Arashi Oji, a deuce in the final match.

Days after their  match against Misaki Academy, Sakurai-sensei showed up and told the club that he arranged a barbeque party for them on the following Sunday. Later that night after the barbeque party, Nao’s mother interrogates him about the club activities on Sunday. She asks Nao to stop wasting his time in soft tennis and instead start preparing for the high school exams. As his mother continues to blame the soft tennis club activities, Nao stands up and angrily leaves her. Nao’s mother filed a complaint to the school principal the next day which caused the soft tennis club activity to be suspended for the whole week. When Sakurai-sensei informs this to the club members, the boys quickly realize that it was Nao’s mother doing. However, he also gave the team good news as the summer tournament team bracket had been announced. When the team looked at the bracket, Toma recognized that they’re up against Hatanouka Middle School. At home, Nao didn’t seem to enjoy his dinner. Nao’s mother informs him that she is going to enroll Nao in a cram school for high school entrance exam preparation. Nao reluctantly agrees to his mother’s proposal as he couldn’t really think about it clearly after the club suspension notice.

The next day, the boys discuss in the library a plan to gather data about Joy Kusakabe, a star player in Hatanaouka Middle School. Nao, feeling overwhelmed, doesn’t partake in the conversation going on, and just scribbles mindlessly in his notebook. They decide that Yuuta and Maki will cross-dress as girls, and scout the Hatanaouka Middle School tennis court together with the rest of the team. At the scene, they’re able to sneak in a video camera and analyze Joy’s playstyle. Within the same week, the team manages to get a practice match with the Girls’ Soft Tennis Team for the summer tournament preparation.

Nao continuously lies to his mother regarding the soft tennis club activity due to the persistence of Nao's mother on him to focus studying and plans to tell the club advisor herself to suspend his club activity for good. The morning before the practice match session, Nao didn’t have any conversation with his parents and he didn’t eat any of his food, even when his parents had already finished theirs.

At the school locker room, Shingo introduces his little sister An to the team. While Shingo and the rest of the team are busy preparing the match, An goes to the toilet unaccompanied and goes missing. Shingo quickly realizes that An is missing and the rest of the team helps him to look for her.

While searching for An, Nao goes inside the infirmary and finds her sleeping in the bed. When he tries to wake her up, he suffers a mental conflict where his mother continuously pressures him to stop playing soft tennis. He then decides to lock the infirmary door so the match gets cancelled. When the boys are unable to locate An, Shingo pleads to look for her one more time. Feeling suspicious of Nao's behavior, Maki confronts him and finds out that Nao purposely locked the infirmary doors. When Nao reaches out to his pocket, Maki notices that he’s hiding a key and forcefully grabs it. He then runs into the locked infirmary to find An sleeping inside.

All the boys’ soft tennis club members take turns to apologize for the trouble and the match is back on schedule. Realizing that his action is wrong, Nao panic’s, and feels very guilty, saying horrible stuff about himself, in the Japanese Dub, he even goes as far to say he doesn’t deserve to live. Taiyo tries to comfort him. Nao and Taiyo didn’t participate in their practice match. After the matches ended and the rest of the members went home, Nao stays in the locker room alone, staring at his phone screen, with a lot of missed messages from his mother, and fearing that he might get scolded after he goes home.

The next day during their practice sessions, the team was surprised with Tsubasa's sudden withdrawal from the team tournament due to his broken right arm. This has caused Nao and Taiyo to take their place in the team tournament. Feeling pessimistic to win the match with their skills, Nao tries to rely on other pairs to win since they only need one win in the team tournament to proceed forward. He then gets scolded by Maki and Toma for his bad habit. Nao then comes up with a new idea to pair Shingo with another member since he is a strong player. Shingo immediately yells at him and states his withdrawal from the summer tournament is because he didn’t want to be paired with anyone else other than Tsubasa. Both Shingo and Tsubasa put their hope in the Nao – Taiyo pair, as they were already practicing hard for the upcoming tournament.

