i cant overstate how important this panel is to me, how important this line is to me, how important it is that takeda is saying it and that he's saying it to hinata.
takeda famously does not know much about volleyball as a game. he saw a group of boys who loved a sport and wanted to support them as much as he could. he organized practice matches and buses and tournaments, but he didn't know the plays or the techniques or the positions, and he knew he couldn't coach them. that's why he asked ukai to coach. takeda learned, of course, but still--he couldn't know as much as ukai, whose grandfather was a famous coach, who raised the little giant. takeda doesn't know volleyball, and next to ukai, he especially doesn't know volleyball.
but this line. takeda confidently, firmly, matter-of-factly, tells hinata what volleyball is. takeda DOES know volleyball. he knows it better than anyone, better than any of the players, better than ukai, because he has seen it as a complete outsider. he was there for every practice game, (almost) every argument, every injury, every bus ride--not as a coach or a player, but as their mentor, as something completely detached from the game. first and foremost, takeda is a teacher at karasuno. he has seen every player outside of the volleyball court. he has seen them as students, as mentees, as boys. takeda has seen first hand how volleyball, how this sport, how their team, follows every player outside of the gym. his lack of volleyball experience is what allows him to see so clearly the impact that volleyball has on each player, especially hinata-- takeda sees firsthand that none of karasuno, HINATA ESPECIALLY, ever really stops playing volleyball. ever.
it's with this knowledge that he tells hinata what volleyball is. THIS IS STILL VOLLEYBALL. this: hinata, sitting on the bench, so feverish he can barely stand. that is still volleyball. volleyball is not just the game on the court. volleyball is the injuries and the training and the practice and the food and the effort and the people and the friends and the rivals and the family.
haikyuu translates to volleyball, but volleyball is not just volleyball. haikyuu is not just volleyball. it is a manga about growing up, about finding something you love to do, about meeting people who push you to be better, about discipline and hard work and also rest. it is about defeat and acceptance and triumph and friendship and love and failure and success. it is about the stages of life that make you who you are, even if you never return to the people, to the sport, to the place--they will always be a part of you. it is about a culmination of moments like these--moments that force you to be present, to accept, to appreciate the happiness and the pain, and to move on. haikyuu is volleyball and this is still volleyball!!!!!
