Yamabuki   Yamabuki Chuu   Yamabuki is another strong school from the Tokyo region.  Their coach Banji has an association with Seigaku’s coach, Ryuzaki Sumire and Seigaku alumni Echizen Nanjirou.  When he coached a rival school, he defeated Seigaku’s players except for Nanjirou.  To this day, he is able to irk Ryuzaki Sumire.  Yamabuki was a formidable team for Seigaku to face.  Yamabuki relies on a strategy of winning in both doubles because the tennis team is weaker in the singles in comparison to Seigaku, which has the opposite problem.   Yamabuki won in the semifinals of the Prefectural Tournament when Fudoumine pulled out under mysterious circumstances.  However, they lost to Seigaku 1-3 for the Prefectural title.  During the Regional Tournament, Fudoumine avenged themselves and came back to defeat Yamabuki, 3-1.  With the absence of Akutsu Jin and the return of the newly-improved Sengoku, Yamabuki fought back to win a consolation spot to the Nationals (manga).   UNIFORM Green, white collar, half zipper front, yellow stripe in a diamond configuration around both sleeves CHARACTERS   Minami Kentarou (3rd year)   Minami has medium length, spikey brown hair.  He is one half of Yamabuki’s first doubles also called the “Jimmies,” a name that Minami and his partner Highashitaka Masami dislike.  Although, he’s the captain of Yamabuki’s tennis club, Minami isn’t as widely recognizeds compared to other members of his team like Sengoku and formerly Akutsu.   Minami and Higashitaka are a doubles team that has perfected the basics of their double play, but rely heavily on signs in game.  Minami usually plays at the net.  Both he and Higashitaka have played Seigaku’s Oishi and another regular the previous year and won by focusing on the other regular breaking down their doubles formation.  However this year due to their overconfidence, this strategy did not work on the doubles pait of Oishi-Kikumaru of Seigaku.   Sengoku Kiyosumi (3rd year)   Sengoku has short, tussled orange hair and turquoise eyes.  He is nicknamed “Lucky Sengoku” because he seems to have a lot of luck on the courts as well often mentioning “lucky” in conversation.  He was also lucky to take Seigaku’s Tezuka’s place at the Jr. Senbatsu Camp.  With the departure of Akutsu Jin from the tennis team, Sengoku is currently the best singles player they have.  His special moves are the Kohou and the Dunk Smash.  His Kohou take advantage of the height the ball is thrown and Sengoku’s size for a very powerful fast serve.  Sengoku’s Motion Vision also aids him during tennisl   After his match with Seigaku’s Momoshiro, Sengoku took a leave from the team to retrain himself to be stronger.  To date, Sengoku has come back from retraining better and stronger.  Note of interest, when Sengoku was first encountered, he was looking around for pretty girls and still does so.   Akutsu Jin (3rd year)   Akutsu is very tall with short, grey hair combed upward and small brown eyes.  He also very pale.  Akutsu has bully tendencies and is often picking a fight as seen in his actions toward Seigaku’s Ryoma and some other tennis club members.  He also does not take well to be ordered around, which is surprising that Coach Banji could get him to play tennis for Yamabuki.  Akutsu also knows Seigaku’s Kawamura from childhood karate lessons.  Despite all appearances, Akutsu has a natural talent for tennis because of his muscle flexibility.   In his match with Ryoma, he demonstrated this natural talent especially in changing the direction of movements instantaneously.  However, after this match, Akutsu was content with tennis and left the Yamabuki tennis team.  Also, under his violent exterior, Akutsu pushes Dan Taichi to follow Ryoma’s style of tennis, not his, and later helps Ryoma recover from a slump.   Higashitaka Masami (3rd year)   Higashitaka has black hair slicked back.  He is Minami’s doubles partner and the other half of the “Jimmies.”  Since the previous year, he and Minami have perfection their doubles combination to the very basics.  Also, Higashitaka like Minami relies heavily on signals to communicate plays to his partner.    Both he and Minami have played Seigaku’s Oishi and another regular the previous year and won by focusing on the other regular breaking down their doubles formation.  However this year due to their overconfidence, this strategy did not work on the doubles pait of Oishi-Kikumaru of Seigaku.   Touji Muromachi (2nd year)   Touji has short black hair and wears silver framed, blue tinted glasses.  Not much is seen of him in play as he is usually regulated to first singles.  Touji did however defeat Fudoumine’s Ibu Shinji at the Prefectural Tournamet, but there were other variables involved in his win.   Nitobe Inakichi (3rd year)   Nitobe has brown hair in a mushroom cut.  He is Kita’s doubles partner.  Not much is seen of him or his partner, but they did manage to defeat Seigaku’s Fuji-Kawamura pair at the Prefectural Tournament.   Kita Ichiuma (2nd year)   Kita has short, grey hair and reddish swirls on his cheeks.  He is partnered with Nitobe Inakichi for doubles.  Not much is seen of him or his partner, but they did manage to defeat Seigaku’s Fuji-Kawamura pair at the Prefectural Tournament.   Dan Taichi (1st year)   Dan  is short like Seigaku’s Ryoma and wears a green headband in his short, black hair. He has a tendency to end sentences with "desu"  Although, he is not a Yamabuki regular, he was formerly the team’s manager.  Because of Akutsu and from watching his game with Ryoma, he has taken a more active interest in tennis.  He has been able to mimic some of Ryoma’s trademark moves like Twist Serve and Drive B.  Also, a note of interest, the green headband he wears once belonged to Akutsu.  He is also one of the few members of Yamabuki to be on good terms with Akutsu Jin.