Shineko Tadashi

* Pre-timeskip
* Post-timeskip

## Image gallery

**Shineko Tadashi** (Japanese: 忠梓猫, *Tadashii Shineko*) is a first-year student at Karasuno High for majority of the series, and will be a main character in an upcoming fanfiction. Her position in volleyball was formerly a libero, but after she joined the Karasuno High volleyball club, her position changed into a wing spiker. In her second-year, Shineko joins the Karasuno Girl's Volleyball Team, continuing as a wing spiker. Her number is 3.

In the final arc, she is a wing-spiker for the female team of MSBY Black Jackals. In 2021, she participates in the 2021 Olympics as part of the National Japan Volleyball Team for females.

## Appearance

Shineko has mid-length messy, black hair that is often let down with a matching pair of messy bangs too. Her eyes are black and has almost cat-like eyes. Shineko has an almost thin and athletic build (mostly because she has high metabolism), however a lot of people debate Shineko looks more thin than having muscles. She stands at the height of 167 cm, or 5'4", but by the end of her second year she grows only a measly 3 cm, making her new height 170 cm or 5'5".

She wears the standard Karasuno High girl's uniform, which consists of a white blouse, red ribbon, cream sweater, black blazer, and a grey skirt. When helping out the male's Volleyball Club, she is most commonly seen to wear the Karasuno's volleyball club uniform with her hair tied into a high ponytail.

In the MSBY arc, it was shown that Shineko had chopped off most of her hair. It is now short, above her shoulders, into a fluffy bob cut and a one-sided fringe which she keeps out of her face with a white clip.

## Personality

Shineko is known to have an almost childish and energetic personality, she is a cheerful and easygoing girl who displays a smile on her face most of the time. Highly social and excitable, she loves to hang out with her friends and is shown to become very upset when denied an opportunity to be at a gathering. Due to her athleticism and energy, Shineko enjoys playing volleyball (albeit she still needs work on many aspects of her skills). Shineko's reactions tend to be exaggerated and humorous; she often becomes amused at certain personality traits others exhibit, bursting into laughter at times, which she tries to suppress.

Her academic performance is quite poor, showing clear anxiety and frustration every single time she scores lower than a fifty. Because of that, she is often viewed as an airhead by her classmates and others. However, Shineko is capable of showing dedication to her studies as long as she gets proper tutoring. Shineko is deeply insecure about her abilities and covers it up with an optimistic mask and often suppresses her true feelings if needed.

Despite her usually cheery and sometimes ditzy demeanor, Shineko can take on an extremely determined, focused, and somewhat intimidating attitude when the situation calls for it. This side of her personality can come as a surprise to those who are used to her generally excitable, and it tends to appear during competitive situations like volleyball games or even video games. While she is shown to be surprisingly strategic, she isn't above making some impulsive or reckless decisions.

Shineko is also stubborn and competitive. She severely dislikes the rules and the product of that was to cross-dress and join the male team for MSBY Black Jackals.

Later on, Shineko grows out of her habit of suppressing her feelings and becomes more bold instead of just 'following the rules'.

## Background

Coming from Kitagawa Daiichi Junior High, Shineko was already playing volleyball on their girl's team, although she never made as a regular due to her weak receives. Despite this, Shineko continued to stay in the team, hoping one day she'll get good enough to be a regular. During this time, Shineko encountered Tomoe Oikawa sitting alone on the bench during a practice match with another school, prompting Shineko to sit with her. They talked and watched the game together, taking several notes (mostly Tomoe) during the process and becoming good friends.

Together, in the volleyball club, they also made friends with Haruka Hayase when she was switched off the team due to her anger issues on-court, Reina Naoki when she joined the team due to her height but poor spiking skills, and later Makoto Koharu, as the team's manager.

When they graduated from Kitagawa Daiichi, all of them were upset they didn't make it to the regular team, so Shineko recommended going to Karasuno High since their volleyball teams are known to be strong.

## Plot

### Karasuno High Team Formation Arc

Shineko is first seen along with her friends during the episode and chapter "Five Odd Ones Out", where they appear on the doorstep of the male's volleyball club in Karasuno High asking to join.

#### Nekoma Practice Match

Due to not being "official members" of the Karasuno Volleyball club, only being their helpers, Shineko was unable to follow then to Tokyo for the practice match, upsetting her.

### Spring High Preliminary Arc

#### Karasuno vs Shiratorizawa

When Karasuno makes it to the finals against Shiratorizawa, Shineko arrives at the stadium with Tomoe, Reina, Haruka, and Makoto, and gather up as many people as they can to cheer for Karasuno. However, Shineko was intimidated by the much larger audience Shiratorizawa has, which even includes cheerleaders, to which she envies and wants to compete with them. She surprised her friends by revealing the principal had chosen her and her friends to lead the cheering for Karasuno, taking out a plastic cone for her to shout in. Akiteru Tsukishima then meets the group, surprising Shineko because she had no idea Tsukishima had a brother, stating that they aren't alike at all. Reina's mother, Chiaki Naoki, also arrives and places an aura of authority over everyone, making Shineko intimidated by her. However, she shakes the nerves off and starts cheering for Karasuno, yelling "Fight, fight, Karasuno! Beat them, Karasuno!" into the plastic cone as loudly as she can.

