Reaching Higher than Ever Before
- Episodes : 13
- Genre : Comedy, Sports, Drama, School, Shounen
- Airing Date : January 2020 – April 2020
- Studios : Production I.G
Contains Spoilers
Haikyuu!! TO THE TOP Introduction and Story
The fourth season of our volleyball boys takes us to just a few weeks before nationals! With this being the last chance for the third years, everyone’s feeling the pressure of not wanting to let the team down. Will sending a few teammates to different training camps unlock their potential or will it ruin their eam dynamic?
1. If You Love Boys Personally, Not Just as Players
Of course, volleyball is the main point of the Haikyuu!! series, but TO THE TOP gives us a lot of time to see the Kurasuno players bonding and growing outside of just with their teammates when it comes to the game. Kageyama learns how to better communicate with people in general and Hinata learns to embrace his weak points.
We get to see Asahi, Daichi, Suga, and Shimizu attend a temple together as they reminisce about their earlier years. Shimizu, especially, gets some interesting focus as her reasons for joining the team are revealed as well as how much she cares for Hitoka. A little girl bonding that’s usually missing from the series!
2. You Want Some Life Lessons Outside of Volleyball
Learning about how complicated and difficult volleyball is is cool and probably few people had a good understanding of what a mental sport it really is. But for the less athletic-inclined, those lessons may not affect us as much as some of the more applicable take-aways season 4 offers us. Hinata taking a bad situation and finding a way to learn from it is something all of us can do. Seeing his transition from his being sure things will change in his favor to his frustration and dejectedness when not getting what he thinks he needs makes us more willing to accept such a change in mindset. Kageyama learning the difference between being a people-pleaser and being his authentic self while aware of his effect on others is great for people who need to accept themselves and learn that disagreements aren’t the end of the world.
1. You’re Only Here for KageHina BL
TO THE TOP has some good scenes for hungry fans, but there are a lot fewer passionate moments between the two. One reason is that Hinata and Kageyama are separated for a good part of the show and can’t interact be it friendly OR fighting. Another part is there just aren’t many scenes with deep, moving moments. Their bond is still apparent, just less to feed off of than previous seasons.
2. You Hate Cliffhangers
If you can’t stand being left on hold till July, you might just want to skip TO THE TOP! until then. This is NATIONALS and the stakes are high. Beyond that, episode 13 leaves off in a really strange place. They could have cut it off after the first seed but instead, they go about 4 serves into their first match of the second seed… not even a full match! Why start, and why with such a rocky start for both teams? It can be a little painful for people who desperately need closure.
Final Thoughts
Haikyuu!! TO THE TOP continues to deliver edge-of-your-seat volleyball matches and more time with the incredible Kurasuno team and those that dare oppose them. As always, the series does a great job of making other players stand out and humanizing them to the point that you almost hope they win. Sending just a few players to different camps was an interesting change as it switched up the dynamic of the players and let us see our boys in different environments. We can’t wait to see what happens in the next season!
Author: May
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