Tsukishima Key (Pre-Skip)

Kei Tsukishima (Japanese: 月島つきしま 蛍けい, Tsukishima Kei) is a first-year student at Karasuno High. He plays as one of the starting middle blockers on the boys' volleyball team. He is the younger brother of Akiteru Tsukishima.

Appearance Tsukishima is very tall and has an incredibly slim build for a volleyball player. Despite being a first-year, he is the tallest player on the volleyball team, standing at 190.1 cm. He has short blond hair, pale skin, thin eyebrows, and golden-brown eyes. He is often seen with a frown or a condescending smirk on his face. After joining the Karasuno volleyball team, Tsukishima wears the standard Karasuno volleyball uniform (black, orange, and white uniform with the number 11 on the back) during matches. He also wears knee pads and white volleyball shoes with green details. He is also the only player on the Karasuno team who wears glasses. Since Chapter 109, Tsukishima has been wearing prescription sports glasses that were given to him by his brother. Outside of matches and practice, Tsukishima wears a black gakuran, the Karasuno male uniform. He is usually seen with white headphones around his neck. The brand of these headphones seems to be "Somy", which is a play on the real name brand "Sony". He has been seen wearing various shirts with crescent moons on them, which plays on his name "Tsukishima" with tsuki meaning "moon".

Personality Tsukishima is very blunt and will sometimes rile his teammates up due to his antagonistic nature (most notably being Hinata, Kageyama, Nishinoya, and Tanaka) and sometimes other teams because of his casual smug attitude, taking pride in and relishing when his opponents see him as a nuisance, as seen with Tendō and Shirabu. Whenever someone does or says something stupid or silly, he is usually seen snickering in the background. However, he does seem to be intimidated by his seniors, being nowhere in sight when Daichi reprimands Tanaka for antagonising Aoba Johsai even though he did so as well or backing down whenever Ennoshita calls him out. Despite coming across as arrogant, Tsukishima has low self-esteem and thinks of himself as inferior to others in certain areas. This is first noted to be a surprise by Kuroo, who accidentally riles him up by suggesting he'll lose to Hinata, to which he says that he's already below him. After the Shiratorizawa match, despite being the MVP, he's seen calling himself lame for only being able to block Ushijima's spikes once, only adding to how little he believes in himself and his achievements. While he willingly admits his own faults, he does not like it when others point these things out, becoming annoyed and angry when Hinata tried to take responsibility for blocking Ushijima and then when Bokuto called his blocks weak in a sense of strength, given how easily he got by him during practice. Knowing his limitations, Tsukishima reluctantly knows he must depend on others for certain things and gives his own version of motivation that is usually disguised as jabs at their skills or pride. This can possibly best be seen during the VS Failing Grades (OVA) when Hinata and Kageyama needed to take new exams to pass but were having trouble studying. Tsukishima mocked their efforts and said they wouldn't be able to attend the camp. This fueled Hinata and Kageyama to increase their efforts and eventually pass with high scores, thus allowing them to join the team and improve their overall skills. Although Tsukishima maintains a persona of someone who shows little interest in anything and wouldn't do something he didn't like or enjoy, he does truly enjoy volleyball. He initially refrained from putting too much effort into volleyball and being too passionate about it out of fear of suffering from the same fate as his brother. However, after his confrontation with Yamaguchi and hearing Bokuto's inspirational words in the Tokyo training camp, he started to take the sport more seriously and finally found his passion and motivation for volleyball when he blocked Ushijima. This more positive expression became evident during Nationals, where he would repeatedly cause frustration to opponents and even showed a visible gloating expression when he dodged Hoshiumi's block-out attempt. Tsukishima keeps his cool, for the most part, but he can be seen getting visibly annoyed when people underestimate him or tell him what he can or cannot do and uses it as motivation to prove them wrong. He also says things like "It's not a competition" with Hinata but then immediately proceeds to do something to make him jealous, such as the time difference attack during the Shiratorizawa match. Since blocking Ushijima, Tsukishima has notably become more passionate in stopping powerful spikers by using different methods. According to Akiteru, "Kei is blunt and doesn't show his emotions often, but he is actually a very hardworking and kind boy."

