Today, I had the pleasure of watching the continuation of one of my favourite pieces of media, let alone anime, in cinemas today with some friends, and my experience was so great I felt compelled to write a review on it. This movie was so good, so immersive, such high quality, that it made me wanna play volleyball and get my vert up immediately after. I may have gotten a stern look in the eye from an employee after trying (and succeeding) to touching a high ledge lmao.

This will be a mix of both the movie and some elements of just why I like Haikyuu in general, with the top paragraph being a non-spoiler TLDR/intro and everything below being spoilers for the movie.

Haikyuu is, in my humble opinion, the best sports animanga released to date. It has a deeply vast collection of characters each with their own personalities, aspirations, strengths and struggles, and the show does an excellent job at showing off the characters individually and giving you time to get to know and love all of them. This aspect I feel is what sets it apart from other sport animanga and a lot of other animanga in general as we watch not only the main team develop and get better, but also get extremely impactful insight to the opposition team’s personalities and stories, no matter how big or small they are. Combine this with extremely entertaining action scenes, inspiring determination, an amazing soundtrack and actually good comedy and this is why I and many others love Haikyuu so much to this day. The movie is no exception to this, continuing on the greatness that the prequel seasons brought, however it is not without it’s flaws like any story. I just hope they don’t kill the series as it gets to its supposed best bits.

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Before we get into those flaws however, allow me to tell about what compelled me to write this review today: everything else.

Like I said earlier Haikyuu does a great job of giving you a large and diverse cast and giving them all enough moments and development to make them all likeable. This movie was no exception, with us having a match between arguably the two teams we have gotten to know best throughout the series: our main pack of crows and their tenacious rival band of cunning cats. The best part about having this matchup is that it made everything very familiar, we already knew both teams quite well which meant we needed less in the way of introductory flashbacks. I’ve seen others complain about this, but I like how in this match both teams know each other and as such the game seems like a casual rival match, with both teams throwing fun banter and complements to the other constantly despite being position rivals. At least, that is how it begins.
As we progress and things get more and more intense, we see both teams begin to take advantage of how well they know the other. During this time we are introduced to the BEST ANTAGONIST KARASUNO HAVE (and I think ever will tbh) FACE IN THIS SERIES. KOZUMANE KENMA. When I tell you this boy’s sinister plots had me on the edge of my seat, the way he sees and analyses the game around him is extremely satisfying to watch, but most of all he genuinely scared me in this match.

###No man who has this look on his face is ever good news, and I was already wary of his since he has experience stopping the Karasuno first year duo and is incredibly smart.

Once he made that play at the end of the first set to position the ball perfectly to throw the setting up Karasuno unaware, I should have known we were in for trouble and boy did he deliver. This movie the main character was him, not Hinata. Seeing his backstory and how he grew to love volleyball and it would be the only thing he left his room for or show any interest in outside of video games was so sweet and it only made me like him even more, but he was a genuinely terrifying threat during the whole game. And his development in this movie alone was phenomenal. From someone who played volleyball as a means to an end; didn’t care about a win or loss; and never really kept any of his teammates close, to someone who was willing to throw himself around ragged to win; make jokes with his teammates; and ultimately admit volleyball is fun. When he slumped over and his only thought was how much fun he was having and how he didn’t want it to end, I knew this match was his Tsukishima S3 moment equivalent. But again, his genius and plotting are what really drew me into the game. One of the scenes that will stick with me is when Karasuno score in the middle of the first set after a rally, and the music suddenly cuts and Kenma says “Stay interesting” with that CREEPY ASS SMILE ON HIS FACE, LITERAL GOOSEBUMPS.

This scene was also pretty scary. I love Hinata for his endless positivity and energy, which personally inspires me to emulate that for myself in my life. So seeing Hinata not only caged, but desperate and frustrated hit me way more than it needed to. Nobody likes when the loud ray of sunshine goes silent, and this was no exception.

