#and am once again thinking about tsukishima's arc

[alishamaybe]

i think haikyuu is seriously the most relatable and inspiring piece of media i've ever engaged with in my life so far

[piduai]

hello!! first, i want to thank u for translating those volume additions, amazing as always queen <3 has your opinion on koito changed after reading those additions, even the slightest bit or not? either way, i will always respect and enjoy your takes <333

i talked about it here but i don't mind elaborating. short answer to the question: no it hasn't and my opinion on him won't change. i think part of me will always be sad about koito solely because i mourn my own past investment and affection, since these are things i give away rarely and reluctantly therefore backfiring stings. however as time passes i just grow into acceptance of what koito's character is, acceptance that i am not fond of it, and respect for noda's decisions i don't agree with. i am thoroughly convinced that noda changed his plans regarding koito's development and tsukishima's ending somewhere after church arc. not a fan but he must have had his reasons so i respect that.

when 295 came out it made me unreasonably angry because the change of pace was chilling, i was absolutely 100% convinced that it's going to get a volume expansion - and it did. their dialogue was actually pretty much what i expected it to be. koito has been set to leave tsurumi on his own terms ever since the end of karafuto arc, the foreshadowing paid off is all. i liked the additions because they were in line with my expectations, and koito is still fine here because he doesn't do much except what he was narratively meant to do.

once he gets on the train it's another story. in order for koito to get organic, compelling development, tsukishima had to die - there simply is no other way to put it. tsukishima has always dragged koito as a character down because he reduced koito to being his satellite. tsukishima dying was supposed to be the catalyst of koito's newfound responsibility towards his men, not a random revelation in a fight with hijikata. tsukishima was supposed to follow tsurumi's theater through the end and give his life for tsurumi, which would have pushed koito out of his comfort zone and force him to grow into his own, since he lost the two pillars that he relied on, the two people that lied to him and manipulated him (plus the dad that decided to stay on his sinking ship lol).

but he hasn't. koito a) deserted his superior officer while literally in the middle of a battle which makes little sense logically. b) forced the plot to accommodate his actions since tsurumi just... let him go with no repercussions, despite them being military men that eat the hierarchical order with their morning rice and tsurumi as a person being previously shown as intolerant towards insubordination and c) went on that train for the sole purpose of centering his actions around tsukishima and kill both of their story lines for no good reason.

volume 31 will have 32 additional pages. i'm convinced that the chapter where koito drags tsukishima down (306? 307? idk i forgor) will have a few additional pages expanding their divorce scene but at that point neither koito's nor tsukishima's characters are salvageable because no context elaboration will be able to rectify the end result. noda never changes the plot points, only the details to how they got there. so maybe tsurumi will show more displeasure with their actions instead of simply walking away, maybe tsukishima will show more resolve and personal drive in leaving tsurumi instead of passing out, i don't know. but the end result will not change - koito will make him stay, thus severing his character arc and centering his own around tsukishima again. so to me, koito will stay disappointing and there's nothing that can be done about it.

[recurring-polynya]

Please share your thoughts on Byakuya's evolving opinion of Kurosaki Ichigo. * Eagerly awaiting this TED talk *

So, I have talked at length in the past about how much I love Byakuya’s complete emotional turnarounds regarding his sister (from “I will see you at the execution ground -> Her death is my worst fear) and his lieutenant (throwing him in jail for losing a fight -> embarassing himself at a funeral) but I have not talked much about how his opinions on one Kurosaki Ichigo go from: 

to

So come take a pictorial journey with me!

To be honest, as I was doing this, the biggest surprise to me was that Byakuya isn’t actually that mean to Ichigo. I think the thing is, Ichigo is one of first people Byakuya is a dick to, but that’s just Byakuya, and we aren’t yet used to the viciousness of his shade.

So! First fight! Byakuya and Renji come to arrest Rukia. The worst thing Byakuya does here is to basically not even pay attention, while Renji makes a horse’s ass of himself. I honestly wish Byakuya was into spirit phones, because the only thing that would his attitude toward this debacle even better is if he were playing Candy Crush the whole time. Anyway, eventually he gets bored of Renji’s clownery, beats Ichigo in 0.2 seconds, and unleashes this devastating burn:

I mean, I guess he cut Ichigo’s soul chain, but I feel like this alone would have landed me in intensive care for a day or so.

Anyway, so skipping ahead, the next time B and Ichigo meet is on the bridge to the Penitence Tower. This is shortly after Yamamoto refused to let Byakuya fire his lieutenant for, and I quote, “being a wretch.” I couldn’t find anywhere that Byakuya called Ichigo a name like that, so it’s safe to say that Renji is the current king of Byakuya’s shit list. Byakuya prefers to deal instead with objective facts, like how much worse Ichigo is than himself.

Skipping ahead, I really expected the actual fight at Soukyoku Hill to contain a bunch of name-calling and insults, but once again, he’s fairly civil. Byakuya is truly a master of the backhanded compliment. Someone needs to get my man a Twitter account.

A notable thing about this fight is that at the end, we find out that Byakuya thought the entire ryouka invasion was a personal attack, and also that the reason he doesn’t like Ichigo is because he reminds him of Kaien. And then he falls over.

After B takes a sword in the chest, he apologizes to Rukia and then thanks Ichigo, but it’s not exactly... effusive. I am not sure Ichigo even heard it, because he was busy having his intestines put back in.

Finally, I don’t know why, but it is extremely funny to me that Byakuya shows up to the senkaimon to say good-bye to Ichigo and his pals at the end of the arc, but Komamura is there, too, so maybe Yamamoto ordered all captains to show up and make sure Ichigo actually gets the hell out of Soul Society.

Now, it’s pretty clear that Byakuya’s big change of heart re: Rukia happens sometime between the end of the Soul Society Arc and when he comes to help her out in Hueco Mundo and refers to her as “his pride.” So perhaps, in the same time, his affections have grown toward Ichigo as well?

...not really.

First of all, once again, absolutely transcendent drag, especially the part that B said this, with what I am sure was a straight face, to Rukia and Renji of all people. I also love that Ichigo regards this as “mellowing out.”

At the end of the Lust Arc, when Ichigo is getting ready to go fight Aizen, Byakuya gives him this magnificent “pep talk”, studded with broken glass.

Stop whining and go do your fucking job, Ichigo. Fortunately, this style of pep talk is Super Effective on Ichigo, and he gives Byakuya the Patented Kurosaki Ichigo “I am overcome by my love for my precious friend!” Soft Gaze.

Maybe that’s it! Maybe this is the exact moment that Byakuya is won over by Ichigo! It’s probably not because he immediately starts shit-talking Kenpachi, but it happens sometime before he gives this absolutely bananas speech to Tsukishima in the Fullbringer Arc out of goddamn nowhere.

What? When? How? What just happened?

Rather than conjecture, let’s take a look at one last clip from the TYBW arc, when Ichigo... comes to talk to him while he’s dying? As I say this, I don’t really know why Ichigo went directly to Byakuya as soon as he gets to Soul Society, but here we are.

So, I think I’ve figured out the crux of it, which is that Byakuya, above all else, views it as his duty to protect Soul Society. I think the actual change of heart is directly due to the fact that Ichigo killed Aizen-- an internal threat to Soul Society that the Gotei utterly failed to contain. In retrospect, his “go protect that little town of yours” speech in Hueco Mundo wasn’t quite as belittling as it seems-- he genuinely thinks that we all have specific roles in the world and that to fulfill the duty assigned to you is the noblest aspiration. He respects Ichigo because Ichigo went above and beyond, and saved Byakuya the shame of failing in his duty not once, but twice now (and a third time, if you count his familial duty to Rukia, which I am not entirely sure he does). Anyway, I can def see B lamenting to Renji later how shameful it was to ask Ichigo for help and Renji’s just like, “yeah, dude, that must have sucked, I can’t imagine.”

Anyway, what’s really embarassing is that Ichigo does not answer and just walks away and Byakuya stands in the rain and thirstily thinks about how cool Ichigo is.

My alternative, much more flip explanation for all this is that Rukia and Renji started dating during the timeskip, and Byakuya takes to extolling Ichigo’s virtues at every opportunity, just for the purposes of trolling them, but then he got kinda into it. I firmly believe that, had Rukia started dating Ichigo, Byakuya would have started constantly talking about how great Renji is instead, that’s just the Kind of Guy Byakuya Is.

[hqsoftboysupremecy]

D&D PERSONALITY

Personality #5 is Kei Tsukishima. I hope you all enjoy!

Kei Tsukishima:

Race: The Human Race for Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) Fifth Edition (5e) - D&D Beyond (dndbeyond.com)

Class: Artificer - DND 5th Edition (wikidot.com)

Description: Kei would be a Human Artificer. An Artificer is someone who likes to make creations that are able to enhance their magical ability. Normally they are very smart people and work very hard to achieve the results that they want with their magic. This makes sense to me because I feel that at first he wouldn’t really care about his magic or anything like that, but his mind would change once he realized that he could use it to save people (like Yamaguchi and his brother). Maybe he also has a bit of a corruption arc because he gets a little too power hungry.

"So you're telling me that the guy we have to go and fight used to be your best friend?"

The green haired boy beside you released a tired sigh from between his lips. "Yes y/n that's what I've been saying this whole time."

You knew that is what Yamaguchi had been saying this whole time but you felt the need to hear it from him again. Nothing he said made sense. How was it that this power hungry and rude person that Yamaguchi spoke so fondly of used to be this guys friend.

Tadashi had come to you and your friends for help a few weeks back. Along with his shy and lovely personality he brought stories about his old friend Kei Tsukishima and how he was a causing trouble in a small town. Yamaguchi claimed that this is not how his friend would normally act and that there must be something, or someone, controlling him. You and your friends took pity on him and decided to try and help, plus the large sum of gold that he promised was a welcome push to aid this freckled boy.

A few days passed until you finally made it to the town that Kei was terrorizing. There was an obvious dark air to the town and little to no people were out and about. You could sense some sort of darker magic at work, but you were unsure if it was Kei or something else.

"This is the place." Yamaguchi led you and your party to a small shack just outside of the town. The windows were boarded shut and the garden out front was completely dead despite it being the middle of spring.

Raising a curious brow at Tadashi you shook off your worries. This guy couldn't be so bad could he?

Walking to the door Yamaguchi carefully knocked on the old wooden door, you couldn't help but think that it could use a fresh coat of paint. There was the sound of footsteps behind the door, which more than shocked you.

The door was flung open and you saw the most handsome, yet the grumpiest man you had ever seen in your life. His hair was short and blonde, glasses perched on his nose and a scowl that seemed to be forever etched onto his nice looking face. You couldn't help but think that this man only smiled when he saw a small child face plant into mud.

"What is it?" The man that you assumed to be Kei snapped. Did he not notice his old friend before him?

Yamaguchi opened his mouth to speak but then quickly shut it. You decided to save your poor freckled friend from his lack of words.

"Hello there Mr. Tsukishima. I am y/n l/n and I am with my friends here and an old friend of yours." You gestured to the green haired boy still standing in front of Kei.

Kei finally looked down at the boy before him and a flash of recognition go across his golden brown eyes. You could tell there was something else in his eyes, a darker magic was obviously at work here.

"I am not taking visitors at the moment. Sorry to disappoint. " It was obvious that what he said did not reach his eyes. There was a sort of longing to them.

"Well that's too bad," you replied, "...we are here to check in on you and perhaps help you a bit."

Kei thought for a moment and then opened the door for you all to enter. You entered last as everyone filtered into the main room, but before you could join the others you felt a firm hand wrap around your bicep. Looking down the hand had bandages around their fingers, this guy must be a klutz. Turning your gaze higher you met the piercing gaze of Kei. He truly was beautiful up close, and he was close. Bringing face down to the side of your head he whispered into your ear, "I'm assuming Tadashi asked for your help. That was rather smart of him. I hope you and your friends are much more competent than you look." Kei's breath tickled your ear and your face grew hot. You were about to make a curt remark when he cut you off, "If you help me there will be a great reward for you all."

Stepping back and standing back to his full height he brushed past you, his arm grazing yours. There was an obvious emptiness from where his hand had touched you and you craved for the feeling again. Shaking your head to clear your impure thoughts you met up with your party and Tadashi.

[winterune]

Happy 30th Birthday Uchiyama Kouki-san!!! | 16.08.20

Like what I have done previously to some of my favorite seiyuus, I will use this chance to write about my top Kouki Uchiyama roles to celebrate his 30th birthday (OMG Ucchi is already 30!!)

