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I was selfish, so I'm sure my senpais had a hard time with me. But I have to wonder about being serious, too.
Kenji Futakuchi to Aone about Koganegawa[1]

Kenji Futakuchi (Japanese: 二口 (ふたくち) 堅治 (けんじ) Futakuchi Kenji) is a second-year student at Date Tech High. He plays on the Boys' Volleyball Team as a wing spiker and the ace. After the Interhigh, the third-years retired and Futakuchi became the new team captain.

As of 2018, he is an energy company employee and plays as an outside hitter for VC Date, a municipal team in Miyagi[2].

Appearance[]

Futakuchi has a fairly muscular but lean build and is one of the tallest players on Date Tech. He has short brown hair, with his bangs falling naturally in a side swept style. His eyes are somewhat large and brown with narrow eyebrows.

At the time of his debut, Futakuchi wore the number 6 jersey during the Interhigh. He changes to the number 2 jersey after the third-years retired and he became the new captain. Outside of matches, Futakuchi is usually seen wearing the Date Tech Boys' Volleyball Club's tracksuit, which consists of teal pants and a white/grey jacket with teal collars and sleeves.

Post-timeskip, Futakuchi appears to have not changed his appearance much but now keeps his hair at a shorter length.

Personality[]

According to Moniwa, Futakuchi is a problematic junior with an easygoing personality. He doesn't show much respect to his seniors and is often seen arguing with Kamasaki, who takes everything seriously. He also likes to provoke or taunt others, such as when he blocked Asahi saying: "Hey, what was that? He's supposed to get dejected."

Despite his flippant attitude, Futakuchi does care about his teammates. He is shown to be affected when Moniwa announces the third-year's retirement after their loss in the Interhigh. When Futakuchi becomes the team captain, he grows more responsible while still keeping his provocative nature. He begins to take things a bit more seriously and spends most of his time keeping the new setter, Koganegawa, in line when he became the new team setter. With the roles switched, Futakuchi now understands being in the third-years' shoes and admits to being a troublesome junior before[3].

Background[]

AoneFutakuchiBlockAsahi

Futakuchi, along with Aone, is an important component to Date Tech's Iron Wall even as a first-year. He faced off against Karasuno in the 68th Prefecture Sporting Competition Volleyball Tournament the past March before the start of the story and he's one of the blockers responsible for shutting down Asahi's spikes[4]. Despite being a second-year, he is already the ace of Date Tech.

Plot[]

Interhigh Arc[]

Futakuchi and Date Tech run into Karasuno on the first day of the Interhigh Preliminary. Following Moniwa's instructions, he stops Aone from "locking on" to Karasuno's ace, Asahi. Before they left, Futakuchi makes sure to let Karasuno know that Date Tech will stop them just like the last time[5].

After Karasuno defeated their first-round opponent, Futakuchi, Aone, and Moniwa are seen wondering about the short Karasuno number 10, who has attracted attention for hitting a crazy quick set. They deduce that Hinata must be a first-year and become wary of him[6].

Later when Date Tech's match against Karasuno begins, Futakuchi is surprised to find Karasuno starting their ace in the back row. They soon realized that Asahi has increased his repertoire by adding a back row attack. However, Date Tech manage to shut down Asahi's spike easily with their iron wall. Futakuchi sees Asahi acting cheery instead of depressed and says that he wanted to see Asahi's spirit break. This statement quickly earns him a scolding from Moniwa[7].

Date Tech maintains a high momentum by successfully shutting down Karasuno's attacks. However, they are soon left in the dust when Karasuno reveals their God-like quick. Afterwards, Futakuchi and Aone struggle to block Hinata at the right timing. Still, he manages to exert some pressure on Karasuno with his jump serves, often forcing a botched receive from Karasuno[8]. Date Tech puts up a good fight, but Karasuno reaches match point first. With Futakuchi, Aone, and Moniwa in the front row, Date Tech is at their strongest blocking formation. They manage to stop Asahi's spike multiple times, but finally Asahi's spike breaks through when the ball lands on top of the net before falling on Date Tech's side. Futakuchi chases after the falling ball but misses it by a hair to give Karasuno the ultimate victory[9].