When Ushijima spikes. it surprises Shineko and the others because he spiked with his left hand, since most wing spikers spike with their right. Shineko wonders if she can spike with her left too staring at her palm as Haruka teased her for finally using her brain, which prompted Shineko to yell at the taller. They were about to argue when Sugawara starts yelling at the team, making them flinch since his yelling was so loud. She agrees with Haruka when she said that Sugawara is scary sometimes. Shineko agrees that despite the imbalance of the scores, Karasuno can still win as long as they keep pushing Ushijima to his limits. However, she and everyone worries about Karasuno's stamina because they have to play five matches, something they've never tried before. Shineko silently wonders if they will play like this too, making her excited but anxious.

Nearing the end of the match, Karasuno begins to tire out, and Saeko starts a round of cheers for the members, promptly inspiring Shineko to do the same, but they're soon overwhelmed by the louder audience Shiratorizawa has. In response, both Shineko and Haruka are furious with Shiratorizawa for cheering so loud while Makoto tries to calm them down. When Tsukishima dislocates his pinky finger when he blocked Ushijima's spike, Reina volunteered to go and accompany Tsukishima instead. Shineko reassures Tomoe that Tsukishima would be okay and tells her to cheer on for Karasuno with her strength.

When Tsukishima returns back on-court, Reina re-appears and says everything is okay, he needs to take it slow. Shineko returns to cheering for Karasuno, and in the end, they won and Karasuno advances to the Spring Cup. Shineko celebrates and jumps around, cheering for Karasuno but was shortly stopped when she spotted Tomoe crying, pleading her not to cry unless she will cry too. Both Shineko and Tomoe end up crying together out of happiness for the team.

## Statistics

 Stamina
 Game Sense
 Technique
 Speed

Although her game sense and techniques are very poor, her abilities shine through in the position of a wing spiker rather than a libero. She is able to jump high and put her all into the game, Shineko is very enthusiastic about volleyball, which gives her the extra 'push' she needs to play every match at her limit. When she was first introduced to spiking, her techniques were considered 'bland' since she only stuck to spiking the ball downwards rather than trying new techniques, but isn't above creating new techniques when needed. Shineko tends to mimic Shoyo Hinata's movements when he is on-court, later along with Haruka, mimicking his and Tobio Kageyama's famous Minus-Tempo Quick Attack, with some changes of their own.

## Quotes

* *"Asahi-san you gotta man up! You're the team's Ace, right? Then you've gotta be really strong! Don't let some insecurities bring you down!"* Shineko to Asahi Azumane, Season 1 Episode 8 / Volume 3 Chapter 18.

* *"Even though I pretty much rejected him harshly, Yamaguchi is still my friend. I think if I hadn't met you guys, I'd probably be best friends with him! We have contrasting personalities, and Yamaguchi needs someone to motivate him to overcome his insecurities. I... Relate to him. But if I do probably be best friends with Yamaguchi, Tsukishima would bite my head off!"* Shineko's thoughts on Tadashi Yamaguchi to Haruka Hayase, Tomoe Oikawa, Reina Naoki, and Makoto Koharu.

* *"Even I... Can jump high too!"* Shineko to Hinata Shoyo, declaring their rivalry.

## Trivia

* Pre-timeskip concern: Being mistaken as a middle schooler during the boy's official volleyball matches.
* Post-timeskip concern: She gets a messy bedhead in the morning and takes too long to brush it down.
* Favorite food: Fluffy pancakes.
	+ Makoto Koharu often makes fluffy pancakes for Shineko.
* The one-word description for her character arc is: "Insecurity".
* She is ambidextrous, meaning Shineko can use both her right and left hands equally well. Shineko uses her right hand to write while she uses both her hands to spike. She only started using her left hand when she saw Ushijima Wakatoshi play with his left hand.
* Shineko is an aromantic asexual, confirmed when she rejected Tadashi Yamaguchi.
	+ She jokes if that Shineko marries him and takes her last name, Tadashi's name would be Tadashi Tadashi (忠忠) because her last name is the same as his first name.
	+ This is also by coincidence, the creator forgot.
* Stated by Tomoe Oikawa, Shineko has bad scores whenever it came to Science and English.
	+ Tomoe and Reina tutors Shineko whenever the exams are around the corner.
* Her personality is more like a dog instead of a cat.
* Shineko is actually allergic to cats even though she loves them and wishes to adopt one in the future.
* Her star sign is Aquarius.
* She is very good at mimicry.
* Her jersey number is 3. Both her and Haruka form a duo, since Haruka's jersey number is 2. Shineko and Tomoe also form a duo, since Tomoe's number is 4.
* Whenever Tadashi Yamaguchi is switched on-court, Shineko cheers the loudest for him.
* During the final arc, Shineko was confirmed to be bigender.
* Shineko's original name was Ocelot Lee, but the creator changed it because it wasn't 'Japanese' enough.
* Her last name in the English subtitles is spelled as 'Tadashi' while it is read as 'Tadashii' in Romaji.
* Her first character in her first name, 'Shi' in 'Shineko', can be read as 'Azusa'.
	+ During her middle school years, her seniors often misread her name to 'Azusaneko'.
* **Nomenclature:**
	+ Shineko (梓猫): *Catalpa cat.*
	+ Tadashi (忠): *Loyalty, devotion.*