This is my attempt at an in-depth exploration of Furihata Kouki’s character. It initially began as fic research and fact checking. Then it mutated into a desire to prove he’s more than just a coward. And now, I can no longer make sense of what I’m doing other than the fact that I probably have way more Furi than anyone ever thought would exist (or want).
Note: There will be a total of two parts. The first (this one) is mainly profiling and serves as canon reference. It’s not so much a character study as it is a detailed record. I tried to keep it largely factual since I intend to do the actual analysis of his character potential and trajectory in PART 2.
PART 1 contains:
I. CHARACTER BACKGROUND
General info
Initial character design & intro
Basketball participation
II. PERSONALITY & CHARACTER ROLE
General fandom perception
The Pessimist
The Backbone of the First Years
The Caring Teammate
The Keen Observer
III. MISCELLANEOUS TRIVIA
+ Footnotes, Credits, and Thanks
Warning #1: Much of Furihata’s character development occurred during the Winter Cup, and most of it has not been covered in the anime yet (as of season 2), so there will be spoilers if you haven’t read up to at least the 2nd quarter of the Seirin vs Rakuzan match.
Warning #2: Because he’s a background character who also happens to have a couple instances where he was thrown under the spotlight, I’m always hearing people say that they remember practically nothing about him from before. Basically, this was written with that in mind, so if you do remember him quite well, then a lot of this may seem redundant or trivial.
Also. It’s kinda insanely long and includes pictures at every point. I’m one of those people who find inane facts interesting. Just sayin’.
I. CHARACTER BACKGROUND
Furihata Kouki is generally considered to be a minor character in the series, though this point may be up for debate as many fans argue that he can no longer be called “minor” after having played in both the semi-finals and the finals of the Winter Cup. Minor or not, he’s the Seirin first year aside from Kuroko and Kagami that gets the most development and panel time.
On the whole, Furihata is typically seen supporting his teammates, whether by cheering energetically, assisting them during timeouts, or running errands like purchasing supplies and so on. During matches, he also questions and comments on the games fairly often — some of which are significant and will be discussed further down in Section II.
Furihata’s introduction as a character
Furihata appeared as early as the first chapter in the manga, but as pictured below, his character design was significantly different back then. His hair was much lighter and his overall features were also not the same.
In short, Furihata initially looked like a different character altogether. It was roughly around the third volume of the manga that his appearance began to resemble his current character design.
[Sidenote: From various scenes in the manga, it seems he was also originally taller than Kawahara (175cm)… though that may not say much because Kawahara’s height kinda shot up and down, and at one point, he was even taller than Fukuda who is supposed to be 180cm (as seen in the next picture). So, either these freshmen had sudden growth/shrinking spurts at various points or Fujimaki didn’t think these three characters through very well when he started the manga.]
Although we knew Furihata, Kawahara, and Fukuda as mainly the freshmen trio, it wasn’t until Q37 (vol.5), after the first Seirin vs Shuutoku game, that we finally learned their names.
(Lol @ “You finally memorized our names, huh?” because it’s more like “You finally named us, Fujimaki!”)
Well, family names anyway.
In the anime, we learned Furihata’s full name in ep.2 when the freshmen all had to make their rooftop declarations, but in the manga, this didn’t happen because Kagami was the only person who was able to make his speech before the teacher showed up to stop them.
While Furihata’s full name was confirmed in the Characters Bible later on, his first name was actually never mentioned at all in the entire manga, not even when he made his debut in the official games. (Note: This is based on the scanlations alone, so it’s always possible that his first name was brought up in the raws and somehow got left out in the translation.)
Furihata and his basketball participation
Another thing that was exclusively brought up in the anime and the Characters Bible is his reason for joining the basketball club. According to both sources, the girl he likes told him that she would go out with him provided that he becomes the best in one area/field.
It isn’t known why he chose basketball of all things to accomplish this goal, but he did tell Riko that he wouldn’t mind not being able to join the club if his reason wasn’t good enough. Judging by that, chances are he wasn’t particularly invested in basketball at the time. Based on the games during practice, Furihata seems to already have at least the fundamental skills and basic knowledge of basketball when the series began though.
// Tokushin Practice Match
His first game in uniform was a practice game against Tokushin a little over a week after Seirin was defeated in the Interhigh (Q56, vol.7).
(Sidenote: Fujimaki made a mistake drawing Kawahara wearing number 11 here. He’s actually number 15.)
Tokushin was super pissy and offended with the fact that Seirin had sent out only the first years for the game, which in turn also made Furihata, Kawahara, and Fukuda especially nervous. The second years assumed that they would lose, but as the game went on, Riko thought the first years were doing better than she had expected. It isn’t clear in the manga whether they won or not, but in the anime, the final score was 43-41 in Seirin’s favor.
