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Ittetsu Takeda (Japanese: 武田 一鉄 (たけだ いってつ) Takeda Ittetsu) is the faculty advisor of the Karasuno High's volleyball club.

Appearance

Takeda has messy black hair and brown eyes along with glasses. He's often seen wearing a green track jacket over a white shirt with a black tie. In the manga, his tie is switched out for a spotted one. He is around the same height as Hinata, making him look younger than he actually is.

Personality

Takeda is persistent, a trait that's helped him secure practice matches and a coach for the team. He has an optimistic attitude and is rather modest and clumsy. He is polite and respectful of others, as shown by his constant bowing to others to show gratitude and to ask for practice matches or things of that sort. Takeda is generally cheerful but can get very intimidating once he's angered.

Despite his modesty, Takeda has demonstrated on multiple occasions that he can be firm with his students and takes his job as a teacher and club advisor seriously. He also frequently delivers uplifting speeches and pep-talks while employing a wide range of analogies and imagery in order to inspire the team; however, he occasionally becomes self-conscious and worried that the concepts behind his speeches might be too confusing for the team to understand (a notion that Daichi quickly dismisses).

He has very little personal experience with volleyball, despite being assigned as the Volleyball Club's advisor. He is keenly aware of his limitations and strives to work hard however he can for the sake of the students on the team. His persistence eventually pays dividends when he successfully recruits Keishin Ukai as Karasuno's new coach and subsequently arranges a practice match with Karasuno's previous rival Nekoma High School.

Background

Takeda teaches Japanese literature at Karasuno High. He is the faculty advisor for the boys' volleyball club and subbed as a coach for the original Coach Ukai. Although he has little experience in volleyball, he is responsible for motivating the team and arranging practice matches with other schools.

Plot

Karasuno High Team Formation Arc

Takeda is initially introduced as the club's passionate advisor with little to no experience in volleyball[1]. He appears after the 3-on-3 first years' match and meets the “problematic first years”. He reveals that through constant begging, he has managed to arrange a practice match between Karasuno and Aobajohsai.

Aobajohsai Practice Match

During the match[2], Takeda’s impressed by Hinata and Kageyama’s quick strike. He explains to the members at the end of the match that he could see something incredible happening with this team. When the problematic first years joined, Daichi remarked that they could change the team and Takeda didn’t know what he meant until he saw them play. He now knows that the two of them together will cause a chemical reaction that will continuously strengthen the team. Though the team is motivated by his words, Takeda acknowledges that he isn’t enough for the team. As they leave Aobajohsai, he resolves to find Karasuno a coach.

Asahi and Nishinoya’s Return

Sometime after discovering that the previous Coach Ukai has a grandson, Keishin, Takeda reaches out to him to coach the volleyball team since his name would bring more attention and allow more opportunities for practice matches. Keishin initially outright rejects Takeda, stating that while his grandfather was a good coach, he isn’t the same; however, he later reveals that his reluctance mostly stems from a sense of nostalgia for his high school days on the volleyball team. Takeda accepts his reasons but still persuades him using the upcoming practice match with Nekoma High as leverage. Ukai agrees to participate as a temporary coach[3].

Interhigh Arc

Following Karasuno's defeat at the hands of Aoba Johsai during the Interhigh prelims, Takeda went out of his way to encourage a distraught Hinata and Kageyama, stating that defeat was like a trial to be overcome, and that remaining on their knees would be a sign of weakness; he smiles warmly at them after they both stand back up. He later met with the third years to discuss their futures and advised them to consider the choice of continuing their participation with the volleyball club carefully, such that they would not come to regret their decision in the coming years.

Tokyo Expedition Arc

Not long afterwards, Takeda excitedly informs the team that he managed to secure an invitation to a volleyball training camp not only with Nekoma, but three other top-tier schools from Tokyo (including Shinzen, Ubagawa, and Fukurodani). This arrangement would ultimately lead to Karasuno's explosive growth and evolution as a team, but this growth would not come without a significant degree of struggling and frustration by the team. Noticing this frustration, Takeda encourages the team to embrace their weakness as potential for growth and states that nothing could be more exciting. Near the end of the successful training camp, Takeda and Nekoma's coach Nekomata Yasufumi conversed briefly about their desire to not only nurture their students' growth but to see them enjoy and play volleyball without any regrets.