#1: Gin - Hotarubi no Mori e

I. AM. HURT. 

I’m sorry. This is the first Ucchi role I ever saw in one of the most beautiful anime movie I’ve ever watched T-T From the same mangaka and anime staff behind Natsume Yuujinchou comes this lovely, beautiful, heartbreaking anime about a girl who encountered a “youkai” in the woods behind her uncle’s home. I love this so much and Ucchi as Gin is sooo good T-T He’s sooo softtt I love him so much I’m still crying every time I think of Gin and this anime and even looking at that gif hurts me so much aaaaaaaa *sobs* definitely my ultimate #1 favorite Ucchi role <3 (sorry if I’m being incomprehensible here)

#2: Yoshino Takigawa - Zetsuen no Tempest

I LOVE THIS GUY!!! Another soft Ucchiii uwu OK yeah I don’t remember which Ucchi role I encountered first - Yoshino or Gin. But these two are definitely the characters that made me fall in love with Ucchi’s acting T-T I don’t remember much about Yoshino since it’s been so long since I last watched the anime (which I plan to watch again), but I do remember Yoshino being super sweet and I just love him?

#3: Toi Kuji - Sarazanmai

Ah yes, the Ucchi we have come to know and love lately. Brooding. Anti-social. He’s got the looks. He’s got the voice. But once you’ve come to know him, you realize there’s more to this kid than your average stay-away-from-me-i-do-bad-things brooding bad boy. The emotional range Ucchi projected! So raw! Sarazanmai is a masterpiece imo. A hidden gem from the 2019 winter line-up. A beautiful story about human connections hidden behind an absurdity you can only find in anime. And that’s what made this show amazing. I love it.

#4: Kei Tsukishima - Haikyuu!!

Tsukkiii <3 I love this snarky little shit lmao. That is all.

Lol jk, but well in all seriousness, I don’t really have much to say either? I love this guy. Yeah at times you just want to smack his head and stop being so salty all the time, but Tsukki has one of the best lines and scenes and I love that he’s more rational and smart and observant than our main combi. Also love his arc! Also! Seeing Ucchi in Haikyuu events is to die for!

#5: Hiroshi Kido - Barakamon

lmaooo I recently re-watched the series and...I am in love. With the characters. The setting. The entire show. Hiro is a third-year high school kid, regarded as the oldest among the children. He is seen as a big brother by the little kids and as a little brother by Handa - who, despite that, still needs to be taken care of by Hiro lol. He is sweet and funny and I love him and he often acts as the comic relief. Love this anime <3

Now for some honorable mentions:

HM1: Roxas/Ventus - Kingdom Hearts

My precious boy!!! I have never played KH undubbed, and I’ve only heard snippets of Ucchi’s Roxas/Ventus. Gotta say that he sounds so young, even in KH3 lol (though KH3′s Roxas sounds more like his recent self). Still, need to mention him here, right? :D

HM2: Natsuki Usami - Tsuritama

I’ve only watched the anime recently and I love it. I love the story. I love the cast. Natsuki is that aloof, cool character. Not exactly brooding. He just doesn’t want his classmates to know that he’s the Fishing Prince lmao (a title he earned after winning some angling competitions). Another cool character Ucchi voiced alongside Miyu :3 Also, when they cut his hair short, he looks exactly like Tsukki lol

HM3: Yuuta Asaba - Kimi to Boku

Didn’t find the gif of him alone, so yes, here is the insufferable twins from Kimi to Boku, Yuuki (left, voiced by Kimura Ryohei) and Yuuta (right). I love the twins. And I love Yuuta. The older of the twin who doesn’t talk much and only watch the scenes from the side, but he’s always there, and iirc, he’s always there to help if needed. If not, well he’s still there, observing his brother and their friends. 

HM4: Takashi Sugiyama - Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru

Another soft Ucchiii. Cute Ucchi. Dork Ucchi. I love Shindo!!! My second, or maybe third, favorite character after Ouji and Haiji (lmao I just realized this is another show with Ucchi, Tosshii and Miyu).

HM5: Neku Sakuraba - The World Ends with You

Haven’t played the game yet but I’m still excited for the anime! Also, Ucchi’s voice in the trailer is *hhhh* so emotional. I love it!

So, once again, happy birthday to our most lovable dork, Ucchiiii <3 May you continue to bless us with your exceptional talent :3 

[marchivists]

i love haikyuu!! for many reasons. it’s incredibly endearing, heartfelt, and inspiring. these things are intentional; we, the audience, are meant to get attached to the characters. the writing and story arcs are sincere because there would be no point to them if they weren’t. the series as a whole is about a bunch of kids working hard to achieve goals that seem impossible. it’s wonderful! but the loveliest thing about haikyuu!! is something i don’t think furudate did on purpose; this wonderful, amazing series can unwittingly change the way you think about yourself and the people around you

let’s go back to the first incredible thing about haikyuu; it is an endearing series. the characters are well-rounded and well-written, we understand their motivations and goals, we can relate to their personalities and struggles, etc ect. this is not just true for the protagonist or the protagonist’s allies; every single character in haikyuu!! is realistic, relatable, flawed, and lovable. let’s consider two examples. 

hinata, the protagonist of the series, is obviously an easy person to love. he’s kind, passionate, supportive, hard-working, goofy and determined. for example, in the first episode of the anime we see him fail over and over again only to finally reach his goal of attending a tournament after years of trying and what happens? he LOSES. not only that, he does not come close to winning in any way. all of his hard work goes down the drain and he embarrasses himself in front of a gymnasium full of people and what does this kid do? thanks his teammates for their hard-work and their sacrifices before vowing to train and try again once he’s improved. overall, hinata is a protagonist the audience is meant to root for. he’s easy to love because most of his “flaws” come from a well-meaning place and we know he’s going to improve as the story progresses. 

now let’s talk about a character who is, objectively, less easy to love: ushijima wakatoshi. in contrast to hinata, ushijima is framed as the series’ “villian” from the moment he is introduced. he is the obstacle standing in the protagonists’s way of victory; if hinata and his team can’t beat shiratorizawa, their hard-work goes down the drain and the audience is left with an unfulfilling end to the story. even if you took all that away and ushijima was just a regular character who could not negatively impact the protagonists’ story arc in any way he is still (objectively) a hard person to like. he’s blunt, he’s quiet, he’s awkward, and he’s intimidating. his personality often leads him to unwittingly hurt others, more specifically other characters who are (objectively) easier to like and who the audience is already rooting for (ex. oikawa tooru). all in all, the fanbase should hate ushijima. but do they? no.

this leads me to my main point and why i think haikyuu!! is the most wonderful thing i’ve ever been apart of. it teaches its audience that everyone matters. the whole series is dedicated to showing why hinata shouyou matters and why readers and viewers should care about his story. but it is also dedicated to showing that ushijima wakatoshi, oikawa tooru, daishou suguru, tendou satori, and terushima yuuji matter. all of these characters are antagonists. they were placed in the story for the explicit purpose of standing in hinata’s way so he has opportunities to grow and learn. they are each unlikable in their own way and could easily be presented to the audience as cut and dry villains. but they’re not! furudate builds complex lives for these characters, for all of his characters. they all have different, complex personalities. they all have unique interests and motivations. they all have specific ways of presenting themselves to the world, relating to others, and handling their own thoughts and emotions. these characters become important to the story not only because they stand against the protagonist but because the audience falls in love with their stories and starts to root for them, too. but it’s not just the antagonists that matter! every side character matters too! fukunaga, lev, kyoutani, futakuchi, aone, koganegawa, bokuto, shirabu, goshiki, the miya bros, etc etc. all of these characters are kinda weird or annoying! they don’t talk, or they talk to much, or they never say the right things, they do the wrong things, stuff like that. but they are all adored and admired by the fanbase. 

here’s my final point; haikyuu!! shows its audience that everyone is complex and deserving of love. each and every character in the series matters and is lovable not because they have no faults or are easy to love but because they have faults and require empathy and understanding to love. a lot of the traits i see in myself as negatives are plastered over many of the characters in haikyuu!! i’m awkward and bad in social situations! so is kenma kozume, one of fandom’s favorite characters. sometimes i have a hard time being vulnerable! so is tsukishima kei. sometimes i do or say things that hurt others, just like tsukishima akiteru, the most lovable big brother out there! sometimes i annoy people! so does futakuchi kenji, one of my personal favorite characters. sometimes i have awful hair! so does kuroo testuro (rip). i have regrets! ennoshita chikara has a ton of them too! i am not perfect, just like every single character. and you know what? i love them all. 

i love their faults and quirks because they make each character human and relatable. so what does that mean for me? it means that all of my faults and quirks make me human and relatable. it also means that people can and will love me, and anyone else reading this, not in spite of my flaws or wacky traits but because i have them in the first place. and that’s pretty darn cool 

[hashtagartistlife]

Kudos to them, that argument is at least interesting, if I remember right in SS arc Ichigo actually never says he will "protect" Rukia but always said he wanted/will save her. It's peculiar how he instead says that Rukia "protected" him (like his mom did) and that saving Rukia stopped his rain (the endless july Rain after his mom death). It's funny how a kanji used for Masaki gets used as "evidence" for IH but Ichigo/Rukia/Masaki actual paralles don't, but I see where they're coming from 1

when I was younger I thought “ichigo wants to protect but Rukia doesn’t want to be proteced” while Inoue was there just for that you know, “she totally wants to be protected by him” so maybe she is better for him, only to see how disastrous Ichigo’s need to protect combined with Inoue selfish want to be protected ended up being, a total nightmare. In my defence tho I was such a little naive girl when I first thought that LoL I saw they didn’t work basically right after thinking such a thing 2

when Ichigo says that to Inoue tho is right after Rukia said that if he is scared of not being able to “protect” (yeah with that kanj) his friends he has to get stornger and swear to protect them and basically did just what Rukia said and Inoue was the only one avaible at school. After Grim hurts Rukia, Ichigo says he isn’t able to “protect” anyone. In HM Rukia says she didn’t go there to be “protected” by him (she knows he wants to protect her without him saying anything) it also doesn’t help 3

for context, this ask was in reference to this post here

great points anon i agree with everything you said, in particular: 

‘ichigo wants to protect, inoue wants to be protected’ 

isn’t it funny how ihers like to use that as an argument, but at the same time one of their main made-up titles for ih is ‘sword and shield’ like inoue in any way, shape or form ever protects him. Like, inoue doesn’t get to do both. Inoue has to pick one. She either wants to be protected by kkun and make him out to be some fantasy prince, or she gets to protect kkun and put her money where her goddamn mouth is. 

For argument’s sake, let’s say inoue picks the former. she wants to be protected. Ichigo wants to protect. perfect, right? absolutely the fuck not. destructive tendencies aside, let’s look at who ichigo wants to protect the most as a kid: his mom. his mom, who, in ichigo’s own words, always protects him. ichigo wants to protect everyone, but he wants to protect those who protect him the MOST. and so, if inoue picks the former, she doesn’t get to be top of his protection list. 

I think a part of inoue knows this, instinctively. that’s why she tries so hard to be the one to protect him. The sad part is that she never succeeds. Not once. not when it mattered. You think ichigo’s asshole move in tybw arc when he thinks inoue’s shield didn’t work was just put in their for funsies? No. That thought was OOC for ichigo, who, despite his other flaws, cares very much about his friends. That should not have been his first thought when he sees inoue bleeding on the ground. That line was there to highlight that, even this far down the track, even THIS late into the endgame, inoue can’t protect him. inoue fails. no great power up of love. not for ih. the best she gets to do is restore his sword, and even that, she has to team up with tsukishima. TSUKISHIMA. Her final proof of her great love for kkun, and she has to share the moment with Tsukishima, the most irrelevant side character of all time who just happened to be swinging by with op powers. God, the disrespect. Ichigo doesn’t even thank her for it. doesn’t even LOOK at her. The absolute fucking L that is truly blows my mind. 

Also, hot take, but: ichigo promising orihime that he’ll protect her next time in the HM arc is not about orihime. Not in the slightest. It’s his promise to himself, that he will definitely protect everyone next time. Orihime just happened to be the recipient of it, because of course she is the one that ichigo feels most guilty about having put in the line of fire: unlike chad, unlike tatsuki, orihime is not a fighter. Of course ichigo is most sorry for having put her in danger, because in his mind, she is not capable of facing up to it. Basically, Orihime is only receiving that promise as a representative of Ichigo’s ‘people I want to protect’ group, because in his eyes she’s one of the weakest people in that group. Also, I guess she was probably the most convenient person that Rukia could drag ichigo too, seeing as how chad is often elusive and solitary and rukia isn’t friends with tatsuki so it’d be weird. 

anyway, once again, great take anon, please look forward to my protection meta which I am currently in the process of writing which will address these points in more depth, have a great day! 

[shittykawagirl97]

PINK

(Oikawa Tōrux reader)

WHO AM I?

Words count: 2.686

Summary: It’s well known that soulmates exist: when someone turned eighteen a lock of his/her hair becomes a different colour. Every soulmate has a different colour.

Not a request, but open to it ✌🏻

If there was a thing you hate with your whole being, it was Oikawa Tōru.

