Painting for the album. "An Upward Obsession" by Andrew Abboushi.

i recently started rewatching haikyuu (because i miss the simpler times) and i was amazed by how class divide was shown through so many little details in the series. most of it flew right over my head when i watched it for the first time in high school, so i wanted to gather the things that caught my attention this time.

as we all know karasuno high is a public school in the countryside, and throughout the series their volleyball team has to face a lot of opponents from all over the country. the class divide is used as both comedic material and a tool to set the narrative. there are obvious examples, like the first time they go to tokyo for a training camp and four members of karasuno mistake a regular sattelite tower for the tokyo tree and get laughed at by nekoma. kuroo jokingly calls them country bumpkins a few times, and tanaka calls nekoma "city boys" right back.

there are also moments in haikyuu where the class conflict is addressed head-on, like episode one of season two when hinata and kageyama run into ushijima and then follow him to his school. them being awestruck at all the cools things they see in the shiratorizawa campus is played for laughs at first ("horses! they have horses, kageyama!!") but then, ushijima starts yapping about how you need fertile soil for any seed to grow, referencing the privileges he gets to enjoy because he goes to the right school. and then hinata hits you with, "if seijoh is infertile soil, then what are we, concrete?"

and that moment is almost like a slap back to reality, when i think about it. because suddenly shiratorizawa's horses, their double decker busses and multiple courts aren't just quirky, hinata and kageyama's envy isn't just them being idiots, and the class divide is a hard truth in your face. the scene ends with hinata declaring he will still beat ushijima, even though he's from the concrete. but even after that, the theme of class divide is an everpresent in the narrative.

and that's when you start noticing the small things.

karasuno has only one gym, and their gym double functions as an auditorium. you can see the stage and the curtain in the background of their practices at the gym. they have to talk to other sports teams' captains to arrange a schedule for who gets the gym when, because they only have one. during lunch breaks, they practice in the school yard, out in the open. when kageyama needs individual practice, daichi asks yui (girls volleyball captain) to allow him to practice with them.

hinata lives in the mountains, what his parents do for a living isn't mentioned but his house is far away from the school and he has to ride his bike up a mountain twice every day just to get to and back from school. the show mentions how this routine helps him gain stamina, but i think it also creates an interesting contrast with the kids from shiratorizawa, who stay in dorms and probably have a two minute walk to their gym every morning.

most of the fancier schools have custom made team sports bags and sneakers provided by their schools, not only private schools like shiratorizawa, but seijoh and even nekoma as well. karasuno players on the other hand are shown wearing various sized and colored sports bags and different sneakers. this is a really good way to show the class difference between the teams while also reflecting their different personalities. (hinata's bag is covered in badges, kageyama prefers a backpack, tsukki and yamaguchi have matching sports bags etc.) and it also implies that all the sports materials they need (apart from the balls and jerseys that belong to the school) they have to afford with their own money. while kids in better schools just get them for free.

all the kids in karasuno have flip phones while almost all their peers from different schools have touch phones. haikyuu takes place in 2012-2013, when it was still common to use flip phones, but the choice to make karasuno the only team where most players have flip phones is definitely a deliberate one.

karasuno is also the only high school in the show where students wear gakuran instead of design uniforms. i'm not too sure about this but the way i understand it, gakuran is more commonly used in public schools since it's standardized and affordable. apparently there are also schools that prefer the gakuran/sailorfuku aesthetic to uphold tradition, so it doesn't necessarily imply low class, but i found it interesting that their uniforms were much simpler than the other schools.

at the end of season three, after they beat shiratorizawa and gain their ticket to haruko nationals, yachi makes a poster to start a donation campaign for the team so they can afford the trip. shimada sets a donation box in his market so the customers can give away their change to support the team.

and while all these details showcase incredibly well thought out storytelling, what caught my attention even more is that furudate makes a point to show that karasuno still has a lot of support, just not financial privilege.

i think there's a message to be taken from the way people just randomly show up to help karasuno all the time. it's easier for community to grow where there's struggle. takeda going out of his way to beg people to get new opportunities for the team, ukai agreeing to be their coach even though he has no experience, old coach ukai training hinata and kageyama, shimada the market guy helping yamaguchi practice his serves, old karasuno alumni helping them out by joining them for a practice match, and later dropping by to watch their games in tournaments, tanaka's sister saeko and tsukki's brother akiteru (who are also karasuno alumni) organising and leading the cheer squad, and many more. karasuno doesn't just get lucky with this, all these people show up to lend a hand because they know karasuno doesn't have the privileges that most other schools do. and that one scene where they get back from haruko preliminaries and they see that the whole school stayed after classes to wait for their return, and they start congratulating them and cheering them on from the windows— makes me emotional every time i see it.

and this sense of community isn't just reserved to this one high school either. i find it quite charming that old coach ukai has a makeshift volleyball court in his backyard that he allows neighborhood kids to use. he's an old man that has retired from coaching years ago, but he still shows up to that court to watch the kids practice and give them advice. he doesn't even question it when hinata starts regularly coming to practice there in summer break. he doesn't need to because hinata isn't the only one. we see students from other schools, students from girls' teams and even middle aged women who drop by that court to play. and when hinata asks them to help him practice, they do.