Creator & Role Information

Tora, Katsuta

Tora is a tattooist and a player for the Tigers' team in its beginnings. He has a huge tiger tattoo on his back, reminding of his name which also means "tiger". He is the one making Togawa stand up for himself and fight in life after his amputation. Tora is a jolly character full of strength. Like Togawa, he has a "rotation" for his amputated leg, but that doesn't seem to faze him. He meets Togawa while this one is performing a check for his operation, and knows already his name, barely introducing himself and telling Togawa to use a wheelchair before speeding away. When Yama takes Togawa to one of the Tigers' session, Tora's strength and speed astonish him, when he thought he could no longer feel anything that could compete with the feelings he had while running. When Togawa comes back to see the Tigers after crying after Azumi, Tora states it's "good, excellent" (the crying after a girl, while Togawa tries denying everything), puzzling everyone, then makes Togawa drive a wheelchair, integrating him by making him chasing them while he knows Togawa isn't good with wheeling a chair, thus considering him equal to the rest. He then brings him to his tattoo shop, where Togawa has a fright given that Tora's apprentices mistake Togawa for Tora and pounce on him. Getting him a bit drunk, Tora manages to make Togawa spill everything he has bottled up since his amputation, particularly his feelings towards his father, feeling he is "nothing but a baggage to him". Once he's finished, Tora tells him to fight for himself no matter the judgment of others, and gives him his basketball wheelchair, as "brother with the same leg". The day after, Togawa asks him for a star tattoo on his chest, as proof for his new life, being the last client of Tora's shop, considering Tora is going to travel around the world right after. Tora is indubitably the one that had the biggest influence on the turn of Togawa's life right after his amputation, showing him the world doesn't end after this. This is in his memory that Togawa doesn't want the Tigers to end or even leaving them, though the Dreams' manager, a national team, wants him to.