The bad blood between the two of you began when you were little.

You were the same age, you lived in the same neighbourhood, and your mums were friends; they pushed you to play with him and Iwaizumi.

It was there that your problems with him surfaced: he proclaimed that you couldn't play with them at volleyball because you were weak.

That comment irritated you. Not because it was baseless but because it was true: your health was weak, and you knew it. 

But being reminded of it? You didn't like it at all.

Throwing in your awful temper, you ended up dogfighting each other.

The same happened over and over again: he was capable of offending you every time you two met at the playground.

On the other hand, your relationship with Iwaizumi was remarkably good: you two could have talked about Godzilla for hours without end.

Oikawa was bitter about that and sometimes tried to divide the two of you, Iwaizumi was fast at throwing a ball to him. You always laugh hysterically at that scene.

You and Oikawa attended two different elementary schools. If you were happy about not having him in your school, you were also sad because that meant that Iwaizumi wasn't there too.

At the age of eight, your health finally improved and you were able to be part of the volleyball team of your school.

Seeing how much you were good at it, your parents decide to enrol you at Kitagawa Daiichi Junior High. 

Even though you loved your Junior High's volleyball teammates, for three years straight you were in the same classes as Oikawa.

You two become famous across the school cause your animated and frequently fights. Iwaizumi had to always stop you two before you started throwing punches to each other.

At some point, during your second year, there was a rumour about you and Oikawa going out.

«Me going out with a coyote–ugly like her? Never!».

Iwaizumi wasn't fast enough to stop your punch: Oikawa's nose started bleeding so profusely that the school sent the boy to the hospital to see if it was broken.

In order, you were scolded by:

•The principal of the school for injury one of the best volleyball player.

•Iwaizumi because you should stop punching Oikawa, you weren't five anymore. He praised your punch nevertheless.

•Your coach: the school had a strict way to deal with this kind of situation, so you had a week of suspension.

•Your mum, because you should have known that punching someone wasn't the answer to your problem.

The next time you saw him, you were obligated to apologize to him. His smirk almost made you punch him again, but his words surprised you: «It was a pretty strong punch that I didn't think you were capable of, so I will accept your apologies».

Being said that from Oikawa made you blush, he acquired you at his level.

After that, your relationship wasn't comfortable but bearable.

The first time you two touched without evil means, was at the end of your third year.

You had just arrived home from practice when you found your dad crying in the kitchen. Your mom flung, leaving only a note in which she informed you that she had finally found her soulmate and wanted to follow him in America.

You run away crying.

You knew that your parents weren't soulmates: your dad lost his soulmate in a car accident and your mother didn't found her soulmate yet when they met.

But her leaving the two of you so out of the blue? That was a stab in the back.

You run and run, and run until you crashed into a wall called Oikawa.

He and Iwaizumi were out for buying ice cream and take a walk in the neighbourhood when you went crashing on them. 

Seeing you crying gave at both a panic attack: even Oikawa was worried about you at this point.

When they heard your story they decided to keep you company, Iwaizumi called your dad to let him know that you were okay.

Oikawa put an arm around your shoulders and brought your shaken body close to him. He didn't let you go, not even for a mere second.

With your mother gone your life changed abruptly.

Your father decided to left you with your grandmother while he returned to his job as a war reporter.

Living with your grandmother wasn't easy, money being the first problem.

After finishing Junior High you decided to enrol at Karasuno High School because it was near your new house. You also chose to stop playing volleyball to work.

You were hired at the Sakanoshita Store after pleading for three days straight and promise Ukai that you wouldn't fell behind in your study.

While you become friendly with your boss, you also made friends at school: on your first day, a classmate recognized you; his name was Daichi.

At first, he was too much to handle for you: Daichi always asked you about volleyball and why you didn't go to a better school, but after you explained your current situation, he understood.

He decided to help you with your study so you could continue working without a problem. 

Thank him you befriended Sugawara, Asahi, and Kiyoko too.

But you didn't forget about your old friend: you used your free weekends to meet up with your old team and with Iwaizumi. Sometimes he would bring Oikawa along but most times it was only him.

During your second year, Ukai decided to give you fewer work hours. Seeing you a lot freer, Kiyoko started to ask you to help her with her manager works.

In that way, you grew more and more tangled with the volleyball club activities.

Your eighteen birthday happened on the first day, of your third year: when you weak up a lock of your hair was coloured in pink.

When Ukai, through your third year, decided to train the Karasuno volleyball club, he brought you along knowing how much you were attached to them.

That marked a new chapter in your life, as a manager for the team.

The moment Takeda announced that the team was going to have a practice match with Aobajohsai, you utterly knew what was approaching.

The jaws of almost every member of Aobajohsai and Karasuno team dropped the moment you roared Iwaizumi name and jumped on him.

He caught you without a thought and hugged you tightly, he missed you almost as much as you missed him.

The only ones who didn't get startled were the ex–alumni of Kitagawa Daiichi, they knew pretty well who you were.

Iwaizumi complimented your pink hair and said to you that whoever would your soulmate be, he had to have a chat with them before anything. 

The match was going great when he appeared. 

Five seconds, only five seconds and you and Oikawa were at it again. Karasuno players were a little astonished at seeing you all railed up, spitting salty fire against the boy.

Even Tsukishima was impressed at how much venom you could eject.

Seeing you with a lock of pink hair, did a number on Oikawa. He couldn't admit it out loud, but he was irritated at the thought of you belonging with someone other than him. In his volleyball–centred mind there was always space for you: some days he asked Iwaizumi how you were doing while other days he couldn't stop thinking about you.

The match was over before you knew it: seeing Oikawa shocked face made you really happy. 

He hated it, though. 

He wanted you to cheer for him and Iwaizumi like always. Why were you cheering for Kageyama team and not his?

The next time you met Oikawa was at the Interhigh preliminaries. When you met up with him and Iwaizumi, he was clearly upset with you.

«You will regret that you aren't cheering for us», he said before going elsewhere.

You asked Iwaizumi what was wrong with him, but he was as clueless as you.

Oikawa was right: Karasuno lost, and you cried with your teammates.

But you and the other members of the club weren't people who liked to lose. 

During the Tokyo training camp, you and the boys levelled up quickly.

At some point, Bokuto saw you dug up a ball that almost hit Yachi. He went up to Daichi and asked him who you were, sure that those weren't the moves of an amateur volleyball player.

Karasuno's Captain replied to him with your athletic background and, boy, if Bokuto was excited when he found out that you were an ace!

He constricted Akaashi to set up a ball for you to spike.

«Once an Ace, always an Ace!», he said to you with a smile. 

And he was right.

Even though you didn't practice properly in about three years the moment you saw a ball up for you, your body responded naturally.

Your run-up, your jump, and your spike were beautifully in sync with the ball; the sound of your spike made everyone silent.

Bokuto really hoped that you could go back to volleyball soon because you were really talented.

In a blink of the eye, the training camp was over and you were back in Miyagi for the Spring High Preliminary Arc.

The first who discovered it was Hinata: on the second day of the Preliminary he encountered Iwaizumi and Oikawa near the bathroom.

The eyes of the redhead couldn't stop gawking at the lock of coloured hair of the Aobajohsai's Captain: they were pink, your pink.

Didn't really know what to do about the information, Hinata ran to Daichi and Sugawara. The two boys almost feint at the news but decided to not say anything: they need you to be calm and collected.

But shit went down the moment you all headed to the bleachers to watch Aobajohsai's match with Date Tech: it took you twenty seconds to notice it. Oikawa hair was the same colour as yours.

Iwaizumi felt your heated glare on him. He knew he screwed up; he wanted to say to you that Oikawa was your soulmate but how?

You two were like dogs and cats! You always fought while talking! How could he say to you that his best friend was your soulmates? Via text nonetheless!

Even Oikawa didn't talk to him about his pink hair when they appeared one month prior!

When Date Tech lost all the members of Karasuno heads for the playground but you. It was Kiyoko's turn to stay on the bench anyway, so you decided to pay a visit to Iwaizumi.

When Oikawa saw you, he smirked but you ignored him. You were on a mission: kill Iwaizumi.

When the Ace noticed your angry face, he literally climbed Matsukawa. The poor MB found himself in a crossfire: you were twelve centimetres smaller than him, but that didn't stop you from jumping and hit the boy on his shoulders.

«YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME, HAJIME!»

«YOU WOULD HAVE KILLED ME RIGHT AWAY! THROUGH THE PHONE!»

«WELL, I MIGHT KILL YOU NOW!»

Everyone who was watching laughed his ass off. Even Kyōtani was amazed by it: was Iwaizumi really scared of you?

Oikawa, knowing that you would kill their ace, decided to intervene himself: you had to talk it out.

Grabbing you from behind, he lifted you from the ground and dragged you away saying that he will be back in five minutes.

You cursed the ten centimetres gap that allowed him to do that.

When he put you down, you realised that that was the first time you talked totally alone. It made you blush.

The two of you didn't have long so decided to meet the day after and to talk everything through.

He freaking light kissed you before going off!

«Fortune kiss! Please, cheer for me today!».

When you joined Yachi, you were a blushing mess; the continuous smirks he sent you, throughout the match, didn't help.

The fact that Oikawa's Pink was your Pink, did a number on Kurusano players too. 

They couldn't leave you in the hands of such a man before giving him a proper lecture. They were ready to win, not only to avenge themselves but to intimidate Oikawa too.

They literally roared: «DON'T LOOK AT HER!», every time he glanced at your direction. Oikawa's fans understood what was going in five minutes, they deliberately glared at you with all their might.

You wanted to bury yourself so bad!

The match was nerve breaking, your knees almost gave out more than once. 

After the match ended, you excused yourself: you wanted to party with your baby boys but your soulmate, and your best friend, needed you more.

The second they saw you, they were right in your arms.

The next day you seated yourself next to Oikawa for watching the finals of the preliminaries.

Both of you decided that it was the best time to talk. 

For the first time in forever, the two of you discussed without shouts, punches and sarcasm.

When Oikawa explained to you how he had decided to leave Japan for Argentina, your heart stopped beating.

You hated Oikawa, everybody knew that, but he was always there, always present. Even after you started to live with your grandmother you always checked his twitter or you asked Iwaizumi how he was doing.

A life without him? That was a giant NO GO. 

Amid the panic, your hand moved on his own and grabbed firmly Oikawa's arm; as in trying to keep him there.

The boy was surprised at your reaction, not in his wildest dreams he thought you would panic at the news, he took your hand in his gently and kissed it.

«We were fated to be together, we will make it work».

His words almost made you cry on the spot, but Iwaizumi decided to interrupt that sickening view.

Obviously, he had to reach his two best friends when they were declaring their love for each other! Not that he was against it: he waited for it for fourteen years!

He knew it was going to happen the moment you two met at the neighbourhood playground.

But, please! You were in a gymnasium, watching a match in which your team was playing!

You couldn't wait for this talk, did you?

Even though Iwaizumi struck you both on the head, you laughed at his irritated expression.

The funny thing was that you and Oikawa actually made a miracle happen.

While he went directly to Argentine after High School, you had to study your a*s out for a year - with the help of Sugawara and Iwaizumi – before you had a scholarship and enough money to move there to finish your degree.

Meeting Hinata in Brazil? That was funny as sh*t! Not only he freaked out when you told him that you started playing volleyball again, and in a few months you were about to become an Argentine official player, he almost fainted when he noticed your wedding bands.

Obviously, he had to take a picture and sent it to all his contacts. Daichi and Sugawara, that were discovered to be soulmates, video call you that same night for an explanation.

Clearly, you were the one who proposed to Oikawa.

The two of you were miraculously able to have a vacation in the same period, so you decided to go back to Japan to visit your families.

You knelt down, ring in one hand, right in front of Disneyland's castle in Tokyo and asked Oikawa to marry you. His injured knee gave out, and he fell on the ground from the shock but shouted yes nonetheless.

Iwaizumi was there, watching the whole scene while eating a Mickey Mouse shaped ice cream.

«WHY DO YOU HAVE TO ALWAYS DO SOMETHING SICKLY SWEET, WHILE I AM LITERALLY BESIDE YOU? I AM STARING TO FEEL LIKE A PRIEST NOT A VOLLEYBALL PLAYER!»

«You are our priest, Iwa–chan, we couldn't do any of this without you».

[yamagucci-x]

Read on Ao3 The once-first-years begin their final season together. Rated: G

Hinata pressed his forearms together, bumping the ball back toward Kageyama in a high arc. They’d spent most of the rainy afternoon in Hinata’s room, playing video games or re-watching highlights from pro games, but as soon as the skies cleared in the evening they shrugged on their jackets and started tossing around a worn volleyball in the backyard. 

