Haikyuu!! Karasuno Koukou vs. Shiratorizawa Gakuen Koukou

After the victory against Aoba Jousai High, Karasuno High School, once called “a fallen powerhouse, a crow that can’t fly,” has finally reached the climax of the heated Spring tournament. Now, to advance to nationals, the Karasuno team has to defeat the powerhouse Shiratorizawa Academy. Karasuno’s greatest hurdle is their adversary’s ace, Wakatoshi Ushijima, the number one player in the Miyagi Prefecture, and one of the country’s top three aces.

Only the strongest team will make it to the national tournament. Since this match is the third-year players’ last chance to qualify for nationals, Karasuno has to use everything they learned during the training camp and prior matches to attain victory. Filled with restlessness and excitement, both teams are determined to come out on top in the third season of Haikyuu!!.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Hinata, Shouyou Main

Murase, Ayumu Japanese

Kageyama, Tobio Main

Ishikawa, Kaito Japanese

Oikawa, Tooru Supporting

Namikawa, Daisuke Japanese

Nishinoya, Yuu Supporting

Okamoto, Nobuhiko Japanese

Tsukishima, Kei Supporting

Uchiyama, Kouki Japanese

Bokuto, Koutarou Supporting

Kimura, Ryouhei Japanese

Kuroo, Tetsurou Supporting

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Sugawara, Koushi Supporting

Irino, Miyu Japanese

Akaashi, Keiji Supporting

Oosaka, Ryouta Japanese

Tanaka, Ryuunosuke Supporting

Hayashi, Yuu Japanese

Maeda, Toshihiro Producer

Morihiro, Fumi Producer

Matsushita, Keiko Producer

Okamura, Wakana Producer

Reviews

Dec 9, 2016

themegamancave

Recommended

“Even if we're not confident that we'll win, even if others tell us we don't stand a chance, we must never tell ourselves that.”
-Daichi Sawamura

In today's anime age; a world filled with over-analyzations and deconstructions, it's always nice to see a series like Haikyuu come along as if to passively antagonize critics with its immense amount of hype. I've been quite guilty of it in the past, often thinking there was no other reason to watch a series than to critique how much it made you 'think'. But to all the fault-finding reviewers and critics out there (myself included), I have one thing to ... say... just save your words for once. People aren’t watching this anime to tirelessly dissect its story or characters on a philosophical level. Haikyuu is about having fun, comradery and the love of volleyball. The ultimate underdog story. That's pretty much it.

If you told me a couple of years ago that an anime franchise involving high school sports would become one of my favorites in the medium, I probably would've laughed in your face. But I've come to realize that the quality of an anime goes beyond how it makes you think. How it makes you feel is just as important... because at the end of the day, most of us watch anime as a means to escape the repetition of everyday life and just enjoy ourselves. It transports us somewhere exciting, somewhere we normally don’t experience ourselves. Anime should be fun, and Haikyuu is no exception to that.

Haikyuu's third season could almost be viewed as an expansion pack to the main series, or as one reviewer put it, much like DLC for your favorite video game. This is a fair assessment given the truncated 10 episodes compared to the first two seasons of 26 episodes each. Karasuno finds themselves pitted against the powerhouse Shiratorizawa, in a 5 set match no one expects them to win. There is less character development overall, but more than enough action to make up for it. I’d say this season emulates the intense tone produced by the last few episodes in season 2, my favorites of the entire series. The result is a nail-biting, pulse-pounding thrill ride to the match's epic conclusion. It's just what I needed to get me through a relatively lackluster fall season.

There isn’t much in the way of story this season, due mostly to its shorter run time. Being in a 5 set match is unfamiliar territory for our favorite Karasuno team, which begins to show as the series progresses. Exhaustion starts to become a factor, and for the first time I can remember in Haikyuu, players begin to tire mentally and physically. This incorporates an important aspect of playing sports, making the characters that much more relatable to someone who’s been there. We also see a culmination of the variety of new skills Karasuno’s players have been practicing come to fruition when they matter the most. Whether from Nishinora’s jump-setting or Tsukishima’s read-blocking, each player plays a pivotal role in turning the tides at one or more points during the match. The writers of Haiykuu also continue their emphasis on the backgrounds of Karasuno’s opponents throughout the match. It was a tad watered down from last season, and I would still have liked to see Ushijima’s past elaborated on more.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the whole series up to this point is the sudden mental involvement displayed by none other than the deadpan Tsukishima. Normally Tsuki exhibits a personality as dynamic as a cardboard box, but shocks us all as he begins to become more engaged and driven to help out his team. He emulates the mentality that no one likes to lose, and I found myself actually cheering out loud for him when he blocked Ushijima for the first time. Another refreshing point to bring up about the cast is how passive a role Hinata and Kageyama actually play in this season. As the series progresses, the narrative shifts from the drive and determination of Hinata as an individual to the importance of teamwork and synergy. The result is truly powerful and I’ve begun to really get attached to every member of Karasuno’s team.