Spring High Preliminary Arc

During the Miyagi prefecture's Spring Tournament Qualifying Rounds, Takeda is seen sitting next to Ukai, commentating regularly on the team's plays and cheering loudly for them. Following Karasuno's hard-won victory against the reigning champion school Shiratorizawa Academy, Takeda wept with joy as he congratulated the team. He later celebrated with Ukai, drunkenly repeating "I'm sho hwappy!" with tears in his eyes while Ukai looked on, bemused.

Statistics

High School Statistics
Power
 
1/5
Jumping
 
1/5
Stamina
 
2/5
Game Sense
 
4/5
Technique
 
1/5
Speed
 
1/5

He doesn't appear to have any athletic ability. He does, however, count his persistence in asking for favors as a skill and has an incredibly fast bowing speed.

Relationships

Keishin Ukai

Ukai initially expresses a mix of annoyance and admiration at Takeda's incessant pestering for him to become Karasuno's coach. He is eventually convinced when Takeda reveals an upcoming practice match against Karasuno's long-time rival Nekoma High. After the practice match (which Karasuno loses), an incensed Ukai declares that he would remain as Karasuno's coach in order to settle to score with Nekoma in the future, which delights Takeda. Later, Ukai would express his gratitude to Takeda for giving him the opportunity of being with this team, showing how much their relationship has developed. They are often with each other and Takeda has learned much more about volleyball from Ukai.

After Karasuno's victory in their revenge match against Aobajohsai, Ukai expresses his thanks to Takeda for working so hard to re-establish the old ties between Karasuno and Nekoma, which had ultimately enabled the team to grow and evolve. Flustered, Takeda responds by telling Ukai to save his thanks for after they beat Shiratorizawa in the tournament finals.

Karasuno High

It's unknown how long Takeda has worked with the volleyball team, but he has grown to be very close with the members. He acts as a source of motivation during matches and is responsible for the members when it comes to their roles in school, such as helping the third years with college decisions and reminding the members of upcoming exams. Takeda is respected by the members, but he is shown to be very intimidating when he's angry, scaring even Ukai.

Trivia

  • Favorite Food: Nikujaga
  • Current Concern: He's been told by his students that "Your glasses are totally uncool, sensei."
  • In regards to his low speed of 1 out of 5, there was an added note saying "However, the speed at which he can repeatedly bow his head is impossible to even quantify."
  • For unknown reasons, he knows the Tokyo metropolitan gymnasium inside out, including where the toilets are.[4]
  • His star sign is Capricorn.
  • Furudate gave him the name Ittetsu with the idiom 頑固一徹 (very tenacious) in mind.[5] Both 一鉄 and 一徹 are pronounced as 'ittetsu'.
  • In Haikyuu's first popularity poll, Takeda placed 27th with 571 votes.[6] In the second, he dropped to 36th with 664 votes.[7]
  • Nomenclature:
    • Ittetsu (一鉄) - One Iron
    • Takeda (武田) - Brave Rice Field

Quotes

  • "Isn't losing difficult for all of you? A challenge where, ending up on your hands and knees, you must see if you can stand up again? If you stay on your hands and knees, that proves that you are weak." (To Hinata and Kageyama after Karasuno's Interhigh match against Aobajohsai, Volume 8 Chapter 69)
  • "You guys being weak means you have room to grow. And there's no greater joy than that." (To Karasuno,Volume 10 Chapter 81)
  • "When 'colors' mix, they become muddy and messy. But when they all blend together, the final result is the color that wins against all others: black. Become a team of black, like the crows you represent." (To Karasuno, Volume 11 Chapter 96)
  • "I'm good at getting on my knees and begging." (To Keishin Ukai, Season 2 Episode 6)
  • "Super plays and miraculous comebacks will save a team, yes... But reasoning and logic can do the exact same thing." (To Keishin Ukai, Volume 18 Chapter 157)
  • "Please keep your thoughts in motion, Karasuno's rational mind." (To Kei Tsukishima, Volume 18 Chapter 157)
  • "To become someone great... you must first begin as someone humble and then proceed one step at a time in the proper order." (To Hinata, Volume 24 Chapter 211)

References

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