It’d become a more common scene over the years, since Kageyama finally started acknowledging their friendship for what is was. At the very least, he had decided it was less trouble to actually answer Hinata’s texts and come over (at the risk of getting roped into spinning for Natsu’s double dutch practice) than to ignore him and have Hinata appear unannounced at his house twenty minutes later. Nowadays, most off days found the two of them chatting as they savored the simple pleasure of passing the ball back and forth.

As Hinata watched Kageyama stretch up his arms to toss he was reminded of another evening in his yard, about three months ago. Unlike the humid April evening it had been a cold, harsh night in January. The air was biting and snow began to swirl as clouds obscured the sunset. Their devastating loss to Inarizaki at Nationals was still fresh, stinging and burning with every recollection. They had no net but Hinata pushed the ball into Kageyama’s chest, demanding he set for him. He’d spiked each one of his setter’s tosses into the gathering snow with more ferocity than the last, until they were left staring up into the dark sky with silent, hot tears streaming down their cheeks. They probably would’ve stood there all night if Hinata’s mom hadn’t called them inside with dark predictions of losing their fingers to frostbite. 

Now, on the eve of a new volleyball season, the mood was different. They had licked their wounds, healed and rested, and were itching for more. 

“What do you think the new first-years will be like?” Hinata asked.

Kageyama smirked. “Hopefully they won’t suck as bad as you did.”

Hinata sucked his teeth, switching from an underhand to overhand position. “Well hopefully they won’t have your shitty attitude.” 

Kageyama shot him a look but didn’t say anything, reaching up to toss the ball high and slow to the side. Hinata’s eyes flashed as he saw the opportunity. With a running start he launched himself into the air and spiked the ball down hard. They grinned as their eyes met. 

“It’s kinda sad though, isn’t it,” Hinata said as he jogged to retrieve the ball, “Our last season at Karasuno.” There was more he could’ve said— their last season as teammates, probably the last season they’d see each other regularly, their last season before things really changed— but he didn’t. 

“Not really,” the setter said bluntly.

“Kageyama! You’re so heartless,” Hinata hollered, chucking the ball at him, “You sound like Tsukishima!”

Usually an insult like that would have him red in the face, but he caught the ball with a smile and a glint in his eye. “I mean, it’s not like we’re ever going to stop playing volleyball, right?” 

Across town Tsukishima sneezed, feeling an odd twinge like someone was talking about him.

Yamaguchi jumped a little on the other end of the bed. “Shit, you’re not getting sick, are you?” He whipped around to look at him with wide eyes, sitting forward on his knees. “You can’t get a cold now, Tsukki, the new season starts tomorrow!”

Tsukishima adjusted his glasses with a frown. “Will you relax? It was one sneeze, I’m not getting hospitalized.”

“Sorry, Tsukki,” Yamaguchi sighed, slumping back against the wall and clutching his stomach, “I’m just so anxious about my first day as captain. Yachi gave me some advice on dealing with nerves, but I feel just like the first time Coach called me up as a pinch server.”

“Yeah, you’ve been acting psychotic all week. It’s ridiculous.”

“Hey!” Yamaguchi tossed a pillow at his head. “Just because you never get worked up about anything doesn’t mean it’s ridiculous. There’s a lot of pressure!” 

Tsukki rolled his eyes, running a hand through his bangs to fix them. “It’s ridiculous when you’re the only one who still doubts your skills.” He refused to meet Yamaguchi’s gaze but he couldn’t help the corner of his lip curling upward. 

Yamaguchi smiled, understanding how Tsukki complimented him in his own way. “Y-Yeah, I guess,” he said, scratching the back of his head. 

“Now will you finally pick a course?” Tsukki picked up his Switch controller and nodded toward the Mario Kart menu blinking on the TV, “I wanna kick your ass again.”

“Oh right- sorry, Tsukki!”

The next morning broke cold and clear. In his rush to bike to school Hinata almost hit Kageyama in the street, but after some arguing and a little shoving they agreed to stop by Sakanoshita Store together. Just as they got to the shop, three other figures appeared at either side of the intersection— Tsukishima and Yamaguchi from one direction, Yachi from the other. For a second, they all blinked at each other in silence.

“Guess we all had the same idea, huh?” Yachi said with a smile.

They all laughed and, realizing it’d been weeks since they’d really seen each other, fell into handshakes and eager chatter. Even Tsukki seemed excited, his lips pressed into a smile.

“You finally got the haircut, ‘Guchi!” Hinata grinned as his teammate reluctantly submitted to having his hair ruffled.

“It looks good! You’re not shaggy anymore,” Yachi giggled. “Oh wait! I guess we should be referring to you as Captain Yamaguchi now, huh?” She struck a pose and saluted him with a stiff upper lip. 

Everyone else laughed, but Yamaguchi looked a little sea sick. “Ugh. Remind to buy some antacid, I’m gonna need it.”

“You’ll be fine,” Tsukishima said, “It’s not like any first years could ever be worse than these two were.” He smirked at Hinata and Kageyama.

Hinata bounced with indignation. “Why does everyone keep saying that? I wasn’t even that bad, Kageyama’s the one-”

“-Don’t try to blame me, dumbass, my ‘attitude’ was ‘cause you sucked,” Kageyama snapped.

“What?!”

“Oh, these?” She pulled her low ponytail over her shoulder so she could fidget with a lock of hair. “It’s nothing, just- I guess some people have been noticing the posters I make for you guys and, well, the girls’ team asked me to do something for them.” She turned the papers around, revealing an eye-catching design to recruit new members.

Yamaguchi looked stricken. “Oh god,” he groaned, “How am I supposed to keep order? I can’t be scary like Sawamura or Ennoshita!” A chill ran through the group at the memory of lectures past. None of them were sure anyone could be scarier than Daichi.

Evidently looking for a change in topic, Yamaguchi sighed and pointed to the small stack of papers Yachi clutched to her chest. “Anyway, what’ve you got there, Yachi?”

The other boys nodded approvingly but Hinata’s eyes went wide. “You’re doing work for another team? But you’re our manager!” He clenched his fists, shouting to the sky, “Augh! It was so cool to be the only club with awesome posters!”

“It’s way too early for this much yelling,” Tsukishima muttered.

Yachi’s face immediately went red and she threw out her hands. “I-I’m sorry Hinata! I told them it was just this once, I don’t want anyone on the team to think I’m a traitor!”

Hinata, who didn’t seem to be listening, wrapped his arms around Yachi from the side. “Screw the girls’ team, I won’t let them take you!”

Suddenly the door of Sakanoshita Store flew open and they all froze. “Oi!” Coach Ukai appeared, his breath a mix of cigarette smoke and steam, “You idiots gonna stand there causing a ruckus in the freezing cold all morning, or are you gonna come in?”

“Sorry, Coach!” They called, running inside.

Ten minutes later they filed out, Yachi sipping hot cocoa (an apology for “roping her in with the idiots”) while the boys munched on granola bars. Yamaguchi was feeling more confident after a pep talk from Ukai, and everyone was energized after hearing that they had an early practice game scheduled.

“I guess if I’m having trouble I can always count on you to whip the new recruits into shape, right Yachi?” Yamaguchi said, nudging her with a smile.

Yachi withered a little. “Oh gosh, no- I have my hands full enough trying to wrangle you guys and the second-years.” Really, the second-years were well behaved and her own cohort listened when she found the courage to reprimand them. But somehow a joke had gotten started that she’d turn into a drill sergeant and just the thought made her want to faint. She shuddered even when she remembered how poorly everyone got along before she joined in their first year. Sure she’d grown a lot since then, but she still wasn’t sure her nerves could handle something like that.

“Oo, we should all take a picture before our practice game this week,” Hinata suggested, “To commemorate the start of our last season!” Yachi and Yamaguchi responded with enthusiastic yeses, but Kageyama and Tsukishima both scoffed.

“I’m not doing that,” they said in unison. Everyone tried to stifle their laughter when the two boys looked at each other with a mix of shock and disgust. 

“Fine,” Kageyama said after a minute.

“I guess,” Tsukishima muttered.

“Perfect!” Hinata tried to throw his arms over their shoulders, but they both brushed him off with a scowl. “Karasuno- fight!”

“Shut up, it’s too early!”

[greycappedjester]

My internet crashed as I asked this which is probably a sign that I should stop bothering w/ asks but this is the last one promise! We do not hear a lot from Inirizaki students, is it on purpose? I know we see the Miya twins in the Triwizard Tournament arc, will we see more of them and the other? Any headcanon you're willing to share? :DD And if Miya Osamu is in Gryffindor is he in the same year as Noya & Tanaka?

Thanks for the questions!

So, the Miya twins are a bit of a strange story. The truth is the reason they’re at Hogwarts while the rest of Inirizaki is at Beauxbatons is....well, when I planned out this series years and years ago, I think the manga had like JUST gotten to the Inirizaki game. In other words, I just didn’t know much about Inirizaki except “oh, twin characters, they seem neat” so I added them to one of the first things I did which was sorting pretty much all the characters into Houses and dorm rooms so I wouldn’t accidentally say like “[Random Character X] is Hufflepuff” in the first book and then, call them a Ravenclaw in the third. So, yeah, that’s why the Miya twins are a Hogwarts instead of Beauxbatons.

Anyway, now--as is the curse of Haikyuu--I love them and have been stealthily trying to add them (and a lot of the other characters that got introduced/ got more attention in the later arcs of the manga). Crossing my fingers, they’ll probably appear more in this one and later books but will never be MAJOR parts of the plot (like the main character groups) just because I already had the main plots of the series planned. But, with hope, I am trying though to finding more places for them!

Osamu is in the same year as Noya and Tanaka! He shares the other Gryffindor fifth year room with Izaka from Johzenji and two other random non-Haikyuu character since I ran out of second year Gryffindors, oops. Atsumu rooms with Yahaba, Terushima, Tsuchiyu from Johzenji, and Towada. 

Headcanons for the Miya twins:

1.) For months their first year, Atsumu bragged about how much cooler and awesome and better than the Slytherin dorms were compared to Gryffindor that Osamu eventually got fed up and broke into the the Slytherin dorm pretending to be Atsumu. For weeks after that, Atsumu’s dormmates begged Osamu to swap Houses with his brother permanently. On a related note, Atsumu hates his dormmates (he doesn’t)

2.) Atsumu has repeatedly tried to convince people that they are one single person and Atsumu was just so great he got sorted into two Houses. It has worked exactly zero times.

3.) This was kind of mentioned in the second one, but they both come from a fairly prominent pureblood family (of the same status as the Sugawaras/ Norois, Tsukishimas, Yamaguchis, Daishous, Kuroos, and Bokutos)

4.) Osamu was the first person in their year to find the Hogwarts kitchens. The elves absolutely love him (and Atsumu by association) and often let him just hang out there and cook.

5.)The decision to dye their hair was not entirely intentional. In third year, Atsumu was trying out a Transfiguration charm on his hair and messed up so badly he died it neon green. After an emergency and very stealthy trip to the hair charmer in Hogsmeade, he convinced Osamu to dye his hair silver and Atsumu dyed his own gold....since gold is Gryffindor’s color and silver is Slytherin, Atsumu once again tried to pretend him and his brother were the same person (Atsumu, of course) and Atsumu just changed his hair to match whichever House he chose for the day.....it once again and emphatically did not work.

Not really a headcanon I guess but something that’ll come up soon. Atsumu is a Chaser (like Kageyama and Hinata) while Osamu doesn’t really have a preference for any Quidditch position.

Hope you enjoyed :)

[recentanimenews]

OPINION: How I Discovered Haikyu!! (And Myself), Thoughts From a First-Time Viewer

  Haikyu!!'s final season just began, and for years I have been meaning to start watching. Now seems like a great time to rectify that, so I've finally caught up and am eagerly awaiting the next arc to see how the Karasuno Crows fare.

  I decided to track my thoughts on everything that happened — something of a time capsule from before the main cast joined together all the way to them competing in Nationals.

    As a baseline, here is everything I knew about Haikyu!! before watching Episode 1:

It's a popular sports anime about volleyball

The main character is the orange-haired kid, Hinata

They're going to go to Nationals. Not sure about the details, but I know they’ll make it into the tournament

  I actually watched this with someone who has seen it before. She didn't spoil anything but occasionally gave insight I may not have otherwise realized at the moment.

  Episodes 1-6: Joining the Team

    For the first part of the show, we largely follow Hinata's perspective. As I assumed going in, he's our generally underachieving but unfailingly energetic sports boy who hadn't met anyone who loves his sport as much as him until now. Specifically, he meets Kageyama, one of the best setters in the prefecture.

  I started to notice that the storytelling’s actually pretty good when the newly assembled Crows get a practice game with the 4th ranked school in the prefecture. It gives them someone challenging so the main cast can see what they’re up against but also gives them a team close enough to their level that they have a real chance of winning and also keeps the truly powerful foes hidden for later arcs.  

