Kendo Team Captain



Any Japanese school worth its salt has a Kendo team, and any school at which the Kendo team gets significant on-screen time will have a rather good one. At such a school, the Club President of the kendo team will usually be an important character of some sort. He or she (usually he, but females are showing up more often in this role, and are usually Shorttank or Defrosting Ice Queen types) is generally sempai to the Kid Samurai, a True Companion to the Student Council President, and possibly The Rival to the Heir to the Dojo.

One aspect to this trope that may not be immediately apparent to Western audiences is the social ranking of after school activities. A rough equivalent would be the status hierarchy that exists in American high school sports. Kendo, as a traditional martial art and one that requires a good deal of strength and dexterity, is a club with high social status, thus the usual prominence of its club president.

Most likely the Big Man on Campus. If he serves as The Ace, or another character's Always Someone Better, see School Idol. If he's a Jerkass, see Jerk Jock. If there's one in the club, the Cute Sports Club Manager is his most likely Love Interest.

Compare: the captain of the football team in Western American High School series; the Quidditch captain in the Harry Potter books; the Heir to the Dojo.

Anime and Manga

 * Kyouichi Saiyonji from Revolutionary Girl Utena.
 * Tatewaki Kuno from Ranma 1/2 is the captain of the team, but he is a grade-A, class one moron and buffoon that almost noone takes seriously.
 * Rei Hasekura (Rosa Foetida en Bouton) from Mariasama ga Miteru.
 * Kirino from Bamboo Blade. Since the whole show is about kendo, that makes her role quite prominent.
 * Masashi Takeda (pictured above) from My-HiME.
 * Soichiro Arima in His and Her Circumstances, who also doubles as the student council president. Somewhat justified, in that he spends almost every waking moment devoted to academic perfection, thinking it's his way to prove to his family and himself that he's a good, worthy person.
 * Maya Natsume from Tenjou Tenge.
 * Wakou, Sharaku's tomboyish older sister from Black Jack.
 * Masaya Aoyama in Tokyo Mew Mew.
 * Shiina from The Secret of Haruka Nogizaka is on the naginata team.
 * Subversion: Genichirou Sanada from The Prince of Tennis has the looks, the behavior, the ethics code and the kendo skills... but he's the sub-captain of the tennis team.
 * To a degree, all of the tennis captains count as moral equivalents, considering how the story revolves around tennis.
 * Hinagiku in Hayate the Combat Butler
 * Masamune Asuka and Tounomine Hajime in Otomen.
 * Hattori Heiji in Detective Conan.
 * Takemitsu Shinzou in Sket Dance. Bonus points for also constantly cosplaying as a samurai.
 * Shusui Hayasaka of Busou Renkin.
 * Saeko Bushijima in the beginning of Highschool of the Dead.

Video Games

 * Persona 3 has a Kendo Team Social Link, indeed mainly focused on the captain. However, the script's mostly the same even if you're on the Track or Swim teams, and on the whole the team doesn't really have as massive a pull as the other examples on this page.
 * Persona 3 adds new scenes with the Kendo Team Link seeing the captain from a different direction and adds the girls Tennis team captain who starts failing at her job to inspire her teammates which you help her out on.

Visual Novels

 * Osanai Syouko, the protagonist of Girls Love VN Aoi Shiro. She has everything you can expect to find in a Kendo team captain.

Anime and Manga

 * Juri Arisugawa (also from Revolutionary Girl Utena) is the captain of the fencing team.
 * As mentioned above, the tennis captains and sub-captains in The Prince of Tennis count as sort-of equivalents too.
 * Reika in Aim for The Ace is the tennis equivalent.

Film

 * Troy and Basketball in High School Musical qualify.

Literature

 * Oliver Wood, Cedric Diggory, Angelina Johnson, and Harry Potter himself.

Web Original

 * Since Whateley Academy in the Whateley Universe is a Super-Hero School, there's a big emphasis on self-defense. So there are two martials arts groups, each with their own fearsome leader: N'Dizi of the Tigers and Zhong Lau of the Dragons.

Western Animation

 * Eric Bennett from Bionic Six is the captain and star of his school's baseball team. In fact, his fighting style as Sport-1 involved him using a baseball bat as his main weapon.