Kominato Haruichi

Kominato Haruichi
Seidou High School - No. 4
Second Baseman
Bats: Right	Throws: Right
Kanji	小湊 春市
Nickname	Lucky Boy (ラッキーボーイ) Harucchi (春っち) (by Sawamura) Haruo (春夫) (by Sawamura) Harudanji (春団治) (by Sawamura)[1][2] Haruichi the Thief (by Sawamura) [3]
Characteristics
Gender	Male
Age	15 (debut) 16 [4]
Date of birth	1 March
Place of birth	Kanagawa Prefecture
Bloodtype	AB
Height	164 cm
Weight	50 kg (110 lbs)
Status
Education	1st Year High School (debut) 2nd Year High School
Class	1-B (former) 2-C
Skills	lightning fast easily adaptable bat control
First Appearance
Manga	Chapter 12
Anime	Episode 5
Cast
Voice Actor	Hanae Natsuki

“	The Pinch-Hitter is me!	”
	— Haruichi to his teammates

Kominato Haruichi is a student of Seidou High School and the younger brother of Kominato Ryousuke. He is the roommate of Maezono Kenta and freshman, Mogami Takeshi. He plays second baseman and is one-half of the baseball team's Keystone Duo. He is also a close friend of Sawamura Eijun and Furuya Satoru.

Appearance

Haruichi is a short, small framed teen with pink hair. His eyes are hidden by his bangs, only appearing during dramatic moments such as batting.

He is considered to be cute by his female classmates as his appearance being likened to a girl. 

In Act II in the manga, Haruichi cut his front bangs after the Komadai match and his eyes are now easily seen.

Character

Born in the Kanagawa Prefecture, Haruichi is a very calm and quiet person, often acting as the tsukkomi to Sawamura's boke. He is shy by nature but has a habit of saying things bluntly and often praises either Furuya Satoru or Sawamura, causing the two to compete against each other frequently.

He plays reserve in the first-string team and occasionally feels envious of Sawamura and Furuya for being able to play in a match. He is rather small in comparison to the other boys and it has been noted that he looks a bit like a girl. He is easily embarrassed, especially when praised.

Haruichi's relationship with his brother is slightly strained because they play the same position, but he still admires the elder to no end. Though reserved, he is highly ambitious and aims to take his brother’s position. When he was a child, their relationship was closer as Kominato Ryōsuke often protects Haruichi from bullies.

Skills

“	I've been using a wooden bat at practice too so I know for a fact that if the ball is off the sweet spot even a little, it just won't fly.	”
	— Miyuki about Haruichi..[5]

One of the most unique things about Haruichi is that unlike virtually every high school baseball player, he uses a wooden bat instead of a lighter metallic bat. He thought that in order to catch up to his older brother, he has to use the heavier, more difficult to master wooden bat.^[6] Haruichi is a naturally talented, all-rounder baseball player. Kijima Rei once said that his ability in baseball actually exceeds that of his older brother’s, also a talented contact hitter and a second baseman himself. He started out playing as a pinch hitter during the Summer Tournament and was later promoted to 3rd in the batting line-up, becoming one of the three-hole, starting from the second round of the Fall Tournament. He has held on to the position until the Spring Tournament of his 2nd year. After the Spring Tournament, he now bats 2nd in the lineup.

Strengths

Despite his small stature and frail appearance, he has pinpoint precision while batting the ball. This makes Haruichi a skillful contact hitter, able to hit it as wide and as far as he pleases, and control where the ball lands and the fact that he uses a wooden bat make his skills even more impressive. Also extremely talented at defense, Haruichi is able to catch a ball in the air and throw it while still floating.

He is noted to have sharp baseball senses, able to decide in a split second where to hit the ball, what to watch for, and when to steal. As such, Haruichi is capable of pulling off fine plays that contributed greatly to Seidou High in critical situations. For instance, in the 9th inning of Final of the Fall Tournament, Haruichi pulled off a series of consecutive fine plays that include landing a clean hit on Sanada Shunpei's Shuuto, stealing 2nd base and most significantly, feinting a squeeze to home plate to distract Yakushi High School's fielders allowing Miyuki Kazuya to make it safely to 2nd base with his risky stealing attempt, all happening at 2 outs where one error could have immediately cost Seidou the match.