Overall, it seems the freshmen trio stopped being nervous once the game started, and they played well enough, even with Kuroko and Kagami not coordinating any of their plays with each other.
// The Streetball Tournament
Shortly before the Winter Cup preliminaries, he asked the other freshmen if they wanted to play at a streetball tournament even though it was their rare day off from basketball training (Q75, vol.9). This was the first time in the series we see Furihata being proactive and stepping out of the background on his own, so to speak.
Although he claimed that he and the other freshmen also wanted the opportunity to play in competitive matches, there was background dialogue spoken by another freshmen (it was unclear who said it), complaining about playing basketball of all things on their day off — which may indicate in a roundabout way that Furihata is more enthusiastic about the sport than his fellow benchwarmer.
[Sidenote: In the manga, Furihata brought the streetball tournament up while the five freshmen were out eating together — just them, as opposed to with the entire Seirin team like in the anime. This was nice to see as it shows that these five do hang out together as a group too.]
At the tournament, Furihata looked pretty excited to be there. Surprisingly, he also didn’t appear to be nervous at all playing Murasakibara and Himuro in their short-lived game — but he was apparently so stunned by Himuro’s beautiful shooting form that he stood staring in shock until Kiyoshi yelled at him to snap out of it.
// The Official Matches
Furihata is the first among the freshmen trio to have played in an official match. To date, he has played in a total of two official matches, both as a point guard and both during the Winter Cup.
The first one was against Kaijou for the semi-finals. He marked Kasamatsu and played in the first quarter for nearly seven minutes (Q186-188, vol.21). Seirin gained 13 points during this time, and Furihata scored his first official game basket (it isn’t clear whether he made any more baskets in this game).
The second was against Rakuzan in the finals. He marked Akashi and played in the second quarter for a little over two and a half minutes (Q239-241, vol.27). Seirin gained 4 points during this time, with one of the baskets made by Furihata.
(*Note: An analysis of his basketball skills and how he played in the Kaijou and Rakuzan matches will be covered in Part 2 instead.)
III. PERSONALITY & CHARACTER ROLE
By and large, fandom tends to refer to Furihata as a coward who easily gets intimidated. A good amount of fanwork also often depict him as a clumsy, stuttering train-wreck who’s afraid of just about everything. It’s understandable, since we see Furihata looking like this a lot:
(Q113, vol.13, meeting Akashi)
(Q186, vol.21, Kaijou match & Q239, vol.27, Rakuzan match)
(Q186, vol.21, vs Kasamatsu & Q240, vol.27, vs Akashi)
These also happen to be some of his most memorable scenes, so it isn’t surprising that it’s mainly what people remember. Nevertheless, there’s a bit more to him than that, and in this section, I’ll be covering various other aspects of his personality and the role he plays within the series.
On Furi, The Pessimist:
In the beginning, Furihata is usually portrayed as someone with a defeatist attitude. When he and the rest of the first years had to play the second years during practice, he quickly became discouraged and wanted to give up, believing they would lose anyway.
This attitude carries over to even when he wouldn’t be playing, as seen below when he realized Seirin would be up against Seihou for the Interhigh semi-finals and, if they won, the finals against Shuutoku on the same day. Not only did he not have confidence in Seirin winning the semi-finals, he also saw the tournament match-ups as flat out impossible (Q17, vol.3).
Granted, this is generally the way the freshmen trio react as a group, and it may well be that they’re used in this manner to service the plot. On the other hand, since they’re freshmen with average skills and very little experience, their lack of drive and confidence is something that’s fairly typical in this sort of story setting anyway. But whatever the case, Furihata doesn’t actually stay this way forever.
One similar scenario (much later in the series) that stands out in contrast is the night before the Winter Cup finals against Rakuzan, after the team had just learned about Akashi and what happened in Teikou. When Kawahara confessed that he was starting to get scared and felt they wouldn’t even be able to put up a decent fight, never mind win, Furihata responded much differently than he would have in the past (Q228, vol.26):
Whether this is partially bravado or not, it’s worth noting that he says it with zero hesitation despite knowing that they’re about to go up against Rakuzan and more importantly, Akashi, a person Furihata seems to be greatly intimidated by.
At the very least, there’s a bit of determination here that was lacking in the early chapters. This wasn’t the first time we saw signs of Furihata growing beyond his defeatist role though—
Furi, The Backbone of the First Years:
One such instance is the flashback scene during the Kaijou match he played in (Q187, vol.21), which takes us back to one of Seirin’s grueling basketball practices when Kawahara suddenly said he might quit the basketball club.
