It’s time for Karasuno’s match against the Kakugawa team in which the tall guy plays.
His name’s Hyakuzawa and apparently he’s a beginner. Strange thing when you know that he’s the Ace of Karasuno’s opponent team and that therefore, all his teammates are relaying on him. He only started playing volley ball 6 months ago so I kind of expect him to lack of technique. Oh well, I don’t want to give those guys advice on how to play but it seems that counting on a single player, plus a beginner, to win isn’t the best tactic at all.
The match starts and as expected, Hyakuzawa’s height is an advantage for his team because he can easily avoid Karasuno’s block and even block Hinata’s feints. However according to the Old Coach Ukai, this kind of “simple and pure strength” can also be a disadvantage if you’re not trained enough.Indeed, Hyakuzawa seems to lack of speed and technique and also as a major problem with his attacks: he can only hit the ball in the same direction as his body is facing. Daichi and Nishinoya figure that out really quickly so they decide to change their defense strategy in order to receive Hyakuzawa’s spikes more easily.
Also, Kageyama looks finally ready to try out the new quick attack with Hinata. The last one is really exited about that and I understand him because the quick attack is so cool, even the name given by the old coach Ukai is cool. Like we saw in the previous episodes there are 3 tempos in spiking: the 1st one, 2nd one and the 3rd. Because Hinata starts jumping before Kageyama is even touching the ball, Ukai calls the quick attack ” The Minus Tempo”. DAMN, so cool ʕ•̀ω•́ʔ✧
Well it’s also funny for me. In French “Minus” is a way too describe someone as little, it can be taken as an insult too, it’s kind of the same thing as “shrimp”. Given the fact that Hinata is not the tallest guy on earth this name was really appropriate, well at least for me.
Like I said at the beginning the Kakugawa team has a major problem and I think that’s why they can’t win. They are relying on their Ace and they are fully aware of that. They say it’s their “way of playing” to do everything to support Tall guy Hyakuzawa but I think this is wrong. You can’t rely on a single player GOD DAMMIT! What’s the point of having a team then? The other players are not meant to be only supports… At least that’s how I see things.
Karasuno takes the first set and takes the early advantage during the second one. At that point it looks like they’re going to win, but the other team refuse to give up and Hyakuzawa doesn’t look tired at all. Although he is quite annoyed by the fact that Hinata manages to score points and he doesn’t understand how Hinata can jump higher than him given the fact that he’s smaller than him. Well that’s the power of the main character Hyakuzawa, sorry for you Bro even if Hinata is ginger you can’t win
It’s the last point of the second set for Karasuno. Hyakuzawa and Hinata are at the block. Hyakuzawa tries to use his brutal strength to pass the block another time but Hinata does a soft receive to slow down the ball. Now it’s Hinata’s turns to spike and during the long seconds that he’s jumping, floating in the air because we are in a Sports anime, he remembers what Bokuto taught him during the summer training camp. So Hinata use the ” Umbrella” technique and aims at the block’s fingers so that the ball can pass. He succeed and marks the match point .
The victory goes to Karasuno!
After the match, Hinata has forgotten his lunch box in the gymnasium so he decides to go back and sees Kyoko being bothered by random guys. He defends her and how surprise: they are actually from a Volley ball Team that was good enough to avoid the prelims and are playing in the Semi finals. It seems like Karasuno has found a new rival team then.
So this match was more “Technique against Pure strength”. It’s nice to see that Hinata can do more than just jumping high now. He can feint, do the “Umbrella” technique ( I don’t know how to call that worry), be a effective middle blocker, masters the quick attack and now he can choose where he wants the ball to go when he spikes. I hope the others teams are ready cause Hinata sure is.
Next Episode: Looks like Karasuno is going to do more training in their school’s gymnasium waiting for the next round of matches. And they better do cuz, oh boy, their upcoming opponents won’t go easy on them.
This is my last post of the year and it’s almost time to get ready for New Year’s Eve Parties to meet my only true friend: Vodka. Don’t make the same mistakes as me and don’t drink too much otherwise you’ll regret it tomorrow like I do, every single year ʕ•̀ω•́ʔ✧
I wish you all a Happy New Year, may 2016 be fulled of joy and Anime ʕっ•ᴥ•ʔっ