A week before the summer tournament, the club gets visited by Kinuyo Kasuga and the student council members. They emphasize that the club will need to win at least once in the summer tournament to avoid disbandment.On the day of the summer tournament, the team gathers in front of Musashi Tennis court. Moments later, Taiyo's parents show up and are overly caring towards him. Then they try to put the blame of losing to Nao, to which Taiyo yells back at them, saying that both players share the responsibility, whether they win or lose.

Nao and Taiyo play the second match against Sasaki and Kawakami from Misaki Academy. Even after Yuuta's briefing about their opponent's playstyle, the pair remains pessimistic to even win a match. Tsubasa and Shingo get angry, telling them to stop saying nonsense and believe in their skill. Meanwhile, Maki tells them to use unorthodox strategies which might confuse their opponent.

During the match, Nao and Taiyo constantly switch positions between back and front. This strategy succeeds in confusing their opponents and the Nao – Taiyo pair is able to maintain their advantage, forcing the match into a final game. During the final game, both Nao and Taiyo are already exhausted and their performance worsens. They ultimately lose the set, giving victory to Sasaki – Kawakami pair. After the match, Sasaki and Kawakami commend them for their running strategy.

During the Maki and Toma match against Joy Kusakabe and Masami Ootomo, Nao gets a phone call from his mother. He rejects it and leaves his phone inside his tennis bag. At his house, Nao’s mother tells herself that all of her doing is for Nao’s own good and she could always control his every single move because he is her son.

In the epilogue, Nao is ridiculed by his classmates as he watches a soft tennis match. He has bandages all over his arm, implying that he is often involved in fights with others.

## Playstyle and Abilities

Nao is a left-handed soft tennis player. He has a good aim and strong serve. Paired with Taiyo, their playstyle is a double back player that relies on long serve, abusing their opponent back player while ignoring their front. When Nao sees an opening, he will rush forward and smash the ball.

Another variation of the pair playstyle is constantly switching positions between back and front player. This is done to confuse their opponents and lower their guard. Maki and Toma praise their playstyle and adopt it while facing the Itsuse Brothers in the Summer Tournament Finals.

## Relationships

### Taiyo Ishigami

As Nao’s partner, Taiyo constantly gives his support to Nao during soft tennis but also outside the court as his friend. He calms Nao down when having a mental breakdown and stands with him as a pair when Taiyo’s parents are trying to put the blame on Nao when they lose the match. According to Toma, both Nao and Taiyo have similar personalities and they could understand what each other are thinking.

### Nao’s Mother

Nao’s unnamed mother is completely over controlling her son. She watches and controls everything about him – including the way he eats – and believes that he has no value if he doesn’t go to a good high school, gets into a good university, and becomes successful. Nao knows that his mother is a negative presence in his life, but is unable to explain to her that her helicopter parent behavior is unacceptable.

## Match History

aDetails of the individual score for each match set was not shown in the anime

## Quotes

* I’m Nao Tsukinose from Class 2-A. Oh, wanna know something cool? My mom’s actually cousins with Ken Nishikori. – **Episode 2**
* Nao: (*Praising Maki*) Even during our match, you can tell that he’s getting better and better.
Itsuki: Hey, stop praising the enemy
Nao: But he’s not our enemy
Itsuki: Huh?
Nao: He’s a club member too. – **Episode 3**
* Taiyo, Hang in there it’s not over yet. I just thought of a good idea (*smiling*). – **Episode 4**
* The match will get cancelled…. That’s right… Because of An. – **Episode 9**
* This isn’t right…. I shouldn’t be part of this…. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. – **Episode 9**
* Soft tennis is pretty fun actually, not just the sport but being part of the club and cheering on your teammates at games. I love every bit of it. – **Episode 11**

## Trivia

* Nao’s hobby is fishing
* Nao is a left-handed person. This can be seen when he uses his left hand to write, eat, and hold the racket. He is the only left handed player on his team.
* Taiyo and him often yell “***Yūki***, ***Genki***, ***Shōri***” (translates to ***be brave***, ***be bold***, ***victory***) when they score a point.
* Nao's blood type is AB

### **Etymology**

* The name **Nao** means "straight" (直) (**na**) and "center" (央) (**o**).
* Nao's surname **Tsukinose** means "moon" (月) (**tsuki**) and "swift current, rapids" (瀬) (**se**).