- Overview
- Plot
- Relationships
- Gallery
Shoukichi Naruko is a third-year student at Sohoku High School and a member of the Sohoku High Bicycle Racing Club. He is a sprinter cyclist from Osaka, known as "Naniwa's Speed Man" or "Speedster of Naniwa".
Appearance[]
Shoukichi has distinctly bright red short hair that protrudes in thick spikes. He has large, sharp, red eyes and his mouth is stylized with noticable canines, usually one seen at any given time, especially the top one on his left. Shoukichi is also considered short for his age. He is seen wearing his personal biking outfit (a red, black, and white jacket with black tights) for cycling as well as Sohoku's jersey. Shoukichi's casual clothing usually consists of a T-shirt with a tiger on it, as a tiger is his image animal.
Personality[]
Shoukichi speaks with a Kansai accent due to living his childhood in Osaka. As a sprinter, he has a vastly competitive nature, and easily gets upset or disappointed when he is beaten in a race. He gets particularly riled up when he thinks that people he considers rivals best him. Shoukichi was very small in elementary school like Sakamichi Onoda is now and gets angered whenever his height is insulted and tends to throw insults right back at others.
He is something of a brother figure to Sakamichi and enthusiastically supports and encourages him. Shoukichi is known for being "flashy" and likes to stand out and to entertain, thinking those who don't stand out are dull. This is why he enjoys the color red, a flashy color according to him. This flashiness encompasses his appearance as well as his cycling style. He thinks proudly that to be the fastest is to be the coolest.
Shoukichi has a tendency to nickname others, both on and off his team, regardless of how well he knows the other person. Some of his nicknames include Captain Shades (Shingo), Old Man (Jin), Hotshot (Shunsuke), Manager (Miki), Perm Senpai (Junta), Quiet Senpai (Hajime), Glasses Senpai (Kimitaka), Eyelashes (Touichirou), and Gorilla (Yoshiaki). Notably, there is a few people he refers to not only by name, but with proper honorifics, such as Sakamichi and Yusuke Makishima.
He also tends to remember past events and promises easily, such as the promise he did with Sakamichi and Shunsuke of finishing the Inter High with them at the same time. After Shoukichi lost to Akira Midousuzi, he has become more serious and determined in practices, especially learning to pull Sakamichi on hills.
Skills and Techniques[]
Shoukichi is a speed-based sprinter who excels at cycling on flat land at a high speed. During the training camp, Shingo replaced Shoukichi's handles with the standard horizontal bar to limit his sprinting. He taught Sakamichi the art of wind-breaking when they first met, but Shoukichi wasn't as effective as a barouder (windbreaker) as Shingo and Jin due to his slim build, but was still bigger than Sakamichi. He was able to overcome that specific obstacle later on as the training camp progressed. Despite this, as he owned four bikes at one stage (two MTB)'s, one with a hardtail, a Pinarello road bike and a Gifted Kuromori, another road bike), he does have some mountain climbing ability, as shown on the latter stages of the First Year Welcome Race, in which he revealed to had trained in Mt. Rokko, where he learned the "Sprint Climb technique", but admitted to Sakamichi that he is not as good on super-slopes, so he insisted Sakamichi carry on to challenge Shunsuke during the climb and leave him behind. He did, however, taught Sakamichi his family secret move: To shift up two gears quickly before copying Shunsuke's Pendulum Dance.
One of his old techniques is known as the "Sprint Climb", which is when he shifts to a heavier gear and uses his lower handlebars to climb a hill like a sprinter, a technique he unleashed on the final climb up Route 150, which he has already gained a lot of speed and experience using the move, to everybody's shock and amazement. In order to decrease his air resistance during the sprinter battle on the first day of the Inter High, Shoukichi tucks his hair into his helmet, uses his racing pants to constrict his jacket, and disposes of water bottles that add extra weight to his bike; this style is known as the "Rocket Sprint Style," and is similar to that of a T.T. style, he would even throw away the saddle altogether if the situation calls for it (albeit illegal in official races). Shoukichi also developed another method for sprinting on a slope by shifting his body weight forwards, sitting on the front edge of his saddle, and using the lower handlebars in a new technique he calls the "Armstrong Climb."
After the Inter High, his Pinarello road bike was given new carbon deep wheels. On the flats, a wheel's aerodynamics are important. These new wheels reduce the amount of wind resistance generated, allowing for higher speeds.
