Haikyuu!! SPOILERS: THE BIG 400
Y’all, this series has all been building to this match up.
Kageyama vs. Hinata at the top of their game.
Surrounded by their favorite monsters.
If any chapter was the build the tension and ramp up the action to the climax of any game, it was this one. There’s just so much in 19 pages:
Right from the start, we establish Hinata is finally mentally on par with Kageyama, at least in terms of realizing what he’s going to do.
I also want to give a shout out to Shion Inunaki, who is like, “Who cares about you young whippersnappers?! My generation is boss, too!” Leave it to a Libero…
Love that we get Tsuki and Futakuchi giving a little grin at the block on Bokuto, with Aone recognizing and Bokuto’s teammates feeling his pain.
Also, Suga holding BOTH the Black Jackals and Adlers noise-makers?! ADORABLE! He is a representative of all of us! Picking sides is HARD!
Oh, and Sakusa looking glorious and a callback to how he can’t be disgusted on the volleyball court, where he’s most happy –
When the Banners started showing up (Hoshiumi was the foreshadowing of that last chapter, but it’s on full-force here), I started feeling the emotions rising…
ALSO, a nice little Ushijima x Sakusa moment here, to feed the shippers.
Then we have Bokuto – Bokuto’s determined face! Akaashi’s callback to their Nationals matches! TASK FOCUS!
I love that Atusmu gives him a chance to make up for being stuffed in the last play! Let it not be said that Atsumu is only petty – friendship is magic, y’all!
OH, AND SPEAKING OF SHIPS:
BOKUAKA NATION, HOW WE FEELING?!
Protagonists of the World, INDEED. This part hit me so hard.
I also resonate strongly with the Black Jackals “Chaos Trio” here – Ushijima can be just too strong, can’t he?
But let’s be real, y’all!
THIS is where the chapter just ramps up to 1000%.
The “Limbo King” does it again, and I want to take a moment to call back to Atsumu lamenting during their match at Nationals how Hinata just DEMANDED the ball and Kageyama had to set it to him – only for him to taste that same demand now. Soooo many callbacks to the Inarizaki match in this game, and I am HERE for it, especially with the anime to still show it to us…
The page of Atsumu setting, and the last page of this chapter, may be one of my favorites, but in terms of favorite expressions of the chapter….it’s this page.
Atsumu’s questioning look and then his tiny little smile in the bottom corner is just adorable, but the tension between Hinata and Kageyama here at the bottom?! Hinata looking like a straight-up demon, and Kageyama looking about as sexy tense and in the game as he’s ever looked…
…and then the next page, where you can see Kageyama spots Hoshiumi’s bump might turn into a match point for the Jackals, so he tries to rebound it back to Romero, which under anyone else, in any other game, might have just done the trick –
– but this is NINJA SHOYO we’re talking about.
I really hope that Hinata goes down as “Ninja Shoyo” and not “The Greatest Decoy” or “the Little Giant” Since that’s clearly Hoshiumi’s title at this point. Ninja Shoyo fits him so well as an all-rounder now.
I like to think that the line “I’ll take you on as many times as it takes” is both Hinata and Kageyama’s line – as they’ve built this entire series up to facing one another on the court.
But in the end, as we get this massive cliffhanger and see their high school banner above them…it’s clear what my hope is:
I want Shoyo to score this point and win the match for the Black Jackals.
Not that I don’t want to continue this match, GOD I DO, but him scoring this point would be so symbolic and meaningful:
- Showing Shoyo is no longer “dependent” on Kageyama to win.
- Capping off the reveal of his growth as a man this entire match has built.
- Setting the stage for Shoyo’s entrance to the Olympic team.
Of course, Furudate could just wipe all of that in our faces, have Shoyo’s spike not go past Kageyama and continue to stamp on our hearts. Who knows at this point.
This chapter was masterful, as this whole game has been, and gearing up for the final chapters of this series, I just want a few things clarified/ended on:
* The whereabouts of Nekoma’s missing players – specifically Lev, Yaku, Toro, and Kuroo (who I’m convinced at this point is either on Argentina’s team with Oikawa I have my reasons for thinking this, or is a chemist working to turn the fandom’s tears into a renewable energy source)
* The picks for Japan’s Olympic team in 2020 (This is the real timeline, not the Covid timeline) so we at least see which players are going to be on the team
* The series at least ending with the Olympic match about to begin – as much as I want Oikawa to be on Japan’s Olympic team, would it not just be fitting for Ushijima, Kageyama, and Hinata to face him in the last chapter of the series?
After all…Oikawa did say he was going to “Beat Everyone…including Hinata…”
These next few weeks are going to be rough.
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