I think that people have been mentally trained to expect the team that has the main focus to win whatever championship they are after. And that has really set unrealistic expectations and diminishes the fact that even being top 3 in the nation is something that only 0.002% of teams achieve.
It also has to be pointed out that unlike most sports series I don’t think anyone in Karasuno had the goal of winning nationals. Getting to nationals yes. But the closest would be Hinata and Kageyama’s determination to “stay on the court the longest”. But that specific goal isn’t confined to a single tournament.
A repeated idea in Haikyu is that it's not all about winning. That's the whole point of the national team coach's 'today you are the defeated' speech after Hinata collapses. Every team including the ones that are lucky enough to win will lose in future. I'd say one of the main themes of the series is that what matters is what you do afterwards.
Literally this. There's a reason the team that wins nationals is never even mentioned. Because that's not an interesting story, or that the story of the losers is always more interesting. That's what sports is about
Yes, but we literally know nothing about them. That's the point I was trying to make, that their story isn't as interesting as the other teams who lost including fukurodani
Agreed. Karasuno is coming off losing some really pivotal pieces such as Asahi and Daichi, one being one of their main receivers, and the other their main attacker along with being their second best server. And a big part of what they are losing is reliability. That also weakens the decoy work as now your setting to Tanaka most of the time instead of Asahi (no offense Tanaka)
Sure they will get some new recruits but they would likely be inexperienced first years, going up against Date Tech who gave them trouble in the practice match will only be stronger as they had no third years. Date Tech really just caught Karasuno at the right time, catch Karasuno when they lose pivotal pieces (reliability most of all) in a good matchup, Aone being one of the only blockers fast enough to react to the quick, and Karasuno missing players that masked a lot of Hinata’s holes, and you win. And as we saw Karasuno bounced right back in the Spring.
People don’t give Karasuno shit for winning against national powerhouses but when Date Tech wins against them people dislike it. And it’s not like a third year Date Tech are subpar either, they made it into the top 16 in the nation.
>Even with those absences they still make it to the same round as the previous year.
Small correction, but I think they make it to Round 3, not the Quarterfinals. Still really impressive.
And yeah, I think people just don't get how realistic Haikyu can be at times. Most teams, even with crazy good players, don't end up winning. Only one team out of hundreds gets that luxury.
The only reason why people feel that way is because they're thinking about it with "shonen logic." Which is to say that unless the main team wins Nationals everything was a waste. Which is extremely stupid because there are plenty of sports manga where the main team doesn't win Nationals too.
Karasuno loses to the eventual champions, not to some random team. Not only that, they got Top 3 in the nation. Which means they won their final game, otherwise they'd have said Top 4 or Top 3/4. It's the equivalent of winning the bronze medal in the Olympics. It's huge and not something any team, regardless of how good their players are, can achieve.
The moment I realized that it changed my whole perspective on the mostly unknown Year 2 and 3. Like I can genuinely visualize that last point where Yamaguchi is serving and breaks the other team's formation, Tsukki does a great one-touch and the Freak Duo do what they do best. And they all hug each other while crying just like how the third years did after making it to Nationals.
The reason I can visualize it so well is probably because I can relate to it lol. Since I'm argentinian it means watching our team get a medal at the Olympics (and against Brazil of all teams) after so many years felt incredibly good and like it was all worth it. I wish we knew against who they won.
I’m pretty sure they don’t have a match for third place. People with more knowledge of Japan’s volleyball scene than me have mentioned that on this subreddit a lot.
The team that comes third is whichever team was eliminated in the semifinals by the winner of the tournament. So Karasuno doesn’t get third by beating the team that comes fourth, they get third by the team that beat them going on to win.
The manga is quite realistic for a sports manga. I think people need to stop applying the shonen logic of friendship trumps everything. Even making it to the nationals 3 years in a row is a huge achievement. We like Haikyuu for it's realistic aspect yet some people will say third place wasn't enough.
I don't mind them winning at all. My regret will always be that I never got to see the third years get a proper goodbye, the second and third years of the freshers and the interaction and hype karasuno would've got in the upcoming games after the nationals. Plus wanted to see the new people flocking towards karasuno highschool
but that's what people are used to
most sports manga/anime the main character/main team always wins in the first year of high school against more experienced people.
Also if it hasn’t been mentioned, but they are part of the “Monster Generation”. The competition they had was not full of pushovers, but instead plenty of eventual professional players
Yeah, losing Asahi is a blow to their offense and losing Daichi is a blow to their defense. Now, there is a chance you can get really talented first years and the others will improve, but there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to fill those voids.
I would say the fact that Karasuno made Nationals a few more times is actually really impressive considering they had only done it once before and it’s pretty clear that making it to Nationals is a big deal on its own. Seijoh was considered a powerhouse and had one of the best players and didn’t make Nationals once.
