I think we’re seeing something pretty unusual play out with Haikyuu!! To The Top.  It’s incredibly rare to see a character level up the way Shouyou has this late in the game.  Not as in a power level-up – this is shounen, that’s its daily bread – but as a character.  He’s always been just fine as a protagonist, cute and amusing and safely within the bounds of his assigned character tropes.  But this season has made him an order of magnitude more interesting, in a way you almost never see in someone with that much exposure when so much water has already flowed under the bridge.

It’s really refreshing to see a sports shounen lead have his big growth moment where that growth is 100% emotional and intellectual.  Hinata-kun has been almost the sole focus this season and it’s worked surprisingly well (see above for why) but this was really the first episode that played with the formula.  Tobio’s time at the NTC hasn’t gotten nearly as much exposure and frankly, neither he or it are as interesting as what’s going on in Miyagi.  But there are still some interesting new faces there – like silver-tongued Miya Atsumu (Miyano Mamoru) and feral boy Hoshiumi Kourai (Hanae Natsuki).

Watching Tobio try and socially adapt as the guy at the bottom of the totem pole for once has its appeal, don’t get me wrong.  I’ve personally never found him particularly likeable but it’s always interesting to see characters like that taken out of their comfort zone.  Nevertheless I was pleased when the camera shifted back to the first-year training camp, and it didn’t disappoint – this has been arguably Haikyuu’s best season so far, and the B-part delivered some of its strongest material yet.

Speaking of characters being out of their comfort zone, it was nice to see Kei actually do something nice for Shouyou – join the blocking practice so Shouyou would have a pretext to come in and spike.  That’s an important growth moment for a boy for whom empathy has mostly been a foreign concept, but it reflects the degree to which Shouyou-kun has won over the attendees of the camp with the remarkable humility and positivity he’s shown under brutal circumstances.  What’s really gratifying is that rather than pout or simply bust his ass as a means of distraction Hinata has made the best possible use of this time by turning into an observer.  And not only that, but being then able to turn his gaze inward and reflect on what he’s seen.

What can I say, I feel genuinely proud of Shouyou here – and that’s always a great moment to experience with a sports shounen.  The apotheosis of all this comes as he’s observing the two-on-two matches (from which he’s naturally excluded) from what he now thinks of as his special place in the rafters.  The tall but inexperienced Hyakuzawa Yuudai (Yamamoto Shouta) is struggling badly, and worse – his fellows are whispering about him with a mix of pity and disdain.  His low ebb comes when he blurts out “I wish it’d been you chosen to come here instead of me” to Shouyou-kun – and realizes almost instantly what a douchy thing that is to say.

Oh, Shouyou, you stout little man you – you really passed this test with flying colors.  He had every right to rip Hyakuzawa-kun a new one after that, but he didn’t.  Maybe it was an accident that he brightened his comrade’s spirits when he was “telling him off” – but I think at least in-part, Shouyou knew exactly what he was doing.  Of course Hyakuzawa is foolish to take the natural advantage he’s been blessed with for granted, but he’s a kid and he’s in a bad spot, and having felt so much anguish himself lately Hinata clearly identifies.  And not only that the observation he’s made and the advice he gives the other boy are God-tier insightful – take a cue from the crafty Kunimi Akira (Tamaru Atsushi) and slow the game down.  Especially for a noob like Hyakuzawa, that’s incredibly important.

At this point, really, it seems as if Washijou-sensei is the last holdout against Shouyou, but his vote is the only one that matters.  Surely now, though, he’ll crack – and if not, screw him.  If he saw Shouyou as an airhead athletic freak incapable of thinking his way through the game and relying on Kageyama to make him look good, the transformative impact his advice has for Hyakuzawa surely blows that notion out of the water.  Maybe when this camp started Shouyou-kun wasn’t much more than the caricature Washijou saw him as, but he’s not the same person now.  And Haikyuu is definitely a better show because of that.