Miyuki Kazuya Anaylsis
This is my third attempt to upload this analysis, tumblr pls stop screwing my posts up
Hello everyone, welcome to my first ever analysis post: today, we’re going to be looking into Miyuki Kazuya. His background, his relations, and his character in general.
DISCLAIMER: This analysis is meant to be fun/fan created, not professional. Not everything is 100% canon and some parts are used from other creators which i will try to credit. If parts of this theory are similar to your own, I assure you that it is pure coincidence!
Buckle up, get your tissues, we’re going on a ride down memory lane! :)
BACKGROUND/CHILDHOOD
Miyuki Kazuya was born on November 17th which makes him a Scorpio (I’m not into horoscopes so we’re not going into that, but you can look it up). Kazuya has both of his parents up until he begins elementary school or maybe sometime before that.
From what I’ve gathered, based on official statements, Kazuya saw a group of kids playing baseball in the park and fell in love with the sport. Kazuya is very small for his age. The other kids basically tower over him and despite all his hand waving and jumping when the adults ask who wants to play the position of catcher, he goes unnoticed being in the back of the line until he finally uses his voice.
Kazuya is fascinated with the catcher’s mitt and being the “coach” on the field. Although, this becomes a problem once entering middle school.
Middle school Kazuya has earned quite the reputation on his team; he has an amazing shoulder, the adults going as far to say that he could even play pitcher but Kazuya only wants to be catcher. Such a fun position that he doesn’t want to give away to anyone.
While Kazuya is an amazing player, his relationship with the other members on the team is not so great. They dislike being told what to work on by a cocky first year. They don’t like how cocky he is and he handles confrontations, simply deciding to beat him up, thinking it would teach him a lesson.
Despite all this, Kazuya is seen at practice the next day with plasters on his face and that cocky grin comes out.
Despite bad relations with other members, Kazuya would walk home with two other boys and their fathers after practice ended.
Now, this is where we dive in: why is Kazuya walking home with other people? Where are his parents? It’s not known precisely known what happened to his mother, but from my own personal experience, I will conclude she most likely passed away when Kazuya was very young. Here is sketch from Terajima’s official twitter from 2015. Kazuya is grade 3 of elementary school. The only person in this picture with him is his father. Which hints heavily that she’s probably been out of his life for a very long period of time.
Translation: @965cchikudasai
When he’s so happy that he can’t stop talking. -Terajima
Miyuki’s birthday when he was a 3rd year in elementary school.
Miyuki: What the hell were you thinking leaving the presents and the cake so obviously on the table! I found them just as soon as I came back home! Also, this chocolate cake, we both don’t really like it, do we? Have you forgotten that we couldn’t eat it up last year? And this isn’t the glove I wanted, so I’m gonna go return it and get another one! I wanted a catcher’s glove!!!
Miyuki’s dad: Can I drink my beer…
You can argue that she could work overseas or something of that matter, but the way Kazuya looks at the family photo says otherwise. This look says all we need to know.
If she had simply left them, why would his father keep a picture of them, taken right in front of their house, in plain sight? You can clearly see the factory building with the Miyuki Steel sign and the curb behind them.
Kazuya’s father has probably fallen into depression, seeing how he overworks himself in the steel factory next to their house. Not even bothering to pick Kazuya up from baseball practice or games, because meeting work deadlines is more important than his son. But we’ll discuss more on Miyuki Toku and his relationship with Kazuya further down.
Kazuya understands that his father is busy trying to provide for them. His “I’m home” falls on deaf ears, but he smiles despite it. Growing up without a mother, I’m very certain Miyuki-san taught Kazuya how to do laundry and cook when he was old enough to do these things. Why? Because he’d be spending a lot of time in that steel factory and wouldn’t have time to prepare meals or do housework. Kazuya has become very independent on himself at such a young age.
I very highly believe that middle school Kazuya never told his father about he bullying. Why add more stress onto the man’s back? He takes care of himself, including cleaning his wounds and patching them up all on his own.
