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Rinnosuke Mitobe (水戸部 凛之助 Mitobe Rinnosuke) is Seirin High's second year center and a regular until Teppei Kiyoshi's return.

Appearance[]

Mitobe has medium-length black hair that is parted to the sides with one strand of hair between his eyes. He has generally straight or slightly downturned eyes with thick black eyebrows. Mitobe generally does not display much variety in terms of facial expression, most often being seen with a very slight smile or a look of faint worry. Due to his preference not to speak, he typically has his mouth closed, though has been seen with it open in times of strong emotion such as surprise or desperation.

He wears the Seirin High jersey with the number 8. He is also one of the tallest members of the club.

Personality[]

Mitobe is just as determined to win as the other players at Seirin High, but unlike the others, he doesn't show his feelings that often. Most people know him as a quiet, hard worker. According to Riko Aida, no one has ever heard Mitobe talk.

Mitobe talks

Mitobe is trying to communicate to Riko that the 2-3 zone tactic against Yosen, with Taiga Kagami in the middle isn't working.

Mitobe has a large family and is in charge of making breakfast every morning, thus he is skilled in household chores and cooking. He is naturally caring and often worries about the well-being of his teammates, especially the underclassmen and Shinji Koganei, whom he has known the longest. Somehow, despite the fact that he is mute, most people understand what he is thinking and can even hold a conversation with him, especially Koganei, who seems to understand Mitobe perfectly. He also seems to be somewhat of a pushover, since both Koga and Junpei Hyūga can boss him around easily.

History[]

Koga and Mitobe join Seirin

Koga and Mitobe join Seirin

Mitobe joined the Seirin High team together with Shinji Koganei.[1] Koga reveals that Mitobe had been playing since Junior High school while he himself was a beginner. Koga claims that he started playing basketball because he watched Mitobe and thought it looked fun. Later, Koga also revealed that Mitobe was a power forward in Junior High School.[2]

When the team shouted their resolve on the roof to convince Riko Aida, Koga yelled Mitobe's name and class for him and Mitobe was shown looking relieved afterwards. 

As a regular player then, he played in Seirin's matches in the Interhigh preliminaries, until they lost in the final league. After Teppei Kiyoshi's injury, he changed positions from a PF to a Center.

Story[]

Introduction[]

Mitobe is first seen, together with the other regular members, distributing flyers and recruiting for the basketball team. (Shinji Koganei encourages him to shout, to no avail).

Seirin vs Kaijō[]

During Seirin High's practice match against Kaijō High, Riko Aida described Mitobe as "the hardworking and unsung hero, with the voice no one has ever heard."

Winter Cup[]

Round 1[]

During the first match against Tōō Academy, Mitobe is seen on the bench, cheering for Seirin High.[3]

Skill[]

Physical Ability
 
7/10 Mitobe chart
Technique
 
7/10
Stamina
 
8/10
Mental Strength
 
7/10
Special Ability
 
3/10

Mitobe is one of the tallest of the team, so he block shots and plays low and high post. In the match against Seihō High, he also showed that he can dunk.[4] He has been playing basketball since Junior High school.

Pressure Defense[]

Mitobe Pressure Defense

Mitobe teaching Kagami about pressure defense

Mitobe is a veteran when it comes to defense, especially guarding players bigger than him, through his pressure defense. He does this, not by blocking their shot, but by not letting them do what they want to do; in the process the opponent was forced to miss. He taught this method to Taiga Kagami, who used it against Dad [5] and Kenichi Okamura[6] in their matches. He is also mentioned to be more than good enough to handle Chihiro Mayuzumi and can find pass targets based on the balls position even if misdirection is used. He is also good at blocking shots.

Hook shot[]

Hook shot

Mitobe's hook shot

Just as the other second years of Seirin High, Mitobe has spent the last year training on one particular technique: His hook shot. Using his body to position between his defender and the ball, he shoot with his free hand (its trajectory looking like a "hook"), that is almost impossible to block.[7]

Theoretically, you can jump off both feet (jump hook), one foot (hook shot/sky hook/baby hook), or sweeping the shot while having the body gliding across the court (sweeping hook/sky hook/running baby hook).

Etymology[]

  • The name Rinnosuke means "dignified, severe, cold" (凛) (rin), "this" (之) (no) and "help, rescue, assist/assistant/assistance" (助) (suke).
  • Rinnosuke's surname Mitobe means "water" (水) (mi), "door" (戸) (to) and "part, department, category" (部) (be).

Trivia[]

  • On the first character poll, Mitobe ranked 11th, with 519 votes. He ranked 19th on the second poll, this time with 227 votes. He ranked 3rd on the Center Division of Kuro Fes' character poll with 2746 votes.
  • On last year's test results, Mitobe ranked 74th out of 300.[8] His best course is Science.
  • According to CHARACTERS BIBLE:
    • His hobby is Photography.
    • His specialty is cooking and Cat's cradle.
    • His favourite food is Tuna Donburi. 
    • His motto is: "Honestly, humility and quietly."
  • According to KUROFES:
    • His best subject is Chemistry.
    • He is in the Health Committee.
    • His family is made up of his mother, father, 6 younger brothers and 3 younger sisters.
    • He dislikes talking.
    • His best basketball play is hook shot.
    • The type of girl he likes is a quiet person.
    • He spends his days off playing with his family.
    • He started playing basketball because of club recruitment.
    • The player that he has his eyes on is Kobori.
  • Mitobe won the sauna battle for Seirin against Tōō Academy.[9]
  • Mitobe has 6 younger brothers and 3 younger sisters, all who support his basketball team greatly and all share his trademark large eyebrows. For the Winter Cup finals, his siblings made a "Go! Seirin!" banner to support them.[10]
  • One of Mitobe's brothers attends Shūtoku High.
  • Shinji Koganei mentions Mitobe in both of his Character Songs. 
  • Koganei and Mitobe both have part-time jobs.[11]
  • Mitobe's signature move is a reference based off of Kareem Abdul Jabbar's Skyhook, the most notoriously unblockable shot in NBA history.
  • While Mitobe spends most of his time staying silent, he can be seen shouting (or at the very least, mouthing) Kagami's name during the final seconds of their match against Shūtoku.[12]

References[]

  1. Kuroko no Basuke chapter 95, page 19
  2. Kuroko no Basuke chapter 96, page 8
  3. Kuroko no Basuke chapter 114, page 16
  4. Kuroko no Basuke chapter 22, page 22
  5. Kuroko no Basuke chapter 14, page 13
  6. Kuroko no Basuke chapter 149, page 18
  7. Kuroko no Basuke chapter 23, page 5
  8. Kuroko no Basuke chapter 37, page 11
  9. Kuroko no Basuke chapter 128, page 19
  10. Kuroko no Basuke chapter 229, page 9
  11. Kuroko no Basuke Special CD Vol. 23
  12. Episode 31, timestamp 21:45

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