Koutaro Sasaki

The kicker for the Bando Spiders. He is a direct rival of Musashi, and as noted by Hiruma, he has never missed a try-for-point kick. He even once kicked a soft drink can right into a rubbish bin made specifically for cans—off of a bridge railing (even more impressively—and unfortunately for Kotaro—it wasn’t empty at the time). His skills as a kicker is seen when he could easily get a field goal from 50 yards. It is because of him that the Bando Spiders adopted the philosophy of a kicking team, a team that relies on kicks to win the game. However, his accuracy can also be used against him since it’s easy to predict where his kicks will land and they can then be returned. Furthermore, in the match against Deimon, Koutarou stresses out and actually misses a field goal attempt, which could have won the game.

Koutarou’s most famous quote is, “That’s smart” (Smart daze) (Otherwise “That’s not smart,” etc.), and is seen combing his hair whenever he has time, even during a match. He seems to dislike Akaba Hayato because he keeps talking about music. Koutarou used up a time-out just to explain the history of the Spiders to Deimon. His last name is the same as a famous samurai, Sasaki Koujiro, a rival of Miyamoto Musashi. He asked Bando’s manager, Sawai Juri, who is also his childhood friend to go out with him 3 times, but was refused with “Whatever, stop saying stupid things, moron!” but she never actually said “No.”

In an interesting note of trivia, a poll conducted in Japan had Koutarou as the only non-Deimon player to win in a showdown, with him winning in the “coolest character” battle against Taki.