After their loss, Futakuchi, along with Aone, proclaims they will get revenge in the Spring Tournament Preliminaries. He is seen flabbergasted when Moniwa tells them that the third-years won't be there anymore and the responsibility will fall to the rest of the team. Futakuchi is reluctant but eventually accepts the third-years' decisions to retire[9]. Sometime later at Date Tech, Aone and Futakuchi overhear the third-years crying over their loss and the end of their high school volleyball career. The two become even more determined to avenge their loss[10].

Spring High Preliminary Arc[]

Karasuno vs Johzenji[]

Despite Karasuno's impressive saves fit to counter Johzenji's wild style of playing, Futakuchi is not surprised while watching the match as Hinata and Kageyama hadn't used their quick set yet. Although he had been very expressive earlier, Futakuchi becomes speechless when watching the rookies' quick set he had been expecting so much. Shortly after, he finds it amusing how, despite Johzenji not having any particularly tall players or being good at blocking, they still look like a “nasty” team to play. Additionally, he critics their lack of thinking before they jump, which always ends in them falling for Hinata's decoy tricks. Futakuchi is also told off by Obara speculating that Date Tech must be annoying to play when Futakuchi comments the same for Johzenji.

Sometime later, Futakuchi remarks Karasuno subbing out another player with Hinata despite not being injured, unlike his setter. Despite Aone being stubborn to defend Hinata, Futakuchi still stands by his point that Karasuno's backups would most likely do a better job than him once Kageyama is out of the picture. During the second set, Futakuchi comments on Terushima, scoring out-of-bounds. After Johzenji loses, Aone points at Hinata, and Futakuchi understands that he wants to talk to him.

Date Tech vs Aoba Johsai[]

Oikawa Futakuchi s2 e 18

As Futakuchi shakes Oikawa's hand, the setter attempts to be friendly with the opposing captain and assures him that he would still have the following year to win the tournament once they lose this one. At this, Futakuchi gets on the defensive and tells Oikawa to disregard age and ranks as Date Tech's only goal is to win.

During the beginning of the second set, Futakuchi attempts to conquer an enemy block, which he successfully does. Despite this, when he jumps up to block in his turn, Hanamaki does a tip and scores, which worries the third-years watching the match. During the next rally, Futakuchi attempts to hit Koganegawa's set but fails to score since it was too high. After this, Futakuchi yells at his junior to set the ball lower. Futakuchi then admits that he had been a troubling junior in the past. However, now that he's got to take care of the team, he understands how difficult it is. Despite this, he still thinks that there is such a thing as being 'too serious'.

As Oikawa is being set to, Futakuchi and Aone immediately react, which doesn't surprise the spectators. The block seems to be succeeding, but when Oikawa tries to look for cracks in their blocks, Koganegawa is quick to barge in. The block succeeds, but he knocks Futakuchi and Aone in the process. Nevertheless, Futakuchi still yells at Koganegawa not to have come in so hard. When Aoba Johsai is one point away from winning, Futakuchi attempts to motivate the team that they still had chances to win. During the very next rally, Sakunami puts the ball up for Futakuchi and he scores past Matsukawa. When Koganegawa smashes past Watari, he is seen taking Futakuchi's advice of simply smashing the ball.

After Date Tech loses, Futakuchi calls for the team to line up, but manages a snide remark when seeing the third-years. Additionally, he mockingly asks them how they had time to watch the match in person if they didn't have free time and they could continue practicing together.

Tokyo Nationals Arc[]

Date Tech Practice Match[]

Group s4-e6-6

Futakuchi plays in the practice match against Karasuno. Just before the game starts, he prevents Aone from locking onto Asahi. At the start of the match, Futakuchi joins Aone and Koganegawa in a bunch block on Asahi's back row attack. Futakuchi right away calls out Kageyama for having tried to fool the blockers. In the next rally, Futakuchi and Aone were able to get a one-touch on Hinata's quick attack but the middle blocker scored with a block-out.

At seeing Tsukishima blocking Fukiage, Futakuchi takes the chance to tease Karasuno about having solid blockers. During the next attack, Futakuchi attempted to sneak in a feint shot but it was recovered by Nishinoya. This led to Nishinoya being yelled at by Kageyama for blocking the path of the back row attacker. After the retired third-years crashed the practice, Futakuchi is shown to have grown more as a captain but still has his moments where his behavior is questioned by former captain Moniwa. During the fourth set, Futakuchi continues to help in numerous blocks and is noted by Ukai for being the only one on the team with a solid and stable jump serve.

