Aug 21, 2026
To me, this is the peak Haikyu has reach so far (writing this before the release of Karasuno vs. The Tiny Giant), and it's a high peak. As a IRL volleyball player myself, Haikyu was what got me into the sport in the first place, as is the story with many others. However, while the anime has always been great, and it does get the technical rules and plays of the sport down, I've always felt that it had lacked the feeling of the actual game. This movie put that feeling to rest. The opening first few points of the game where every serve and
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spike felt hard to track, fast, and incredibly satisfying without overstaying it's welcome; Kenma's final POV shot where the ball never seems to come to him and he's just track it, watching his teammates struggle to keep it up; Hinata becoming completely overwhelmed by serve receives to the point where he is unable to do anything else. Everything felt so relatable, cause I've experienced every single one of those things. In fact, in Kenma's POV shot where the ball over shoots and goes out of the court on the pin, and he has to run after it but can't make it in time and ends up having to almost dive for it and shoot it behind him using his platform. That is a moment I've experienced so many times, having primarily played as a Libero and Setter.
Not only did this movie capture the essence of the game itself, but it felt like such a satisfying conclusion to both Nekoma's and Ukai-sensei's arcs. I love the moment when Ukai-sensei is watching the younger Ukai and Nekomata-sensei on the screen shake hands, and he smiles, and sticks out his hand himself. The only complaint I really have, is that sometimes the flashbacks to remind us why each individual point is important for each player on the court felt like they were interrupting the play of the game to an unnecessary amount. It wasn't horrible, but I feel like I would've enjoyed it more if there was less of them, specifically for the more minor characters like Tsukishima.
Overall, I feel like this was the perfect length for it to. Other games in the series have felt a bit too long, being stretched across an entire cour in the case of Karasuno vs. Inarizaki and Karasuno vs. Shiratorizawa. Some times it's ok, but I feel like this was the perfect length. The more fast paced feeling of it allowed for each point to feel a little less important, which is how a lot of games feel in real life. The about an hour length of the game itself is almost exactly how long a game to 3 sets would actually take, so I think this was perfect.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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