Karasuno’s middle blocker Tsukishima Kei thought to himself, after their match against tournament second best Inarizaki.
And I am here to tell you he is absolutely wrong.
Perhaps if you only limit “everyone” to the audience in the anime, but I am talking about the audience *watching* the anime here. Haikyuu!!: To the Top Second Season is painfully predictable, ridiculously out of touch with reality and poorly drawn compared to previous seasons.
Not that predictable is inherently bad, but it’s quite ironic since Karasuno’s loss vs Aoba Johsai back in season one was show defining and is what I believe got many to watch later installments of Haikyuu. This season Karasuno winning seemed inevitable because of the high stakes, that means the whole game three, which spanned the entire latter half of the season, is an absolute bore to watch. Season three also had this problem, but instead of doubling down on the hype, it chose to focus on the character development, which was a much smarter move.
And about that “out of touch with reality”? God forbid I wasn’t talking about how it is “unrealistic”, I am talking about how tone deaf To the Top Second Season is, let me explain. It tried to drum up tensions by making matches close and letting the audience and coaches commentate, but the fact of the matter is, I never felt the matches were close. It’s painfully obvious that Karasuno would win, and the discrepancy between my tension and the tension of people in the anime. There are several points in time where I laughed out loud because of this, and it is not a good sign when I laugh in a scene that was supposed to be nerve racking.
The animation quality also plummeted due a change in staff members. Just think back to season two when you saw the scene of Kageyama’s spinning set for the first time, or the gorgeous animation of numerous serves scattered throughout. Those are breath-taking scenes of animation nowhere to be seen in To the Top. Instead it constantly reuses selected frames and abuses still shots, I have seen way too many times of the same 5 seconds of Atsumu silencing their cheering squad when serving. Animation was a crucial part of the experience of Haikyuu, and even that was compromised in this season.
Granted what led me to bash Haikyuu this hard was because I loved it so much, and its lovable qualities didn’t disappear overnight. There are still a few episodes that were made really differently for some bizarre reason, and some of the newly introduced characters still get proper development. But that’s just too little of compensation to what To the Top had lost.
I was worried when the first season of To the Top came with announcements of staff member changes, and it seems as though my worries were not superficial. Haikyuu is now a shadow of its former self, living off of the hype it generated with its first three seasons. As the characters are one-upping their game in the Nationals, Haikyuu!! To the Top could’ve used the increasing power level as a delivery vessel for more jaw-dropping animations. Instead, it botched this opportunity and instead gave us a mediocre adaptation that is frankly an embarrassment to previous installments.