After Date Tech loses the fourth set, Futakuchi and the blockers begin to have trouble singling out who will be the next attacker since Hinata began blending in with his teammates. Because of all of the possible attacks Hinata can pull off, the blockers would take more time to figure things out which would cause them to have a slight delay in getting the block up. Over the course of the game, Futakuchi continues to block and attack, even managing to beat Hinata in a joust.

Group s4-e8-3

The matches end with each team taking four winning sets. As the teams are cleaning up, Futakuchi overhears Koganegawa speaking with Kageyama about maintaining proper hand care and states that the large setter will not last three days. As the Karasuno team is leaving the gym, Futakuchi and Tanaka are seen glaring at one another.

Karasuno vs Kamomedai[]

As Karasuno's match against Kamomedai is about to start, Futakuchi enters the room where his teammates are watching the preparations for the match, and he asks them why they are still watching Karasuno's matches. Aone explains that they aren't watching just for Karasuno, but also Kamomedai. During the game, Hirugami is quick to demonstrate his great blocking skills, which is something that Sakunami is impressed by. Futakuchi twitches in irritation and ends up saying that in the end, one blocker is merely one person, which is when Koganegawa just misses as he enters the room at the moment. As the match progresses, Futakuchi and Aone notice that Kamomedai's blockers are preparing themselves for a stack block.

During the start of the second set, Sakunami questions the way Kamomedai decides to position themselves and asks if it has to do with some tactic they have, suggesting that maybe it was a way to counter Karasuno's serving or Hinata. When Futakuchi answers that he might think they have placed themselves like that to boost their offense. He then explains his thinking about their strategy and when Koganegawa still doesn't understand, Sakunami summarizes that Kamomedai decided to have their best rotation when Karasuno was in their weakest position. Despite this, Karasuno switched things up as well.

Not long after, Futakuchi notices that Kamomedai switches their positioning once more to a shade. When Koganegawa needs more explaining, Futakuchi taunts him by saying that his tiny brain would pop after having to store so much information. Despite this insult, Koganegawa stubbornly announces that he'll train both his body and brains to “honor Date Tech's iron wall”[11]. Although he shows irritation when seeing Karasuno surpass Kamomedai's blockers since Date Tech would have to face that in the upcoming year, Futakuchi bursts into laughter once he sees that Hinata tricks Kamomedai by switching to his first tempo plus attack in the last minute.

Once Hinata jumps diagonally to trick the blockers into thinking he will hit, Futakuchi and Aone have a look of gloom on their faces since they are supposed to be rooting for Karasuno but they know that they'll have to face them in the following year and they empathize with the blockers.

Final Arc[]

After the events of the Spring Tournament, Date Tech won the next Interhigh Tournament after defeating Karasuno in the finals and made it to Nationals for the first time in eleven years[12]. Futakuchi is shown happily embracing Aone while crying. Date Tech was stated to have placed within the top sixteen at nationals.

In the Final Arc, Futakuchi and Aone watch the match between the MSBY Black Jackals and the Schweiden Adlers. Futakuchi is currently employed at an energy company and plays on the Date community team as an outside hitter[2].

Statistics[]

High School Statistics
Power
 
4/5
Jumping
 
4/5
Stamina
 
3/5
Game Sense
 
3/5
Technique
 
3/5
Speed
 
4/5

Futakuchi is one of the most skillful players on Date Tech. He is the ace of the team and has always been one of the three blockers that make up Date Tech's Iron Wall. He can spike decently but admits to not being good at spiking off extremely high tosses. Futakuchi also has a solid jump serve that can be used consistently.

Jumping Reach: 325 cm.

