Kiichi Tamuro

“And that's Game.”

 - Kiichi Tamuro 

Kiichi Tamuro (田室木壱 Tamuro Kiichi) is the secondary protagonist of the webmanga Shugeki Lancer.

He is a lively and carefree guy who became one of Kyoya's closest friends after admiring his skills in table tennis. Whilst he himself doesn't have nearly as much experience, he is an extremely fast-learner and has amazing observational skills in battle when fully concentrated.

Appearance
Tamuro has brown hair and black eyes, his hair a medium length and is spiked on the tops and sides, with a slightly lighter brown segment in the centre. He is often shown in the Touran Academy and Table tennis club uniforms, where he wears the academy jacket fully zipped up much like Kyoya. When he is seen in casual attire,  he seems to have fancier tastes than that of Kyoya, likely to appeal to the girls and show off his more playful side.

Personality
Tamuro is usually an incredibly care-free and accepting guy, where he goes with the flow of the situation and the people around him. However, he can also just as easily be fired up in confrontation, sometimes leading to over-confidence and bad decision making. Whilst this fiery side of him can be troublesome, it can also just as effectively help him and his teammates gain the will to confront an issue. His most impressive moments are when he fully concentrates on the situation, due to his ability to understand and analyse small details such as certain habits that the opponent do, using it to his advantage. Tamuro is a jokester that gets easily charmed by the girls around him, but is incredibly creative at coming up with strategies when the time requires him to.

Plot
Touran Academy

Tamuro is introduced as a friendly, energetic guy who is in the same class as Kyoya when he transfers to Touran. After noticing that Kyoya is carrying a table tennis racket in his bag, Tamuro grows an interest to him which leads to a sense of respect, after being saved by him when he was getting confronted by Ichiro Onimura. Tamuro had been playing in the club for four months by that point, however his skills were nothing impressive. After watching Kyoya perform impressive techniques in his various matches, Tamuro became slowly more passionate and invested in the sport which resorting in huge growth in his abilities. It is later revealed that he originally only joined the club to become slightly more popular with the girls in his year level through showing off his new skills that he will potentially gain from the club. Tamuro is shown to decide things through gut feeling, as he had tried various other clubs before that stage but lost interest very quickly. Through the various experiences in the table tennis club such as finding and confronting former-thug Kiyoko Shien, he would soon grow a strong bond with the other members of the club and a shared passion toward table tennis.

VS Nanabana High school

During the practice match between Touran Academy and Nanabana High school, Tamuro initially wanted to show off his skills to his friends, but quickly realised that the three aces Kyoya, Daimon and Shien would be a much more reliable pick in winning the match. He studied the match carefully in order to not only understand his teammates better but learn the strengths of the various rivals soon to appear in the Whirlwind cup.

Whirlwind Cup - Round 1 VS Kenran Academy

Tamuro continues training with the other members over the 2 month gap between meeting their coach Tatsuya Kurogane and the commence of the Whirlwind cup, hoping to grow stronger. In the first round against Kenran Academy, the special match rules are that three random members from each sides are picked to play against each other. Tamuro, shocked by being selected wonders if he is strong enough to take on enemies as powerful as the girls at Kenran Academy, but slowly becomes to calmly assess the situation and sees the weakness behind Honoka Hinomiya's "Dance of the Phoenix", coming up with the conclusion that the technique gets weaker as time goes on. Tatsuya impressed that he had a sharp enough eye to deduct that from seeing the technique once demands that he goes up and goes through with his plan. Tamuro in the beginning gets overwhelmed by the sheer amount of spectators in the crowds but quickly distracts himself by thinking about the gorgeous girls in the rival team to calm himself down. During the match against Honoka, Tamuro shows impressive examples of mind-games, where he slowly provokes her into using her strongest technique in order to resume his plan. Whilst the general audience think that he is just goofing around, the tactic works well at enraging Honoka enough to get her to not hold back resorting in Tamuro's gamble becoming a success. He is shortly defeated due to their difference in skill, but becomes a great inspiration for Kyoya in learning the strategy to taking down the captain of Kenran.

Whirlwind Cup - Round 2 VS Tamagaoka Academy

Tamuro along with Kagayaki and Kyoya have no choice but to fight against Tamagaoka Academy, due to both Daimon and Shien the two strongest of Touran being stopped by their plans. Initially, Tamuro is enraged due to Tamagaoka's captain Kirara Suzuki's dirty playstyle of purposefully making Kagayaki trip and twist her ankle, leading him to make impulsive decisions that end up doing more harm to himself. This is until his sister Ichika Tamuro arrives alongside his upperclassman teammates, where she yells to encourage him to calm down and use his observational skills. From then he becomes extremely calm and calculated, to the point where he learns his first ever special technique the "Reverse Slash" to score a point from his opponent. He then gains a burst in confidence and finishes the match against her with ease. Tamuro is still angered at Kirara after the match, however after her apology to him he decides to forgive her, on the condition that the next time they meet they'd play a fair match with no dirty tricks.

