Hiroshi Yagyu is a third-year student at Rikkai University Affiliated Middle School, known as "The Gentleman" for his impeccable manners, yet he reveals a ruthless and cunning side during matches.
- Affiliation: Rikkai University Affiliated Middle School, Class 3-A, Seat 20
- Club: Boys' Hardball Tennis Club
- Committee: Disciplinary Committee
- Height: 177cm
- Weight: 64kg
- Blood Type: A
- Birthday: October 19
- Zodiac Sign: Libra
- Shoe Size: 27.0cm
- Vision: 0.6 (uncorrected), 1.5 (corrected)
- Dominant Hand: Right
- Playstyle: Serve & Volleyer
- Signature Move: Laser Beam
- Favorite Brands: Shoes/DUNLOP PRS-300DG (ADFORCE), Racket/DUNLOP ADFORCE M1 TOUR
- Family: Grandfather, Father, Mother, Younger Sister
- Father's Occupation: Doctor (Internal Medicine)
- Hobby: Reading (Mysteries)
- Best Subjects: All
- Worst Subjects: None
- Favorite Food: Tokoroten (gelidium jelly noodles)
- Favorite Color: Moss Green
- Favorite Movie: 'The Phantom of the Opera'
- Favorite Book: 'The Murder of Roger Ackroyd' by Agatha Christie
- Favorite Music: Johann Strauss
- Motto: Do one good deed a day.
- Elementary School: Kanagawa Fourth Elementary
- Favorite Spot at School: Student Council Room
- How He Spends His Allowance: Donations
- Preferred Type: A pure and clean girl
- Ideal Date Spot: A botanical garden
- Most Wanted Item: A handkerchief
- Daily Routine: Writing in his diary, waking up to classical music, and cleaning his room
- Dislikes: People with poor memory, thrill rides, and haunted houses
- Special Skill (besides tennis): Solving puzzle rings
- Average Times Raising Hand in Class: 11.3
- Sanada's Calligraphy for Him: A true gentleman is not a mere tool.
Yagyu is a tall student with a refined posture, almost always seen wearing his glasses.
His glasses are a key feature, as they typically obscure his eyes, making his expression unreadable.
His hair color varies by adaptation; it is brown in the original manga and stage musicals but purple in the anime series.
Yagyu is widely known as "The Gentleman" due to his polite speech and model student behavior.
He addresses everyone, including underclassmen, formally with their last name and a suffix.
However, once a "match" begins, he becomes cold, ruthless, and unforgiving in his pursuit of victory.
He maintains a calm and collected demeanor at all times, with his facial expression rarely changing, both on and off the court.
Despite his gentlemanly persona, there are hints that he's not as straight-laced as he appears.
He has been known to add his own provocative remarks, like calling Akaya Kirihara a "seaweed-head," and he even deceived his own partner, the "Trickster" Masaharu Nio, to win a match.
He expressed reluctance about deceiving opponents with tactics like the "Switching" strategy, but he will ultimately use any means necessary to secure a win.
Yagyu is a third-year regular at the tennis powerhouse, Rikkai University Affiliated Middle School.
He is a model student and a member of the Disciplinary Committee, alongside his classmate Genichiro Sanada.
His father works as a doctor in internal medicine.
In the TV anime, an alternate backstory was created where he was originally a member of the golf club, scouted by Masaharu Nio to join the tennis team.
Yagyu is a skilled Serve & Volleyer with exceptional technique.
His stats are: Speed-2, Power-3, Stamina-3, Mental-4, and Technique-5.
His signature move is the "Laser Beam," an ultra-high-speed passing shot that precisely targets gaps from the baseline. His version is called the "true laser."
In *The New Prince of Tennis*, he develops a version of the Laser Beam that curves, making it even harder to return.
In the TV anime, he also possessed a special shot called the "Golf Swing," which utilized a golf-like form.
Masaharu Nio
Nio is Yagyu's doubles partner, forming the formidable Rikkai D1 pair.
Though their personalities are complete opposites, Yagyu considers Nio a close friend, stating that he understands him intuitively after their long association and can see through most of his "Illusion" disguises.
Akaya Kirihara
Unlike other upperclassmen, Yagyu maintains a formal distance with Kirihara, calling him "Kirihara-kun" or "Kirihara."
He once deliberately provoked Kirihara during a match by adding the insult "You seaweed-head" to a translation, aiming to ignite his competitive spirit.
Genichiro Sanada
Yagyu and Sanada are classmates and serve together on the Disciplinary Committee, sharing a sense of order and discipline.
Because his voice actor, Eisuke Tsuda, is a musical actor, Yagyu's character songs are famous for their powerful vocals and strong vibrato.
He once showed a rare moment of being flustered in a Q&A corner of the manga.
- "You seaweed-head." (このワカメ野郎, *Kono wakame yarō*)
- A line he personally added when translating for Kirihara to provoke him.
Kanto Tournament Arc
In the Kanto Tournament finals, Yagyu and Nio faced Seigaku's "Golden Pair," Shūichirō Ōishi and Eiji Kikumaru, in Doubles 1.
They implemented their famous "Switching" tactic to win, though Yagyu privately expressed his distaste for deceiving an opponent in such a manner.
National Tournament Arc
Just before the Nationals, Yagyu teamed up with Kaoru Kaidō in an unofficial match, where he once again used the "Switching" tactic and even mimicked Kaidō's "Boomerang Snake" with a pole-hugging shot.
In the second round of the Nationals, he partnered with Akaya Kirihara to achieve a decisive victory against the Ushida/Miyase pair.
In the semifinals, he was tasked with awakening Kirihara's true potential and deliberately lost his Singles 3 match.
During this, while translating Liliadent Krauser's German speech for Kirihara, he slyly added the insult "You seaweed-head" to ignite Kirihara's fighting spirit.
The New Prince of Tennis Arc
During the U-17 training camp's drop-out tie-break match, Yagyu faced his own partner, Masaharu Nio.
In a surprising twist, Yagyu outsmarted the "Trickster" himself with a feint, winning the match with a new, curving Laser Beam.
Ryoma! The Prince of Tennis Movie
Yagyu appeared in the film alongside the other Rikkai regulars and participated in the opening and closing musical numbers.
However, he unexpectedly stole the show during the final song, "Sekai wo Teki ni Mawashite mo" (Even If the World Becomes Your Enemy).
He was given a prominent solo part during a key moment, a role typically reserved for main characters like Ryoma Echizen or Keigo Atobe.
This bizarre and memorable scene left audiences hilariously confused, spawning memes and jokes about Yagyu's non-existent friendship with Ryoma or his secret main character status.
Furthermore, his character song, "LASER BEAM," was featured in the "Theater ☆ TeniFes petit!" short, cementing his inexplicably huge presence in the movie.
Voice Actor
Eisuke Tsuda
Stage Musical Actors
- 1st Season: Toru Baba (Main), Ryunosuke Onoda (Support)
- 2nd Season: Ryosuke Mikata
- 3rd Season: Yuta Osumi
- 4th Season: Seitaro Nakayama
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