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I’d say that eggshell is pretty well cracked now.
It’s Tsukki time on Haikyuu at long last, and it seems as if the lanky lad is poised to play a major role in the story going forward. The role of rival for Hinata has pretty much been vacant since day one – Kageyama isn’t a rival because he doesn’t play the same position (in fact the two of them are mutually dependent). Asahi is a third-year and more or less getting ready to fade from the scene altogether. And you can’t really call someone on another team a rival in this sense, though Lev fills the role in a different way.
It’s always been obvious that Tsukishima was an important character (important enough to get a brother played by Sakurai Takahiro) but Haikyuu has been pretty cagey about how that would play out – and how he got to be such a kedaruge guy. We’ve also had little to go on as far as why Yamaguchi is so subservient to Tsukishima, despite the latter’s relatively indifferent behavor towards him. This episode, then, had a lot of heavy lifting to do.
The aforementioned brother, Akiteru, is central to the second question. He was the ace of his middle school volleyball team, and – naturally enough – idolized by his younger brother. Things are humming along in heartwarming fashion until Akiteru finds himself unable to admit the truth to Kei – he’s not the ace of the Karasuno team, but a scrub sitting in the stands with the cheering section. He manages to keep this a secret from his brother until a conversation with a classmate whose brother is also a scrub on the team prompts Kei to attend a game – where he sees the truth, trauamatizing both brothers.
Now, I’ll admit there is a bit of tempest in a teapot quality to all this – as a reason for life-changing ennui we’ve certainly seen characters suffer a whole lot worse. But these sorts of little humiliations do cast big shadows on the psyche of boys, for they live in a world where pride and bravado counts for everything. So I accept it as dramatic license, and Tsukishima-otouto’s malaise and indifference towards maximum effort a logical extension of what happened.
As for Tsukki’s friendship with Yamaguchi, that stems from another seemingly minor moment that can feel like an apocalyptic one to a little boy. Pint-sized Tadashi-kun is being picked on by three petty bullies when Kei – even then a beanpole – saunters by. Tsukki doesn’t even really help Tadashi per se – he merely casts his disdain on the bullies (and Yamaguchi) for being lame. But the combination of the fact that Kei’s intervention indirectly leads to the incident being cut short and the fact that Tsukki was just plain cool for calling out the bullies for what they were is enough to turn Yamaguchi into his squire (seemingly) for life – school life, anyway.
It’s a pretty good backstory on the whole, though I’m a bit of two minds about it. I would really rather see Tadashi establish himself as a character in his own right rather than as an extension of Tsukki’s, which is where this arc leaves him at the moment – so for him my grade is “Incomplete”. But Tsukki stepping up to provide a real challenge to Shouyou’s future primacy on the team can only be good for both of them as characters – the Sun and the Moon, indeed. And I think Tsukki’s fixation on whether it’s worth fighting when someone will always be better than you, no matter how hard you try, is a pretty universal disquiet that pretty much all of us have felt at one time or another. Sooner or later he will indeed have his volleyball moment – maybe he even had a little piece of it at the end of this episode – and he’ll be able to gain some satisfaction from living for the moment and measuring himself against himself.
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melodic thoughts
November 22, 2015 at 3:33 pmI think it is pretty hurtful to actually have to lie about a sport you love – for both Tsukki-nii-san and Tsukki. But that is something that goes beyond volleyball itself, and mainly lies within a high-schooler's pride in a competitive sport.
I agree that Yamaguchi needs to stand apart from Tsukki to become a memorable character. But is it just me, or do Karasuno have more tiny players than other teams?
elianthos80
November 22, 2015 at 5:22 pm@melodic thoughts: does size matter? :,D Or we could say they have more potential for growth in that area as well. Or the bigger the gap the bigger the challenge the sweetest the reward…
melodic thoughts
November 24, 2015 at 2:28 amMaybe it is as you say, more little Giants on the team makes any victory more impressive. It was just a question asked out of curiosity as height was never showed to really affect the team anyway
elianthos80
November 22, 2015 at 5:19 pmYoung Tsukki. Smiling big smiles. Aw <3
Ok, leaving the above aside… I trust your reading about pride and bravado regarding his brother fiasco but I got the impression that at least for Tsukki the base layer was as much if not more broken trust and disappoitment. His bro's story became a cautionary tale ( with a strong sour grapes via self-limitation flavour in Tsukki's case. Guy seemed so tsundere for volleyball to me :,D ) but it hurt so much and cast so long a shadow just because he really really looked up to said brother?
Anyways, somewhere in-between Yamaguchi's and the owl guy's (X,D. Gotta love'em all friendly opponents) reasons and Kuroo's tips it seems Samu's evolution switch clicked. He has his brother's dream to carry and redeem too in a way. Plus a Little Giant Sun of his own to deal with. Let's see how that goes >D. And there are other players yet left to develop. His squire for sure. Pretty safe bet his moment will come and when it does it'll be big.
Still waiting for Suga-baby's next moment in the spotlight too btw. I'll wait for how long it's needed. Good things come to those who wait… at least in fiction :,>
In the meantime is the brunette a Dachi 2.0 candidate (evolution wanted!)? Gives off a similar vibe. And looks like he could be his younger brother ^_^".
Additional speculation I forgot to drop so far: the Little Giant. There are times when I wondered if Karasuno's club teacher is actually linked if not related to the LG in any way ( including crack scenario: Clark Kent disguise glamour. The power of glasses! ) but neither Tanaka's sister nor old Ukai coach recognized him for instance – although the old man might just see and not tell . Mangaka's facial template recurrence notwithstanding… Still for all his alleged non-familiarity with the sport he's been very resourceful when it comes to volley networking. Almost suspiciously so. No spoilers please. Just leaving this there.
Chrysostomus
November 23, 2015 at 7:23 pmI don't like Tsukki but this was a pretty damn good episode. Yamaguchi is such a sweet baby when will he be relevant?!
Also, I'm tired of all this Little Giant teasing. I'm dying to actually meet the guy!