Hello everyone, it’s time for more Volley-Bu! We got drama, we got time skips, and we maybe even have a little volley ball! I’m really not sure, I think maybe this is a sports show or something? Anyways, enough rambling, lets get into the episode!
Like usual the production isn’t anything to special. Some of the snappy directing is back, which is nice, but nothing on the level of the first episode. It’s becoming more and more clear to me that Volley-Bu really doesn’t have much going for it visually. There are more visually striking, more well animated or more stylistic anime across the season. Meanwhile Volley-Bu just sort of… exists. One nice thing it has going for it though are the accents. You watch anime for long enough and you start to crave something unique, yet familiar. For me that has come to be the “Country” accent. I don’t know where it’s appropriate to really place it, but we have heard it from Hokkaido to Fukui. Regardless where its from though I really enjoy how different it is to listen to. It’s a pleasing change of pace that even I can pick up on.
Moving on to the narrative though, Volley-Bu has stumbled a bit. I said last week that without good presentation of the sport, Volley-Bu would have to depend on the drama. That the characters and their conflicts would have to be compelling to carry the show. Sadly though, this week was really rough in both pacing and resolution. Very little of the relationships were properly setup or explained before they were resolved. Is Haijima upset with Yuni? Why, is it because Yuni treated him similar to how he was treated in Japan and so betrayed his trust? Or is it because Yuni ran away from volleyball and isn’t properly using his physical abilities? Similarly, is Yuni upset with Haijima? Is he afraid/intimidated by his skill or does he actually want him back on the team? None of their interactions were very clear and so the relationship felt muddied.
Volley-Bu acted like we were expected to know what was going on, to understand the intricacies of these relationships. It’s not to far off the mark, we had a decent idea after the end of episode 2. That was a really compelling ending with them parting ways. But starting this episode with a time skip, going to high school, introducing a bunch of new characters. Volley-Bu lost sight of what was compelling in its drama, that being Haijima and Yuni’s relationship. For Haijima, I really wish we got more time with him pre-time skip. Something to show us why he is fed up with the team, or why the middle school team hates him. Because it looks like they blame him for Yuni being unable to play, yet Haijima carried them for 2 games when Yuni failed to show up. It’s a terrible explanation of their relationship!
Similarly, Yuni has barely any screen time at all this episode. We mostly see him screwing up on the court and getting yelled at by Haijima, so we can’t get a good idea of where his head is at. Does he still resent Haijima, is he still intimidated by his skill? If not why, what changed in this past year, what thinking did he do? These are all questions Volley-Bu just glossed over in it’s time skip and thus leaves the resolution feeling weak. I wish it had done something with Oda instead. Oda clearly has issues over his height, yet still tries despite the walls, he is the Hinata of this story. Have him take Yuni aside, have them hash it out, let Oda inspire Yuni to use the physical abilities he has and then bring that back to Haijima with Yuni understanding better just how good he is.
Speaking of Oda, Volley-Bu also largely skips over the issues of the rest of the cast as well. Oda is setup as the Hinata of Volley-Bu, as I said. He is given a bit of time to show off his skills despite his height and the relationship he builds with Haijima is nice. They enable each other to chase their dreams, just like Hinata and Kageyama in Haikyu. But Aoki, the captain and Oda’s friend, is left by the wayside. He has a strong introduction with how aggressively he defends Oda, basically starting a fight with Haijima in the hallway. But in the next scene all that attitude is basically gone. He’s indulgent of the team, calm, smiling, etc. Where’s that resentment towards Haijima’s attitude, the defensiveness for his team? For such a striking character, his height making him stand out, Aoki fell rather flat for me.
All in all, it felt like Volley-Bu tried to cover to much ground much to quickly without building a base. The series is built on pillars of sand and I fully expect them to collapse before the end. I hope Volley-Bu surprises me, I hope that it reinforces those relationships while building up this team in the next few episodes. But this week didn’t impress me and its now an uphill battle to do so. Basically, this episode was mediocre compared to the previous two and that’s rather disappointing.
See you next week when hopefully it pulls itself together.
