Hobbies: Sleeping
Shoe Brand: Nike - Air Jordan
Jersey No: 11
Position: Small Forward, SF
High School: Shohoku High School (Freshman)
Grade: 10
Class: 1
Junior High School: Tomigaoka Junior High
Kaede Rukawa is basically Sakuragi's opposite in almost every way. While Sakuragi's a loud mess, Rukawa's got the looks, the skills, and the cold personality to match—though both of them are terrible students and surprisingly good at fighting. Rukawa sees Sakuragi as an idiot and they're constantly at each other's throats, but deep down, he knows Sakuragi has real potential. He just can't stand how immature the guy is about it.
Off the court, Rukawa's most famous for one thing: he sleeps constantly. Like, everywhere. He'll literally doze off while riding his bike, crashing into random stuff. Don't even think about waking him up unless you want to get your face rearranged—it's basically automatic with him. He's been in plenty of street fights too, but he can hold his own just fine.
His actual goal is to become Japan's best high school player, and he sees Sendoh from Ryonan as his real rival. Fans know him as the "super-rookie" and Shohoku's "ace," and honestly, he's earned both titles.
Rukawa's basketball ability is borderline unfair for a first-year. He's got the height, the athleticism, the range of skills—everything. He was the only freshman named to the top five players in the Kanagawa Interhigh Tournament, and there were moments where he basically carried entire games on his back. Against Kainan, he scored 15 straight points in just over two minutes to bring his team back from a huge deficit. But his playstyle used to be criticized as too selfish, and he'd clash with teammates constantly. When Coach Anzai heard Rukawa wanted to go play in the USA, he basically told him to dominate Japan first before even thinking about it.
That attitude changed after losing to Sannoh Technical. Getting outplayed by Sawakita made him realize what Sendoh had been telling him: to beat Sendoh, he needed to stop playing solo and actually pass the ball. And he did—his pass set up Hanamichi for the game-winning shot against Sannoh. After that, Rukawa was selected for the All-Japan basketball team.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
