Gennosuke Araki

Araki is confident, competitive and quick to challenge people who interest him. His background as a national judo champion gives him considerable faith in his grappling ability even after entering a different sport.

He is particularly sensitive about his ambition to become a mixed martial artist. Discovering that Kunisaki has essentially the same goal immediately creates friction because Araki interprets the similarity competitively.

Araki nevertheless respects physical ability. His rivalry with Kunisaki grows out of the fact that both are accomplished martial artists testing how their existing skills can be adapted to sumo.

Araki was a national judo champion in middle school, giving him a highly developed foundation in throws, balance breaking and grappling before he begins competing seriously in sumo.

His judo techniques allow him to generate dangerous throws from positions that other high-school wrestlers may not expect. He can use an opponent's movement and upper-body contact to set up attacks derived from his previous discipline.

At 179 cm and 86 kg, Araki is comparatively light for a high-level sumo wrestler. His effectiveness therefore depends more heavily on athleticism and technique than simply overwhelming opponents through body mass.

His martial-arts experience makes him a natural counterpart to Kunisaki, whose background spans several fighting styles rather than conventional sumo alone.

Araki is initially absent when Oodachi scouts Ishigami, leaving his presence as the school's fifth competitor unknown to Kirin Tsuji.

He encounters Kunisaki while looking for Hinomaru and ends up testing himself against the Oodachi martial artist. Their confrontation establishes their shared interest in mixed martial arts and introduces another cross-disciplinary fighter into the high-school sumo field.

Araki subsequently competes as part of Ishigami, strengthening a lineup already built around Sada and Kanamori.

Chihiro Kunisaki is Araki's clearest personal rival. Both have backgrounds outside conventional sumo and share the ambition of eventually becoming elite mixed martial artists.

Mizuki Sada is Ishigami's ace and one of Araki's teammates.

Tsuyoshi Kanamori is Ishigami's captain and senior wrestler.

Hinomaru Ushio is the Oodachi wrestler Araki originally expects to encounter when he crosses paths with Kunisaki instead.