Skills[]

Post-Timeskip Skills Parameter
Serve
 
8/10
Serve Reception
 
7/10
Dig
 
6/10
Setting
 
6/10
Spike
 
6/10
Block
 
8/10
  • Read Blocking: Like the rest of the Date Tech blockers, Futakuchi excels in read blocking in which he will wait to see where the set is sent before moving to block the spiker. As a result of waiting and watching, Futakuchi is not easily fooled by any decoy methods his opponents will try. Like other Date blockers, Futakuchi's only struggle with blocking comes when he is faced with a player of great speed, such as Hinata, who is able to spike before a block can even be set up. After the Spring High Preliminary Tournament, Futakuchi is noted to have improved his blocking along with his team.
  • Jump Serve: Futakuchi is currently the only one on Date Tech to be able to use a jump serve reliably. He has a powerful serve that can break opponents' formation to make it easier for his teammates to block in what is noted to be a perfect example of the serve-and-block technique[13]. However, he does still make the occasional error by sending the ball into the net.
  • Feint:
    Futakuchi s4-e7-1
    During the practice match against Karasuno, Futakuchi has shown he is capable of performing a feint shot. Although Nishinoya was able to save the feint, it was still able to catch Karasuno by surprise[14].
  • Receives: Futakuchi is seen to be a talented receiver. He is able to receive spikes from spikers with little trouble and was even able to receive one of Oikawa's serves.
  • Spikes:
    Futakushi 1 s1 e17
    Futakuchi has strong spikes and can often be seen landing a clean spike or deflecting the ball off the blockers to score. He has stated that he is not good at spiking the ball when he is given a high set and has either narrowly gotten the ball over or accidentally hit the ball into the net.

Relationships[]

Date Tech High[]

  • Takanobu Aone:
    Aone and Futakuchi s4-e5-1
    Futakuchi and Aone are good friends. Upon Moniwa's request, Futakuchi is the one stopping Aone from intimidating Karasuno, specifically from singling out Asahi. In return, Aone keeps Kamasaki and Futakuchi in control whenever Futakuchi provokes Kamasaki. Futakuchi appears to have a good understanding of Aone and can read his intentions from a single gesture without further explanation from Aone. On the court, the two are good partners. Futakuchi and Aone are both standout players on the team as the ace and the defensive stronghold. They would occasionally do a chest bump that usually ends with Futakuchi falling over due to Aone unintentionally putting in too much power.
  • Yasushi Kamasaki:
    Kamasaki and Futakuchi s1-e17-1
    Futakuchi likes to provoke Kamasaki despite the latter being a year senior. He doesn't show much respect and would tease Kamasaki over trivial things like his job search or gaining too much muscle. The two would often get into petty arguments before being forcibly separated by Aone. However, there's no real hostility beyond their banter. After Date Tech lost to Seijoh, Futakuchi was able to convince Kamasaki and the other third-years to continue to help the team improve and even admitted that he realizes how much trouble he was before they left.
  • Kanji Koganegawa:
    Futakuchi and Koganegawa s2-e19-2
    Futakuchi is shown to have trouble dealing with Koganegawa's antics, often having to keep him in line, and pointing out his mistakes. Koganegawa claims to understand, though it's debatable whether he actually gets what Futakuchi is saying. Despite this, Futakuchi is still supportive of the new setter and continues to help guide him when needed.

Quotes[]

  • (To Karasuno) "Sure – Sorry about that. This guy [Aone] targets our opponent's ace whenever he sees them. So... you better be ready."[15]
  • (About Asahi) "Hey, what was that? He's supposed to get dejected."[16]
  • (To Oikawa) "Positions and such don't matter once you're on the court."[17]
  • (To Koganegawa) "Look, you don't have to feint when you do a dump attack. Smash it!"[1]
  • (To Date Tech's third-years) "All right, let's go. The fact that you guys are here means that you have time on your hands, right? Come back and practice with us."[1]

Trivia[]

  • Current Concern: He has to go and get his wisdom teeth pulled.
  • Star Sign: Scorpio.
  • He is the second oldest second-year on the team after Aone and is two days younger than Kamasaki.
  • In Haikyuu's first popularity poll, Futakuchi ranked 16th with 1,592 votes.[18] In the second popularity poll, he dropped to 23rd with 2,218 votes.[19]
  • He and Aone are currently the only known players of VC Date.
  • Nomenclature:
    • Kenji (堅治) – To Govern Firmly
    • Futakuchi (二口) – Two Mouths

References[]

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