Obviously the hype in Haikyuu is beyond unreal, and the third season is the best example of this. Even the relatively stone-faced members of Shiratorizawa get wrapped up in the excitement. Anime has proven time and time again that you can breathe life and intensity into any subject matter. Some people may fault the series for its plethora of overreactions and such, but at this point the viewer should come to expect it based on the precedent laid out by Haikyuu’s first two seasons. It’s the necessary evil of sports anime, but one I have grown to forgive Haikyuu for because I love it the series that much. Even up until the last episode, the result of the match was unclear and allowed me to stay glued to my screen for the entire 10 episodes. Karasuno doesn’t always win, and that vulnerability makes you cheer for them even harder when they do.

Is it better than Season 2? Unfortunately, the abridged format coupled with less interesting characters cause it to fall short of the brilliance surrounding the second installment. Many of the training camp episodes from last season did more to add to the story than I realized, causing viewers to really bond with the opposing players that much more. Not to mention Oikawa being the character you wanted to cheer for but couldn’t. Another aspect of the series I didn’t find to be irritating until this point was the lack of family members from Karasuno’s players being shown in the stands. Instead we are limited to a select few that are grouped together while the rest of the crowd seems to consist of the student body. From attending many high school sporting events in the past, it can be somewhat hard to fathom how the parents of these kids aren’t even in the picture in their matches. A small complaint, but one I just don’t understand. Maybe Furudate (creator) though Haikyuu had enough characters already!

Voice acting is still solid and the music is consistently upbeat and powerful. There are quite a few recycled tracks from the earlier seasons, which I actually found comforting more than stale for the series. The sound editing and effects are some of the best in the business, as Haikyuu delivers again with its realistic gymnasium sounds and crowd noises. The animation also seems like it received a significant upgrade from the show’s debut season, rivaling other sports series like Ping Pong in its level of “over-the-top-ness”.. Granted, only having to edit together one setting for the entire season probably allowed the animation team to expand their skills in other, more intricate areas.

To sum up this season in one sentence (as recommended by one of my MAL pals), Haikyuu S3 is “A white-knuckled underdog story driving 100 mph over the speed limit, wearing a huge grin the entire time.” It’s a series best viewed in one binge-watching session rather than enjoyed week by week, and is only bested by it’s previous installment. If you’ve seen the first two seasons, you’re already behind the curve by not picking this one up... it’s a hell of a good time! Thanks for reading and be sure to look out for more of my Fall ‘16 reviews!

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Apr 17, 2022

Resting_Bonfire

Mixed Feelings

Haikyu!! Season 3

I like this anime not only because of the characters, but because Haikyu is one of the more realistic sports anime. At least that's what I thought before this season came out. Now we're almost caught up with the bizarre level of "Kuroko no Basket". In this world, there are now players you can barely beat even 7vs1 and they all look like some misplaced shounen antagonists.

To be honest, the result of this season surprised me a lot, because I expected a different result. But this was also the best moment of this season.

On average, there wasn't much more tension. The first ... round was quite transparent, the second one not a bit better. The third round was skipped and the tension started to build only at the end of the fourth set.

Shiratorizawa was a strong but inflexible team in terms of team play. And they also lacked character. You could feel what a great opponent they were for the protagonists, but beyond that, there was nothing.

The biggest and strongest point of Haikyu remains - that the opponents and the protagonists deserved the victory equally. Both teams give their best, both exceed their limit and you can see in the eyes and motivations of both teams how much they want to win. I love this aspect of the anime.