But one of the main themes of this show is that personal strength is cool, but the strongest plays are those made in tandem with others. So when Kageyama was there to uplift Hinata and give him a way to continue attacking, despite Kenma’s effective plan, with a new style of set for him to utilise something he had been working on. I WAS HYPEDDD

Seeing the blurred lines could only mean one thing. Something amazing was about to happen, Hinata was about to break free. AND BREAK FREE HE DID This isn’t the actual image of the boom jump BUT WHEN I SAW IT IN CINEMAS I WAS SO EXCITED. HE HIT THAT BALL OVER THE MF THREE MAN BLOCK. THE TWINKLE IN HIS EYES WHEN HE SAW THE CHANCE AND KNEW WHAT HE HAD TO DO, THE RETURN OF HIS USUAL CHEERY COMPETITIVE SELF WAS SO REFRESHING. He even welcomed the challenge of Inuoka being put in the game, ready to handle whatever was thrown at him. His determination was very enjoyable to me.

The rest of the game is nothing to scoff at either, the action in this one was some of the best I think we have ever seen from Haikyuu. It was the perfect blend of fast paced to keep intensity most times but also occasionally slow enough to catch all the special moves or unique plays each side implemented to try and one up their opponent. This was also aided by the SUPERB animation, A1 does not disappoint (when they animate their own stuff and don’t outsource it lmao). The use of moving backgrounds, the audience, motion lines and varying thickness when needed really made the show feel alive. Underrated moment was when Kenma falls over and you can see his sweat on the floor with the different perspectives of his reflection, showing how hard he was trying for this match which was so against his usual character but showed how much his rivalry with Hinata meant to him and how It pushed him. We started off the game with an extremely fast paced and intense first point which displayed the prowess of both Karasuno and Nekoma in an awesomely animated opening sequence, and the quality continues all the way up until the final point. The first person perspective of Kenma reminiscing on the golden week training camp back in S2 was SO SO SO AMAZING.

Another one of Haikyuu’s strengths is its comedy. It genuinely has to be one of the funniest shows I have ever had the grace of watching and they manage the comedy aspects perfectly, it never interferes with a serious scene and it’s a great way at getting us more comfortable with the cast. Even in a movie they still managed to give us some great bits, some of my favourites are: Lev’s confidence, Kuroo’s sarcasm, both teams’ banter and Tanaka and Yamamoto's alliance. But my favourite of all is just any time Fukunaga is on screen. Both his design and anything he says are hilarious to me, maybe coz I say the same brainless stuff idk. Either way, if anyone asks me who I am from Haikyuu he is my answer from now on, and I shall say it proudly.

####Top tier quote from the movie haha

The different moods of the game were also complemented greatly by the usual brilliant work of Asami Tachibana and Yuki Hayashi. Another feature I feel nobody has mentioned is the fact that we got three new tracks, and EXTENDED VERSIONS OF SOME OF THE BEST EXISTING OSTS. I love the Haikyuu soundtrack so much that the two composers are my only favourited musicians lmao, and the new tracks were a very welcome addition. Now we wait for them to get uploaded to streaming platforms smh.

Now while I have just gone on about how much I adore this series and this watching experience, it was not without flaws. I have two, one with the movie and one long term. While the movie was more than excellent, I felt the focus dropped on Hinata and Kenma’s rivalry so much that nobody else really got any substantial screentime. Yamaguchi literally got three serves and two lines. THAT’S IT. Suga’s time on the pitch was barely even a thing tbh coz instead we see Hinata freaking out about being stopped so consistently. Daichi barely got any time despite being the team captain and arguably most crucial member of the team. The strength of seeing such a fun and impactful rivalry came at the cost of everyone around them, and whilst the rivalry was still amazing to watch don’t get me wrong I would have liked to see a bit more from everyone else.
My second flaw is coming from the entire formatting of this conclusion tbh. Two movies for 100+ chapters was never ever gonna be the move lets be honest, and it is already showing here. I didn’t feel like this game was rushed per se but it was missing some of its character inclusion charm as I said before. The fast pace was amazing but I felt like a lot of the match simply…disappeared. I know there is often points scored in the background but this game felt like entire halves would go by where we don’t see any of it. Idk I just feel like with how well received S4 was there was no apparent need to rush these last few games and chapters.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading me geek out about something I genuinely love with all my heart, and I hope it has either reminded you of the greatness of this series and why the film was still great, or convinced you to go watch it in cinemas before it leaves.