Haikyu!! Second Season

Episode 6

I'm a little torn on this episode. I do love a good training montage, and Haikyuu!! is always tops at showing us how the characters are growing as people as well as players, as well as providing a varied cast. All of things are in this episode, and yet...something falls just a little flat. Thinking about it, it may be the lack of interaction between Hinata and Kageyama as they both go train on their own, as well as being placed on different teams for practice matches by their coach. As a teacher, I wholly applaud his move; as viewer, I'd have liked to see how they were able to cope after their fight last episode.

It's clear from the start of this episode that both boys are nursing bruised egos and crumpled feelings. Both go off seeking advice from others (as well as places to practice while the gym is being inspected), and they seem to be balancing on that adolescent edge of being absolutely certain that each of them was in the right alongside the uncomfortable sensation that maybe the other guy had a point. As most of us who have been in that position before can attest, that's a combination that makes it really hard to be the one to initiate the apology process. The measure of how deep Kageyama is mired in these conflicting feelings is shown when he runs into Oikawa at a public gym. Oikawa, basically Kageyama's chief rival, is picking up his nephew from an after school program, and in a surprise turn of events, Kageyama begs to the other boy's help. For him to go this far really tells us how upset he is, as well as indicating that even though he's 99.9% that he's right, maybe, just maybe, there's something that he could be doing differently. It's a pivotal moment for Kageyama, who is still recovering from his previous role as team tyrant, and that he is able to listen to Oikawa's words and to take something from them is a major indicator of how far he has come as both person and player.

Meanwhile, Coach has taken Hinata under his wing. He seems to think that Hinata might be a bit more volatile or fragile after the fight (I can't decide which), and basically admits that he has no idea how to solve the problem. So he and Hinata head for the hills...where Grandpa Coach lives. As you may recall, he's the guy who coached Karasuno when the Little Giant was playing and is widely considered a major factor in their success. For Hinata, this is pretty much living the dream, and his determination to become a better player and Grandpa's skill look like they'll be making a major difference when the team heads back to Tokyo next week. While this is all going on, Asahi and Nishinoya are also practicing like fiends, striving to improve their games based on what they saw in Tokyo, alongside a fear of being left behind by the first years. It points to an interesting difference between the two of them and Sugawara, the third year setter, who, while he never gave up or stopped trying to improve, didn't seem to share their concerns about being replaced.

So clearly there's plenty of good developments, both in terms of the plot of play and the characters. This is also accompanied by the usual wonderful animation – seriously, look at the muscles in Asahi's legs – and the cameo by Oikawa. But there's still a lot crammed in here, with more talking about volleyball than really playing it, and while the training montage is a staple of sports stories, it just somehow doesn't quite work in this episode that can't quite decide between people and training. And yet there wasn't quite enough material here to stretch it out over two episodes, so maybe this is just a lull in the story that is designed to get us somewhere else. In any event, it is still a delight to watch...just not as much as it can be.

Rating: B+

Haikyu!! Second Season is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.