[Enjoyment 7]

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jan 5, 2017

Ragna1999

Not Recommended

Instead of actually making a third season to the pretty popular sports anime Haikyuu!!, the producers thought it would be good idea to do a sort of mini season that will show this particular match between Karasuno and Shiratorizawa (this is not a spoiler it's in the title). At first this didn't seem like a bad idea. The fans will get what they want earlier and the studio probably will make more profit out of this than waiting a year to make the third season. I also didn't mind until I saw the amount of episodes this season would get. Upon that discovery I would ... only expect the worst...... and that''s what I actually got. Let me explain why.

Before I talk about the problems of this season let me give you my opinion on season 1 and 2. I don't think that Haikyuu!! is amazing or anything. It's a by the books sports anime with flat and uninteresting characters and a barebones underdog narrative. The only thing that kept it from being annoying were the matches. They are fun to watch and things that happen are exciting enough to keep me entertained even if they had frequent pacing issues. But all that 'hype' didn't justify everything else. That's a very short summary of my opinion on season 1 and 2 of Haikyuu!!

So with all that out of the way let's talk about season 3 of Haikyuu!! So Haikyuu season 3 is basically just one volleybal match in the course of 10 episodes between Karasuno (the team you are supposed to root for) and Shiratorizawa. And yes the match is 10 episodes long. And keep in mind that most of the important matches in haikyuu are roughly 4-6 episodes long. So you know what that means. Desperately stretching the running time so it will meet the ten episode mark. Because of this the anime felt like a chore to watch through.

The pacing in Haikyuu!! has never been that great. Sometimes it could be confusing to see what the standings were between the teams because there are not a lot of opportunities to cut to them. And somehow this season managed to mess that even more up by constantly slowing down the match for extra running time. This was done by using unnecessary flashbacks, constantly cutting to the coaches or the crowd who'll fill up screen time for the next three minutes (you're going to see that cliché a lot). They also achieve this by having some filler. One particular character gets a lot more screentime than the rest of his teammates. And apparently he didn't get that screen time in the manga (that's what I've heard correct me if I'm wrong). Even though a lot of people liked it, I've felt like it was something that should've been done at the end of season 2 at best. It would've worked with Aoba Jousai because they're technically their rivals not with Shiratorizawa because they were just a powerhouse that they needed to defeat and not their long life rivals (even though the anime acted like they were).

Speaking of Shiratorizawa that's another bad thing of this season. Shiratorizawa was very very bland and boring. They're your stereotypical bad guy team who think that the underdogs are not worthy of their time, but when they actually start playing they suddenly realise that the underdogs are good etc etc. I won't say that the opposing teams in Haikyuu!! are very rich and deep in character because that's basically not true. However there was something which made each team at the very least acceptable and not annoying to watch. Every team who faced Karasuno never thought little of them. Yes they mocked Hinata sometimes but the team as a whole were taken serious as soon as the match started. Even their rival, Aoba Jousai, did this. And the fact that Shiratorizawa is your stereotypical bad guy made this match more annoying to watch.

Now let's talk about animation quality. The redeeming quality of the anime for probably most people. And even though the animation is very good, I mean the animations themselves are very nicely done with great details and the 3d environments was well used and were not distracting. However I do want to note that a lot of earlier used shots are reused in the anime. And some of them can be forgiven, but some of the more impressive shots were repeated which takes away the magic that those shots gave when you first saw them. It seems very desperate to lower the production costs. And this is a problem that seasons 1 and 2 also have. But because this season is so unnecessarily long this stuff stands out more than usual. Not to mention that in a lot of flashbacks older shots from previous seasons were used too.

The sound of Haikyuu!! is nothing special. It's your average sports anime music. There is nothing wrong with it but it's also not the most amazing soundtrack you'll ever hear.

So what is haikyuu season 3? I would say it's a huge disappointment and could potentially be bad for the industry if this is accepted by a large amount of people. I won't say that I completely hated it. There were some moments that I did enjoy. And the animation quality is still good even though a lot of animations were repeated a lot. But those few moments that I enjoyed won't justify everything wrong with this season of Haikyuu!! And in my honest opinion it deserves a low score. Hype can't fix something like this. And if you somehow managed to read through all of this stuff and not looked at the score I have given this season and immediately hate me and disagree with me, well congrats.

I would not recommend Haikyuu!!: Karasuno Koukou VS Shiratorizawa Gakuen Koukou to your average anime fan. If you want to watch the Haikyuu!! series I would say watch season 1 and 2 and read some spoilers online so that you would avoid this and wait for the real season 3. The only people that would probably like this are die hard haikyuu fans.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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