Shoichi Urata

Shoichi Urata is Yuuichi Michimiya's best friend and one of the dateable characters in Tennis Ace.

Appearance
Shoichi is a muscular Siberian Husky with dark navy blue fur, light grey underbelly, and green eyes. It is revealed that he is much more robust than he looks.

He is seen in three different styles: his school uniform, his volleyball jersey, and, on casual situations, a white v-neck t-shirt with horizontal blue and teal stripes, and brown cargo shorts.

Personality
Shoichi is a pacifist and fairly casual by nature; he will lash out under certain circumstances. He is in love with Yuuichi, as he reveals that it hurts him to see his friend stagnate. He is also a major workaholic, taking part in: the Student Council, Volleyball Club, Class President, private tutor, cram school, college prep, and likely a few more. He tends to drop honorifics almost immediately after befriending someone. He is also really passionate about volleyball, wanting to go pro but lacks the parental backing to do so.

Shoichi also tends to get into "playful" arguments with Keisuke Urushihara, much to the chagrin of Yuuichi and Saya, who he deems a friend despite constantly getting into fights with him.

Like all the date-able characters, Shoichi stubbornly avoids imposing his problems and issues onto others. In school, this manifest in his constant habit of hoarding work in the student council, much to Kiga's chagrin. At home, he constantly overlooks his father's abusive language under the justification that his intentions for Shoichi are for the best. He also loves his mother but does not see her out of personal guilt over the divorce, even distancing himself from his sister Hitoka as a result.

On the flip side, when Shoichi gets his passionate side going, he has a hard time keeping it in check. This leads him to go at a pace that most can't keep up with. Even after being told multiple times how demanding he is on the volleyball team, he continues to deny how unrealistic his expectations are. In his own route, he also doesn't recognize how uncomfortable Yuuichi gets with the pace of their relationship.

Likes

 * Soba & Spicy dishes
 * Being praised
 * Physical affection

Dislikes

 * Public bathrooms

History
He met Yuuichi at a sports camp when they were younger and have been best friends ever since. He was also friends with Saya since childhood, but they argued far more back then. Keisuke has since taken the role of being Shoichi's argue-partner by the time of the game.

Shoichi back then was actually not considered successful by any means, a "slow learner" even. Since he always had to work harder than everybody else, he grew spiteful and felt that other people were always slacking off. The only reason he and Yuuichi became friends was because of the fact that Yuuichi had a comparable work ethic back in those days. While he became an overachiever from being inspired by Yuuichi, Shoichi also grew to hate how optimistic Yuuuichi was about everything, especially with how gifted he was.

Shoichi's parents divorced a few years ago. Shoichi, believing it was impossible for his mother to get custody of both him and his sister, decides it was best to agree to be with his dad in order for his sister to live with his mother.

Relationships

 * Haruki Koizumi - Volleybal Club member
 * Hitoka Hayashida - Sister
 * Jun Kobayashi - Friend
 * Keisuke Urushihara - Friend
 * Kiga Kasama - Right-hand Student Council Member
 * Yuuichi Michimiya - Best friend, Boyfriend (if Shoichi's route is played through)
 * Sachiko Hayashida - Mother
 * Saya Mizoguchi - Childhood friend
 * Takehiko Urata - Father

Trivia

 * Shoichi is the only date-able character in the game that will show hints of attraction towards Yuuichi no matter which route the player chooses, given that he's had a crush for years.
 * On Day 20 of Jun's route, he becomes visibly upset when Yuuichi asks Saya and him for advice after being confessed by Jun. Shoichi will state that it was "a little bit of a shock" as Saya rubs his shoulder gently.
 * On Day 22 of Jun's route, Shoichi's eyes stop on Jun for just a moment when Jun talks to him, in which Yuuichi thinks "I could swear he frowned a little too." On day 24, Saya states that a friend of her was "kind of down" over the weekends, and she "spent a lot of time worrying about him" and tried to "cheer him up a bit." This friend is likely Shoichi.
 * As of v0.49 in the Keisuke route, Shoichi shows multiple instances of suspicion towards Yuuichi,. This starts when Akiyoshi outs Yuuichi newfound studying effort as out of wanting to be a bit more like Keisuke.
 * On Day 25 of Keisuke's route, this turns into a full-blown anxiety attack when he learns from Saya that Keisuke had confessed to someone. Because Saya did not have the same suspicions, this outburst confuses her and gets her to ask him "What's gotten into you?"
 * He's so obviously dejected about the possibility of Yuuichi and Keisuke dating that it register's on Yuuichi's dense radar, who asks Shoichi that he'd tell if "anything bad was going on".
 * While he's good at putting up a strong front to hide his burdens, Shoichi is atrocious at coming up with lies.
 * On Day 8, when Shoichi goes "is it that again" regarding Jun's condition, he makes up a bunch of symptoms on why he had to take Jun to the infirmary to Yuuichi. Jun was impressed at the fibbing, and not in a good way.
 * On June 26 in Shoichi's route, Jun puts Shoichi on the spot and asks why the husky was in such a good mood. If Shoichi saw Yuuichi but not his mother and sister in the prior weekend, he waves it off as just being busy tending plants in his house (which has no plants at all).
 * It only gets worse when Jun also points out that Shoichi forgets to ask Yuuichi how his weekend was. The results are amazing.
 * Shoichi's absurd strength has no known equal. This was noted in the opening rooftop scene on Day 1.
 * On Day 6, Jun asks how strong Shoichi is, Yuuichi jokingly says "Scientists are still trying to figure that out."
 * He is an awful cook (a trait he inherited from his mother), and is in complete denial about that fact. The main reason is that he wishes to include all sorts of "nutritious" ingredients into his dishes.
 * Only Keisuke is honest about how bad his cooking is. On Day 8, Yuuichi implied it and then quickly backtracks. Saya is also guilty of not admitting anything about Shoichi's culinary skills.
 * If you don't take Shoichi's route, he ends up giving food poisoning to all the guests for his Father's return party.
 * He was shown to be quite difficult to cheer up when Yuuichi beat him several times at the arcade on the night of the festival, but quickly cheered up by laughing when Yuuichi called him an "anal nutbag".
 * Due to his height, no Yukata is able to fit him unless it's custom ordered and tailored to his size.
 * Playing Volleyball and winning games arouses Shoichi.
 * Playing Volleyball and winning games arouses Shoichi.

Related Links

 * Shoichi's Routes (spoiler-heavy)