Kaetan desu! (*≧▽≦)
The team arrives at the venue for the finals of the Miyagi Prefectural Qualifiers match against Shiratorizawa. The girls’ volleyball team comes to cheer them on and Yui Michimiya, captain of the girls volleyball team gives Sawamura a sports charm. She says its for the team, but I could tell how flustered she is. Meh! Teenagers!
Once inside, Tanaka is a little taken aback by the amount of people and Nishinonya reminds him that because their opponent is Shiratorizawa, that there will be a big crowd, and they overhear some girls saying that they (the volleyball players) always look so much cooler when they’re good players. Ryu has a eureka moment and both him and Nishinoya are in this dream world where they are adorned by hundreds of fan girls. They then start getting hyped and Sawamura yells at them to shut up as they’re embarrassing the team.
Hinata meets up with some members from his old team in middle school. Izumin and Koji see Kageyama and immediately worry about Hinata, but he manages to explain how everything is alright now and that Kageyama is no longer that person from that match years ago. The third years also come across an old man that came to their match when the were freshmen and called them ‘grounded crows’ and they have a bitter moment.
The past alumni and all the peers of Karasuno High are at the tournament and make up the cheering section. The vice-principal, who we initially remember as not being a good sport in the first two seasons, is now surprisingly all gung-ho, because of the attention that the school is now getting. He tries to hype up the other students with a cheer chant, However, because they only practiced it for a little after school, the students seemed unenthusiastic and out of sync. On the other hand, Shiratorizawa’s cheering section is definitely organized and sounds like a powerhouse school and they waste no time in intimidating those from Karasuno.
Back to the court, the severity of the nervousness has increased and the team members are having panic attacks and the alumni wonder if Karasuno is really going to be okay in the match. Tanaka’s sister catches what looks to be a suspicious person but he secretly announces himself as Tsukishima’s older brother from season two. He is here secretly as Tsukishima told him not to come, but he came anyway.
The members of the Shiratorizawa volleyball team finally enter the court and begin warming up. The scene skips back to right after the previous matches. The team is tired but Coach Ukai holds a countermeasure meeting based on the findings of the two managers, Kiyoko and Hitoka. Among other things, Ukai talks about how the ball is set really high to meet Ushijima so that they can absolutely gain a point. Shiratorizawa intends to come bulldozing through the guard without thinking about it once. Back to thesent, the teams switch over so that Karasuno can warm up. As they begin, we finally hear the first set of dialogue from the Shiratorizawa team. One particular member that we meet is Tsutomu, the enthusiastic first-year regular. Tsutomu is the prospective ace to take over from Ushijima and has lots of expectations for himself and is clearly fired up for this match.
The warm-up is over and the starting ceremony for the match begins, but not before Takeda and Ukai gives the team a pep talk on how even though Shiratorizawa may seem untouchable, that they are still human and will make mistakes so just take note of their characteristics and play their way. Since it’s Karasuno’s first time in the finals, it’s also their first five-set game. The alumni are clearly worried about the team’s stamina. The alumni also make an observation that the starting layup is different to usual. Karasuno has put their best blockers up front to test Ushijima’s spike.That layup will also have to deal with potentially strong servers.
The match finally begins with Sawamura serving to Shiratorizawa. Of course, the first setup from the setter Shirabu is to Ushijima. Tsukishima, Azumane and Kageyama for their wall but Ushijima sees past it and spikes down towards Nishinoya. Now, Nishinoya is no stranger to crazy spikes, being a libero and I’m going to go out on a limb here as Nishinoya’s fan and say he makes some damn good saves. However, even Ushijima’s spike proves to be too much and although he does make contact with the ball, Nishinoya is unable to control it effectively and it bounces right off his arms and offside.
Nishinoya appears taken aback at first, but then he switches it up once he realizes this won’t be any ordinary seems match. He gives off an excited smile. That marks the end of the episode and the beginning of so much more! I’m super excited to watch the rest!
Season 3 of Haikyuu!! airs on Crunchyroll every Friday at 2:30pm AST
