Koji Tachibana is a student at the school Kei Kurono attends. He is a ruthless bully (supossedly with Yakuza connections) and the leader of the school gang .
Personality[]
A typical thug, Tachibana enjoys extorting money from others and likes beating them up even more. A disturbingly vile trait of his is that he picks out loose teeth from the students he has roughed up by kicking them in the face and often pulling them out bare handed, adding them to his "collection". One of his fellow gang members call it a quirk inherited from his father, who is a dentist. He is bad tempered and will attack anyone who mocks or refuses to pay him. It is hinted in the anime that he is disturbed by homosexuality, as he threatened to kill Kurono for getting an erection during his beat-down, saying "You got the wrong idea, kid! I'll fuckin' kill you!" (in truth, he was fantasizing about Kei Kishimoto being naked).
Later in the manga, though he still has a bad personality, he seems to have gained some respect for Kurono's strength, at least, calling upon him to face Daizaemon Kaze when the latter was looking for the strongest fighters in Japan (and when Tachibana lost to the man himself). He had confidence that Kurono could win against Kaze and his beliefs proved justified when Kurono defeated him (albeit using the Gantz suit).
Plot[]
Onion Alien Mission Arc[]
Yonekura bought Kurono before Tachibana in order to extort money out of him and get rid of the "look" in his eye. Tachibana could "understand" why Yonekura would hate the look. He then effortlessly beat up Ryuichi Kazumi, a senior member of the karate team. To add insult to injury, he pulled out two of Ryuichi's teeth and added them to his collection. When asked how many he had, he told them that the collection wasn't quite at a hundred, but getting there. With his pride satisfied, he ordered Kurono to bring him 100 thousand yen by the next day. Kurono, however, refused to pay him, and incurred Tachibana's wrath as a result. He kicked the freshman several times, but was unable to damage him due to the fact that Kurono was wearing the Gantz suit. Kurono proceeded to use his suit's gloves to slowly cut off the blood circulation to Tachibana's hands and almost crushed his arms before letting go. Satisfied that he dented the senior's pride, Kurono walked way and told Ryuichi that it was okay to go home. Tachibana still screamed after him, however, fruitlessly demanding that he pay the 100 thousand by tomorrow. When one of his followers asked if his hands were okay, he angrily brushed it off saying that it was nothing.
Anime-Manga Differences[]
- In the anime, instead of Kurono letting him go after releasing his grip, Tachibana angrily screams "Don't fuck with me!" and attempts to punch the boy with brass knuckles. Kurono easily dodges and deflects his fist back in his face, breaking off three teeth in the process. This was probably done to make Kurono's victory over him seem more satisfying.
- In the English dubbed anime, his name is not said correctly. It is said as Takibana instead of the correct Tachibana, (though the official subtitles still kept the correct spelling).