After Kawahara explained his reasons, Furihata revealed that he, too, had thought of these things. He empathizes with Kawahara’s frustrations, recognizing how incredible Kagami and Kuroko are, and knows well that he’s not a player of the same caliber. But what’s most notable here is how he reacts to these thoughts.
Instead of making him feel discouraged (something which was previously shown to be practically second nature), he begins to believe that there’s something that even a player like him can do. He doesn’t want to quit, not even if it means never getting off the bench. It also shows that despite appearances, he’s more strong-hearted and determined than people give him credit for.
There’s a sense of resolve and purpose here as well. Furihata isn’t just idling about; he wants to do whatever he can for the team. And for the first time, we get concrete evidence that he loves basketball and his teammates, that being able to keep playing it with everyone is something that holds significant weight in his mind.
[Sidenote: If the anime is taken into account, he has certainly come a long way from the guy who told Riko he wouldn’t mind not being able to join the basketball club. There’s no mention of the girl he likes and the condition she set either.]
It also seems to be implied here that, on some level, watching Kuroko play had inspired these feelings of his. However, among the freshmen trio, it is Furihata that served as a source of motivation and willpower when the going got tough. And when he stepped out onto the court and played in the Kaijou match, it was like he represented the pride and hope for all three of them.
Look at their faces:
You can see it in their expressions and the way they cheered for Furihata during the game. It meant something important to not only Furihata but also Kawahara and Fukuda.
[Sidenote: “Mediator of the First Years” is the title given to Furihata in the Characters Bible, which is interesting in itself. But what’s more is that while the Japanese term used does mean mediator in the sense of a peacemaker, the nuance is actually closer to that of a leader. For more info, please refer to the footnotes.]
The flashback scene was also one of the rare moments where we saw Furihata being a bit more vocal about his thoughts or his support for the team. He doesn’t express it in words very often, but there are more than a few examples showing that he does care a lot about his teammates.
Furi, The Caring Teammate:
The Characters Bible states that Furihata is someone who has a side that cares for his teammates, as noted by how he earnestly tried to help Kiyoshi after hearing what happened the previous year (Q100, vol.12).
If Mitobe and his silent fretting is the senior mother hen, then Furihata is, ironically, the unsung junior edition. He’s actually a character that is quite often shown to pay attention to his teammates, whether it’s their physical condition or state of mind. In the early chapters, it comes in the form of observation, or sometimes he gets a little frazzled when there’s friction between teammates. Later on, it becomes much more apparent that he worries and cares about them.
During Seirin’s match against Touou in the Winter Cup, Furihata is very obviously upset about Kuroko looking so down after all his moves were countered by Aomine (Q120, vol.14).
He quickly notices signs of distress in his teammates, as seen here with Kuroko again during the Rakuzan match (Q238, vol.27):
Although Furihata’s concern is clear via his internal thoughts, he doesn’t really voice them out loud. He also seems to sympathize with his troubled teammates to the point of helplessness. He doesn’t have Kagami’s simple-minded bluntness nor a Koga-like translator, so a lot of times, his concern slips under the radar and the most we see him outwardly do is offer a towel/water, assist with taping, give a massage, etc.
This is not to say that he’s the only one who cares, of course. But perhaps the main thing that sets him apart is that he notices these things, which brings us to the next aspect of Furihata’s character.
On Furi, The Keen Observer:
When I first set out to do a character analysis of Furihata, I went back and combed through all the chapters for every little bit of Furi I could find. And one of the things that struck me was how he notices things. He picks up details from stuff that people around him say or do, and his thoughts tended towards observational, even when nervous.
In the beginning, it was mostly in passing and nothing too outstanding other than the fact that he’s the only one of the freshmen trio to do this — just bits here or there where he comments on various team interactions or asks questions about stuff no one else paid attention to. He’s also usually the one to make quick connections like how Murasakibara shouldn’t have been at the streetball tournament because Yousen was supposed have played at the Interhigh.
His observations began to get less vague and more pronounced as the series progresses though. It shows in his concern for his teammates as mentioned above. It shows during his game play as well, but since I’ll be covering his matches in Part 2, I’ll leave that out for now. Instead, I’ll just bring up two significant things he noticed during the Seirin vs Rakuzan match.
1. Mayuzumi’s entrance (Q231, vol.26) —
The very first “warning” we got about Mayuzumi was from Furihata - and Furihata alone. Not only did he notice Mayuzumi’s skill level during the warm up (something that no one else noticed as they were fixated on Akashi and the Uncrowned Generals), but he also felt right away that there was something different about him and that he reminded him of someone.
