Maezono Kenta

Maezono Kenta
Seidou High School - No. 3
First Baseman
Bats: Right	Throws: Right
Kanji	前園 健太
Nickname	Zono (by teammates) Gorilla Boss (ボスゴリラ Bosu Gorira) (by Wakabayashi Gou)
Characteristics
Gender	Male
Age	16 (debut) 17
Date of birth	28 July
Place of birth	Osaka Prefecture
Bloodtype	O
Height	180 cm (5' 11")
Weight	75 kg (165 lbs)
Status
Education	2nd Year High School (debut) 3rd Year High School (current)
First Appearance
Manga	Act I - Chapter 27
Anime	S1 - Episode 11
Cast
Voice Actor	Hiroaki Tajiri

“	We all should learn from him to be driven! - I'm pretty sure anymore driven is seriously overdoing it ...	”
	— Sawamura and Haruichi about Zono

Maezono Kenta comes from Osaka prefecture and is a student of Seidou High School. Like most members he lives in the dorm and is the roommate of Kominato Haruichi.

​Appearance

Zono is a very big, imposing player. He has a close-shave and often wears funny expressions on his face when he bats. He is also occassionally said to have a very scary, almost killer like, face when batting. His scary expressions along with his slugger capabilities allow him to exert great pressure over the opponent pitcher.

Character

Maezono, who was in the second string for a long time, understands the feelings of his teammates who have made little progress. He speaks roughly but is considerate to those around him and good at taking care of his kouhais. He may look fierce but is kind and always watching the whole team.

He is also one of the more vocal members of the team, not holding back his thoughts even if it meant disagreeing with his captain, Miyuki. He is waiting for the 3rd years to retire so that he will have the chance to be in the 1st string.

At the end of the West Tokyo Tournament, he was chosen as the next vice captain together with Kuramochi.

Plot

Fall Tournament

TBA

Spring Koshien

He is seen benched during Senbatsu, due to him destroying his batting form in the off-season (because he tried to learn a new batting style).

Relationships with other characters

Miyuki Kazuya

These two are not particularly close maybe because of their opposite social skills. While Miyuki's rough and manipulating methods to deal with his teammates is opposite his looks, Zono's the seemingly scary person with a big heart who never hesitates to show his concern to any of his teammates. It was shown in the manga that Zono both dislike and respect Miyuki. He openly admits the latter is a genius and fit as the new captain. However, he dislikes Miyuki's detached attitude toward his teammates and ironically, him being a genius. Miyuki however is a lot comfortable around Zono and is also one of the people he like teasing around.

Sawamura Eijun

Zono says that Sawamura is always the last one to leave and that he respects him: despite the monstrous Furuya being right next to him, he doesn't give up on becoming the ace or developing as a pitcher. To quote: "His pitching in the game against Teitou encouraged me in a big way."

Isashiki Jun

Maezono has very high respect with Jun, basically because of his senpai's irregular batting style with matching impressive hitting ability.

Kominato Haruichi

Maezono's roommate and occasional batting buddy and mentor.

Skills

He’s one of the best of Seidou in the power department. He has a right long distance cannon-like hit (if he manages solid contact). Zono is a typical pull hitter who is not good at hitting to the right. He is also better at hitting inside the strike zone rather than the outside. He also has poor plate discipline, meaning he would swing at every pitch.

After observing Zono's swing and batting form, Kataoka pointed out that because Zono tries to forcefully bat to the right too much, he unknowingly tilts his bat down which prevents his power from coming out. He then instructs Zono to focus on hitting over the short stop instead of the second baseman and to wait for the ball until the very last moment then swings at it strongly. Taking Kataoka's instructions to heart, Zono started showing noticeable improvements to his batting and slugging average. He has since able to land powerful outfield hits more consistently and was able to make big contributions in numerous clutch situations throughout the course of the Fall Tournament. However, his performance has dipped somewhat since the Spring Senbatsu.

Player Statistics

^{This data is based on the official guidebook, it will only be changed if there is an official update!}

Player Statistics
Note that just because a character said something about another characters improvements is not considered an official update! You are free to write about the characters improvements in the Skills section above! Defense   3/5 ♦Shoulder   4/5 Running   2/5 Physical Strength   4/5 Mental Strength   3/5 Batting   3/5 ♦Contact   3/5 ♦Power   5/5 Note: Batting average (after summer tournament): .142

Trivia

• Favorite Food: Okonomiyaki, Takoyaki
• Favorite Subject: Math
• Hobbies / special skills : push-up, sit-up
• People he respects: Azuma Kiyokuni and Isashiki Jun. </ref>
• He comes from Osaka Boys League where he belonged to the same team as Azuma Kiyokuni.
• He has the loudest voice among all the 2nd years.
• He has done more practice swings than anyone else on team in the same school year as him.
• He was batting 3rd in the beginning, but he was later moved to 5th batter.
• In his third year he is in the same class as Asou Takeru.
• According to Terajima's twitter:
  • Maezono chose to attend Seido because of Azuma Kiyokuni.
• When batting, he sends pitches deep in right field (if hits).
• He is the typical pull hitter, but is bad at hitting to the right.

Name Etymology

• Maezono (前園) - Front Garden
• Kenta (健太) - Healthy/Strong and Big/Stout

Quotes

• "Us second years don't have a right to complain about having given the first years a chance! If you're mad, then work harder!"
• "People with no talent, have to make up for it with effort!" - to Haruichi
• "As if I’ll accept being buried like this. My ambition is bigger than the universe!" - to Haruichi
• "From here on, it's our era. I get excited thinking this." - to Haruichi
• "No one is a match for him. That guy [Sawamura] is always the last one remaining. I seriously respect him. Even though that monster Furuya is next to him, he never gives up on becoming the ace or growing as a pitcher."
• "If we’re all facing things like hesitation and anxiety, fighting alongside your comrades is what a captain should do, isn’t it?"
• "Anybody can go and claim he doesn't like something. But coming up with ideas as to how to improve things after that is your duty, Zono. Doncha push everything on the captain." - Isashiki
• "Everybody is starting to think that you can be reliable. So just pitch your heart out." - to Sawamura
• "Is he dying? He's going crazy!" - about Miyuki

Gallery

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