Haikyu the Dumpster Battle Serves Up a Fan-Only Contest
The anticipated battle between Karasuno High School and Nekoma High School should delight fans, but leave everyone else cold.
Haikyu began almost a decade ago. While it’s considered short compared to shonen anime giants like My Hero Academia or One Piece, the 85-episode run is nothing to scoff at. The story follows Shoyo Hinata and Tobio Kageyama—two freshmen volleyball players on the Karasuno High School team. Not immune to traditional shonen tropes, Haikyu depicts these two young athletes leveling up (participating in summer training sessions and facing increasingly more difficult competition) while bonding and becoming a complete team with their seniors.
Audiences showing up to Haikyu The Dumpster Battle without all that world-building will see a competitive Volleyball game with none of the stakes. It can be admired as a spectator, but it can’t possibly convey everything that has been building up to this point. As a continuation of a popular anime series that hasn’t seen a new entry in four years, this is an exciting entry with many of the series’ best characters.
Taking place deep within a seemingly endless Spring Nationals tournament, Karasuno and Nekoma will finally face off against each other in an official match. The schools have a mostly friendly rivalry that goes back years and this is the latest chapter in that battle. The winner will continue into the next round, while the loser goes home. Karasuno’s Hinata lives and breathes Volleyball and he has been waiting to face his rivals, especially Nekoma’s setter, Kenma Kozume.
One of the formulas that Haikyu established over its run is that during the pivotal Volleyball match, the story would also take an opportunity to highlight individual characters. In the movie, Kenma’s Volleyball career is given the spotlight—showcasing how disinterested he originally was in Volleyball, to his growth as a setter. Audiences unfamiliar with this might mistakenly believe that Nekoma’s team is the protagonist despite the continued spotlight on Shoyo and how he excels in Volleyball despite his height (he’s frequently drawing comparisons to “The Little Giant” a former Kasasuno player who also overcame their height to be a Volleyball star.)
Fans of Haikyu have been waiting a long time for The Dumpster Battle to be animated. It was something that was teased through multiple episodes of Haikyu— even Nekoma’s tournament matches received their own OVA releases. It was something that the franchise had been building towards and it succeeded in bringing this “epic” contest to the big screen. The only problem is that this match isn’t the end of the story— there’s still another contest that needs to be animated.
Haikyu The Dumpster Battle isn’t the only sports anime to have recently received a movie adaptation. The First Slam Dunk, which opened in limited theaters in 2023, also focused on a specific athlete (this time in Basketball). Despite being a movie based on a ‘90s anime series, it felt fresh and approachable for new audiences. Having no history with the series Slam Dunk, it was easy to follow and become invested in the basketball team. It expanded its reach beyond its fandom.
Having reviewed a few of these anime movie sequels recently, I’ve found that they’re for an extremely niche audience. There’s an expectation for familiarity with the material—going into this cold without years of backstory won’t work. For fans, Haikyu The Dumpster Battle will be a treat though. Seeing these characters on the big screen might be worth it alone. As a fan of the franchise myself, I hope we don’t have to wait another four years for the next chapter. [C]
Haikyu The Dumpster Battle is in theaters on May 31st.
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