Full Name: Itoshi Sae.
Also Known As: ???
Appearance: Image
Eye Color: Grayish Blue.
Hair Color: Black.
Family: Unnamed Father (Not important to the story)
Unnamed Mother (Same as the father)
Age: 15 (Same age as the Miracle Generation)
Affiliation: Yamasho Basketball Team
Yamasho Junior High
Personality: As a person, Sae is calm and gentle, yet direct and serious. He is an excellent individual who maintains friendly relationships with many of his teammates. He dedicates himself to a daily post-training care routine to improve his physical condition and is often seen in the training room doing exercises or lifting weights.
As a player, Sae is nearly obsessive and quite self-centered, consistently prioritizing his own ambitions over the aspirations of others. He takes great pride in being a player, to the point of arrogance, often labeling others' abilities and mindsets as "lukewarm" or "mediocre."
He has immense confidence in his abilities and firmly believes that the Miracle Generation is merely a group of talents who simply haven't seen the world as they should.
Skills and Abilities:
Physical Ability: 10/10
Technique: 10/10
Stamina: 10/10
Mental Strength: 10/10
Special Skill: 10/10
Sae is a far superior player to Kise Ryota, capable of actively overpowering him on the court with ease using just his physical abilities and his Predator's Eye. As such, he is much faster than Kise, more skilled, and stronger. He has demonstrated the ability to advance and create plays that lead to points rapidly, achieved through his footwork, ball handling, and destructive dribbling.
Effectively, he neutralizes any move, even if it's his own move copied by Kise. Essentially, Sae can dismantle any play, no matter the player.
Furthermore, Sae is a ruthlessly solo player and doesn't waste movement unless he believes a pass is necessary. However, he has never been challenged in a true one-on-one situation, but rather in 1v2 or more.
Predator's Eye
A special type of vision possessed by Sae, which allows him to score or exploit weaknesses. When the Predator's Eye is used for scoring purposes, Sae focuses his attention on the backboard and reacts to anyone standing between him and it. When used to observe and read body language—such as hesitation, confusion, or an inability to react—Sae can dismantle the defense using a destructive dribble in response. This enables him to break down and overpower any player in his path. His vision rivals that of Akashi.
However, the Predator's Eye has a weakness: it does not actively notice its surroundings.
Destructive Dribbles
When Sae actively breaks through the defense, he uses movements that force the defense to react and then crushes them. His movements vary in application but are not limited to: Occlusion Break, Opposite Acceleration, Off-Ball Movement, and Center of Gravity Burst. His dribbles are fast and difficult to copy, making them highly exhausting for Kise to replicate.
Speed and Agility
Like Aomine, Sae is extremely fast, also possessing exceptionally quick acceleration and deceleration. This allows him to dribble at high speed and react to any movement. His speed enables him to infinitely utilize his Off-Ball Movement to exploit openings and execute his dribbles however and whenever he prefers.
Momoi noted that his speed was inhuman, surpassing even Aomine's.
High-Level Physique
Although physical contact is not the main focus of basketball, Sae possesses a physique that allows him to endure an entire game regardless of its intensity. His physical capabilities enable him to jump to heights that seem to defy gravity, as described by Momoi, in addition to having impeccable balance and precise strength.
Spatial Awareness
Sae analyzes the entire court, including the positions of his teammates and opponents, to determine the best play. His tactical skill and spatial awareness are so advanced that only Akashi can match his analytical capability. Sae can predict the positioning and movements of other players, setting traps and bait to lure them into unfavorable positions, intercepting their plays, and orchestrating his own.
This ability compensates for the weakness of the Predator's Eye.
Perfect Shooting Technique
Sae's perfect shot is his greatest weapon, yet also the least frequently used. Sae has the ability to control the intensity, angle, speed, and precision of his shots to an extreme degree at any given moment. Not only is he capable of consistently executing complex passes using his superior handling and technique, but with his skill level, he can also manipulate the ball with such perfection that his passes are easy to receive yet difficult to intercept or block.