Kippei Tachibana

Infobox animanga character
name = Kippei Tachibana
series = The Prince of Tennis


caption = Kippei Tachibana
first =
last =
creator = Takeshi Konomi
voiced by = Yoshihisa Kawahara (Japanese)
Doug Erholtz (English)
age =
born = August 15
class = 3rd year
relatives =
aux1 name = School
aux1 = Fudomine
aux2 name = Style
aux2 = All Rounder, right-handed

nihongo|Kippei Tachibana|橘 桔平|Tachibana Kippei is a fictional character in the anime and manga The Prince of Tennis. He attends Fudomine Middle School, and is the Captain of the team.

History

. They then attended Shishigaku Middle School, and Tachibana joined the tennis team.

Along with Senri Chitose, Tachibana became one of the Top 2 players of the Kyūshū region. Tachibana and Chitose easily lead Shishigaku to becoming the Kyūshū Champions, and they made it to the semi-finals in the Nationals before losing to Makinofuji Gakuen. However, after the Nationals, tragedy struck.

Tachibana had always been a very aggressive player, and during an intra-school ranking match with Chitose, he decided to try out his new move, the Wild Ball. He severely damaged Chitose's eye and hospitalized him. As atonement, and much to his sister's horror, Tachibana quit the tennis team; he also cut his long hair and stopped bleaching it, returning to its natural black color. Shortly after, his father transferred to Tokyo, and the family moved there.

After arriving, Tachibana heard a rumor that Chitose had begun playing Tennis again, now for Shitenhouji Chuu. Tachibana joined the Fudomine club at that point. When he joined, he quickly realized that the first year players were far better than the older ones, but got no playing time and were also bullied by the older players. Tachibana allied with them, and they split off from the tennis club to form their own tennis club.

The current coach hated his guts and told them off. During a confrontation, the coach spits his cigar on the tennis count and starts rubbing it and Tachibana lost his cool and attacked the coach. This resulted in Fudomine getting expelled from that year's Newcomer's Tournament. In the end, however, Tachibana and the others managed to have their new club recognized, and banded together to go the Nationals.

Notable Matches

Ryo Shishido

In the Tokyo Prefectural Tournament, Fudomine meets the reigning Champions Hyoutei Gakuen. Although they are a strong team, most of their regulars aren't there, since they want to save them for later.

In Singles 3, Tachibana and Shishido face each other. Although Shishido is confident, Tachibana defeats him in less than 15 minutes, and Hyoutei loses in the process. It is only after this match that the other players in the Tokyo Prefecture (namely, Hyoutei captain Keigo Atobe and Saint Rudolph captain Yoshirou Akazawa) realize that Tachibana is the one who dominated the Kyuushu Region.

Akaya Kirihara

In the Kantou Tournament, Fudomine faces off against the two time reigning National Champions, Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku. In Singles 3, Tachibana faces off against 2nd year player Akaya Kirihara.

Although Tachibana is a nationally ranked player, he had locked away his Wild Beast Aura by this point, just like Kirihara, is a player with more-or-less hidden violent tendencies, which he tries to repress so he doesn't injure anybody like he did to Chitose.

He loses to Kirihara, who hits several balls to Tachibana's head and stomach (manga) and foot (anime). In the anime he is hospitalized and remains there for a period of time; however he temporarily returns to the courts to encourage Seigaku regular Shusuke Fuji during Fuji's match with Kirihara in the Kantou finals when Kirihara injures Fuji with the same play that he used on Tachibana himself. Fuji goes on to win the match.

Shusuke Fuji

Prior to the Nationals, Fuji requests a match with Tachibana, feeling unsure if his current skill level is enough. Although they start out evenly, Fuji gradually tries to draw out Tachibana's old form, and eventually succeeds in doing so. After Tachibana has reawakened, he easily crushes Fuji's Triple Counters, and ends the match.

Senri Chitose

In the National Quarterfinals, Fudomine and Shitenhouji are matched up, reuniting the two old teammates. By the time they play, Shitenhouji's victory is almost all but assured.

At the start of the match, tachibana lets chitose hit the ball at his eye. Throughout the match, they are even, with Chitose countering the Wild Lion with his Kamikakushi and the Wild Beast Aura with The Pinnacle of Great Wisdom. In the end, his predictive abilities from the Pinnacle of Great Wisdom prove to be superior to Tachibana's power. on game point Tachibana releases his Wild Ball, the move that injured Chitose's eye in the first place, though purposely hits the ball so that Chitose could return it, allowing Chitose to win the match and set. However, Chitose reveals that Tachibana never hit the ball to the side of his weak eye throughout the match, and thinks that he probably wouldn't have won if he didn't realize it at the last second.

Following this, Tachibana returns with an eyepatch covering his injured eye to watch the match between Shusuke Fuji and Kuranosuke Shiraishi.

Special Shots

Wild Lion

The Wild Lion (Abare Jishi) is Tachibana's most notable shot. It's a fast and powerful shot that completely defines his attack style. There are not a whole lot of details known about the shot, but it seems to just be a powerful forehand.

It is especially devastating because of Tachibana's Wild Beast Aura.

Super Rising

One of the more common shots used in Prince of Tennis, Super Rising is a shot where the returner hits the ball they are returning just as it is bouncing up in order to give the opponent less time to react. Tachibana uses it seal off Chitose's Kamikakushi.

Wild Beast Aura

A special form that Tachibana can go into, the Wild Beast Aura is similar to the State of Self Actualization, but it has its differences. In this, all of Tachibana's skills are better than before. Using this form, he was able to easily break through Shusuke Fuji's Triple Counters, and was able to stand on even footing with Chitose even after Chitose opened one of the 3 Doors of the State of Self Actualization.

Wild Ball

Tachibana's special shot, the Wild Ball is done while doing a certain stance, and the ball is then hit extremely hard with the frame of the racket. This shot seems to be a more powerful version of Akazawa Yoshirou's (St. Rudolph's captain) blur ball, and it is this shot that caused Chitose Senri's eye injury back when they were both still part of the Shishigaku tennis club.This shot may also be the basis for the move "Illusion" used be Kevin in the anime only arc of the Goodwill Games, possibly combined with Shiraishi's Entaku Shot. The shots are similar in the sense that the ball seems to be all over the place and "impossible" to know where the real ball is.

Note that this was Tachibana's final shot against his latest match with Chitose.