Despite his father not being around, he still makes enough food for two servings, wrapping extra one up out for his father - who will most likely come back from the factory to eat and shower - maybe even rest for a bit - once Kazuya has gone to bed for the night.
Miyuki-san is definitely not the perfect father. But he’s not the worst. Straying off Kazuya a bit: Miyuki-san lost his wife, his partner for life whether it was an accident or she was sick. And now, not only is he left to grieve the loss of his love, but also has to raise their young child as a single parent. A child that’s too young to understand the concept of death, why mommy isn’t coming back, and their first heartbreak that can never be healed. It’s definitely not an easy job. But he’s trying. In official sketches by Terajima on Twitter, there are some of young Kazuya with his father celebrating - or rather trying to - his birthday together. nI which Kazuya receives his very first catcher’s mitt. Possibly a gift from his father.
Translation: @965cchikudasai
2016:The day he got his first catcher’s glove. -Terajima
11/17 Miyuki’s birthday when he was a 1st year at junior high school.
Miyuki’s dad: Heey, what’s with the cake? Won’t you eat it?
Everything I have to say from here is simply a theory, please do not take this as anything but my own word vomit.
Kazuya is scouted for Seido by Rei-san, but during the time he spent in junior high, he become friends or at least a close acquaintance with Narumiya Mei - the scouting we saw in the first season was not entirely random, they do know each other - from another team. Their friendship consists around, you guessed it, baseball. Mei wants Kazuya to join him at Inashiro where he can build his ultimate team of all stars. Although, Kazuya refuses. He was scouted for Seido, and that’s where his heart is set. It’s much more fun to face Mei as an opponent. For the sake of this analysis, we won’t be diving into anything like “what if he had joined Mei; why does it matter what school he attends” because that is something very complex and I will cover that in a separate post! 🦋
Now, Kazuya will be living at the dorms, away from home. But he’s not entirely independent from his father. Being a student and on the baseball team, there is no time to work a part time job for money so he would have to rely on his father to send him an allowance of some sort. Which brings another topic: it’s quite possible his father gives him money to buy sports equipment such as a bat and mitt. It’s also been confirmed he wears prescription glasses and contact lenses under his sports goggles. Guess who will be paying for that? Most likely his father. (I’m not sure how eye care/getting prescriptions works in Japan, so if this information is wrong, forgive me)
Despite moving out, Kazuya probably keeps in contact with his father, though not so frequently; I cannot recall ever seeing his father attend a single game, which strikes me as odd because they live in Tokyo, but guess he’s just working like he always is. It’s also not brought up what his father’s reaction is to his injury. I would assume he would be told his son is injured by the school, but we never get to see that.
We can conclude that going home during holidays means going home to an empty house. He greets his father, who is working in the empty factory on the machines, and there is nothing but beer in their fridge. Although his father has bought sushi and left it in the table, he couldn’t have been bothered to do actual grocery shopping before his son’s arrival. Which means Kazuya will have to go out and buy groceries to last until he goes back to school. Being away from school means back to reality. Having to take care of the house, cook the meals, do all the laundry. All his teammates are spending the holidays having fun with their families and friends, while he’s stuck in the empty house.
Maybe, if Terajima feels generous, Kazuya’s father will show up for a game. It would be a very emotional scene, because it’s his son’s last year in high school. But we will have to see. Don’t have any high hopes.
As we end on his childhood and the relationship he has with his father, here is a disclaimer: what is about to be said next is not my own theory, but something I saw from another user whose name I sadly cannot remember but they brought up something not many of us would think: We all imagine Kazuya going to university and becoming a professional catcher, but what if he doesn’t? When asked about his future by Zono, Kazuya avoids answering the question, choosing to focus on what is happening in the present instead of what the future will hold for him. This theory presents the idea of what if Kazuya will quit baseball to work for his father at the Miyuki Steel Factory after he graduates high school? It’s not totally farfetched. Though many fans would prefer him to go pro, to continue doing what he loves. Another interesting theory pitched on twitter by user “moonshinebeams” (i’m sorry i don’t know the tumblr username) was that, if Kazuya decides to go pro, then his father will have to sell the factory because he only has one child and Miyuki Steel is a family owned business.
