kentarō kyōtani.

Kentarō Kyōtani (Japanese: 京谷きょうたに, Kyōtani Kentarō) was a second-year student at Aoba Johsai High. He played as a wing spiker for the Boys' Volleyball Team.

Kyōtani is an easily identifiable character, particularly due to his short-cropped dyed blond hair with two black stripes running across the sides of his head, just above the ears. He is one of the shortest members of the team though this usually gets overlooked because of the rest of his appearance.

His honey brown eyes are sharp and appear fierce and hostile (he almost appears to be wearing eye-liner, or has dark bags beneath his eyes), and he has small eyebrows. He lives up to his nickname of "Kyōken" or "Mad Dog", given from the start of his given and surname (though this nickname was not necessarily made up by Oikawa to exemplify his fierce and brash personality, and different kanji are used).

He's said to have the best ability among the second-years at Aoba Johsai High, but his brash attitude and lack of teamwork has led to troubled relationships with others, most notably his upperclassmen. He is seen to be hot-tempered and usually has a frown or scowl on his face. He doesn't seem to show any respect for the third-years other than Iwaizumi; irritating them and shocking the first-years upon Kyōtani's return to the team.

He is extremely strong, and he can only hit the ball with his full strength or he "doesn't feel satisfied." He is also shown to display some violent tendencies as he is seen shoving multiple characters and knocking them to the floor on some occasions, although it is unknown if this is intentional or not. It seems Yahaba is one of the few people, besides Iwaizumi, that is able to effectively calm him down and get him to focus when he loses control of himself.

When Kyōtani was a child, his father dragged him to a volleyball match during the World Cup where Kyōtani would become interested in the sport after watching one certain player during the game.[1] Before high school, Kyōtani played volleyball at Minami Daisan Junior High as the team ace. It is said that the team had their best years when Kyōtani played. It is revealed that he has not played with Aoba Johsai's team outside of a few practice matches due to his uncooperative attitude.

Tooru Oikawa: While Oikawa attempts to get Kyōtani to be more of a team player and nicknamed him 'Mad Dog', Kyōtani was instinctively wary of him and tended to keep his distance from the setter. However, unlike several of the other third-years, Kyōtani showed Oikawa the least respect (of all Aoba Johsai High) and would often ignore his warnings and instructions during matches. Despite this, Kyōtani is shown to have no trouble matching with Oikawa's sets with his only annoyance being that Oikawa would use him as a decoy. Hajime Iwaizumi: He's known to only listen to Iwaizumi and respond to his upperclassman, as he has challenged Iwaizumi to multiple athletic competitions and lost to him every time. Since Iwaizumi is not afraid to hit or scold him when necessary, Kyōtani tends to be more mild and accepting of the consequences of his actions when around the ace. Kunimi refers to this relationship as Kyōtani seeing Iwaizumi as the "alpha-dog" Shigeru Yahaba: Although they're in the same grade, Kyōtani originally does not acknowledge Yahaba as someone he should be intimated by and even ignores prior scolding's by the setter. However, after a confrontation during the match against Karasuno, Kyōtani began listening to the setter and appears to be the only other person he will listen to besides Iwaizumi. When playing together, the two show to have good chemistry and Yahaba even vocally puts his faith in the wing spiker to help the team as best as he can

Kiyoshi: Prior to Kyōtani's return to the Aoba Johsai team, he met Kiyoshi while practicing with another team. Kyōtani was surprised at how well Kiyoshi was able to understand him and the problems he was facing. Thanks to Kiyoshi, Kyōtani came to realize that he needed to connect with his teammates instead of trying to do things his own way.