Haikyuu 2!! Episode 22: The Former Coward’s Fight

I’m not gonna lie, my eyes were getting filled with tears this episode when I wasn’t shaking my laptop screen. If Daichi is supposed to be the dad of the team, and Suga the mom, I always considered Yamaguchi to be the baby of the team. A first year, meek, inexperienced, and so adorable that you want to hold him and pat his sweet little head. But he was no baby this episode, in a matter of seconds he grew up into one hell of a man and I was so proud. He’s no baby, or a coward, he proved himself this episode and impressed even the girls from Aoba Johsai. With everyone screaming “YEAAAAAH!!!” “NICE SERVE!” “ALL RIGHT!” “ONE MORE!” “YAMAGUCHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!” in their current situation, this was probably the most intense episode of Haikyuu!! this season. If my parents weren’t home I would have been screaming too.

After running away and playing it safe last time he was a pinch server, Yamaguchi was ready to take it all on again. With Karasuno being five points away, they needed a miracle to catch up to Aoba Johsai. We saw in a flashback that after saying he’d go to the bathroom, Yamaguchi actually went to find Coach Ukai to apologize to him. Now to make up for what he did, he found the courage within himself to pinch serve again and prove himself. With one successful floating serve after another, Yamaguchi was able to score points for Karasuno that made them quickly catch up. Everyone is getting pumped up, screaming and cheering. And for once, Yamaguchi is calm, cool, and collected, not getting the pressure to bring him down. Until Aoba Johsai was able to deflect his serve, sending a spike toward Yamagushi’s way, which he’s not prepared for as all he knows what to do is pinch serve. So with the opponents scoring, Yamaguchi is switched back and everyone is all over him.

Except now it’s match point, and from this point on it’s a match to take the second set. For Karasuno this would be the win for them, for Aoba Johsai they would continue the game. Neither team let up and it was getting really intense. Was this going to be the end of the match or just warm up for the third and last set? I don’t think it’s very interesting to give every detail of this match, buuuut…

Yeah, they lose the set.

So it looks like this game is going to be dragged out until the end, isn’t it? But oh my, they’re moving on to the third set yet again with this team, losing to them again in the end would probably kill all of them. You can see how closely matched they are right now, so really it can be anyone’s game. OR…the main characters will finally get a win and move on to the finals? That would be the ideal, seeing as how Karasuno has been the underdogs for quite some time, and to win against a powerhouse school like Aoba Johsai would really let them make their mark. We’ll see how the rest of this match goes.

Even if they’re moving on to the third set, Yamaguchi really was a hero. ;_;