As humans, we strive for victory.
Cynics will say that this is due to our need to pummel our opponents into the dirt and
kick them while they’re down out of some innately dark lust to feel superior, while
others might say it’s because of the joy of succeeding in your passion, bonding with
your teammates and seeing hard work paying off.
Regardless of which side you sit on, it’s clear that we desire victory.
Obviously this can be a more abstract thing than winning a game because victory can apply
to many contexts.
But regardless, we are constantly trying to reach that sense of accomplishment.
And examining the psychology and mentality that takes place as people try to get there
is a microcosm of the human condition.
Whether in sport or otherwise, sooner or later everyone experiences a block - a mental block
that they must truly obsess over or devote time to to get past in order to reach their
goal.
Hinata, Kageyama, Yamaguchi, Tsukishima, Asahi, Nishinoya and Karasuno overall all experience
this in the hunt for personal betterment and the search for victory.
Evolution and progression, not just in sport, but in general, is messy.
A significant shift must happen for things to improve at a drastic enough level, and
this leaves plenty of room for error.
Innovation is plagued by mistakes, so in seeking to genuinely improve, things will get better
before they get worse.
This is what happens with Karasuno at the beginning of Season 2 - in resolving to get
better, the team must rip apart the status quo.
They all learn new techniques, they make shifts in their personal ideologies, they build stronger
relationships, and most importantly, they get over their mental block to become closer
with their team and their passion.
Hinata develops awareness and maturity, Kageyama learns how to accept the reality of his role,
Asahi shows his authority, Yamaguchi finally steps up to the plate and shows courage, Tsukishima
moves on from his fears and inhibitions to learn why volleyball is worth the effort that
he sees everyday in his colleagues.
Everyone deals with these things and come together in synchronicity - and this doesn’t
always happen in real life, but what is realistic is that these personal journeys all had breakthroughs
coinciding with one another and with the team’s big leap, because that’s what a support
system like a sports team can do for you when everyone is pulling on the same chain.
And from here, we see the draw of sports anime in full form - a potent mix of vicarious satisfaction,
investment in the characters, and an adherence and identification with Karasuno not entirely
unlike being a fan of a real sports team.
Sport is unbridled joy in motion, a pure display of the human spirit.
There’s nothing more intimate than someone doing what they love.
It’s idealized in most anime, but in experiencing sports, whether playing or watching, the highs
are indescribable.
Yet, there are two aspects of these highs that make them entirely worth it.
Firstly - that they’re incredibly difficult to achieve, and secondly - that they’re
fleeting.
Everyone is selfish to some extent, even in team sports.
In most cases you’d desire whats best for the team, but we want want we want at the
deepest level, and sometimes things conflict.
In team sports, you want to be on the field, pitch or court and you want to perform your
best - it’s a competition not just against opponents, but with team mates.
Yet in a healthy scenario, the team’s needs always come first.
It’s a dynamic that creates relationships that are part sibling and part rival, pushing
each other and achieving personal goals to achieve team goals in an ideal world.
And striking a balance and compromise between these two concepts is what makes sport fulfilling
- because it can lead to these..
moments.
It’s a mix of personal fulfillment and playing for your team-mates, and when those two aspects
of sport coincide, it’s a truly beautiful thing; displaying your bonds with your brothers
or sisters through living out your passion.
Or in an individual sport, finding that one play or game where all of your hard work and
struggles pay off and where you realize that your trials were worth it, that what you are
doing is truly all you want to be doing in that moment.
Often, but not always coinciding with victory - It’s mesmerizing, it’s ecstasy; these
are the moments that we live for.
When the stars seem to align and everything coincides and coalesces into this one single
moment that seems to freeze time, during which you could not feel any happier or any more
in tune with life.. and then, as quickly as it comes, the moment is gone.
For anyone who has a true passion for a sport or something similar, these tiny points are
the greatest possible high.
We’re hedonistic, primitive beings, so this is not surprising that we constantly seek
this gratification.
You can’t capture these moments in a bottle, so as soon as they pass, you devote your time
to reaching that point again, to experience that ecstasy once more.
To reach that peak, to see beyond that wall, to open that door.
When you put your everything into a passion and fail, the pain of it can be unimaginable.
So, naturally, the opposite is true.
Tasting victory, experiencing defeat, and the trials, the suffering, the peaks and valleys
that we go through as we try to taste it once more - the pure joy that we experience when
playing, the passion that exudes from us as everything comes together, and the suffering
in between that makes it all the more worth it - I think that above all, THAT is the appeal
of a story like Haikyuu.
There is no death, no political intrigue, no grand wars or weaving narratives - just
raw, unbridled dedication and passion.
A constant internal and external battle, within and outside of oneself, to reach that one
moment - the one that you will look back on fondly for the rest of your life.
And then when it passes, resolving to reach it again .. and again.
Such is the nature of not just sport, but what most of us look for in life.