We still have quite a while until the current third years graduate from Seido, so we will have to wait and see what Terajima does with the story.
Relationships with other’s
For this section, I’ll be going over the relationships he has with other characters - I’ve chosen three, otherwise we’d be here all day. Kazuya doesn’t express himself well. He doesn’t like to let other people into his life. He doesn’t form solid relationships with other people that easily. As he’s said during a fight with Zono,”We’re not here to be friends, we’re here to play baseball.” Kazuya has never had permanent friends; his childhood consisted of being bullied and growing up lonely in an empty house. He doesn’t have a mother, he’s an only child, and his relationship with his father, as he gets older, has begun to crumble the less time the man spends being part of his life. His twisted personality makes it difficult to befriend him; Kazuya doesn’t let anyone in because all people do are hurt you or leave you. Why let yourself endure such pain when you can build walls up to keep others from entering?
Upon his first meeting with Kuramochi, they obviously do not get along. With Kazuya saying “You just have fast legs”
Kazuya likes to bring up his past which he knows gets a riot out of Kuramochi. Despite them butting heads, they are the only two who make the first string their first year. They had to deal with the loss to Inashiro not just once but twice. Their first year at Seido isn’t brushed upon that much, but despite Kazuya having this awful personality, Kuramochi does respect him. You can even consider them friends, because they are seen hanging out during class breaks and gossiping about Sawamura. It would make sense Kuramochi is a vice captain to Kazuya, who is not the best with people. He’s also the first person to take notice his injury and confronts him about it.
Then there’s Chris. The player he has had high respect for since middle school.
In little Kazuya’s mind, he was dead set on entering Seido to compete with Chris over the starting catcher. But reality is not always kind. Unfortunately they do not get to be rivals, as Chris has an injury. I couldn’t quite find anything on how he felt when he learned about Chris’ injury, but we can assume, judging how he reacted when Sawamura said Chris should quit the team, that he was crushed. He doesn’t show it physically, but rather carries it all inside. Chris is someone Kazuya is most comfortable with. They walk around campus talking about, you guessed it, Sawamura. The anime doesn’t show it, but in the manga Miyuki spins his index finger around as he talks Chris’ ear off about our favorite southpaw pitcher.
Speaking of the southpaw, we have come to the end. Keeping my shipper fingers off, well look at this in a senpai-kouhai way: Sawamura and Kazuya. My favorite platonic interactions stem from these two. These two couldn’t be anymore different from each other in terms of personalities: Sawamura is extroverted, he wears his heart on his sleeve, Miyuki is introverted and tends to keep his emotions in check. Kazuya does care for Sawamura. During the yips arc, it was hard for him to sit back and watch Sawamura suffer. The scene where they’re in the coach’s office, we can see him place his hand on Sawamura’s lower back. It’s very rare for Kazuya to initiate such contact with anyone.
If you follow the anime or manga, you’ll have noticed the battery sharing evil smiles with each other when on the mound and the iconic glove scene (which I’ll put below). In Act 2, they’ve spent time off screen developing Sawamura’s numbers, and it’s not uncommon to see the pitcher hanging out in Kazuya’s room. During the Yuura game, Kazuya was unable to draw out Sawamura’s full potential and notes that there was more he could have done or said to help his pitcher.
Overall Character
Miyuki Kazuya is not trash; he’s not an asshole just to be one. He’s a boy that grew up without a prominent mother figure in his life to nurture and console him when he’s hurt; a boy who has a father that would rather work than spend time with him; a boy whose been through a lot of pain and hurt. The one who hides all his pain and sorrow behind a sadistic personality.
Kazuya is the pillar of the team; if he shows weakness or falters, then the rest of the team goes down with him. He’d rather push himself until he can’t than let his team down.
Seido is where he belongs. With the people that cherish him. The ones that will attempt to throw him a surprise birthday party.
They are the ones that he sees in front of him when they’re on the field, where they will always be until it’s time to say goodbye.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading this! It was very fun to delve into his past despite all the problems tumblr gave me.
What character should I cover next? :)