I also really appreciate that during the games, the characters try out new things, but are never truly sure that anything will work. It adds some experimentation and uncertainty to every game.

  Episodes 7-10: Crows, Assemble

    The rest of the main cast joins up with the existing group, forming the core rotation of players and major characters in the show.

  One of the new characters, Asahi, showcases one of the show’s strong points for me. He's the team’s ace, but both he and Hinata grapple with performance anxiety. As my watch-along partner put it, Hinata’s anxiety comes in waves, mostly during games, while Asahi’s is more of a constant background hum.

  As someone who has struggled with anxiety most of my life, I heavily identify with Asahi’s backstory, even down to not going for the spike in the final play of his flashback game due to thinking about how pointless it was since he wouldn't get it through.

  Episodes 11-13: Crows versus Cats

    Karasuno gets its practice game against their rival school, Nekoma. Both teams have fallen from grace in recent years, so this is the Crows’ chance to prove they can crawl their way back to the top and test out their teamwork and strategies from the previous arcs.

  At this point, the mind games aspect of each match starts coming through. Both teams try to figure out how their opponents think so they can react faster, while also trying to hide their own tells to keep their opponents guessing.

  When Hinata first started closing his eyes to make his special fast attacks with Kageyama, I joked that his power-up was going to be just ... opening his eyes. It turned out I wasn’t far from the truth. It doesn’t work immediately, but all of the Crows start polishing their weaknesses to make for a more well-rounded team.

  Episodes 14-16: Preliminaries Round 1

    As the boys go into the Interhigh Tournament, people whisper about the “Flightless Crows.” They proceed to absolutely crush their first opponents.

  The show follows the girls’ volleyball team for a bit, too, amping up the emotions at the end of the first round by cutting between the girls losing while the boys breeze through their sets.

  It’s a bit unfortunate the girls are beaten so badly just to show that the boys have grown, especially since they don’t end up getting much screentime for the rest of the show outside of being in the stands or otherwise supporting the boys.

  Episodes 17-26: Daito and Aoba Jousai

    After getting through the first part of the tournament easily, Karasuno is up against two powerhouse teams. First: Daito, a school with defense so amazing it’s called “The Iron Wall of Daito.” Second, Aoba Jousai, the school that many of Kageyama’s peers, including the setter he looks up to, enrolled in.

  They manage to steal a win from Daito, but ultimately lose to Aoba Jousai.

  The ending of this arc was when I realized I was truly invested in the show. For one, my watch-along partner and I were silent during many of the plays instead of joking about anime tropes like we had been in earlier arcs. Second, during one of the final scenes of the season, the entire team went out to eat after the game and we just silently watched everyone slowly start eating and then mutually begin crying.

  Episodes 27-36: Season 2

    As we start Season 2, there is a very clear and welcome difference almost immediately — the animation and camerawork are a lot better. Neither were bad in Season 1, but now they’re on an entirely different level. As my watch-along partner put it, there is some very naturalistic movement in some of the scenes.

  Also, this is when the team got a second manager, Yachi. I seriously cannot think of a character I have more personally related to in an anime than Yachi. She is a nervous wreck that is constantly apologizing and gets spooked by every little thing, even as small as someone talking to her. She outright views herself as “Townsperson B,” from when she played that role in drama club. I turned to my watch-along partner and said, “I’m in this picture, and I don’t like it.”

  Meanwhile, in the actual plot, my watch-along partner pointed out that while the team started developing specialized skills at their summer camp, the majority of their training seems to be devoted to getting down the fundamentals of every part of the game, then practicing them constantly. Like how Nishinoya is normally the libero and is almost exclusively receiving, but after seeing an opponent’s strategy, wants to learn to toss so he can replicate something he previously lost against.

  Episodes 37-44: Prelims

    The show uses the prelims as an opportunity to shine in two new ways. First, if a player is injured, they're checked to see if it's serious, then given a proper medical exam off the court. No powering through a concussion.

  Second, since main characters are no longer guaranteed to be on the court for the entire game, the cast expands to include other members we previously haven't focused on.

  My watch-along partner mentioned Ennoshita, Daichi's relief player, a few times throughout the show, so I knew he was going to be important eventually. But to give an idea of how little he impacted things until this point, when he was called in, I exclaimed that they were putting Steve McBlandman in the game. Despite that, he really does get to shine on the court. He’s a nervous wreck at first (join the club), but he’s also most likely to take over as captain once Daichi graduates and proves himself to be a reliable teammate by the time Daichi returns.

  Episodes 45-50: Rematch

    In terms of storytelling, there’s not much to add for this game. The two teams are established factions and we know the stakes, so it’s more of a puzzle to see who can find new strategies during the game and outthink the other team, which is made harder by the rivals bringing in a totally new player referred to as "Mad Dog."

Eventually, Karasuno wins, ending Season 2 with a promise that the finals of the qualifiers for Nationals will be the start of Season 3. Due to knowing a few details ahead of time, I already know a single game will be the entirety of the season.

  Episodes 51-57: Final, Part 1

    As both teams step onto the court and warm up, we are reminded that our heroes are pretty much all nervous wrecks, with most of the team in various stages of being curled up on the ground or asking for nausea medication. And, honestly, I was too. By the time the game hits set four, I wanted to grab my inhaler.

  The Crows are up against Shiratorizawa, a team with Ushiwaka, a player so strong that early in the game, it took three blockers and a libero just to return his attack, and later on he managed to dislocate a blocker’s finger with a spike.

  Episodes 57-60: Final, Part 2

    Full Disclosure: I was so invested in this game and the following season I actually forgot to take notes, so everything from here on is a second watch!

In my opinion, everyone gets to shine by the end of the game. Nishinoya sets up a full team synchro attack with his libero toss, Tsukishima is the only person whose blocks come close to keeping up with Ushiwaka, and so on.

  Episodes 61-65: Winter Training

    The first half of the season starts with some of Karasuno’s players being invited to special training camps. Hinata, being too impatient to accept that he hadn’t been invited, infiltrates one.

  Since he wasn’t invited, he’s not allowed to play, leading to him needing to watch the players and game instead of the ball for once. As a result, he starts learning to read peoples' tells and building an intuition of how to move, rather than just relying on instinct.

  Or, as I said to my watch-along partner the first time around, Hinata has reached his ultimate powerup: thinking.

  Episodes 66-70: Downtime

    In the interstitial time between arcs, the team has a practice game against Date Tech again so the Crows can get used to playing together after being apart. We get some character moments, like all the third years going to a shrine on New Year’s, and when the team arrives in Tokyo we finally get a bit of Kiyoko’s backstory.

  It’s hard to pin down what exactly about it worked, but it felt really nice to see the third years all going to a shrine together in their final months before the end of high school.

  And with that, the Spring Tournament, a.k.a. Nationals, begins.

    After going through over 70 episodes of Haikyu!!, I can say with absolute certainty I’m sticking around until the end. I skimmed over a lot of details so every section wasn’t a page long (and even then the first draft of this was over 4,000 words), but every game is filled with strategy, mind games, and experimentation.

  Outside of the games, the show does a great job of building up the cast so the rivals are well-realized characters in their own right. Not the most complex in anime, but more than a wall for the main characters to climb over.

  All in all, the show is absolutely worth the watch. It'll take a while to get through, but it's also easy to pick back up if you need to stop partway through.

  What are some of your favorite moments in Haikyu!!? Are you watching the second half of the newest season with me? Who is best boy? Let me know in the comments!

    Kevin Matyi is a freelance features writer for Crunchyroll. He's been watching anime for as long as he can remember, and his favorite shows tend to be shonen and other action series.

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[thisvictoriangirl]

(Read it here on ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24310861)

The ball slams down on Kamomedai’s court.

Karasuno pulls ahead, and Hinata thinks of Icarus.

///

They study Greek myths and stories in Literature class in the odd day that Hinata actually pays half a mind and at least one ear to his sensei instead of fully investing himself in his daydreams of volleyball practice.

The class reads the story of Icarus and the sun, and how his wax wings melted from flying too high.

Hinata doesn’t really understand, but there’s an illustration of a falling Icarus in their book that looks a lot like a spiker’s form in mid-air. One of his arms is outstretched, fingers reaching up to the sky.

Hinata gets distracted by it, and stops paying attention to the story.

He traces the drawing over and over with the end of his pen instead, and thinks, if I jump high enough, can I touch the sun, too?

///

In their match against Kamomedai, as his next crumbling breath drags across his throat and the crowd roars in his ears, Hinata remembers the picture of Icarus.

Remembers the line of an arm and the curve of a hand, greedy fingers clutching for the horizon.

A spiker’s form in mid-air, he remembers.

Hinata feels the pull of muscle and gravity in his next jump, as Kageyama sets the perfect toss into the air. For a second, the ball’s arc collides with the brightness of the overhead gym lights and creates a halo. For a second, between the swing of his arms and the crack of his flat palm against the smooth rubber of a volleyball, Hinata’s breath catches.

If I jump high enough, I can touch the sun.

If I jump high enough—

If I jump—

The ball slams down on Kamomedai’s court.

Karasuno pulls ahead, and Hinata thinks of Icarus.

///

“Oi, oi! Nice, Hinata!”

Tanaka-san’s words are blurry sounds submerged in a sea of noises.

Hinata’s body feels like he’s being scorched alive, burning, burning, burning.

Like the sun has devoured him in his victory.

Tanaka-san offers him a hand.

“Thanks!” Hinata grins, the fire thrumming under his skin. He makes a grab for his senpai’s hand and misses.

Hinata falls to the floor, eyes wide.

Hinata falls and falls and falls—

—and burns.

///

“I’m not injured,” Hinata says when they bench him. “It doesn’t hurt anywhere, I can still play—”

No one looks at him. No one listens, no one dares to pull their eyes up from the floor and look at him directly, even Coach Ukai’s eyes look glassy in their disbelief, piercing through him like he’s not there—

“I’m not injured! I can move, I can jump—”

—like he’s still falling—

“I’m not injured,” Hinata pleads, and it falls on deaf ears, swallowed up completely. “Please, Coach.”

Please.

Please.

“I’m not injured.”

///

His wings are made of wax and feathers and borrowed time. His father says just as much, warns him just as much.

Don’t fly too close to the sun, his father says. Don’t let ambition melt your wings off.

But I can do it, he wants to say. If I fly high enough, I can do it. I can touch the sun.

If I fly high enough—

If I fly—

///

There must be a lesson to be learned there somewhere, that Hinata must have missed in his distraction. A moral from the story that he didn’t completely pay attention to, drawn away by the streaks of ink and still motion across the pages of his Literature book.

There must be a lesson, Hinata knows, but all he could wonder about is this,

When Icarus fell, did he beg for more time, too?

///

Karasuno loses just as he reaches the hospital.

Just like that, the borrowed time on the court comes to an end.

Just like that, the wings come off.

Just like that, it’s over.

Hinata hands off Kenma’s tablet to Yachi-san and bows his head to an invisible gymnasium of people. The fire in his chest has left the taste of ashes in his mouth.

Just like that.

///

After Coach Ukai brings him dinner in his isolated room, his senpai gather and peek from behind the sliding doors with warm smiles and concerned eyes.

They can’t all come into the room at once—Takeda-sensei’s strict orders—so Noya-san and Tanaka-san coax him out his futon and closer to the door by bribing him with a bottle of sweet tea.

Hinata doesn’t need to be bribed at all, but he takes the sweet tea anyway and listens to the third years and second years’ retelling of the match with as much enthusiasm a sick person could possess. They leave him once it’s time for bath, but not without reaching into the room and ruffling his hair.

///

Suga-san comes back after an hour, freshly-showered and equipped with a face mask, to give him his medicine.

“The team misses you already,” Suga-san tells him with a pat of his head and a smile that Hinata could trace under the cloth of the mask. It makes Hinata’s chest warm with something other than a fever. “So rest up properly, okay?”

He nods eagerly. “I will, Suga-san.”

Suga smiles as he stands and makes his way out.

///

Much later, Tsukishima and Yamaguchi drop by, too.

Yamaguchi slides him a piece of mochi ice cream on a paper plate and Tsukishima rolls his eyes as he promises not to rat out the two of them.

They leave with the empty paper plate as soon as Hinata eats the dessert.

///

Kageyama is the last to visit around midnight, and he’s bringing a glass of milk with him.

“You snuck out from your room, didn’t you,” Hinata accuses at the sight of him, voice rough from sleep and sickness. “I’ll tell Coach.”

“Shut up, boke,” Kageyama grumbles without any real heat. He bullies Hinata into holding the glass of milk and drops to a seat next to the futon. He nods to the glass. “Drink,” he says.

“What am I, your dog?” Hinata scowls but drinks the milk nonetheless. It’s warm on his tongue, comforting, and oddly enough, that makes his eyes sting with pinpricks of emotion again. He blinks them back stubbornly.

