Last week I noted that 2.43: Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Team struck me as the series that would happen if Haikyuu!! and Battery had a baby. Well, this time around it definitely leaned into its Haikyuu side more, for better or worse. In fact I sort of feel bad even mentioning that name over and over in these posts, because as I said after the premiere this show deserves to be judged on its own merits. But there is that massive shadow that’s impossible to miss…
If we’re honest, 2.43 isn’t making it any easier. I don’t know specifically where this story is going of course, but it strikes me as unfortunate that this series chose to build around a cheery and naturally athletic spiker and a moody and demanding genius setter. There are some major differences already – Yuni is far more self-doubting that Hinata was in early days, for starters, and he’s a tall drink of water rather than a jumping bean chibisuke. Even so, though – cutting the two boys from this cloth is kind of asking for trouble.
With that said, there is the potential for something potent in the exploration of the two lads’ relationship, whether it develops into something romantic or not. Perhaps not coincidentally 2.43 seems to fare better the closer it veers to the Battery side of the equation. Yuni is a pretty straightforward and simple boy it seems to me (though unusually big – you don’t see many 180 cm middle schoolers in Japan), and he’s trying to do right by Kimichika. That means resisting his cousin’s urgings to ditch his former friend, and making up his mind for himself. But Yuni is a kid, and subject to lapses in judgement, and that comes back to bite him this week.
As for the club itself, they round into form surprisingly quickly under Haijima’s leadership. And to his amazement the road is a lot easier in Fukui than it is in Tokyo (is that true in karuta too?) – Manshiro need only win 4 matches to make it to nationals. The first they breeze through with Yuni soaring like a pubescent albatross, dominating zaku opposition. But with a tougher opponent in the second match the moment begins to get to Yuni, and he more or less taps out completely – blowing a serve on a time violation (I didn’t even know that was a thing – not even a warning?) and generally rendering himself useless. Kimichika is therefore forced to carry the team himself – which, being an elite, he’s able to do.
Let me be clear – Yuni is certainly primarily at fault for what happens next. But I don’t think it should be ignored that it really points up Kimichika’s shortcomings too. He may be an elite player but he’s no real leader (sound familiar?). He doesn’t really make much of an effort to get Yuni back on track, and Yuni is so totally inexperienced that what happens to him isn’t all that surprising. Even so calling his teammates to bitch about Kimichika and using Itoko’s minor accident as an excuse to basically blow off the semi-final match (which Manshiro loses) is not a good look. Being the total noob he is Yuni may very well have thought Haijima could carry them to victory again, but that’s certainly no excuse.
We know that the bulk of 2.43: Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Team will take place at high school (it’s in the title), and this show is only 12 episodes so it needs to happen pretty soon. I like it well enough – it’s entertaining and the major characters are engaging, even if things aren’t terribly subtle so far. The trick, I think, is going to be what it can do over these next few episodes to distinguish itself – to show definitively that it’s more than a derivative of something famous and successful, and has a compelling reason to tell its own story.
Riv
January 16, 2021 at 2:54 amThere are enough differences in the characters that I don’t get any Hinata/Kageyama vibes despite the similar setup. For me, a bigger issue is that so far a lot of the drama is feeling very forced to me. For example, was it really necessary for the kid at Kimichika’s last school to have been driven to try to commit suicide? It seems like angry and hurt teammates posting nasty things online would have been perfectly sufficient. The plot just isn’t feeling natural and organic for me right now, but I’m hoping it will settle a bit once they’re in the high school part.
Princess Usagi
January 17, 2021 at 5:53 amAt least in these 1st two episodes, there seems to be less of a focus on playing volleyball and more so on the characters outside of the court, whereas Haikyuu from the start had more focus on playing volleyball and character focus tended to be centered around and resolved in the court (i.e. Hinata and Kageyama being forced to play volleyball together to be allowed into the club). Haikyuu also didn’t really show people in the main characters’ lives who didn’t play volleyball (for example, Hinata’s sister is only shown very briefly), but 2.43 includes characters such as, Yuni’s cousins, who don’t play volleyball. But, I do agree that it is falling into a trope trap of one of the main characters is a genki boy playing foil to a gloomy star-player.
Nadavu
January 17, 2021 at 7:35 amHe’s not 180 cm quite yet, though (last week I had a good laugh by someone my height considered “uselessly big” — at 175 I’m the runt of the family and just below our country average. But the bastard has passed me now)
I don’t have any Haikyuu overlapping problems. Maybe on paper Chika is a bit like Kageyama, but Yuuni is a far cry from Hinata, in my opinion, and even Chika x Kageyama falls apart upon closer examination. The cast of Haikyuu have no thoughts or feelings unrelated to volleyball (Well, maybe Tsukishima had a few, back in season one) but even with volleyball obsessed Chika you get the feeling that his investment in the game has to do with his circumstances in life.
Speaking of circumstances, it seems that Yuuni’s nickname as “rich boy” is richly deserved, and apparently he is from the main family branch? Interesting stuff.
Overall I’d say that so far I like what this show is doing, but the hospital scene with the cousins rang a bit hollow. Big cousin went from “stop hanging with that kid or I’ll kick both your asses” to “Sure, I’ll go out of my way to give you a ride to that volleyball game I was so set against in the beginning of this very episode.” Big cousin was what I thought the show did best up until then, so I’m a bit concerned with where things are headed, especially as the focus will probably shift more and more to on-field stuff.
leongsh
January 18, 2021 at 4:21 pmAfter 2 episodes, I can safely say that the production quality is very good. However, the characters, plot and story are rather mixed. The plot about returning home to get away from troubles of the previous place and to recover is common enough. This means the story and characters need to be able to raise the game for it to be notable. At this stage, the story is not distinctive enough to make a difference. The characters… If we’re going to reference that hyperactive orange gazelle in the room, Kimichika is like a combo of Tsukishima (brooding and aloof) and Kageyama (genius setter with no tact) with their worse traits being emphasised. Yuni is just a naive lad with flimsy convictions. Their chemistry together will need time to develop. Does it have enough anime runtime to do so? Will watch a couple more episodes to see how it all develops.