Up-To-Date: Haikyuu 294

Do you know that feeling of anticipating something and when it’s drawing near, you feel like you’re not ready yet. Then, when it finally comes, you want for more of it? That’s exactly my feels for the things happening! As you can read from my recent posts about Haikyuu!!, I’m just so excited about this. AND IT’S FINALLY HERE! THE BATTLE AT THE TRASH HEAP FINALLY STARTS!The chapter opens with panels of a cat and a crow, staring at each other, at a garbage dump, as Karasuno and Nekoma have long been compared to the two. Then, at the stadium, people are coming to watch. Many of them are supporters of Nekoma as they can all easily go there because the venue is, well, at Tokyo Gymnasium.I really love this panel! It’s just so hilarious how people couldn’t have been more wrong with their impressions of Kuroo and Lev. Well, of course, Kuroo is hot, but mature? He’s one of those who likes to childishly rile up people. And Furudate-sensei makes it a point with that insult for Lev. “Poopy leftover bastard”, though I haven’t checked what the actual word is in Japanese. Anyway, Lev? Cool? He can be, but he’s usually a dork. And it’s funny how he looks so serious  — and people think he looks good — while he’s actually telling Kuroo that he might need to poop again! I laughed a lot because of this.Now, I can’t wait for these guys to actually fanboy over Kenma (as those two dudes did for Tanaka the previous game). They sure have a lot to be surprised about once they see Kenma giving his all for this game!And it looks like Yamamoto has some intense supporters, too! It’s so cute how he waved back at them! I feel like he’s popular among the guys because of his personality.AND LOOK! IT’S THESE TWO AGAIN! Ahh, I’m so excited to see more of their reactions. Bokuto looks so adorable wanting to play against Karasuno and Nekoma. And Akaashi looks so good with such a smiling face. Don’t worry, you guys. I bet you’ll face one of them soon enough. But before that, I’ll probably drown in tears first.Over at Karasuno, Daichi brought up their having more losses than wins against Nekoma and Suga immediately told him off. Asahi also got to comment that Daichi just wanted to look cool after telling them to forget about it as he just planted negativity on their team. Ahh, these guys are so fun to see. The third years’ bond is really special.We see Ukai telling them not to waste energy, before the scene shifts to Nekoma, with Yamamoto dragging the unwilling Kenma, as they start their usual routine of reciting their blood and brain line. Kenma’s expressions are always gold to me because as I’m more of a phlegmatic person, I can relate.Aaahh! They are so on fire! Everyone of them are! I just know I won’t be able to chill for the whole duration of this game.

Then, we finally know their starting order! Karasuno gets to serve first, with Kageyama as the server. I got excited seeing their rotation! We may be able to see a lot of Tanaka vs Yamamoto, Hinata vs Lev, Kai vs Daichi, Hinata vs Kuroo, Tsukki vs Kuroo, Daichi vs Kuroo, and Yamamoto vs Asahi on the net! I still don’t know much about how Fukunaga plays, but I’m guessing that he’ll be able to do a lot of valuable plays, too! For some reason, I feel like Tsukki will be challenged because of him. And, of course, this game will test our setters Kageyama and Kenma as well as liberos Yaku and Nishinoya! AHHHH!

Kageyama’s the first to serve and people expects a lot because of the service aces he got during their match against Inarizaki. And we get to see Hiromi-Genta and Mika-Daishou again! I’m so happy! I adore these couples! Even if I wasn’t exactly fond of Hiromi and Genta initially, they somehow grew on me. I’d love to see them admiring Nekoma as they now believe Karasuno after belittling them the previous day. As for Mika and Daishou, I find it cute how Daishou adores Mika so much and how Mika is now interested in volleyball, even if it was the reason she broke up with him before.And then, the whistle blows! Meanwhile, Hinata looks so amusing being scared of Kageyama’s serve even then. It will be funny if he will really be hit by an intense serve that Kageyama would miss. If he would miss, which I think is a slim chance. He’s one of the consistently good servers. Though some of his serves do get out if they are too intense.

Anyway, Kai gets the receive and sends it to Kenma who set it to Lev, but Nishinoya saves the ball which Kageyama follows up to set to Tanaka who spiked it. The ball gets received by Yamamoto and Lev tries to tip it down (ahh, Lev’s height will surely be difficult for Hinata to defeat when they are one-on-one by the net), but Daichi saves it. Then, Kageyama tosses the ball to Hinata.

 

(Yeah, continue to be surprised by Nekoma, you two.)

And comes the waves of flashbacks from when Hinata first met during their road works and from when Kenma said that he didn’t feel much after winning against them, to which Hinata swore they’ll play a game that will make Kenma try hard and say anything other than “not much”/“normal”. It’s a good hit of nostalgia (even if I’ve been re-watching/re-reading the series for a lot of times now) that I wanted to re-watch/re-read it all over again!

Anyhow, Hinata spikes the ball and Kenma was able to be on its way, though the ball bounced off the courts, so Karasuno gets the first point! There is a mix of surprised reactions. It’s lovely how the panels of Grandpa Ukai and Coach Nekomata are side by side. (Little Oikawa looks funny!) Coach Nekomata and Kuroo amusingly have similar facial reactions! And Inuoka is surprised, too. (Please let him play, Furudate-sensei.)Again, there’s a flashback. This time it’s the one after their last training camp together, where Kenma told Hinata that he has started to want to play in an official game against Hinata and the rest of Karasuno. Then there’s a panel of the times when Hinata asked for another set from them since they lost.Back to the present, Hinata tells Kenma that it’s the match where there are no “second chances”. It’s an instant game over to the one who will lose this match. Kenma just smiles as a response.

Seriously, that’s a good start of the game! Imagining the scenario, it really felt so fast, but I also felt like I held my breath for so long! I’m so excited for the developments of the game and the characters! And the face-offs! Karasuno getting the first point doesn’t really mean that they’ll win the set, but they can surely use some good start for a nice build up of their momentum.

Oh, heart, be strong.

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