Weaknesses

One of the thing he lacks is stamina, which he works hard on improving. Despite the fact that Haruichi has managed to hit a HR once using a wooden bat, it has been repeatedly mentioned that he may lack power due to his small frame and also because the wooden bat is much heavier than a metal bat. To mitigate this weakness, Coach Ochiai Hiromitsu ordered him to use a metal batin the intrasquad and Semifinal game during the Fall Tournament; however, after unsuccessful attempts in both games, Haruichi later refuses to use a metal bat again and decided to stick to his own style. His weakness resurfaced during the Spring Senbatsu where he was said to have less success in the National-level Tournament. After the loss to Ichidaisan High in the Spring Tournament, Haruichi is determined to improve the speed of his swing to make up for his small stature and has been practicing tee batting from all different types of difficult positions.^[7]

Player Statistics

Player Statistics
Note that this data is based on the official guidebook! You are free to write about the characters improvements in the Skills section above! Defense   4/5 ♦Shoulder   2/5 Running   3/5 Physical Strength   2/5 Mental Strength   4/5 Batting   4/5 ♦Contact   5/5 ♦Power   3/5 After Summer Tournament (89th National HS Baseball Championship Qualifiers), batting average is .571

Trivia

• Haruichi ranked 4th in the first Official popularity poll. ^[8]
• Because Hauichi acknowledges Sawamura's talent, Haruichi sometimes says pretty harsh things to him.
• Along with Sawamura and Furuya, Haruichi had been a member of the 1st string since his 1st year of high school, wearing jersey number 19 during the Summer tournament.
• In the newly formed Seidou team he began batting second like his brother, Ryosuke. But because of the new team's lack of batting power, he was moved to batting third, making him part of the clean up batters.
• Haruichi uses a wooden bat, that is more difficult to use and needs more strength than a metal bat. Despite that, he holds the best batting average (BA) of both the old and new Seidou team, with an avg of 1.000 and .512 BA.
• In his first tournament (summer tournament) he played as a pinch hitter, batting 4 of 4 with a perfect avg of 1.000.
• In Diamond no B!! Haruichi is a flutist who can summon monsters.
• Rankings from the guidebook:^[9]
  • He ranks fifth in Infield defense (behind Kuramochi, who ranks first and his older brother, who ranks second.
  • He ranks first at Contact and thus he has the best ball-meeting ability.
• Favorite Food: Cream Stew ^[9]
• Favorite Subject: Modern National Language ^[9]
• Hobbies: TV games (action and combat) ^[9]
• During his year's 1st-Year vs Upperclassmen intrasquad game, Haruichi can be seen playing a Nintendo 3DS as he waited for his turn to play. ^[10]

Name Etymology

• Kominato (小湊) - Small Encounter
• Haruichi (春市) - Spring City

Quotes

• "The Pinch-Hitter is me!" ^[11]
• "Relax! Relax! If you try to force it, you won't be able to bat!" - to Sawamura^[12]
• "They both acknowledge each other, and they’re both aiming for the top together. That’s why they have such a good rivalry." - about Sawamura and Furuya^[13]
• "Harucchi's gone completely wild! Koshien has changed Harucchi. The Harucchi I knew is no longer here!" - Sawamura^[14]
• "I'm not going to wish for much. Only to hit for sure all the pitches that I know I can hit."^[15]

Gallery

References

Navigation

v - e	Seidou High School
Players	Third Years
	Miyuki Kazuya • Maezono Kenta • Kuramochi Yōichi • Kawakami Norifumi • Asou Takeru • Nakata Ataru • Ono Hiroshi • Higasa Shōji • Seki Naomichi • Yamaguchi Ken • Kijima Rei • Kawashima Kengo • Shirasu Kenjirō • Mimura Ryōta • Watanabe Hisashi
	Second Years
	Sawamura Eijun• Furuya Satoru • Kominato Haruichi• Kanemaru Shinji • Tōjō Hideaki • Kaneda Tadahiro
	First Years
	Yui Kaoru• Yūki Masashi • Okumura Kōshū• Mogami Takeshi • Asada Hirofumi • Seto Takuma • Kuki Yōhei
Former players	Yūki Tetsuya • Tanba Kōichirō• Kominato Ryōsuke• Masuko Tōru• Isashiki Jun • Miyauchi Keisuke • Sakai Ichirō • Kadota Masaaki • Kusunoki Fumiya • Takigawa Chris Yū • Azuma Kiyokuni
Managers	Fujiwara Takako • Umemoto Sachiko• Natsukawa Yui• Yoshikawa Haruno
Staff	Kataoka Tesshin • Ochiai Hiromitsu • Takashima Rei • Kazuyoshi Oota