Otanjoubi Omedetou, Kabaji Munehiro!

Today's the birthday of the silent giant in Hyotei, Kabaji Munehiro! Well, Kabaji doesn't speak most of the time and usually answers "usu" whenever Atobe talks. Other than that, he always says "katsu no wa Hyotei desu" (It is Hyotei who wins). As such, he is seen as a follower of the all-mighty Atobe-sama who does things at the latter's commands. However, I don't think Kabaji is just stupid to be made use of and Atobe doesn't treat him like a slave too. I get the feeling that Kabaji admires Atobe for his strength in tennis and charismatic presence as a natural leader so he's willing to follow Atobe around. And if Kabaji was just a fool to be manipulated, I doubt Atobe would bother to keep him around.

Kabaji is a simple-minded guy who copies his opponent's play style so he is indeed a troublesome rival to face since it will be like a match with one's self. Although there's another guy Wakato Hiroshi from Jousei Shounan who also emphasizes on copying from professional players, I believe Kabaji is tougher to handle since his learning power is incredible and can copy tricks so perfectly even in the first time he plays with someone. In Wakato's case, he did admit that there are flaws in trying to imitate others at short notice when he played against Kaidou but this problem doesn't seem to be evident for Kabaji.

Kabaji's seiyuu is Tsuruoka Satoshi who also plays Kisarazu Atsushi in the series. He was born on 19 Aug in Kanagawa Prefecture. Well, given that we rarely hear Kabaji speak and he keeps his voice so low, I didn't notice it while watching Tenipuri. I've never seen other works of his except for Jigoku Shoujo where he played the role of Iwashita's father in Ep 3. As it was a brief appearance, I didn't know about it until today. Maybe he's quite new to the seiyuu line thus he doesn't have too many projects under his name yet. However, he does dubbing work for Korean languages and takes part in drama CDs etc thus his main area of work may not be restricted to animes.