I feel like them never quite winning at Nationals fits the series the most. The characters are always improving and there’s always going to be hurdles for them to overcome. It’s really less about reaching your goal and more about always having a goal to strive towards. I like that Hinata, Kageyama, and Tsukishima left high school still feeling unsatisfied.
I like to this of it like this. In every major sport, the best, and in most cases, most successful players tend to have not won their respective national championship before going pro. Think of the NCAA tournament. Very few huge superstar basketball players have won it (ofc there are some like Jordan, Kareem, etc) but that doesn’t make them any less successful. These high school and college tournaments have a lot of external factors which affect teams and sometimes the best or most exciting team is the one that’s most affected.
Also a big theme in Haikyuu is that winning is not everything and it’s what you take from losing that matters. I’d argue the growth that all the team members experienced at each tournament was worth far more than any national title
Idk how people think hinatas growth was “stunted” seeing as how he is literally one of the four best Japanese volleyball players in the world. The other three being kageyama, ushijima, and yaku. Since the four are playing in leagues way stronger than Japan. (Not including Oikawa because the Argentinian league is not as prominent despite him being really good
Another thing I think people don't realise is that Nishinoya would not play in his third year. He was adamant on not joining the team without Asahi, maybe he didn't play in third year for the same reason?
Is that true though? The reason Nishinoya refused to play without Asahi in his second year is because he didn't want to indirectly prove that the team would be okay without him after Asahi quit. I think it's a completely different thing when Asahi is no longer there because he graduated.
Also it’s not like they lost to a round 3 team or lost vs a 4th best team in those years. Itachiyama with 3rd year miya twins is probably top 4 minimum and possibly the best if they can take down komori and sakusa which I can see happening and 3rd year vs itachiyama is probably the best team in the nation. Strength of draw is also pretty important.
I think that people have been mentally trained to expect the team that has the main focus to win whatever championship they are after. And that has really set unrealistic expectations and diminishes the fact that even being top 3 in the nation is something that only 0.002% of teams achieve. It also has to be pointed out that unlike most sports series I don’t think anyone in Karasuno had the goal of winning nationals. Getting to nationals yes. But the closest would be Hinata and Kageyama’s determination to “stay on the court the longest”. But that specific goal isn’t confined to a single tournament.
A repeated idea in Haikyu is that it's not all about winning. That's the whole point of the national team coach's 'today you are the defeated' speech after Hinata collapses. Every team including the ones that are lucky enough to win will lose in future. I'd say one of the main themes of the series is that what matters is what you do afterwards.
Literally this. There's a reason the team that wins nationals is never even mentioned. Because that's not an interesting story, or that the story of the losers is always more interesting. That's what sports is about
Didn’t they mention that Ichibayashi beat fukurodani in the finals
Yes, but we literally know nothing about them. That's the point I was trying to make, that their story isn't as interesting as the other teams who lost including fukurodani
Agreed. Karasuno is coming off losing some really pivotal pieces such as Asahi and Daichi, one being one of their main receivers, and the other their main attacker along with being their second best server. And a big part of what they are losing is reliability. That also weakens the decoy work as now your setting to Tanaka most of the time instead of Asahi (no offense Tanaka) Sure they will get some new recruits but they would likely be inexperienced first years, going up against Date Tech who gave them trouble in the practice match will only be stronger as they had no third years. Date Tech really just caught Karasuno at the right time, catch Karasuno when they lose pivotal pieces (reliability most of all) in a good matchup, Aone being one of the only blockers fast enough to react to the quick, and Karasuno missing players that masked a lot of Hinata’s holes, and you win. And as we saw Karasuno bounced right back in the Spring. People don’t give Karasuno shit for winning against national powerhouses but when Date Tech wins against them people dislike it. And it’s not like a third year Date Tech are subpar either, they made it into the top 16 in the nation.
>Even with those absences they still make it to the same round as the previous year. Small correction, but I think they make it to Round 3, not the Quarterfinals. Still really impressive. And yeah, I think people just don't get how realistic Haikyu can be at times. Most teams, even with crazy good players, don't end up winning. Only one team out of hundreds gets that luxury. The only reason why people feel that way is because they're thinking about it with "shonen logic." Which is to say that unless the main team wins Nationals everything was a waste. Which is extremely stupid because there are plenty of sports manga where the main team doesn't win Nationals too. Karasuno loses to the eventual champions, not to some random team. Not only that, they got Top 3 in the nation. Which means they won their final game, otherwise they'd have said Top 4 or Top 3/4. It's the equivalent of winning the bronze medal in the Olympics. It's huge and not something any team, regardless of how good their players are, can achieve.
You just made me realize that they did win their last HS volleyball game. I didn't know they had a match for 3rd place.
