The last time Hinata was barefoot during a tournament, it didn’t go so well for Karasuno.  I suspect things are going to be different this go-around, but we’ll see – though likely not till the second cour.  This whole season has been a staging operation, basically, and all of the really important action seemingly isn’t going to happen until the second cour airs this summer.  Nevertheless there have been some nice moments along the way, and this episode was no exception.

There’s a bit of manufactured drama here when Hinata leaves his bag with Tadashi when he goes to the bathroom, only to have it accidentally grabbed by a tyke whose bag looked identical (they’re both from a children’s store, heh).  The real problem with that is that Shouyou’s shoes are in that bag, and even if any of his teammates brought extra shoes I don’t imagine any of them are likely his size.  Fortunately Shouyou also had his phone in that bag, which in this eternally honest country is a surefire means to tracking it down.

All of this is really an excuse to get Kiyoko involved in the action.  Since that’s a rarity and a welcome development I certainly have no complaints, even if it was a bit contrived.  With the team bus offsite she needs to go into hero mode (Tokyo has thousands of taxis, by the way – just saying) to get the shoes back in time for the match, and the animators who also worked on Run Like the Wind get the chance to show off.  Kiyoko’s history as an ex-athlete has been explored so little that it doesn’t have much emotional impact here but this is nevertheless nicely done.  I especially enjoyed the part where she symbolically passed off the team to Hitoka along with the shoes (though I’d still like to have seen those two in more than a den mother role).

The most interesting element on the competitive side, for me (and for the moment, sports anime are all the sports we’re going to get), was seeing the Crows struggle to adjust to playing in the huge gymnasium.  I don’t know much about volleyball but I know basketball, and when NCAA tournament games are played in huge domes, players with no experience in such settings usually struggle with shooting until they adjust their sense of spatial awareness.  So this is all very realistic, and it’s Kageyama who struggles the most – because it’s he who has to be the most exacting in his play.  He displays some rare humility here – even apologizing for his subpar setting (even to Shouyou!).

The opponent here is Tsubakihara, a team which made Nationals the prior year but is new to the narrative.  As such they’re probably zoku, and I would expect them to be defeated without a whole lot of preamble even though Karasuno gets off to a nervous start.  The turnaround comes when Tadashi provides a spark with a couple of effective jump floaters, eventually leading to Shouyou (who really uses his head in this match) delivering a textbook kill off a perfect Tobio set.  No doubt about it, it’s Shouyou who’s the emotional heart of this team – it’s seeing that tiny body soar impossibly high and deliver a kill that revs up fans and teammates alike.