Background Tsukishima was shown to be a lot more cheerful when he was younger and had a very close relationship with his older brother, Akiteru. He would attend several of Akiteru's middle school matches and seemed to enjoy the attention he received from locals who knew him as the younger brother of the team ace. Sometime in elementary school, he sees Yamaguchi being bullied by several other boys. He doesn't do anything, except call them pathetic; although it is unknown if this was aimed at Yamaguchi and/or the bullies. Shortly after, Tsukishima runs into Yamaguchi again when he was observing a volleyball class. Although he didn't remember Yamaguchi right away, Tsukishima is soon flattered by him when he claims that his older brother plays at Karasuno as the team ace, and the two quickly become close friends. Although Akiteru would state to be working very hard during practice and playing as the team ace again, Tsukishima was kept from attending any Karasuno games because his brother claimed he would become too nervous if he was being watched. When Tsukishima, Yamaguchi, and a classmate decided to attend one of Karasuno's games to settle a debate about Akiteru being a starting regular, Tsukishima discovered his brother is not on the team and is instead in the bleachers with the cheer section. Tsukishima's behaviour toward his brother and volleyball changed from this point as he began to distance himself from Akiteru and also began to think that putting in so much hard work would only lead to disappointment in the future.

Background with MC: MC's choice

Trivia

• Favorite Food: Strawberry Shortcake (Japanese: ショートケーキしょーとけーき, Shōtokēki).
• Pre-timeskip Concern: Upon entering high school, he once again has to put up with various people asking how to read the character for his first name.
• INTJ
• Star Sign: Libra.
• The character for his name (蛍) means firefly and can be read as either Hotaru or Kei.
• Tsukishima wears white gym shoes with green accents.
• He has the third-smallest appetite in the series after Satori Tendō and Kenma Kozume, often making his teammates and upperclassmen worry for his health.
• Like Kenma and Tendō, he states that he has a normal appetite and others eat more than normal.
• His BMI is the lowest of the male characters in the series.
• He has a habit of fiddling with his fingers when he feels nervous, which is demonstrated most notably when he asks Coach Ukai for advice on blocking.
• He has stretch marks and scars behind his back, due to his tall frame. He's insecure about them; only Yamaguchi, His family and MC know. (So, in case MC is insecure about their own stretch marks, he understands them and might comfort them)
• He is usually seen with his white Sony (Somy in anime to avoid trademark concerns) headphones around his neck whenever he's not practising or playing.
• Tsukishima appears to be good at studying, as he belongs to Class 1-4, known to be a college preparatory class.
• It is confirmed that he shares the same class as Tadashi Yamaguchi.
• His birthday falls on the day of the Harvest Moon, which is when the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, on the Chinese calendar is celebrated in September 2015.[37]
• Coincidentally, the first kanji in his last name means "moon".
• In addition, Tsukishima was often seen with a crescent moon symbol on his hoodies and jackets as a child.
• He keeps toy dinosaurs on a shelf above his desk. Whether he actually likes dinosaurs or not is unknown, but it can be assumed that he does, as is demonstrated in a Let's! Haikyuu!? chapter.
• Tsukishima is often referred to as the moon while Hinata is the sun due to their surnames and opposing personalities.
• It also reflects their playing styles during games as Tsukishima is a quiet strategist and Hinata is the attention-drawing decoy.
• In a poll conducted by Charapedia, a Japanese anime and manga character database, that asked which anime characters would they choose as the basis for their children's name, Tsukishima came in 9th with 98 votes among female respondents.
• In One-Shot (Weekly Shōnen Jump), Tsukishima was a second-year while Hinata and Kageyama were first-years. He was also only 184 cm.
• Furudate picked Tsukishima's name because: "His last name has 'moon' (月) to contrast Hinata's 'sun' (日). But I named him 'firefly' (蛍) because he can emit light on his own."
• In Haikyuu's first popularity poll, Tsukishima ranked 8th with 3,407 votes. In the second popularity poll, he rose to 4th with 8,305 votes. In the Takara Tomy Character Poll, he ranked 11th with 4,595 votes.
• Tsukishima's most hated type of spikers are the ones who ricochet the ball off the blocker's hands. He noted this after Ennoshita noticed his expression during the match against Wakutani Minami High.
• He is the third oldest first-year on the team after Hitoka Yachi and Hinata.
• He, Kanji Koganegawa, and Kentarō Kyōtani are currently Sendai Frogs players.
• In the Monster Generation Interview, it's said that the Sendai Frogs are rising in the ranks and may be promoted to Division 1 if the trend continues.
• When Hinata returned from Brazil, he gifted Tsukishima a pink and glittery shirt. It is unknown if Tsukishima wore/kept the shirt.

Nomenclature: Kei (蛍) – Firefly Tsukishima (月島) – Moon Island The tsuki in his surname, 月島, is the same as Chiharu Tsukioka's first kanji of his surname. They both mean "moon."

more informations: https://haikyuu.fandom.com/wiki/Kei_Tsukishima