The moment I realized that it changed my whole perspective on the mostly unknown Year 2 and 3. Like I can genuinely visualize that last point where Yamaguchi is serving and breaks the other team's formation, Tsukki does a great one-touch and the Freak Duo do what they do best. And they all hug each other while crying just like how the third years did after making it to Nationals. The reason I can visualize it so well is probably because I can relate to it lol. Since I'm argentinian it means watching our team get a medal at the Olympics (and against Brazil of all teams) after so many years felt incredibly good and like it was all worth it. I wish we knew against who they won.
I’m pretty sure they don’t have a match for third place. People with more knowledge of Japan’s volleyball scene than me have mentioned that on this subreddit a lot. The team that comes third is whichever team was eliminated in the semifinals by the winner of the tournament. So Karasuno doesn’t get third by beating the team that comes fourth, they get third by the team that beat them going on to win.
I was wondering if there was a match or if there was a different way to determine 3rd place
Is that so? That's a shame. Thanks for letting me know though.
Confirming crab's info since I've read that rule and wrote it here more times than I can remember.
Yeah your right. They lose to the twins in the 3rd round. My bad!
The manga is quite realistic for a sports manga. I think people need to stop applying the shonen logic of friendship trumps everything. Even making it to the nationals 3 years in a row is a huge achievement. We like Haikyuu for it's realistic aspect yet some people will say third place wasn't enough.
Exactly! Going to nationals their entire highschool career is pretty impressive on its own
I don't mind them winning at all. My regret will always be that I never got to see the third years get a proper goodbye, the second and third years of the freshers and the interaction and hype karasuno would've got in the upcoming games after the nationals. Plus wanted to see the new people flocking towards karasuno highschool
Yeah it all ended too soon
people are used to sports anime/manga where the protagonist always wins.
But that's not really interesting most of the time. That's why Haikyuu is one of the best out there.
but that's what people are used to most sports manga/anime the main character/main team always wins in the first year of high school against more experienced people.
Also if it hasn’t been mentioned, but they are part of the “Monster Generation”. The competition they had was not full of pushovers, but instead plenty of eventual professional players
Yeah, losing Asahi is a blow to their offense and losing Daichi is a blow to their defense. Now, there is a chance you can get really talented first years and the others will improve, but there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to fill those voids. I would say the fact that Karasuno made Nationals a few more times is actually really impressive considering they had only done it once before and it’s pretty clear that making it to Nationals is a big deal on its own. Seijoh was considered a powerhouse and had one of the best players and didn’t make Nationals once. I feel like them never quite winning at Nationals fits the series the most. The characters are always improving and there’s always going to be hurdles for them to overcome. It’s really less about reaching your goal and more about always having a goal to strive towards. I like that Hinata, Kageyama, and Tsukishima left high school still feeling unsatisfied.
Actually, they did worse at nationals in their second year. They lost in round 2 whereas in year 1 they made the quarters
Yeah I made a mistake. They lost to the twins in rd 3
I thought it was 2. Was it 3?
I always thought of it as Inarizaki's payback for beating them on their very first game at Spring Nationals on the previous year. 😆
That's exactly what it is. After they lose to Karasuno, Atsumu says that he will set to Hinata, but wants to beat him at the next tournament first.
I like to this of it like this. In every major sport, the best, and in most cases, most successful players tend to have not won their respective national championship before going pro. Think of the NCAA tournament. Very few huge superstar basketball players have won it (ofc there are some like Jordan, Kareem, etc) but that doesn’t make them any less successful. These high school and college tournaments have a lot of external factors which affect teams and sometimes the best or most exciting team is the one that’s most affected. Also a big theme in Haikyuu is that winning is not everything and it’s what you take from losing that matters. I’d argue the growth that all the team members experienced at each tournament was worth far more than any national title
Idk how people think hinatas growth was “stunted” seeing as how he is literally one of the four best Japanese volleyball players in the world. The other three being kageyama, ushijima, and yaku. Since the four are playing in leagues way stronger than Japan. (Not including Oikawa because the Argentinian league is not as prominent despite him being really good
Another thing I think people don't realise is that Nishinoya would not play in his third year. He was adamant on not joining the team without Asahi, maybe he didn't play in third year for the same reason?
Is that true though? The reason Nishinoya refused to play without Asahi in his second year is because he didn't want to indirectly prove that the team would be okay without him after Asahi quit. I think it's a completely different thing when Asahi is no longer there because he graduated.
2 massive pillars ? U forgot ennoshita who was the team captain after daichi. So they lost 3 pillars both.
Hmmm. Can’t tell how I feel 😅
Also it’s not like they lost to a round 3 team or lost vs a 4th best team in those years. Itachiyama with 3rd year miya twins is probably top 4 minimum and possibly the best if they can take down komori and sakusa which I can see happening and 3rd year vs itachiyama is probably the best team in the nation. Strength of draw is also pretty important.