HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle

A feature film from a series built on volleyball. Karasuno high school is at the national tournament. Facing them is Nekoma; the two schools have been rivals for years and have never met in an official match. Their coaches dreamed of the same thing when they were students. The film covers a single match. The sets, the service rotations, the changes of tactics and the substitutions are shown step by step. At the centre are Hinata, Karasuno's short spiker, and Kenma, Nekoma's setter. The two are friends and spend the match trying to stop each other. Kenma's line is the most interesting part. He never liked volleyball; his reason for playing is something else, and it comes out in this match. Visually the production goes beyond the series: the camera moves inside the court, the path of the ball is followed and the pace is kept close to the real rhythm of a match. The source is Haruichi Furudate's manga. Susumu Mitsunaka directed. The film was a large box office success in Japan and one of the most watched animated productions of its year. A production that goes straight for its target for anyone who likes sports animation and follows the series. For a viewer who does not know it, the film introduces no players and stays without context because it runs on one match.