i've been thinking about it and it's honestly astounding how much other people view karasuno as poor or trashy in the show?? like it's literally canon that people assume asahi is a dealer or gang member because of his appearance. which like that makes sense until i think about the fact that there are boys from other schools with rough looks/personalities to them (maddog + ushijima), but are never interpreted as the criminal type. in this essay i will-
the theme of class comes up in haikyuu!! a lot more than people realize.
from what i can tell, karasuno and nekoma are both public schools, and this fact becomes important at several points in the show.
the arc of "the battle at the trash heap" with karasuno and nekoma is aptly named not only because of their respective mascots, but also their economic backgrounds. neither schools are incredibly well funded like shiratorizawa and seijoh, so neither can afford to recruit the best players (everyone talks about how shiratorizawa can scout the best players, but remember that a lot of people from kitagawa daiichi, a well funded private middle school with a powerhouse volleyball team, go to seijoh). both teams slipped into complete obscurity when their coaches retired: they were the only ones keeping these teams afloat due to their decreased access to resources.
their fated game is best represented as a dumpster alleyway battle because they've had to claw up the ladder every step of the way to make it to nationals, and in a way, they're reclaiming the way other schools view them. people view them as trashy (you already gave a perfect explanation of this), and instead of seeing that as shameful, both teams said "you know what? you're right, and this is something that we're proud of. the battle at the trash heap is going to be the best you've ever seen."
even at karasuno, there are varying levels of privilege. the dynamic between hinata and kageyama illustrates this perfectly. hinata went to a middle school that had no volleyball team (quite possibly because of funding and size), so he didn't get to develop his skills like kageyama did at kitagawa daiichi. when hinata plays kageyama in middle school (with a completely inexperienced team he managed to scrape together), kageyama immediately notices hinata's athleticism but complete lack of experience. so he says to hinata after the game: "what have you been doing these last 3 years??" kageyama clearly doesn't understand his position of privilege here. he was a talented kid, he liked volleyball, he joined the team, he got better. hinata never had that opportunity. so one of hinata's friends responds to kageyama, saying: "what do you know about what he did the last 3 years?" his friend knows that even without access to a team, hinata spent every waking minute bouncing volleyballs against walls, begging people to set to him, and even joining in on women's teams. hinata worked just as hard as kageyama, if not harder, but the class barrier made it impossible to catch up. even when hinata joins the karasuno team, he has to spend his entire high school career making up for lost time.
and WOW this is getting long but i have one more point to make.
im not 100% sure that inarizaki is a public school, but from what i can tell it most likely is (i think the private schools tend to be called [insert school here] academy and the public schools are called [insert school here] high)--and it makes a lot of sense theme-wise. as takinoue yusuke (one of the karasuno alums) watches the karasuno vs. inarizaki game, he says: "inarizaki doesn't seem like they're established champions. they still have the feel of a team of upstarts that are climbing their way up." sound familiar? like karasuno, they didn't start as a powerhouse. and like karasuno, they're known for having a more risky playing style. they know that they can't afford anything else due to their position.
the bottom line is that class dynamics are the founding principle of haikyuu, so saying "sEiJoH dEsErVeD tO gO tO nAtIonAlS" isn't the fun and original take you think it is.
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