Daisuke Tsubaki

Daisuke Tsubaki
Nickname	Baki
Kanji	椿 大介
Romaji	{{{romaji}}}
Player Statistics
Club	East Tokyo United
Position	Midfield
Jersey #	#7
National Player	Yes U-22 and A team
Vital Statistics
Age	20 (Born January 5th)
Height	174cm
Weight	65kg
Blood Type	O
Relatives	Parents and a sister
First Appearance
Manga Debut	Chapter 3
Anime Debut	Episode 1
Voices
Japanese Voice	Takahiro Mizushima

Daisuke Tsubaki (椿 大介, Tsubaki Daisuke) is a Central Midfielder for East Tokyo United, although he can also play as a Full-Back.

He was promoted from ETU's reserve team to ETU's "A" team by Takeshi Tatsumi. He is considered as the fastest player on ETU's roster, which ETU uses to their advantage by having him get behind other players without them noticing. Being newly promoted Tsubaki has doubts about himself being able to help the team, however Tatsumi encourages him to continue playing even if he makes mistakes.

Tsubaki played every minute available for ETU up until the team's 20th League match against Montebia Yamagata, for which he was suspended after receiving his 4th yellow card in the previous League match against Wissel Kobe.

Overview

Tsubaki is an insecure midfielder who has exceptional talent but his nerves get in the way. Some fans and reporters believe that Tsubaki could be the star of ETU if he could gain more confidence in his abilities.

History

Tsubaski started playing football in his 4th grade of elementary school. Because his school, which was composed of only 15-16 students, was about to be demolished, Tsubaki persuaded his classmates and teachers to hold a football competition so that he could spend more time with everybody. Since there were not enough to students to make up 2 teams, the teachers also had to participate in the games. Eventually, everybody became addicted to the game. However, they had some trouble because the older teachers and the younger elementary students were mixed together. It was Tsubaki that suggested giving definite tasks (i.e. formations) to each player according to their strength, which allowed the team to finally come together .

Tsubaki was recruited to a well-known high school on his middle school advisor's recommendations, after that the latter saw something shine in his play.

Although he was unremarkable in high school, Tsubaki did signed afterwards with Musashino, a club from Japan's 3rd Division, when their scouts attended a high school match in which Tsubaki's talent shone through.

Tsubaki then moved to East Tokyo United after being scouted by Kasano, the former Sporting Director and current scout for ETU.

Player Performance

Tsubaki's main strengths are his speed and stamina. Gino often uses Tsubaki as his "stupid hunting dog" because "when someone runs that much, its fun to send passes to them" . Because of his outstanding speed, Tsubaki can run behind the opposing team players in an instant and catch them offguard. Gino uses this to the team's advantage by passing the ball to Tsubaki in that instant and have Tsubaki run through the space left open by the unsuspecting player. His speed is so exceptional that even higher sport officials are often left awed and impressed. Tsubaki is able to go head to head with nationally ranked players because of his speed. His impressive stamina is also frequently used by Takeshi Tatsumi to the team's advantage by pitting Tsubaki against key players on the opposing team and tiring them out. His stamina led to Mochida to refer to him as being like an animal.

Throughout the season, Tsubaki not only used his speed for his off-ball movements, but also to help his dribbling. While he possessed good technical skills, Tsubaki is at his best with the ball when he comes with momentum towards his opponent. That ability helps Tsubaki passing by some of the league's best volantes, such as Carlos from Nagoya Grand Palace and Wataru Hachiya from Kawasaki Frontier. Tsubaki's speed is also useful to deny crosses from his opponents when ETU's defenders are unable to catch the latter.

Tsubaki's main weakness is his inability to cope with even the slightest bit of additional pressure that comes after a noteworthy performance, leading him to be inconsistent at first. Murakoshi noted that Tsubaki might have to battle with that weakness for the rest of his career>.

During ETU's 4th league match against Nagoya, Tsubaki had his first breakthrough in terms of composure at the pro level, as he was finally able to clearly see his surroundings while having the ball, showing that he finally managed to adapt to the level of the league.

Personality

Nervous and insecure Tsubaki wants to be a good ETU player but believes he screws up too much. His nervous personality was probably inherited from his father. Shigeyuki Murakoshi helps Tsubaki out, along with Takeshi Tatsumi in finding some confidence. Tatsumi thinks that Tsubaki is fine the way he is, he just needs some confidence on the field and in himself. Tsubaki is also polite and is afraid of upsetting others. He finds the fights between the ETU players scary and gets nervous around his fans.

