Akira Honda

Akira Honda is a first-year at Johnan Public High School and plays the setter position on the volleyball team. He wears jersey number 8.

Appearance
Akira is a tall and athletic boy, with almost shoulder-length blonde hair and green eyes. He is relatively slim compared to some of his teammates. Along with his volleyball uniform, he also wears kneepads and elbow pads. He is considered highly attractive, often being nicknamed the "Pretty-Boy Setter" and being squealed over by hundreds of girls. This rarely annoys him.

Personality
Akira is self-centered, egotistical, and very competitive, but he is also very intelligent and uses his skill to get the best out of his teammates, especially Katta. He is very passionate about volleyball and believes that he loves the sport more than anyone else on his team, but he comes to realize that everyone has their own way of showing their passion and that his whole team is important to winning. He often acts out of pride, but as his relationships with his teammates develop, he starts to see them as equals and as friends.

Seiryoh Tryouts Arc
After being kicked off his junior high team for being too self-centered and expecting too much of his teammates, Akira went to the tryouts for Seiryoh High School Boys' Volleyball Team. It is there that he met Katta, and, although he was very annoyed by the other boy, used his strength and jumping power to help himself show off his setting skill. He declined the offer to join the team, though, because he didn't like the restricted style of play Seiryoh's coach encouraged and he wanted to be able to play his own way. He and Katta were then kicked out of the gym and had to decide on a different school to try out for, and they chose Johnan Public High School, a school that had played against Seiryoh in a recent tournament.

Johnan Volleyball Team Transformation Arc
Akira meets Katta again at the entrance ceremony on his first day at Johnan, and has to defend him against other students, who are trying to kick him out, believing him to be a delinquent. After the ceremony, they go to the gym, where they meet the libero, Moriguchi, and some of the other team members. Akira and Katta discover that the team only made it to the top 8 a long time ago, but are now on a 34-game losing streak, and never actually played a full set against Seiryoh. After beating the current team with Katta as his only teammate in a practice match, Akira takes it upon himself to transform the team, and employs his "Johnan Volleyball Team Transformation Plan," which involves lots of drills and workouts more complicated than what the boys are used to.

Kanto Preliminaries Arc
In the preliminaries for the Kanto Meet, Johnan played against Minami Youkoudai, also known as Nanyou. Akira used his complicated sets and employed decoys to score points, but Nanyou's coach influenced the referees and line judges to make false calls by scaring them, making it impossible for Johnan to win. Akira and the rest of the team continued to play their best, and eventually, the referees disobeyed the Nanyou coach and made an honest call, giving the Johnan team hope. They won the match and their next ones, and moved on to the second round of the preliminary a week later.

Their next big match was against Seiryoh. In this match, the whole team gave their all, working hard to defeat Seiryoh's powerful blockers. Akira again made use of complicated decoy sets and pushed the spikers to jump higher and hit harder than ever before. Akira had to stop being so prideful and focused on himself and start focusing more on his teammates and being more aware of their abilities and limitations, which would make him a better setter and better overall player. He started setting to spikers other than Katta, although he continued to rely on Katta for really important points. After winning the match and surprising everybody, he realized that the team is what's important in volleyball, since it's not an individual sport.

Katta Oosawa
Akira and Katta had a rocky relationship at the start of the story, but as they learned to work together and be more aware of each other as players and as people, they grew closer and actually became friends. Akira still finds Katta's energy and enthusiasm annoying, but when in a match, he finds it useful and sets to him a lot because he has great stamina and can jump high. Part of the reason they became friends is because they make such a good on-court combination. Akira is always trying to help Katta improve so their combination attacks can be more effective, and sometimes takes advantage of Katta's simple-mindedness and zeal to play more in order to get him to work out more.

Johnan Boys' Volleyball Team
Akira's relationships with his other team members aren't as close as with Katta, but he gets along with them when he has to. Because of his selfish and prideful personality, he tends to look down on his other teammates, but after their relentless efforts to get him to see them as equals, he starts to realize that they are important, too, and have a passion for the sport, just like he does. After that, his relationships with them start to improve.

Takeomi Kaidou
Akira played against Kaidou during his JOC training, and they became sort of rivals. Akira gets annoyed by Kaidou and really wants to beat him, and is still bitter about an insensitive comment Kaidou made after practice once. The idea of beating Kaidou motivates Akira, and he even stole a mannequin from the Home Economics classroom and labeled it "Kaidou" to use as a practice blocker during a drill he did with Katta.

Trivia

 * His best school subjects are math, history, science, and gym.
 * He plays for Wanpaku Volleyball Club, near where he lives.
 * He's been chosen for the JOC team every year since 7th grade.
 * Pet peeves: smarmy people
 * Favorite foods: green peppers, carrots, tomatoes, fish with eyes
 * Favorite things: Sudoku, Pikurose (a Japanese puzzle), Sambomaster (a Japanese rock band), pudding, perfume, and drawing maps

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