what I learned from Haikyuu!! - There's always another way

Warning: this post contains manga spoilers. If you're anime-only, you might not want to continue.

When I started watching Haruichi Furudate's volleyball anime, creatively titled Volleyball!!, I thought that the main moral would be the generic shōnen message of "work hard and you can achieve your dreams!" While I did see a fair amount of that in the story, there was another message that stuck out as very important to me: there's never only one 'right' way to do something. By looking more closely at how Hinata, various aces, as well as other middle blockers, all play the same game in different and interesting ways, we can start to get a sense of what makes volleyball, and life in general, so dynamic and interesting.

The first way that this principle is demonstrated is the most obvious: everyone underestimates Hinata because he's short. Short people don't play volleyball. You're what, a hundred and fifty centimeters? There's no way you're good. Of course, that's why it's super satisfying every time we see opposing blockers absolutely blindsided by the freak quick, but that's besides the point.

What I'm trying to say is that since Shoyo couldn't just play the way that everyone else was playing, he found another way. And it works super well! It works well enough that the whole team gets inspired and invigorated by his progress, not to mention his sunny disposition and competitive spirit. That's the main point of the series, to me. It's that there's always another way to do everything. Not all other ways might be the best, or most efficient, but maybe there's a way that works better for you.

For another example, let's take a look at the top aces in the country. I don't know about you, but when we first heard about the top three aces from Kuroo's exposition, I imagined them to be way different. Even Bokuto was way different than I originally thought. I assumed, perhaps illogically, that the top players in the nation would be serious. Boy, was I wrong.

And I'm glad that I was! Bokuto is one of my favorite characters, mainly because I love watching him in all of his emotional glory! He's super fun to watch, because he's so good at what he does. He's an incredible player, and so is the entire Fukurodani team. They're a national-level team for a reason, and it's because they're all really good players. And it's so much fun watching them play, because they do it well. Since you get to enjoy their games without worrying about them losing, they instill confidence.

When we get to the top three aces, however, it's a different story. Sure, they're all serious about volleyball, and have serious personalities in general, but in different extremes.

The first few times we heard about Shiratorizawa, it was mostly in their capacity as Ushijima's team. The rest of the players effectively didn't matter, because their ace was the scariest thing about them. And he is scary! Every time he scores a point, he gives you a death glare through the net. We only have about two scenes in the entire series when he smiles. He's a serious, stoic person, almost to a fault. Since his personality and play style are so simple, befitting his coach's philosophy, the rest of the team almost acts as foils to his gravity, Tendou specifically (we'll talk more about him later). Ushijima is serious in a way that lets you know immediately what sort of person he is. It's a simple gravity.

Meanwhile, Sakusa is a much more mysterious character, being named back in season two, but not showing his face until season four. As one of the top three aces in the nation, we've heard of him, but mostly we've heard about his team. Itachiyama is a regular favorite to win nationals, and he's their ace despite only being a second-year. But when we meet him, he's pretty weird. He's quiet, pessimistic, blunt, and overall not what you'd expect out of such a high-level player. Sakusa's serious in a way that's more quiet. He sits quietly, but he's expressive enough that you never have to wonder what he's feeling.

Contrarily to those two, Kiryu is almost obsessive about meeting expectations. He's the model of what an ace should be: strong, capable, mentally tough. This is what I had expected from an ace. But beyond that, there's much more to him. His backstory reveals that while his persona's not necessarily an act, he's definitely more than a little less confident about his skills and abilities. Kiryu's serious because he forces himself to be so. It's the only way that he knows how to be, in order to succeed.

Each of these three characters are in essentially the same place. Grouped together as "the three top aces in Japan," they're all so different, and yet all made it to the same place. They all rose to the top, even though they all had such differing play styles, personalities, and strengths. It would be boring if all the teams were the same, but beyond that, there's just more than one good way to play volleyball. There's so many ways that work, and there's never only one "correct choice."

The third example is more technical than character-driven. During season four's ball boy arc, Hinata observes the different ways that players receive the ball. He notes that although the split step that he learned from his tennis buddy back in middle school is a good way to get yourself in position under the ball, it doesn't seem like everyone uses it. Ushijima and Kunimi, specifically, use minimal movements while receiving. They don't waste any time or energy. Hinata's conclusion from this is that there's more than one way to receive well. This one moment was really what made me start to realize that this message of "there's never only one right way" was everywhere.

The last example is another technical one. During the Shiratorizawa match, Tendou and Tsukishima have a few interactions. Their blocking styles are fundementally different, and yet they still both work. Tsukki's careful, calculated read blocking systematically puts enough pressure onto Shirabu that he makes the smallest of errors, leading to Tsukki's big Halo Around the Moon scene. On the other hand, Tendou's crazy, unpredicable guess blocking sucessfully shut down three attacks in a row at the beginning of the second set. They're both blocking, and they're both scoring points for their team while succeeding in putting stress on the opposing setter, but Tsukishima and Tendou represent the two extremes of the spectrum of different blocking strategies. Even though their play styles are so radically different, both ways are effective.

So, in conclusion, I'm not saying that this is the message you're supposed to get out of Haikyuu!!. Funnily enough, there's more than just one explicit message to the series. But this is the message that I've found to be most consistently reinforced throughout the series, throughout all the different arcs. I find this message to be one of the most unique and inspiring peices of advice that I've found in anime. From Hinata's personal character arc of fighting to stay on the court despite his disadvantageous height, to the three top aces, to the techniques used in the volleyball games themselves, Haikyuu!! consistently proves that there's always more than one way to do things.