Haikyuu!! Episode 8 The Man who is called “ACE”

Haikyuu!! Episode 8 Review

The Man who is called “ACE”

Summary

The person who took Kageyama’s serve was shorter than Hinata, which make Hinata somewhat relieved and happy. When the senior came, they introduced him as Nishinoya, a second grade high scholar and he was the senior of both Kageyama and Hinata.

 The manliest line ever

He had a conversation with Kageyama regarding to their junior high school origin as well as his reason for entering Karasuno. In contrast to his first serious impression, he said that the main reason he entered Karasuno was because he likes the school’s boys and girls’ uniforms.

 Rejoice we have a tsundere here

He asked the senior about whether Asahina senpai came back to the volley club or not. Daichi reluctantly said that he was not planning to make a come back. The hot-blooded Nishinoya became enraged and left the gymnasium saying that he would not enter the team if Asahina did not coming.

Hinata met Nishinoya outside the gym and he asked Nishinoya to teach him receiving the serve since he was bad at it. Nishinoya, who like to be praised, told Hinata that he would teach him though he wanted to do it because Hinata called him Senpai.

When Hinata trained his receiving skill, he asked Nishinoya about the person named Asahina. He was the former ace of Karasuno and for some reasons; he decided to give up being volleyball player. Nishinoya later explained that he like being a libero because as long as libero still touch the ball, the team would not lose. He also encouraged Hinata that his position as a decoy is important for the team.

I am not surprised if he was the coach. The op kinda spoil it 

That night, Takeda sensei met a person named Ukai and discussing about being the Karasuno High team coach. While Ukai insistently declined, He told him that Karasuno’s newest team has potentials and Ukai might change his opinion if he watched them play.

In the next morning, Sugawara decided to persuade Asahina for coming back to Volleyball club. Asahina refused the persuasion and went outside the classroom. In there, he met Hinata and Kageyama who intend to met him. After Sugawara introducing the new freshmen, Asahina gave his support for them but that was all he could give since he decided not to make a come back. Meanwhile, Takeda sensei managed to make the new practice match schedule.

Suga chan you are scaring me now

Sugawara explained to them that Asahina gave up volley because he was the type who shoulder all of the burden alone and his loss affect his spirit.

In the gymnasium, Takeda sensei announced that he arranged new match for the team during the last day of golden week. They were about to do practice match against team Nekoma from Tokyo. He also added that their new coach might change his mind if he heard their school met Nekoma High School.

If Nekoma is the cat and Karasuno is the crow, now where is the garbage dump?

Nishinoya said that despite the promising newcomers, he would not join the practice match as long as Asahina did not join the club.

Ougi Hyper Special Kageyama Toss

The next day, Hinata and Kageyama met with Asahina again and although he had no intention to come back, Hinata explained to him that he envied his abilities. He also noted that with Kageyama’s support, the same problem that he also used to encounter was no longer. Before coming back to the class, Kageyama told Asahina that he was not doing everything alone although Kageyama admitted that he used to consider that the other members were not essential for him.

Episode Impression

We get new characters in this episode. Nishinoya the Libero and Asahina the Ace. In my opinion, this was a character introduction episode with some spice of comedy in it.

The focus of the character this episode is good especially for Asahina. Being the team Ace, he felt responsible to the team loss. Yet he could not accept the condition and decided to stop playing volleyball since he felt that he no longer could not win the game.

Nishinoya, who respected him as the team ace felt betrayed by Asahina’s decision to leave the court. He wanted to give him another toss and if he had to join the new team, he felt that if they win without Asahina’s guidance, it means that they would not need him to win. He merely could not abandon Asahina taking all the blame. Should they win, he should take part as the team not as an ex-team.

The new characters impress me that despite being their introductory episode, they showed me that they have the feeling of loss and frustrations. They are given their character depth and emotion. Nishinoya was fiery and he looked like a hot-blooded person but actually he was the type who could not abandon his friend in despair. Asahina was more calm and mature but deep inside he was traumatized to make another mistake. He thought he had lost his prime and could not burden his team any longer while it was actually his own assumption.

I knew this episode was not as intense as the previous episode but with the right doze of characterization, comedy and the story direction, the information’s for this episode was satisfying. I will wait for the match next week anticipating what could change Asahina decision to enter the again again.