Takehito Sasaya (Japanese: 笹谷武仁,Sasaya Takehito) is a third-year student at Date Tech. He played on the Boys' Volleyball Team as a wing spiker prior to retiring during the Interhigh Tournament.
Sasaya is seen to have spiky dark brown hair, with thick arching eyebrows that give him a sometimes serious expression. His eyebrows are noticeably longer in the anime than in the manga. He is one of the shorter players on the team and has a thin but lean build.
Sasaya tends to have a serious expression on his face, though this may be caused by his eyebrows. Despite this, he is actually quite friendly and is shown to be supportive of his underclassmen during matches.
Plot[]
Interhigh[]
At the beginning of the match, Sasaya and Kamasaki block Asahi but it goes out-of-bounds. When seeing two of Hinata and Kageyama's quick attacks, Sasaya expresses his surprise. Not long after, Sasaya starts to lose hope a bit when Karasuno gets past Date Tech's defense once more. Sasaya finds himself impressed again when his spike turns into a perfect bump from Daichi. After Date Tech's loss and Futakuchi's finding out of the third-years retiring after the tournament, Sasaya and Kamasaki are sarcastically smug about the problematic junior being emotional.
Spring High Preliminary Arc[]
Having come late to watch the match, Sasaya sees that Date Tech had already lost a set, and is surprised to see Karasuno also watching their former team play. After Kamasaki comments on how Koganegawa is still a beginner, Sasaya tells him that with practice, he could still improve. However, when Kamasaki tells the team that the only direction they could go is up once they lost, Sasaya still tells them that they still had a long way to go before that.
Tokyo Nationals Arc[]
When seeing that Futakuchi had not changed his bad-mouthing attitude after becoming captain, Sasaya tries to make Moniwa feel better and tells him that the problematic junior had always had such an unfixable personality. When a triple block conquers Hinata, Sasaya and the other third-years all cheer. Following the match ending, Sasaya wishes that Karasuno would change their school colors to a brighter color in order to not seem so intimidating.
Final Arc[]
In the coverage of events that took place after Nationals, Sasaya, Moniwa, and Kamasaki can be seen in the audience supporting Date Tech when they won the Miyagi Interhigh Preliminaries to advance to Nationals[2]. In his final appearance, Sasaya is revealed to now be a house husband in Yamagata. He is last seen watching Japan's match against Argentina while carrying two young children.
Statistics[]
High School Statistics
Power
4/5
Jumping
4/5
Stamina
3/5
Game Sense
3/5
Technique
4/5
Speed
3/5
Sasaya is most likely experienced in volleyball as he is a regular for a powerhouse school. He has powerful spikes[3].
Yasushi Kamasaki and Kaname Moniwa: Sasaya is often seen with his fellow third-years as they often attend Date Tech's games to support their juniors. He appears to know Kamasaki and Moniwa well and is able to comfort them both when something appears to be troubling them.
Date Tech High: Sasaya is very supportive of the younger players and will attend as many games as possible to cheer them on. He appears to be on good terms with most of the players.
