Haikyuu!! The Dumpster Battle proves sports anime is finally having its moment 2024 HAIKYU!! Project H.Furudate\/ShueishaI can safely say that Haikyuu!! The Dumpster Battle is the most excited I\u2019ve ever been about volleyball, and considering the upcoming anime on the way, I\u2019m going to be saying that about several other sports as well. In Haikyuu!! The Dumpster Battle, two high schools who\u2019ve been itching to face each other finally get to in a national volleyball tournament. The title refers to the fact one team, Karasuno High School, are the Crows, whereas their opponents, Nekoma High School, are the Wildcats. What do crows and cats generally fight over? It\u2019s quite clever. Anyway, the whole anime movie follows the match, from the opening whistle to the closing maneuvers and post-game celebration and commiserations (You can read more about it in our Haikyuu!! The Dumpster Battle review). Haikyuu!! is about more than volleyball For the most part, the play-by-plays provide the action, with a subtle narrative web gradually spreading out to provide each player\u2019s backstory. Susumu Mitsunaka intertwines their lives with what\u2019s happening on the court to the point that they become totally symbiotic and inseparable. Swift, hard-hitting spikes are slowed down by the internal struggle of those competing. Shoyo Hinata, the franchise protagonist, struggles as Kenma Kozume\u2019s keen strategizing starts to get under his skin, their back-and-forth depicted as quasi-kaiju animals gnawing at each other. The Dumpster Battle pivots on the intrinsic, human drama of high-level sports but continually acknowledges the unique personal circumstances that have brought each player to that match. Then, those elements are mixed together by thrilling, fluid set pieces that demonstrate the strength, flexibility, and sheer determination that\u2019s going into every move. Anime shows all aspects of sports It\u2019s an alchemy made possible by the medium itself, unbound from the laws of human bodies and editing in live-action and untethered by the pacing of live sports. Watching The Dumpster Battle, I didn\u2019t just develop an appreciation for volleyball; I understood why others like it, too. That\u2019s no mean feat, and it\u2019s something that\u2019s happening across sports anime this year. Football anime Blue Lock is looking to score twice this year, first with a film that comes to international territories in June and then the second season, coming in October 2024. Named after a rigorous method of training players to become all-star strikers in order for Japan to win the World Cup, Blue Lock covers just about every power fantasy any footie-loving fan can think of. There\u2019s a no-nonsense manager changing everything, a main character who\u2019s plucked from obscurity to be the next team hero and an all-or-nothing approach to team-building. Blue Lock scores every goal The first season, produced by Eight Bit, is what you\u2019d expect from an expertly made football anime. Scenes on the pitch put any soccer video game to shame, and then the outside narratives create urgency and emotional depth. If you remain unconvinced by any pals or family members trying to convince you to watch Match of the Day or an afternoon of the Bundesliga or the Premier League, Blue Lock might just be the ticket \u2014 at the very least, it\u2019s a well-written underdog story. They\u2019re joined by Rinkai!, an anime and manga that quietly arrived this past April about women\u2019s cycling. A different lane to Blue Lock and Haikyuu!!, each of Rinkai!\u2019s characters hail from a distinct region of Japan, and they all have their own sponsorships. Part of the show is the collective struggle, even though they\u2019re all in it for themselves. Cycling can be harsh on the body, and marathons can feel so long that the actual desire to win can fade into simply avoiding crashing or failing to finish. At seven episodes, it\u2019s short but sweet and something not to miss if you want a sports story that\u2019ll perk up your day. Slam Dunk was the first three-pointer Really, these are all piggybacking on the success of The First Slam Dunk in 2022, a sports movie that proved not only that anime\u2019s audience is growing, but that people will still show up if you tell the right story. Time was, these productions were either aimed at your dad, in features such as Remember the Titans and Rocky, or had a stronger focus on disrupting the sport in question, with the likes of Happy Gilmore, The Mighty Ducks, or even Moneyball. Haikyuu!!, Blue Lock and Rinkai! prove that just isn\u2019t the case. They\u2019re for everyone, and they\u2019re attracting fervent audiences that mainstream sports often fail to. I\u2019m not saying I actually went out and joined my local volleyball club after The Dumpster Battle, but I definitely considered it for a split second as the credits rolled. Your mileage may vary on that impulse. But you\u2019ll definitely get why others do have that drive, and you might just find yourself sincerely asking how your friend\u2019s team is doing in the Champions League sometime, too. Haikyuu!! The Dumpster Battle is in theatres now. Check out our guide to the Haikyuu!! manga, and our list of the best anime on Crunchyroll for more home viewing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Haikyuu!! The Dumpster Battle proves sports anime is finally having its moment 2024 HAIKYU!! Project H.Furudate\/ShueishaI can safely say that Haikyuu!! The Dumpster Battle is the most excited I\u2019ve ever been about volleyball, and considering the upcoming anime on the way, I\u2019m going to be saying that about several other sports as well. In Haikyuu!! […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11775\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}