Whirlwind Cup - Round 3 VS Kurokouzan High school

Whilst Tamuro doesn't play in the doubles match against Kurokouzan High school, he befriends the new transfer student Shou Kitahara, where along with Kyoya ends up practicing new strategies to take into the upcoming match. His encouragement helps Shou gain confidence in her game plan, which leads her to use the special move "Silent Snipe."

Whirlwind Cup - Round 4 VS Nanabana High school

During the rematch against Nanabana High school and the semi-final match of the tournament, Tamuro is recommended by Kyoya to play as the third representative of Touran, where he initially thinks that he is over-praising him, but quickly notices that Kyoya is using his new but incomplete "Shindo Eye" ability to make his decision, making him slightly more confident. Tamuro is then paired up against Nanabana High school's ace and captain, Shuyu Kuromine, where he stands no chance in the beginning at striking back. He soon recalls a time where his sister stood up for him against a thug during high school, using his deduction to connect the look of desperation on his sister during that time with Shuyu, concluding that she is fighting in panic to save someone dear to her. He immediately notices the fatigue from Shuyu, through her weighty arms and heavy breathing, and figures out one of the secrets to the "Shindo Eyes" the fact that they guide the user to the best possible location, meaning that a quick change in ball trajectory would confuse the user and not allow enough time for them to move accordingly. He keeps pushing by using his "Reverse Slash" but is countered by Shuyu's new "Dance of the Blossom", corning him into casting aside his usual playstyle and acting on gut instinct which creates a new technique known as the "Petal Killer".

Matches
Tamuro vs Honoka (Ch. 10) LOSS

Tamuro vs Kirara (Ch. 14) WIN

Tamuro vs Shuyu (Ch. 21) WIN

2 Wins - 1 Loss (Win percentage 66.7%)

Abilities
Tamuro's playstyle consists of technical slices and feints, similar to his quick deduction skills and use of mind games against the opponent he faces. At full concentration, he has the ability to read the opponent's habits, fatigue levels and breakdown a special move's weakness in order to use it to his advantage. Whilst he may not have as much experience or skill as the other members of Touran, Tamuro's insane growth speed is a key factor to his playstyle, where he tends to be cornered in the beginning but slowly studies the opponent as the match progresses.

Reverse Slash (Slice Type)

After concentrating and using his ability to anticipate the opponent's moves, Reverse Slash is a slice that as the name would suggest, bait in the opponent before curving away in the reverse direction becoming a powerful hit that relies on unpredictability.

Petal killer (Slice Type)

The technique is developed after Tamuro is backed into a corner and he decides to give up his regular playstyle and rely on gut instinct. This allows him to focus on a certain spot by closing his eyes, striking down to counter the opponent's hit at the critical weak-spot. This technique requires a huge amount of concentration meaning that it can not only be performed by Tamuro himself, but is limited to only being usable when in top condition.

Friendships

 * He is close friends to Kyoya Yarizaki, Shou Kitahara and Kagayaki Nijino, due to them all being the same age and being a part of the Touran Academy Table Tennis Club.
 * He respects Yota Daimon, Kiyoko Shien, Tatsuya Kurogane and Kyoya Yarizaki due to them all having more knowledge and skill.
 * He appreciates his sister Ichika Tamuro even if they don't always get along.
 * So far it is shown that he believes Shuyu Kuromine, Miki Wada, Noa Amekawa and Honoka Hinomiya are good-looking.

Trivia

 * Tamuro's Japanese kanji name consist of 田 (Ta) Ricefields, 室 (Shitsu) from the word 刀室 (Toushitsu) Scabbard and 木 (Ki) Tree which all represent an image of early beginnings of Japan relating to his special techniques being all based around Samurai slashes. The Kanji used for the Ichi (Meaning One) part of his name is the traditional variant, 壱 as opposed to the more common 一, to also relate back to this traditional image.
 * Both Tamuro and his sister Ichika share the kanji 壱 Ichi (One). This could imply that Tamuro is a blank slate as he doesn't have much experience with table tennis and that it is his first step toward becoming something stronger.


 * Tamuro was originally intended to be a "tutorial character" used for the perspective of the viewer to understand the various skills and abilities of skilled players such as Kyoya in order for the reader to easily follow along, however was later changed to become a secondary main character role due to the author seeing potential in growth with his character. This is evident early on in the series, where he is never seen playing in a match up until chapter 10, and the stronger characters at the time such as Shien, Daimon and Kyoya take the spotlight instead.