Afraid of Sohoku's future in the following year, Shunsuke did advise Shoukichi to become an all-rounder instead, which he did refuse at first. However, Shoukichi decided to do a final judgement during his time at Osaka's track course, while racing other cyclists and putting his sprinter title at stake. After his loss against Akira, he did abandon his carbon wheels and followed Shunsuke's advise of becoming an all-rounder.
By the second year, Shoukichi has become much faster and fitter, where he can still carry a conversation to the crowd without losing speed downhill while pulling his teammates. He has also taken a more precise and closer angle while cornering downhill without crashing, which he coined "Super Fluttering Downhill" as his jersey sleeves have a minor rip. It would be the perfect angle to lean the bike when it hits the guardrail.
Shoukichi also developed his climbing skills to the point he could keep up with other strong climbers in races, such as Sangaku Manami. The second version of Armstrong Climb is called Tip-Toe Advance. It merely moves his feet pointing forward. The crankshaft from the top to perpendicular (called forward thrust 12 o'clock to 9 anti-clockwise on left foot, 12-3 clockwise on the right foot), where the most efficient and biggest power output occurs. But the least efficient is the downward thrust (9-6 left foot or 9-3 right foot), so by strengthening and pointing the foot forward, it can generate more power throughout the whole downward stroke and transferring to the other foot. When the leg reaches the top of the crankshaft, instead of being flat-footed, he also points the toe down.
Shoukichi's also demonstrates a strong mind during the races, by not falling for Akira's tricks during the 42nd Summer Inter High and making decisions who managed to help his team during critical moments, such as chasing Hakone and holding Kyoto Fushimi by himself, and making better predictions than Sangaku to take him on in a mountain climbing race.
Warning!! Proceed with caution!!
Part of the following is not yet in the anime. If you're not reading the manga, be careful.
Known Personal Achievements[]
Etymology[]
- The name Shoukichi means "chapter, section" (章) (shou) and "lucky, good" (吉) (kichi).
- Shoukichi's surname Naruko means "ringing" (鳴) (naru) and "child" (子) (ko).
Trivia[]
Likes[]
- Bread, or rather, he likes milk. Since he wants to grow bigger, he eats a lot of calcium. He even had to drink coffee with milk, faking that he likes black coffee in Omake 24[1]
- Okonomiyaki (savory pancakes with your own ingredients mixed in)
- Beef tendon hotpot, the two are his new favorites in season 4, now that he has grown 2 cm.
- Fireworks (owns his own yukata)
- Hero shows like Tokusatsu, and he mimics their finishing attacks.
- Scream rides.
Dislikes[]
- Visiting old-fashioned aquariums
- Pun jokes
- Sarcasm
Collects[]
- Red things
- Flashy things
Talents[]
- Setting up barbecue the right way
Best subjects[]
- Likes geography
Brotherly love[]
- Takes good care of his younger brothers
- His younger brothers look up to him
- He always carries candies around to give to them
Misc[]
- He hates to lose; when he was an elementary school student, everyone called him "Speed-eating and Speed-drinking Shou-chan". In Omake 15, he speedily drank a bottle of milk in 3.08 seconds, but regretted it once Shunsuke told him afterward that it was expired.[2] In Omake 14 of the third season, he beat Issa and Aoyagi in speed-drinking milk, while Issa's stomach starts to get upset after redoing the competition so many times.
- Shoukichi is the only member of team Sohoku who has a Kansai accent because he is from Osaka. This accent is characterized as being both more melodic and harsh by speakers of standard Japanese.
- In Ride 5, he bought out the cafeteria worth of buns, but he justified it as a normal energy consumption of a bike racer. He did give one to Sakamichi because he missed out.
- Armstrong Climb is likely to be named after Lance Armstrong. However, Lance Armstrong's true climbing technique is closer to Sakamichi as he utilizes high-cadence climbing.[3]
- He is very ticklish, especially around the stomach.
- His family is poor in comparison to the other team members' families.
- Shoukichi lives with his grandparents in addition to his primary family.
- Shoukichi has four siblings (totaling five), he is the second oldest; with one older sister, a younger brother in Junior High, and two younger brothers in Elementary School.
- According to Omake 13 of Grande Road, Shoukichi runs a radio show at his school during the day and takes requests from students for songs to play, but Shunsuke mixed up the wrong CD, so instead of a Ballad, theme song from the movie Melody of Wind and Memories, it was Love Hime's theme song instead.[4]
- He is said to have grown two centimeters between the current Interhigh and the previous one, making his height 167cm.
- Both he and Manami are good at geography, especially surrounding about railways.