This is how much the ace is trusted, huh?

It’s glaring to me that some people haven’t actually watched or played baseball before. And if they have, maybe there isn’t a great understanding of the nuances. And this isn’t me gate keeping or saying I’m better than anyone, but simply an observation based on what people say. But anyway I just want to talk about it.

Terajima does an EXTREMELY excellent job of portraying the sport. The issue I find with baseball is that it’s really fucking boring at times. There are so many times you watch a game and think, nothing is happening (and this can be true of any sport but I especially see it with baseball). However, I believe that many times, if you actually understand the sport or have experienced it before, you find a lot of the nuances come off the panel even better in this story.

I have seen so many people, especially on Reddit and Twitter talk about how this current game is going to be another “come from behind win” and “a cookie cutter version of what terajima always does.” My issue with this is how people are not talking about why this arc is by far the best representation of what baseball looks like and feels like at times and why people consider pitching duels to be the most exciting display of the sport. Sawamura has had this game coming for the past 10 years. All of this build up was for this moment.

From a writing standpoint and story standpoint, I understand it’s fucking FRUSTRATING to see how many times Sawamura has come into a game and done poorly or been given a handicap. Even his first game as an ace was so incredibly frustrating to read. You want him to win. You want him to succeed. Especially after seeing everything he has gone through. I’m tired of watching him come into a game, doing spectacularly but wondering, what would he have been like if he didn’t have the yips. Or what if he could actually hit? Or what if he was given the same opportunities as other players? There has been so much disappointment. So people wanted him to become the ace and suddenly have this outstanding game where he is dominant and amazing and just having an out of body experience. But the truth is, you don’t just get that. You don’t just start a game as an ace and have it go your way. And I hate that shit so much. But it’s the nuances. It’s the small things that makes Daiya so special and realistic.

The reason this whole arc has been so incredible is because we see an accumulation of EVERYONE buying into ace-Jun. First, before this game even begins, we see Miyuki FURIOUS that he couldn’t get Sawamura relaxed enough for the game. He’s angry that Sawamura feels strained enough to put the team on his back and overpitch. And he couldn’t get him out of it. He couldn’t help him the way he is supposed to as a catcher. We see Kuramochi understand that when Miyuki is gone, HE needs to step up. He needs to be the one that coach can rely on to help the team grow and thrive. He wants to be trusted to the team completely. And in this game, we FINALLY see the team get angry and frustrated at not backing Sawamura up. I mean, despite how they act, they never outwardly do that. They believe in him. They’re impressed with him time after time. But they never really back him up the same way we saw them do with Tanba and Furuya. It’s always like he provides some miracle, hypes up the team, but then is the butt of the jokes again. They quietly support him and work with him outside of games. But for the first time in this game, we get them buying in. We get them trusting him and working for him. Getting frustrated for him. And I believe Kanemaru’s “anticlimactic” at bat is the absolute most obvious display of that.

Some people call it anticlimactic but they just don’t get the point. I need us to think back to the very beginning of the story. Kanemaru absolutely could not stand Sawamura. He always said that all he did was talk and had nothing to show for it. But slowly and surely, Sawamura showed Kanemaru that he was dependable. He could be amazing. And little by little Kanemaru showed him more respect. Helped him with bullpen sessions. Helped him study. Cheered him on. He even, at one point, would become so distressed for Sawamura he’d make an error and feel terrible for it. Yet each time, Sawamura proved to him, it’s okay. I’m going to work my ass off. my hard work, your hard work, it won’t be for nothing. It will mean something. And so, in this moment, Sawamura is pulling this team by himself. That’s all he can do. The other pitcher is JUST as amazing. He’s just as talented and hard working. He can do what Sawamura does. And so the team fails time and time again. And like, let’s not pretend we’re the most frustrated in that situation. The team is livid. They can hit here and there but can’t connect. Can’t string together hits to score (which is how most pitchers duels go and is super realistic). And at the peak of this, when the captain cannot hit, Kanemaru comes up to bat with vengeance. He comes up to hit the shit out of the ball, no hesitation in his mind. He wants to kill it. But the part that borderline makes me want to sob, is that it’s not for himself. He wants to do it for Seido and he wants to do it for Sawamura. He wants him to know “I have your fucking back. I am going to hit the shit out of the ball. I’m going to score a run for our ace so it can put less pressure on him.” And that’s the mindset you want as a player. That’s what a good team does. And despite hitting a ground ball and getting out, it’s that effort. It’s the will of running as hard as you can down the line. Because yeah he got out, but who fucking noticed? Sawamura. He saw how hard he tried. He saw how hard he ran down the line. So yes, he didn’t score a run, but he did everything he could. And sometimes that’s good enough. Sometimes that’s what a pitcher really wants to see. So ofc Sawamura says “That hyped me up.” It was not failure. The feelings, the will and that connection came through. And Kanemaru understands immediately and says then let’s fucking go, let’s go out there stop them and hit again. It’s such a small moment and seemingly there to keep the score tied in the story, but the meaning there is absolutely what matters. Because yes, Sawamura is the only one in that moment that can turn the disappointment around, but what it also means is that Sawamura still believes. He tells wolf-boi, “I’m not worried. I believe in the hitters. We won’t go down without a fight” and he’s right. Because he can still believe the team hasn’t quit. Because someone like that, who wanted nothing to do with him at one point in time is working incredibly hard for him.

