What’s interesting about the second season, then, is that it very much plays as a re-iteration the first. It follows pretty much the exact same structure: we start off with individual practice as our team struggles to grow more cohesive, trials are overcome, lessons are learned, we get a multi-episode training arc with rival schools from Tokyo, and then the back half is dominated by the Inter-High prelims as Karasuno puts their newfound skill to the test, climaxing in a final battle against Aoba Johsei that pretty much spans the entire final quarter. The difference is that whereas the first season was instilled with a sense of starting from the ground up, this season’s overriding theme is coming back from defeat. Karasuno has been through the gauntlet by now, and with that solid foundation established, they’re able to push themselves to even greater heights, overcoming even more overwhelming obstacles, struggling against even larger roadblocks, and reaching even higher heights. We may be playing the same song again, but the notes are all louder, the energy more intense, the instruments more broken in. And as a result, what could’ve just ended up feeling like a repeat of the first season is able to blossom into its own thing, a gripping narrative of bouncing back from defeat and growing even stronger from there. It’s an inspiring, majestic journey for our flying crows, and seeing them grow strong enough to finally knock down the wall that stopped their flight last time is a truly remarkable experience.
In the finer details as well, Haikyuu continues to impress. The production values are still killer, I love the directions all our characters have taken, I really love all the new female characters who have joined the peanut gallery (#YachiProtectionSquad for life), and I adore how committed this show still is to giving every opponent a story, every player a reason to demand your focus. Haikyuu, above all else, understands why the trials of team sports can be so rewarding to those who pursue them, and it depicts those trials with a level of detail and careful consideration that lets you feel every ounce of their struggle, triumph, despair and hope. And it accomplishes all this not just with its central team of protagonists, but with every player and close-knit team we meet, all with their own stories to tell and their own journeys worth following. It’s no wonder this show’s become the gold standard of good sports anime; few anime are this able to capture the reality of a real-life institution or event and make it this exhilarating to watch. And as long as it keeps hyping me up for competitions that would bore me in real life, I’ll keep giving it my undying support.
The one downside to this season is that I so desperately wanted to consider it even better than the first; the way it builds off the show’s previous foundation to bigger and bigger emotional heights is really something to behold. Sadly, a few too many of the midsection matches end up feeling like connective tissue that only exists to take up space, dragging the pacing down right when it needs to start charging into overdrive. Haikyuu is normally so damn good at keeping a strong narrative focus that it really stands out when an opposing team just isn’t as interesting as they could be, or our heroes aren’t facing any meaningful trials to give their current match a reason to exist. But once it recovers for the final Aoba Johsei rematch, the resulting payoff is so damn satisfying that it’s hard to care that much. Haikyuu is still really damn great, an exemplar of everything sports anime have the potential to be, and I can’t wait to see how Karasuno stacks up against Shiratorizawa in the next season. With season 4 finally airing this upcoming winter, I imagine Haikyuu still has a lot for met o look forward to, and you better believe I'm going to enjoy every second of it.