Kageyama doesn’t say anything for a long time. He lets silence envelope them, lets Hinata finish the glass in peace with only the hum of the ceiling fan and the distant noise of the city in the background. Kageyama doesn’t say anything even as Hinata hands him back the glass wordlessly for him set down on the floor. Doesn’t say anything even when Hinata shuffles closer with his fever-warm body and drops his heavy head against Kageyama’s shoulder.

Kageyama has a tendency to be cruel on the court.

Hinata knows this all too well.

He can still hear Kageyama’s declaration—“I win again.”—despite the low-grade headache that has settled into his temples.

Off the court, Kageyama is not the same person. He cannot be cruel. He simply doesn’t know how to be.

Hinata is only beginning to realize this. But he trusts it, trusts Kageyama and the silence that rests between them as he speaks.

“Kageyama, have you heard of Icarus?”

Kageyama shifts in place, drops his shoulders lower to adjust to Hinata’s head pillowed on him. “From Literature class,” he says after a moment of consideration. “Remind me again.”

Hinata tells him, as best as he can with his croaking voice and heavy thoughts, the story of a boy who flew too high and fell.

He tells Kageyama about the drawing. Like a spiker, when they jump for your toss, you know.

He tells Kageyama about his mistake. There’s probably a lesson in the story, too. Or a warning, or something.

When he stops talking, Kageyama lets out scoff that Hinata finds to be generally offensive. “What, and you think you’re Icarus?”

Hinata glares. “Bakageyama, I’m being serious—“

“So am I,” Kageyama deadpans, cutting him off. Hinata’s words die in his throat. “You’re not Icarus.”

Hinata drops his glare to the futon. His fingers fidget with the covers. “I mean, I kind of am—“

“You’re not,” Kageyama insists stubbornly. “You’re—You’re better.”

Hinata lifts his head up and turns, eyes wide.

Kageyama meets his stare evenly.

A second passes by, and then two.

“You’re better,” Kageyama repeats quietly, insistently. “Unlike him, you don’t need wax wings to fly. You just need yourself.”

Hinata blinks. He remembers his jump, the glory of it captured in a split-second inhale, and the burning fall after.

His lip wobbles, eyes stinging. “But today. I—“

“Unlike him, you also get another chance, boke. He doesn’t.” Kageyama frowns. “Doesn’t he drown and die at the end?”

“I don’t know,” Hinata hiccups, crying again. His eyes hurt too much already and he hates it. When he buries his wet, snotty face in Kageyama’s sleeve, Kageyama lets him and pets his hair with his free hand. “I don’t know, you asshole, I didn’t pay attention to the story.”

“I didn’t either,” Kageyama says gruffly. He drops his head on Hinata’s hair and rubs his face against it like an angry cat. “Stop crying.”

“I’ll get better,” Hinata swears through his tears, choking out the words. He presses his face against Kageyama’s arm. “I’ll get better and then I’ll jump again. As high as Icarus flew.”

“Dumbass,” Kageyama whispers to him and to the empty vastness of the room. “You can go higher.”

///

The morning after they had lost to Kamomedai, Hinata wakes up with sunlight filtering through a sliver opening of the door and his fever mostly gone. For a moment, in the quiet of dawn, Hinata sneaks a hand out of his futon and lets it connect with the ray of light that reaches across the floor.

Hinata thinks of Icarus.

Of his melted wings and burning back and drowning lungs.

Of his arm and his hand and his fingers, forever reaching towards the light.

Hinata thinks of Icarus, and promises to be better.

[chibivesicle]

Golden Kamuy chapter 222.  The next arc is about to begin with the factions re-defined (again).

I have to admit, I’m going to complain about the recent pacing again - chapter 222 is acting as a pause to help the readers reorient themselves to the shifting factions and alliances.  I really wish this was spread out a bit more over the past 10-15 or so chapters.  Chapter 222 is a good point to begin the shift to the next story arc.  I had predicted previously based on pacing, that the next major arc would start around chapter 230.  It is looking like that will be the case.  For right now, I’ll hypothesize that the next arc will be the gathering of all of the skins and Asirpa will see them allowing her to connect them to the code and the actual location.  Asirpa will likely be the character which all of the action and events will revolve around.

Let’s dig into chapter 222.  First off, I am happy to see that Inkarmat survived her risky surgery.  Noda started the chapter out with a various clear page with her telling a fortune for Koito.  After everything that she has been through, I find it interesting that she is still performing her fortune-telling after the events of Abashiri.  Just like Shiraishi, the fox jaw hits him in the eyes, but when she reveals that his fortune is good, he’s super excited with the results.

Koito looks excited and much better than we last saw him injured on the ship so that is also good to see!  Even better the next page has a blushing Koito asking for Inkarmat to do Tsukishima’s fortune too.  I love how cute and excited he looks!  Unfortunately, we don’t get a good look at Koito’s left arm which is under he duvet cover, but his right arm is okay.  Of course Tsukishima’s fortune is bad luck (isn’t his entire life “bad luck”?) so he blankly turns away while Koito is excited - in a similar way to when he wanted Tsukishima to notice how good his acting was in Asirpa’s film.  Tsukishima looks 100% deadpan since Koito was injured - what is he thinking now?  What happened to him?

The middle panel then focuses on a soft and introspective looking Inkarmat.  The final panel then fills in the gap when Tanigaki refused to follow Sugimoto and Asirpa onto the ice floe and talked back to Kikuta.  He told Kikuta that he is Tanigaki, the Matagi which resulted in a “WTF?” moment from Kikuta since he didn’t serve with him in the during the war in the 27th.

This time Tanigaki acts differently than we’ve seen in the past - since he doesn’t know Kikuta, he uses this lack of a connection as a reason to disobey an order from a superior officer (recall he is a Warrant Officer a higher rank that Tsukishima for an enlisted man/non-officer).  Keep in mind that even though he hates Ogata, he always called him Superior Private and was much more hesitant to flat out just ignore him.  If anything, his connection to Ogata meant he felt comfortable enough to talk back to Ogata, specifically in the swamp when he tells Ogata his only solution to problems is to kill others.

With no information on Kikuta, Tanigaki is even more brazen as he turns away from him and firmly states that he’s leaving.  This comes to a quick halt as soon as Tsurumi catches up to him.  After revealing that Inkarmat is no longer in Abashiri he makes it clear that she is a hostage of Tsurumi and that Tanigaki can’t find her without his help.  Tsurumi doesn’t even try to seduce Tanigaki with any sort of sweet lies anymore.  He knows Tanigaki went AWOL once, there is no point in winning him over per se, instead he just needs to make his relationship transactional.

Of course the transaction is that Tanigaki wouldn’t want to make Tsurumi kill Inkarmat. . .  Tsurumi’s facial expression is already pretty terrifying but Usami copying it in the background makes it even more concerning.

Tanigaki tries to reason with Tsurumi that he’s not cut out for any of these things, he’s a simple man who wants a simple life (yet, he’s been running from a simple life for the entire story).  He created his Asirpa side quest to avoid going home and now that he’s lost Ryu and Cikapasi as well as been dumped by Asirpa, Sugimoto and Shiraishi - he’s trying the exact same thing he tried after he was injured in the hunt for Retar.  Just disengage from everything.

Interestingly, in response to Tanigaki’s pathetic excuse (sorry, that is what it is - he’s been more than capable in the quest for the gold so far) Kikuta speaks.  It seems that Kikuta is trying to reason with Tanigaki to get him to understand that since he is a veteran he isn’t an ordinary person.  Therefore, Kikuta sees Tanigaki’s desire to return to civilian life as betrayal of his comrades.   Kikuta looks upset as we see his teeth as he says this; Kikuta is a career solider part of his feelings make sense - we may get a flashback to show that he served also in the first Sino-Japanese war, yet he is distinctly different than Tsurumi.  He’s not the type of man to threaten someone and he hopes reason and logic will work.  I think this is par for Kikuta - he’s a smart guy - he’ll try to rationalize out an argument with others as we’ve seen before.

Tanigaki, still tries to paint himself as sad and pathetic (again, he went to Karafuto to kill Kiro!) and even tries to say he’ll negatively impact everyone else but Tsurumi knowing how Tanigaki thinks - that he would assume Inkarmat would leave on her own.  Yet, she can’t - Tanigaki loses his cool asking what he’s done to her -  and the next page reveals Inkarmat from the front with no speech bubbles blocking a view of her body to reveal that she’s pregnant with Tanigaki’s child.

Wow - Ienaga was not only a skilled doctor and surgeon, but despite her terrible wound she didn’t lose the fetus!  If the only time Tanigaki and Inkarmat had sex was during the otter meat stew incident it was awhile ago now.  As that was the warmest time of the year - recall that Ogata didn’t wear his jacket - it must have been July or August.  The attack on Abashiri was likely August/September as it was aligned with the salmon run.  There is a great variability in how pregnancies develop between women, but based on how much she is showing we can conservatively say it has been say 6-7 months so the current time has to be around January maybe February (1908?).  This is all a rough estimate so don’t hold me to my math.  

Back to the chapter - Tanigaki is beyond shocked at this information.

I’m not at all honestly surprised at how Tanigaki doesn’t even know how to respond.  He is a simple man after all! After another panel of Inkarmat holding her belly, it shows Tanigaki barely able to respond with the question of “My child?” as he sweats profusely - his actions now have even more ramifications than before. 

Tsurumi then pulls him in close as he reminds him of his side quest to return Asirpa to Huci, if he were to return to this goal, Tsurumi would let Inkarmat and Tanigaki go.

This portion of the chapter ends with Tsurumi handing a pistol over to Tanigaki and tells him that he’s one of the few people who can get close to Sugimoto without him putting up his guard.  It is clear that, Tanigaki’s job is to kill Sugimoto for Tsurumi.

And in regards to Tanigaki’s simple man concept/personal vision of himself is true in the fact that he’s so simple that Tsurumi knows exactly how to handle him and he’s been playing him since the beginning.  Yep, Tanigaki you are so simple everyone with a brain and predict you. . . .  hence Ogata warning Tamai and Co. about trying to convince him to rebel, as he’s simple.

Sugimoto’s profile then leads to a conversation between the members of team Asirpa-Sugimoto-Shiraishi + Vasily.  I just can’t help but roll my eyes at Sugimoto’s comment about how surprising it was that Heita was a tattooed convict.  *sighs* Sugimoto really needs to get his bad guy radar re-calibrated.  Come on Sugimoto, you know many samples of bad and evil people - you can make a standard curve to be able to identify dangrous people by now!

Sugimoto takes this to mean that they are back on track for the goal of finding the gold, while Vasily silently watches him and Asirpa chat as Heita’s skin is being tanned.  I really wish at least for Vasily we got some internal dialogue since he can’t talk.  What does he think is really going on?  Right now he might be thinking - I found people associated with that weird cat sniper guy who owes me a rematch.  So far, I’ve watched them shoot a bear in the butthole, run around a fight a man with mental health issues and NOW they skinned him and are regrouping for something and there is a young girl at the center of all of this.  Will this really lead me to my sniper rematch?  Where are you Mr. Lynx sniper?

Asirpa calmly replies that they are also back to finding out what happened in the first place to the gold and the murder of the Ainu leaders too.  Asirpa finds some platinum in Heita’s Ainu tobacco case and Sugimoto and Shiraishi revert to absolute children fighting over it in front of Asirpa and Vasily.  I’m not super keen on this gag joke - it seems misplaced as they were being serious. 

Action then shifts again to HIjikata’s hideout at the house of Nagakura’s relative.  Kadokura and Kirawus are playing cards and having a bit of a riot as Kirawus is beating Kadokura at the game and having a blast.  As Kadokura has such shit luck, he tries to cheat by looking at the bottom of the deck.  Similar to Asirpa, Kirawus interestingly uses “osoma” as a part of his speech.  This then allows for Kirawus to give him more shit about being a butthole peeker (in reference to looking for the poisonous plant in the convict’s anus while in prison).  Kadokura then becomes embarrassed and tries to deny it as  Kirawus’s sweaty hand is accusing him of cheating.  The middle panel reminds me of a typical BL manga where the uke is terrified of a seme about to come onto him.  That look of KIrawus has that nervous look as his hand comes to his mouth as he looks back at Kadokura.

The next panel then not surprisingly has Kadokura jumping onto Kirawus as he pins him down telling him to shut up.  Yeah, definite BL energy going on there - I’m surprised Kadokura gets to be “on top” so to speak.  You’ve read a fair bit of BL haven’t you Noda?

Nagakura remarks how they are essentially useless before Ushiyama looks like he’s about to say something with interest.  That the stray, Ogata, has come back.  Ogata is embracing his full cat persona as he bakes his beans er - ahem - hands on the charcoal stove and he scratches at it with his feet.  Hijikata flat out asks him what he’s been up to since Abashiri.

