This was a great arc, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit indifferent about how it ended.

I’n not going to go all T.S. Eliot here, but as great as this whole training camp arc was – certainly in my top 3 Haikyuu arcs overall – it kind of petered out there at the end.  In the series’ defense this is obviously the prequel arc for this (split) season, and it ended in arguably the most realistic fashion it could.  But strictly from a narrative standpoint I found it singularly unsatisfying.  To quote a great man who’s not T.S. Eliot, “Frustration won’t last forever. Nobody can keep on going without some measure of reward.”

Of course there will be reward, for Shouyou that is.  He’ll get his chance to ply his wares at the national tournament with the eyes of Japan’s volleyball world (still tiny, but not nearly as much so as before Haikyuu came along) while Washijou-sensei is drinking shochu and hot water and cursing his fate.  And Shouyou emerged from Washijou’s humiliation session with his spirit and even dignity – as odd as it is to use that word with Hinata – intact.  “I will survive” isn’t a bad mantra for someone in his position, and he was certainly acknowledged by his fellow campers.  But as a viewer, I wanted more.

As for Tobio, the national training camp ended on an upbeat note for him – playing as a spiker.  Much as the two-on-two drills forced the first-years at Shiratorizawa to slide into unfamiliar roles, playing out of position forced the national elite grommets to show the full breadth of their skills.  This is easier for Tobio than for most setters – he’s pretty tall and very athletic, and has a natural feel for all aspects of the game.  I’ve often thought that Tobio as a spiker and Suga as the setter might be a winning lineup for Karasuno against many opponents.

Diversification of skills is a big theme for both main protagonists this arc.  Shouyou clearly has a lot more ground to make up on that score, but even if he never got to play the camp may have done more for him than anybody because it forced him to realize that.  I can’t stress it enough, but this was a huge breakthrough for his character.  He faced down an adversity quite different than what he had before, and handled it in the right way.  And not just the right way, but the mature way, hard as that is to believe.  Showing up at all may have been a rash and childish move, but Hinata definitely made a silk purse out of a sow’s ear and leveled up in the process.

It could be said, I suppose, that the person Shouyou most wants approval from anyway is Tobio – and he got it in the final line of the episode.  So the opinions of Washijou-sensei and the others at the training camp don’t matter nearly as much to him.  That’s all fine, but I just wish there’d been a little more payoff for all that frustration he – and we – endured.  Washijou acknowledging Hinata’s hunger (and the reason for it) – though not to his face of course – is pretty thin gruel when you’re as hungry as Shouyou on his bike riding home for some dramatic satisfaction.  Even so, this was a very solid way to start the season and taken as a whole, a highly successful story arc.