Otanjoubi Omedetou, Icchan!

Today is Itsuki Marehiko's (Icchan) birthday but sad to say, I don't have a decent picture of him and can only find a small shot of him breaking Fuji's Tsubame Gaeshi with the Sinker. Anyway, Icchan only appeared during the Rokkaku arc when he doesn't speak even though his image appeared at times. If he was at the Senbatsu training, he might have driven people crazy with his persistent questions which got Eiji quite fed up.

Actually, there are quite a few interesting figures in Rokkaku and Icchan is one of those. Besides Amane who drives people nuts with his lousy jokes, Icchan drives people crazy too especially when he keeps asking why. His other trademark is breathing through his nose which is as if he's a bull which gets angry. Well, among the various handsome and cool characters, he's one of those memorable characters who stands out not because of looks but due to his character traits. I saw him in the Rokkaku-Seigaku camp after the Kantou Tournament via the manga but too bad Rokkaku was beaten so easily in the early stages of the Nationals. Now, I doubt Icchan will make another appearance again when the focus of the Rokkaku match in the Nationals was more on Saeki fighting alone in the singles match.