Read on Twitter
it’s great what a mess nationals is in terms of when what people lose. like karasuno beating stz and going at all, inarizaki losing in their first game, itachiyama not making finals for the only year where there are records, the three aces going out early,
all building up to some non team which has no narrative right to win. i love that for them, to be frank
i think it’s so funky to not hinge narrative climax on the obvious climax of a competition, the finals, cos the reality is that almost everyone won’t get there, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t play volleyball too.
very validating for me whose teams mostly lose
(related, i think it’s to emphasise how many people don’t make it is why we’re always told how many teams are now eliminated at the end of each day — i’m always surprised how high the number is)
(also related, i’ve vaguely talked about this a bit before re: karasuno’s journey rather than the whole thing, and i think it’s worth noting that qualifiers does follow a more expected arc, at least for them. ushijima kind of is the Final Boss, he’s just not the final boss). https://twitter.com/datekouuu/status/1320028232704557056
also a couple of other things i think are particularly interesting about how wild 2012-13 spring high was:
the previous nationals, which ends with inarizaki v itachiyama, is probably the closest to the narrative arc you’d expect, with the challengers making it (basically) all the way to the top. but obviously it’s all off screen: the fact that climax wasnt the end for inarizaki kinda
undercuts that narrative again. winning before doesn’t guarantee winning, like losing before doesn’t guarantee losing. it’s the ‘we haven’t lost yet’ mentality reversed. or actually, maybe not reversed. ‘we haven’t lost yet in this tournament’ doesn’t mean you’re going to win
also interesting is that this is the only year that seems like it is such a mess. the upset that was inarizaki v. karasuno is literally corrected for.
with ushijima gone, karasuno are the obvious miyagi representatives bc they’ve done it before, so their future appearances aren’t a surprise, but it’s not like datekou qualifying is a huge shock either (bc they have more experience w that team/are amazing)
but most notably, i think, is the fact that this spring high is the only time that itachiyama don’t make finals. the whole rest of the time, they’re either first or second, even without the sakusa et al
again, i’ve talked about this before, but i think it’s worth saying. itachiyama (and most of the other powerhouse schools we see) are good bc they have the resources to be good. they recruit, they hire internationally respected coaches, they have personalised buses https://twitter.com/datekouuu/status/1292479554171412483
karasuno doesn’t even have a coach, and they suck. and then they get a coach, and access to training camps with these established fancy schools, and they get good. kageyama gets to play volleyball from a young age and he gets good. hinata doesn’t and doesn’t. it’s about access
and so long as schools like itachiyama continue to have access to this stuff, any time they don’t get to the top will be an upset, whereas for karasuno, it’s a fluke
and that’s why kuroo ‘lowering the net’ tetsuro is the real hero of haikyuu
(i think it’s worth noting here that karasuno is a public school – hence all the emphasis on fundraising, i think – whereas a lot of their top tier opponents are not. the exceptions seem to be datekou and nekoma, hence their wobblier nationals access https://amp.reddit.com/r/haikyuu/comments/81snkx/do_we_know_which_schools_in_haikyuu_are_public/)
(‘kuroo the capitalist’ out, ‘kuroo the souped up version of yachi making her posters’ in)
anyway i didnt expect to get onto accessibility. this is very much a train of thought thread which i’m making in the middle of the night, bc i wanted to note down my thoughts about.. however this thread started, but i think it’s one of the best parts of hq so i’m glad it came up
anyway tldr it’s actually cool how everyone loses for once