So we now know his smug expression was him arriving at the house before Hijikata returned from Otaru.  So this invalidates my hypotheses in regards to where everyone in the Hijikata group were in the last chapter.  They have all regrouped at Nagakura’s place.  Where is Ariko now?  Is he with them?  The wee babe Kantarou?  Tell me where they are Noda. 

Ogata then has to explain his actions to Hijikata. 

He confirms that Asirpa verified the identity of Nopperabou to be her father.  He then states that both were hit by stray gunfire.  Hijikata knew that Ogata was not involved on the action directly during the “original” plan which everyone pretty much broke for their own gains.  He then continues to state that everyone scattered but that Kiro took Asirpa so he chose to go with them.  He’s got his hand on his hair as he explains this - a common behavior when he’s talking both to Hijikata and others who make him uncomfortable.  He touches his head when he confronts Tanigaki in Asirpa’s kotan, and also when he has to deal with the group in Yubari and the last time Hijikata asked about his motivations.

He continues to explain they went to Karafuto with the intent for Asirpa to meet Sofia, as Kiro thought meeting Sofia may help her to solve the code.  He states that Sugimoto caught up to them, Kiro was killed and they lost Asirpa and that he was also injured. 

Let’s break down everything Ogata has said on this page. 

Things that are factually true:

1.) Asirpa identified her father. -  Yep.

2.) everyone scattered in the chaos - pretty much, Hijikata ditched everyone else as well.

3.) he joined Kiro and Asirpa and went to Karafuto - Yep.

4.) Sofia was a key for the code and Asirpa - Yep.  Whole wolves thing.

5.) Sugimoto did catch up to them - Yep, Ogata spotted him and panicked resulting in him separated from Kiro and Sofia resulting in a huge disadvantage.

6.) Kiro was killed as a result.  - Yep, Ogata left him on his own where he was killed since Sugimoto ran off with Ryu and Tanigaki, Koito and Tsukishima followed which lead to the Sugimoto “indirect assist” in Kiro’s death.  Did Sugimoto actually kill Kiro? No, but his and Ogata’s own actions lead to his death.

7.) Ogata was injured as a result of Sugimoto catching up to them.  Sugimoto’s scream is what resulted in Asirpa accidentally shooting him in the eye.  He likely would have ended the stand off with Asirpa if Sugimoto hadn’t come rushing in.

The half-truth/half-lie:

1.) That Sugimoto and Wilk were killed by stray gunfire.  Oh hell no, that was you Ogata, but that is a smart way to try to cover your ass.  Ogata knows that Hijikata has lived this long and knew all about Abashiri. Ogata covering his ass in case Hijikata had information about those who saw Sugimoto and Wilk’s bodies.  Ogata is a shit liar, but this at least has some evidence that is factually correct since they were shot.

So out of all 8 statements on this page, 7 of the 8 are true and one is a typical Ogata omission of a key fact - the identity of the “stray bullet shooter”.

The next page continues Ogata’s information dump.

Interestingly, Ushiyama then ask why Sugimoto killed Kiro, after mulling over this a bit, I think this is a clever spin of information on Ogata’s part (I’ve binged too many episodes of “the thick of it” recently - I’m hyper aware of spin now. lol).  Ushiyama makes the assumption that Sugimoto is the one that killed Kiro, yet Ogata never actually said Sugimoto was the one that did it.  This is because he was likely not very aware of events after Sugimoto cut out his eye and ran to meet up with the others after they fought with Kiro.

By letting everyone assume that Sugimoto is the one who killed Kiro, it makes him look even more involved with Tsurumi and shows that Sugimoto’s loyalties are as fluid as everyone else’s.  Ogata then summarizes that Sugimoto teamed up with Tsurumi to get Asirpa back and that they should smartly assume that all of Sugimoto’s skins are with Tsurumi (actual fact!) and that Sugimoto then betrayed Tsurumi and went back to Hokkaido meaning he’s made himself an enemy of Tsurumi and lacks the skins he once had. 

This really is a great way by Ogata to attack Sugimoto’s character.  Sugimoto always wants people to trust him and see him as faithful and loyal - Ogata is flat out called a stray, he needs to win the information/perception war against Sugimoto.  He must lay down the foundation to get back at Sugimoto and strengthen his own position as an information broker in the quest for the gold.

He very confidently states that he has two key things he brought back form Karafuto.  1.) Sofia - he has the information on Sofia and that she is a partisan leader and she was a comrade of Wilk and Kiro.  He got to hear and see enough of her to realize she will be a force to be reckoned with and she will come for Asirpa.

A few interesting observations here - i.) Ogata’s respect for women continues as he flat out tells Hijikata that she will be a force to take seriously.  He doesn’t write her off and I’m sure he was impressed by her when he met her.  He does read people well when it comes to determining their strengths and weaknesses.

ii.) He says Wilk instead of Nopperabou.  This shows that he has more information on some things than Hijikata and he’s subtly putting it out there to tease Hijikata.  Yeah, you never knew Kiro’s original name (I did because I saw his wanted poster and I can read Russian!) AND I knew Wilk’s original name (from Inkarmat during the sea otter nabe, you weren’t there Hijikata and I saw his wanted poster and heard Sofia say his name).  This may be related to Ogata’s meltdown on ice - he clearly felt enough about what he thought Wilk’s plan for Asirpa was that he emotionally uses Wilk instead of the dehumanizing name of Nopperabou.  I also wonder if as Ogata learned more and more about Wilk he also did have some level of interest/respect [intellectual] connection to Wilk.  He always looked very interested in events surrounding him - at the fox farm when they wait in the lighthouse as Kiro tells Asirpa more etc.

The second item is this, 2.) Asirpa -  He knows that Asirpa has figured out the code to solve the skins.  Therefore, who ever has Asirpa when all of the skins are gathered will have the key to the gold.  Ogata looks so damn confident/smug/sexy when he says this bit.  He not only got more information about the partisan involvement and background in wanting to take the gold out of Hokkaido and to Karafuto/Russia.  He conclusively confirmed that Asirpa can solve the code.

Of course Kadokura is excited that they must find Asirpa and Kirawus looks shocked/dumbfounded.  I really think Kirawus knows more about this gold and he’s also playing dumb to get close to Hijikata.

Ogata returns to full on feline mode and warms his beans - er hands over the stove as he with his eyes closed in a cat zen like states Sugimoto will come to them.  They have lost all of their skins and it is impossible to return to Tsurumi now that Sugimoto has outright betrayed them.  He also clearly summarizes that only two groups have the skins so Sugimoto will have to go to the one he hasn’t betrayed yet. 

The chapter ends with a somewhat incorrect summary of the skin distribution between the groups and shows a serious looking Sugimoto that there are only 4 skins yet.

Overall, my impressions of this chapter.  Lots of questions and more observations!

1.) Will Koito fully recover? What is the status of his left arm?

2.) What shattered Tsukishima?  He’s looked the same since Koito confronted him - dead on the inside and outside.

3.) Tanigaki will continue to dance to Tsurumi’s tune and he’s still using Inkarmat to control him.  Now the stakes are higher.

4.) Sugimoto needs to be less obvious about how he’ll move, he’s about as easy to read as Tanigaki.

5.) Ogata has to walk a razor thin line.  He provided information on a need to know basis with a lie and some omissions. Hijikata has never trusted Ogata from the start - I don’t think Hijikata knew that Ogata and Kiro were working together.  He also likely doesn’t know that Ogata knows Russian, but for the love of god he should suspect it since Ogata went willingly with Kiro to find Sofia.  He is working on his own information spin to make sure that Sugimoto is not trusted by Hijikata’s group.

He omitted the following facts outright - i.) Shiraishi was with his group in Karafuto and is likely aware that he’s upset at Kiro’s death. ii.) he likely knows that Tanigaki went after Kiro for revenge iii.) Sofia, Wilk and Kiro met a Japanese spy in Russia iv.) he knows that a skilled sniper [Vasily] has joined Sugimoto’s group v.) he planted the seeds out doubt in Koito’s mind on Karafuto.

Is he waiting for a time when these can be important to him or maintaining his position?  As far as I’m concerned - Ogata is his own faction in the quest for the gold.  He’s just hanging with Hijikata for now, as it benefits him, but a cat has no true master.  A retired vetranairian told me this once “Dogs have owners.  Cats have staff.”  Ogata showed his cat like tendancies in this chapter - everyone else is just his staff.

[hikalyra]

Thank you for this amazing series 🏐 !!

(Warning: for those who follow the anime only, this will contain a lot of spoilers!)

Ah, Haikyuu will end today. Last chapter will be uploaded tonight. The manga which I started to read in 2014. I remember that week was full of bliss, has just graduated from high school but uni hasn't started yet. It was in June if I'm not mistaken, an orientation week from uni (normal orientation week) which started from 8 AM to 3 PM, and after that I went back to my rental place and started marathoning haikyuu. It was so so much fun.

Every chapter gives you this powerful excitement feeling, that is what I felt when reading haikyuu. I feel in love with it.

Tho I did not remember all of it, some the amazing moments stayed with me for a long time. But surely, the happiness and excitement feeling lingers a lot till today, tho I can't exactly remember the chapters or the story.

There was a time when I did not read it diligently, also in 2019 I barely read it at all, I think I kinda forgot (?) because I was busy and all hahaha. Then in early 2020 I came back reading it and was shocked to see how far it has came 😂 also at how it is on it's final arc now :") and today the last chapter will be released.

After rereading it, the parts I'm missing, the parts I did not remember, also marathoning the anime while comparing the differences with the manga (Yes I am quite diligent on this lol 😂) It reminds me a lot of moments I have forgotten, also gives me a lot of jamais vu vibes haha.

And since I have grown older now, maybe now I am much more able to understand the character a lot. Back then I remember how I root Karasuno a lot, not wanting them to lose at all haha. Now, rereading it all, every character is interesting. Like I don't want all to lose, but there is only one winner in a match :")

And reading the last arc made me feel that this is indeed about volleyball, these people love for volleyball, and sensei's love for volleyball. It is also about our two main characters growth in volleyball, Hinata from his technical abilities, while Kageyama is more in his communication skills and teamplay growth. Also reading some of translations for interview with Team Japan Volleyball, it hits deep how realistic Haikyuu is. How pro players can relate to it, how some of the plays, the mentioned quotes apply to them in real life. They relate to it.

Haikyuu storyline is simple, yet deep. It shows a life full of passion in a bunch of youths, and how it affect them, how something so simple made them fell deep into this sport (like how Tsukishima get that moment after blocking Ushijima, and I personally feel that moment which made Hinata fell deeper into volleyball is in that Inarizaki match, where he managed to receive Aran's spike nicely).

And in between the storylines, sensei managed to explain the rules, tactics, strategies, what affect players in playing, how to be a team player (communication) and all, it is extremely realistic and we see the characters growth in it. I personally love the tactics explanations, also the part where Kageyama went back into the King of the Court after Youth training, after reading it multiple times (lol) the thing I can summarize from it is, you need communication, you need to compromise with each other, to awaken your team potential, to make your team become better or best. That is very realistic, saying you need to communicate. Also the part in Nationals, when they started playing in the stadium, it is so big people can lost their sense of space. That is very realistic too. Haikyuu, tho it is fiction and yes of course there must be parts that does feel or not seem to be realistic, is very realistic in a lof of aspects. It is not just a story telling you to level up, power up, the strongest is the winner. Yes, the stronger team wins, but a lot of things affect in one play.

The way Furudate sensei tells the story is amazing, and once again I will say, it felt so realistic. Also it is poetic. There are a lot of new scenes that parallel old panels. The wordings are poetic. The banners are poetic. How sensei choose the names. Everything is amazing.

And also, the art, the panels, the way sensei choose to draw, the way sensei choose to tell the story. Everything is wonderful.

I am glad to be able to stumble upon this amazing work, a masterpiece will I say, in my life. It brings me a lot of joy and excitement these past few years. Tho it can't be fully perfect in all, but this is near perfect to my standard. It is just so wonderful and my lack of vocabulary can't explain how I feel except from saying the same words over and over again lol 😂

And once more, to summarize,

The storyline, the characters, the way the stories is being told, the words choosen to tell, the art, the technical aspects, the excitement and passion felt from each of the chapters, the tension felt from the matches, the realistic parts, the volleyball itself, everything is so amazing and wonderful at the same time.

I think I read somewhere, sensei played as MB during school, and then decided to make volleyball manga, and sensei made it this far. Once in an interview sensei said that sensei hoped haikyuu to be a story which both people who play and do not play volleyball can enjoy. Also, in the very first volume, sensei said, "I hope to make this story full of fun and great characters you'll enjoy and who will make you want to say, "I want to root for these guys!""