And it isn’t just there. We see it with Nori. He’s injured and we know how hard he’s worked to be starting games. We’ve seen his hardships and now he’s injured. But he believes. He trusts Sawamura. The team trusts Sawamura. They’re frustrated for him. They’re frustrated on his behalf. He’s bought in. And that is the beauty of a pitchers duel.

To be honest I’m flashy. I like high scoring games. But a show of true competition is always present in a pitchers duel. It’s 2 guys going head to head and the one that breaks first loses. It’s exciting and stressful. And I believe that many people are feeling that in this arc. And that’s why so many people are pissed, thinking this is just another show of the same shit. When Seido get past this, they’re going to Mei. It’s gonna be the same shit. We have progressed past a point where inconsistencies no longer are acceptable. You have to be on or you lose. The other team is just as good as you. And despite how well we want Sawamura to do, we also have to accept that he won’t always be unhittable. He will revert back to bad habits at times. But the Sawamura we’re getting this game? Absolute fucking monster level shit. (And our lord and savior Chris senpai is there to watch)

There are so many amazing moments that show how well Terajima understands baseball and truly loves it. From kids purposely throwing their futures away to finish out the season despite injuries, to having kids having long crises where they have to be demoted to lower strings to get out of the funk and the loneliness that goes with it, to kids fighting about the team and prioritizing winning over friendship. The frustration of the yips, losing games you were supposed to win, feeling like it’s your last chance to win before you graduate and never play again, having to move on with life. It’s all so well done and that’s why I’ll always love this manga. I love Haikyuus story other sports mangas and characterizations but Daiya will always hit different for me.

Reki hearing Langa say he’s excited about going up against ADAM is shocking to him because in no way can he understand Langa wanting to seek out that type of fear. He thought Langa understood. He thought Langa was in the same boat. “I hate ADAM.” He has said it in the past. And the fact that ADAM wants to hurt others doesn’t escape Reki. But then he hears Langa say he’s “excited” to race against him?

It’s not entirely about the fact that Langa is breaking his promise that upsets Reki. It’s about the fact that, in his mind (because people put it in his fucking mind), Langa and ADAM are on a whole different level. They are 2 “monsters” that have the ability to go up against each other. So Reki feels abandoned. He’s already felt unworthy and now to make it worse, he’s now understanding that someone “like him” could never go up against a guy like that.

But what wasn’t explicitly stated and requires a bit more context is how Langa is feeling. Langa was a competitive athlete for 15+ years. He has spent his entire life snowboarding with someone he loved. We probably didn’t even have many friends. So when his dad died, he probably lost everything because it was all he had. So now he finds someone else in his life that loves another sport just as much as he does. So in his head, Reki has always been amazing. He tells him once or twice an episode. In his head, it doesn’t even cross his mind that Reki isn’t talented or up to par with him. So during the fight when referring to how ADAM makes him feel excited, he says, “You understand as a skater, right?” Because to him, Reki should get it. (In fact before the skate with ADAM, Reki did get it. He wasn’t afraid. But then ADAM does his weird ass perverted shit and now he’s terrified, understandably so.) Reki should understand where he’s coming from. To be the best you have to beat the best. Overconfident? Maybe. Obsessed? Yes. But the bad guy? Why? Because a kid who has only ever known competing wants to be competitive?

The conflict is that Reki and Langa are of 2 separate minds. “I’m not good enough. Langa is too good. He’s going to leave me behind for ADAM because I can’t keep up.” vs “Reki doesn’t want me to skate against ADAM. He’ll get mad at me. But I want to. He’ll understand because he always does. He loves skating the way I do.”

Also, as a side note, Langa as a character already doesn’t understand most of what’s happening. He’s continued to show a lack of internal understanding. So although he knows something is wrong, he doesn’t understand it. Reki doesn’t reply to his texts. He ignores him when he skates. Langa continues to ask Reki if everything is okay, and Reki says everything is fine. So Langa doesn’t pick up on the cues and all it does is push Reki harder. And Langa wants to tell him how he feels but Reki can’t hear it because he’s too caught up in his own feelings. They’re kids. It’s a misunderstanding. It makes sense.

And that’s why this story is so interesting. Because we know the stakes. We know how they feel. But those 2 are just kids who LOVE skating with each other and found a special someone willing to do what they love together. Reki found someone who loves skateboarding and is obsessed with it the way he is. He puts so much time and effort into Langa’s board. Langa found another sport that makes him happy. He is amazing and everyone thinks he’s great, but he chooses to be with Reki. He wants to skate with him and doesn’t even bother skating when he realizes Reki was missing at the beach. In the end these two choose each other. They want to skate together.

Update: Also I forgot to add 2 things.

1. Let's please remember that Langa is not aware of anything negative being said to Reki. For that alone he deserves the benefit of the doubt.