Keep in mind that Mayuzumi has a lack of presence much like Kuroko and is said to not stand out at all. Furihata may not have understood his unease, but the fact that he noticed is telling.
To put things into perspective, Furihata honed in on Mayuzumi at first glance way back when the game hadn’t even started. No one else paid any attention to Mayuzumi at all until seven chapters later (a whole quarter and then some) when he finally caught Aomine’s eye (who, by the way, is supposed to be practically basketball-omniscient), and this only when Mayuzumi was beginning to show his true colors.
2. Kuroko’s lack of presence fading (Q235, vol.26) —
Once again, Furihata saw something important here that no one else had caught on to yet (other than perhaps Kuroko who at least looked like he thought something was a bit strange). By way of contrast, the significance of Mibuchi’s behavior around Kuroko flew right over Fukuda’s and Kawahara’s heads despite the fact that they saw it at the same time and Furihata even questioned it out loud.
Nevertheless, Furihata hung on to his convictions and began to analyze it, piling up key details one by one in his mind — from the specific manner in which Mibuchi dodged Kuroko, the differences in the way the audience was paying attention to Kuroko’s movements and passes, and up to recalling how Kuroko hadn’t been able to truly shake off Rakuzan’s defense since the beginning of the game.
Furihata was very quickly coming to the conclusion that Kuroko’s lack of presence was fading while no one else even came close to realizing something was amiss. Not Seirin (on or off court) and not even the GoM (other than Akashi of course) who should be familiar enough with Kuroko’s abilities to notice that it wasn’t working as usual.
In the end, Furihata had to be the one to run up to Riko to tell her about it even though it came too late to make any difference.
To summarize, both of the above instances showed that Furihata is more than just a little bit observant. He notices details, and he has good instincts. While he may not always understand what it is that he’s seeing, he definitely does catch them.
One can go further by saying that his understanding of the things he notices would only get better as he gains more experience, that it can eventually turn his observations into something quite formidable, especially as a basketball player (and a point guard no less) — but that is for Part 2. :P
III. MISCELLANEOUS INFO & TRIVIA
His teammates (especially Kawahara and Fukuda) often call him Furi.
Riko calls him Furihata-kun.
Kagetora’s nickname for him is Brown Head.
His sixteenth birthday fell on the day after the Winter Cup preliminaries began, which was day 1 of the finals league when Seirin played against Senshinkan. It was a Sunday.
His family members consist of mother, father, and an older brother.
In the anime, he is in class 1-D together with Fukuda.
In the anime, when he thought Riko was the basketball club manager, he commented that she was cute but also wished she were a bit sexier. In the manga, the same thing was said but it wasn’t clear which first year said it.
During Seirin’s entrance ceremony, two people who look like Furihata and Fukuda were seen walking around together in several shots. It’s a bit hard to tell because Fujimaki’s character design was so off back then, but if this were the case, we might be able to consider the possibility of Fukuda and Furihata hitting it off very early on or they had already known each other prior to entering Seirin.
He ranked 24th in the first character poll, the only one out of the freshmen trio to make it into top 30.
He ranked 15th in the third character poll, higher than everyone else in Seirin with the exception of Kuroko, Kagami, and Izuki.
* FOOTNOTES, CREDITS, AND THANKS *
1. The header image used for this post is Furihata’s official profile from the Kuroko no Basuke Characters Bible. I scanlated it from the Chinese release since that’s the copy I have. MUCH thanks to jcminwell for helping me cross-check my translation with the original Japanese release, catching language discrepancies that occurred in the statement about volunteering to do Kiyoshi’s taping, and graciously allowing me to use the corrected sentence. :)
2. In regards to the translated “Mediator of the First Years” — this was the closest word I could think of that conveyed the nuance of the term まとめ役. I also talked to jcminwell about this, and in the end it was agreed that “leader” was likely a bit too strong of a word to use even though the term does carry that connotation.
3. All manga caps were cropped from scanlations done by the various groups: DragonPiece, ColonNine, ShinraTensei, ImangaScans, and Akashi Scans. I used them as is, so the translations were not mine, with the exception of the page where Furihata was first introduced where I did some edits because his name was misspelled as Hurihata.
4. The info and points made in this post were mainly sourced from the manga. While I did look up a couple of things in the anime and included some comparisons, it is by no means a complete one.
And finally, if you have managed to actually read this far… thank you! That’s roughly 3,900 words of Furihata recap you just read. :P Questions and comments are always welcome. Corrections and disagreements are, likewise, also appreciated. My ask is open. :)
In any case, I hope this has been at least a little useful to some of you!