Sensei, I think both are of them are already accomplised. I do not play volley but I have grown to love the game, although there are some rules I can't remember, but I forgot a lot too 😂. And I root for almost all the characters in Haikyuu a lot.

Thank you sensei for making me (and I believe it is not only me, but us) feel that volley is fun and cool!

[zombiekittiez]

Adventures of Tsukki! Coda Chapter 18

Fanfic: pairing, tsukkiyama 

 Summary: Tsukishima learns the Patronus

coda to OIASM chapter 18

GiftFic! for Crystal - short and 9 years late, LORDT

~~

Tsukishima asks Shimizu to teach him the patronus because out of all the people that he knows who are happy and the few he knows who are smart, she is probably the only one who manages to be both. Thinking of inherent happiness as an idiotic trait says more about Tsukishima than anything else, but he shoves that train of thought to the side and bows politely and asks anyway.

 Her expression is as unruffled as ever, though he is getting better at detecting the minute changes that indicate her state of mind. He decides that it is most likely shock.

 “It isn’t that I don’t want to,” she says belatedly. “Or even that I think I’d be a poor teacher. I am simply surprised that you would think to ask me.”

 “You’re Ravenclaw Champion,” he says, like it’s obvious. She blinks, slow, in a way that might be pleased.

 “I see,” she says.

 “I’ve read up on the practical aspect. Think happy thoughts and go,” he keeps his voice deliberately droll, to hide his nervousness.

 “Mm. That won’t work for you.” Shimizu leads the way to the Training Room, empty at lunch hour. “You’re too focused on the process. What is happiness? Was it foolish, in hindsight? Will your current happiness bring you grief later?”

 Tsukishima flushes angrily. She gives him a rare smile, shutting the door behind them. “I’m the same,” she says, and he calms.

 “I’m not an unhappy person, despite what I seem. There is a lot of good in my life. I appreciate the things that I have, even if I’m afraid sometimes of asking for more. Be honest with yourself, Tsukishima. What is the best thing in your life? What has made you happier than anything else, at any other time? When things are dark, where do you go, in your mind?”

 Tsukishima flushes again. “You don’t have to say it,” she reassures him. “You never have to say it out loud. But you have to say it to yourself or the magic won’t come. And you won’t be able to help him.”

 Tsukishima glances at her out of the corner of his eye, then looks back straight ahead, too embarrassed even to face in her general direction. He consoles himself with the thought that at least he didn’t ask Kuroo as he draws his wand.

 Tsukishima remembers the week that Yamaguchi had been stuck as a cat. He’d liked that more than he’d wanted to admit even just privately. Yamaguchi is a cute person and smart and earnest and a little goofy and just someone really likeable. Mostly, Tsukishima feels indulgent, watching Yamaguchi gain confidence and forge friendships and glow a little brighter every day. Every once in a while, though, when he’s looking sad or stressed or overwhelmed or even just smiling a little too sweetly at somebody else, Tsukishima wants to cast transmogrify and lock him in a room Yamaguchi can’t open without opposable thumbs. Just sometimes. Rarely.

 Be honest.

 Tsukishima remembers laying across the bed, Yamaguchi’s little cat face tucked against his neck, purring softly. With each breath, cat whiskers tickled the underside of his chin, but not enough to move- just enough to be aware. His hands trailed through the soft clean fur of Yamaguchi’s coat, rubbing the base of his ears and down his spine, curled like a perfect little oval. Yamaguchi nuzzled closer and somewhere in-between, he shifted back, cold wet nose gone, breath suddenly hot against skin. Yet something about this perfect, still Sunday morning didn’t change- Tsukishima didn’t let it. Selfishly, he kept his arms tight around Yamaguchi’s shoulders, kept his hands tangled in that soft shaggy hair. Yamaguchi sighed, a surprisingly human sound in the silence, and Tsukishima looked down. Yamaguchi blinked up at him with his hazy brown eyes and Tsukishima touched his cheek, sliding along freckles to rest at the nape of his neck. He could feel the pulse there, soft and steady. Yamaguchi lay nearly fully on his chest, but somehow he didn’t feel heavy. Probably because Tsukishima was busy feeling so light.

Happiest he’s ever been has always been beside Yamaguchi. And he’ll learn this spell, and the next, and more and more, as many as it takes, as much as he needs to. He’ll protect this thing that’s so important to him... because if anything is worth a little effort, it’s this shyly messy person with his perfect, crooked grin.

 Sorry, Tsukki!

 Tsukishima casts a perfect patronus, silver light pouring from his wand into an arc, corporeal form solidifying in an instant. He’s not a bit surprised when it twines against his ankle, purring. After a moment where he tries to pretend this isn’t happening and that his whole heart isn’t on the floor, batting playfully at his shoelaces, he gives in. Tsukishima drops down  back on his heels and and pets the silver cat between the ears.

 “At least I didn’t ask Kuroo,” he repeats out loud. Shimizu, to her credit, doesn’t say a word.

~~

[gunnerpalace]

Why do you antis use Orihime's jealousy of Rukia & Ichigo’s bond to justify the legitimacy of their ship? They say things like "even Orihime can see why Ichigo and Rukia are the real deal", as if it's not perfectly normal for a teenage girl to feel insecure and to have preconceived notions. I could be talking to some random guy and people might assume we're together. Never mind if he was one of my closest friends. People jump to wrong conclusions all the time. Why can't Orihime?

Like the problem with this argument is that people tend to ignore the context around it, which is the depression Orihime was experiencing during the arrancar arc.

She was feeling useless, insecure, and left behind. She didn’t think she contributed enough in the SS arc, and then she failed to protect Tatsuki and Chad against the espada on top of that. And so, her feelings of inadequacy towards Rukia were not a single, isolated incident (if they were, that would have given a lot more weight to this argument). Instead, it was just one thing on a long, collective list.

It’s important to remember that she was in a dark place mentally at this point, and felt inadequate and worthless in virtually every aspect of life—making all of her self-perceived shortcomings seem magnified, to the point that she focuses on things that *gasp* aren’t actually there, or anywhere near as bad as they may seem to be to her.

Because her being useless isn’t a fact. Her not being able to measure up to Rukia isn’t a fact. All of these things don’t exist as actual concrete truths in the manga; they exist only in her mind. They are insecurities that she has made up in her head.

How do we know this? Because Kubo immediately reassures her/the reader that she has no reason to feel the way she does every single time she expresses these feelings of inadequacy aloud. When she worries that she can’t contribute enough and only ever gets in the way, Rukia refutes that and reassures Orihime that her role in the SS arc was vital and important. When she expresses jealousy towards Rukia, Rangiku refutes that and reassures Orihime that she is special to Ichigo in her own way.

Clearly, Kubo was not trying to tell us “yeah, Orihime’s right, she really is fuckin useless and can’t measure up to Rukia.” This is basic storytelling. He set up how Orihime’s lack of self-worth is affecting the way she perceives things, and then he’s spelling it out through his characters that what she is perceiving is all in her head and not actually true.

Honestly, it’s funny that people even try to use her jealousy as proof of an IR romance when it’s immediately followed up with Rangiku basically saying, “silly girl, you have no reason to feel this way.” Do you see how that blows a massive hole in this argument? That it’s immediately struck down via Kubo speaking through Rangiku?

Again, it’s not really not surprising that Orihime would feel that way given the context of the arc—her growth arc. Her feelings of jealousy were not a testament of an IR romance, they were a testament of how negatively Orihime was feeling about herself at the time. Kubo did not write this to prove that Orihime really is useless and could never measure up to Rukia in Ichigo’s eyes; he wrote it as a stepping stone for Orihime’s development, to show how she was once at a low point and developed

The thing is, when she expresses the jealousy towards Rukia, her fear is that she would never be able to affect Ichigo the way Rukia can, or “get him out of his funks” the way she did….And then she does just that in the HM arc. When Ichigo’s not fighting like his usual self and is about to be defeated by Grimmjow, Orihime calls out to him and completely rejuvenates him with just a few short words. That’s the effect she has on him. And it proves her insecurities totally false.

Immediately, I don’t appreciate being used as some random scratching post for opinions I have never expressed. I am not the representative leader of “you antis,” nor have I ever claimed to be. So I’m not impressed by this from the outset.

I am further unimpressed by it being done anonymously, rather than some effort being made to have some kind of real dialogue.

With that said, I am unaware of anyone having advanced the argument that Orihime is inferior to Rukia simply on the basis of not being able to handle pressure. She is, when all is said and done, indeed merely a 16-year-old. I am also unaware that anyone has advanced Orihime’s breakdown to Rangiku as being the sole substantiation of Orihime’s understanding of Ichigo and Rukia’s relationship. If anyone has, their understanding is very limited.

However, so is yours.

First, Orihime’s feelings of jealousy were not a product of her state of mind during the Arrancar arc. She clearly demonstrated her knowledge of Ichigo and Rukia’s importance to one another when she tried to dissuade Ichigo from going to Soul Society. She also clearly knew and said aloud that Rukia was important to Ichigo during Soul Society. This is a matter of record, and puts paid your notion that her feeling of jealousy arose from “depression.” She was already possessed of it long before.

While I would agree that it was probably a complex of feeling inadequate and feeling jealous that lead to her so-called “depression” (really more of a funk) by the Arrancar arc, you have the chain of causality wrong. Her jealousy did not arise then, it had clearly crystallized by then.

Second, just because Rangiku (or any character) says something, doesn’t make it true, valid, or reflective of authorial intent. Yammy calls Orihime trash. Kubo wrote that. Does it mean Kubo is speaking through Yammy and telling us that Orihime is trash? No. You would call that absurd, and it is. But it’s exactly what you’re doing with Rangiku’s dialogue. The words belong to her, and her alone, and she is a character with her own biases and incomplete knowledge. Claiming that Rangiku’s speech is “special” and privileged over all others is ridiculous.

Third, Rukia is also possessed of incomplete information. She does not seem to know that Orihime went to Soul Society “to protect Kurosaki-kun,” and not to rescue her. This is substantiated by Rukia’s point of view after being grievously injured by Aaroniero. Rukia is a kind enough person that even if she did know, she likely wouldn’t hold it against Orihime, but there is no reason for we, the readers, to agree with that.

Fourth, just because you’re sad and in a funk doesn’t justify getting into a situation where all your friends would’ve died if not for a convenient plot twist, which is precisely what Orihime did in going along with Ulquiorra to Hueco Mundo. Everyone would have died had the Captains not arrived, which she had no way of knowing would happen. Everyone went on a suicide mission because of her and her choices (and further, they all played into Aizen’s hands.) Either she would’ve watched Ichigo get chopped up by Tesla or he would’ve gone Full Hollow then and there instead, with who knows what outcome.

It could be argued that, again, she’s a 16-year-old, and couldn’t have foreseen this chain of events. However, ignorance is no defense before the law, and it isn’t a particularly strong defense of character either.

Fifth, she was also questioning whether Ichigo was a monster and was frightened of him, until Nel basically told her that something was wrong with her and she should cheer for Ichigo no matter what. So if she “rejuvenated” Ichigo, she was herself only “rejuvenated” by Nel. Really then, isn’t it Nel who perked Ichigo up? This is in turn solidified by the events above the dome of Las Noches, where Orihime utterly fails to inspire, which is repeated again and again later in the manga.

Anyway, to my knowledge, nobody really uses any of this to substantiate IR. They use it as an indictment of Orihime. The two are correlated, but separate, and do not particularly rely on one another.

So my answer to your question of “Why…” is that nobody does that. Nobody substantiates IR on the basis of Orihime’s views. However, you have an incomplete understand of Orihime’s views yourself, and even a full accounting of her mental context does not justify what she does and the risk she puts everyone in. That risk is part of the main body of anti-Orihime sentiment, but there need be no connection between being anti-Orihime and pro-IR. Someone who stanned Uryuu or Chad or Renji could be just as mad about it, because she screwed all of them just as hard.

The reason why that risk is viewed as an indictment of Orihime is precisely because she does not grow from these events.

She says she has in the Xcution and Thousand-Year Blood War arcs, but each time she fails yet again. She cannot overcome Tsukishima’s fake memories (and neither can Chad, whereas Byakuya can—Byakuya’s trust in and love of Ichigo is clearly greater than either of theirs), and her shield doesn’t work in Yhwach’s throne room after her long mental speech about catching up to Ichigo.

When the chips are truly down, as they were when Numb Chandelier was threatening to mind-control their classmates into raping Tatsuki until she committed suicide, Orihime never again rises to the occasion.

That she had already done so in Tatsuki’s case (and seemed ready to do so again for Uryuu against Moeh) is what brings her repeated failures in Ichigo’s case into stark relief.

Kubo was indeed saying something through basic storytelling with this repeating motif, I would agree. But it’s not something you would like to hear.

Anyway, if you want to debate this point further, you can do it with this post. I’m not interested in receiving more messages like these in my inbox.