Tsubaki's deep love for football is noteworthy. Because of this, he is incredibly hardworking and practices on his own to improve his skills.

Plot

Tsubaki goes against Shigeyuki Murakoshi in the first scrimmage of training camp

At the start of the series, Tsubaki is on the reserve team. During the first day of training, Tsubaki shined in the 30-meter-dash speed and stamina test earning him a spot on Takeshi Tatsumi's pick list to be starters, alongside Ryo Akasaki, Kazumi Kiyokawa, Tsuyoshi Miyano, Kyohei Sera, Shingo Yano, Osamu Ishihama, Kobayashi, Takeshi Kamei, and Hiroi.

Inspired by Tatsumi's speech and Shigeyuki Murakoshi's praise for his aggressiveness, Tsubaki performed exceptionally well during the first day scrimmage and even managed to beat Murakoshi in a head to head battle. However Tsubaki performed poorly for the rest of the training camp. He is found by Tatsumi practicing alone on the last day of training. Realizing Tsubaki's inability to cope with pressure, Tatsumi was able to help Tsubaki overcome his weakness by encouraging Tsubaki to find the "giant killer" within himself and focus on being the best he can be rather than avoiding screw-ups. He thus became a part of the "A" team for the rest of the season.

In the manga, Tsubaki becomes captain in a match against Kawasaki but doubts why he was chosen and so Kazuki Kuroda steps in to help him out. Murakoshi questions if the pressure will bring Tsubaki down or if it will help him become stronger.

In Chapter 262, he was selected to play for Japan U22 side alongside Ryo Akasaki who was chosen as well.

Relationships

ETU

Takeshi Tatsumi

Tatsumi is Tsubaki's coach at ETU. He can also be considered as his mentor. Although Tatsumi knows about his weaknesses, he plays Tsubaki in almost every game. When Tsubaki was insecure about his performances or his call-up for the National Team, Tatsumi helped him to gain confidence and to became a better player. Tsubaki admires his coach a lot. Nevertheless, Tatsumi is one of the people who sometimes freaks Tsubaki out by his blunt and honest character.

Luigi Yoshida

Gino is Tsubaki's teammate at ETU and one of his role models. In the pre-season training, Gino made Tsubaki and Akasaki his "pet dogs". Tsubaki played the rule of the "stupid dog that runs around" and distract the opponent. In ETU's 25th league match against Nagoya, Tsubaki criticized Gino's performance. Although that angered Gino at first, he gained some respect for Tsubaki's courage and promoted him from his "pet dog" to his "attendant". Tsubaki is often scared or irratated because of Gino's all-high-and-mighty behaviour.

Shigeyuki Murakoshi

A team mate of Tsubaki and his (former) captain at ETU. Murakoshi is one of Tsubaki's role models. They often play next to each other as volantes. In pre-season training, Murakoshi was surprised by Tsubaki's speed and stamina. They actually get along pretty well. Murakoshi sometimes encourages Tsubaki on the pitch when he lose his confidence.

Ryo Akasaki, Kyohei Sera and Tsuyoshi Miyano

Team mates of Tsubaki at ETU. Because of their similar age they became Tsubaki's friends. Akasaki also play with him in the U-22 national team.

Gabriel

A team mate and friend at ETU. They first met in the summer training camp, where Gabriel and Tonoyama played with university students against ETU. Because of his awkward experiences with Brazilian players (Zelberto, Carlos and Pepe) Tsubaki was anxious at first but also recognized Gabriel's warm and friendly smile. After Goto signed Gabriel for ETU, they became friends.

Others

Haruhiko Kubota

Kubota plays for Osaka Gunners, one of ETU's league rivals. On match day ten, the teams faced each other in the league. Kubota was stunned by Tsubaki's performance. During their time together at the U-22 National team, they quickly made friends. Since then Kubota and Tsubaki kept in touch. Despite their friendship, in a game as opponents, the two would do their best to win.

Ren Mochida

The play-maker of ETU's biggest rival Tokyo Victory. Tsubaki is extremely afraid of him because of his blunt and irritating habits. Nevertheless as a player, Mochida is one of his role models. Mochida is also kind of interested in Tsubaki, although he often teases him.

Etymology

• The name Daisuke means "big, great" (大) (dai) and "forerunner, herald" (介) (suke).
• Daisuke's surname Tsubaki means "camellia flower" (椿).