Haikyū!! “Tokyo Expedition Arc” (Chapters 72 through 96) Manga Review

Major Spoilers are included in this manga review. Please read with caution.

Synopsis: The story—written and drawn by Haruichi Furudate—follows Shōyō Hinata, a first-year high school student who wishes to become the best volleyball player ever despite his short height. He attends Karasuno High School, where his idol “The Little Giant” went. After the “The Little Giant” era though, Karasuno lost its fierce volleyball reputation. Together with his first real teammates, Hinata works hard to restore Karasuno High’s reputation by making it to the Nationals.

On August 14, 2020, I started reading Haikyū!!’s “Tokyo Expedition Arc” and finished on August 15, 2020. While the previous arc—“Interhigh Arc”—was mostly action-driven with high stakes attached, this arc took a step back to give the Karasuno Team time to reflect and study for their final tests. Yes, school became a factor in this arc’s first part to determine if the players—particularly the first-year players—were allowed to attend a training camp in Tokyo with all the other teams they faced against for practice matches.

What I enjoyed most was how oddly significance regular schooling became. While the third-years were fine due to them being upperclassmen, the second-years (Tanaka and Nishinoya) and first-years (Hinata and Kageyama) were struggling to improve their grades. Tsukishima and Yamaguchi were doing well enough that Hinata and Kageyama essentially begged them for tutoring. It was borderline slice-of-life for a couple chapters.

This also gave the arc an opportunity to introduce a new female character named Hitoka Yachi, a first-year student and the newest manager for Karasuno High’s boys’ volleyball team. Kiyoko Shimizu recruited Yachi to prepare for her eventual departure, as she is a third-year student. Yachi is a timid character with an overactive imagination who easily gets intimidated around other people, but she is indeed a brilliant designer.

I appreciated how Haruichi Furudate introduced another female character, who becomes close friends with Hinata and Kageyama. Having Yachi in the story alleviated the issue regarding the lack of female characters. The sexualization on Kiyoko was significantly lessened too. While Yachi acted somewhat like Sakura from Naruto when it came to two rival boys—minus the love triangle—she was really useful in making an ad poster for the volleyball club’s need for donations. What she created was truly beautiful.

Speaking of the two rival boys, Hinata and Kageyama had a falling out in this arc when it came to creating new quick combos. They had to reflect hard on their character development throughout this arc, learning how to improve as individuals and teammates and finding a balance on those two fronts.

Reading Hinata and Kageyama’s realistic struggles was thought-provoking, making me realize that sports in real-life are probably somewhat like this to a certain extent. Most sports are team-oriented, but improving one’s skills as an individual is just as important to make the whole group function effectively.

This arc had a major focus on Hinata and Kageyama, but the other first-years were also given screen time. In this arc, we learned more about Tsukishima and his friendship with Yamaguchi in addition to Tsukishima’s older brother.

Yamaguchi’s heartfelt speech to his best friend during their practice matches was the arc’s major highlight, showing us how much character development Yamaguchi underwent. These volleyball players’ passion for the game spiked my heart with such ferocity. Even Tsukishima acknowledged Yamaguchi’s newfound “coolness” to a certain extent.

The practice matches against Fukurōdani, Nekoma, Shinzen, and Ubugawa also showed how much Karasuno High needed to improve. They had 3 wins and 64 losses, making them suffer the most penalty exercises for their defeats. Hinata actually improved his “diving digs” whenever they had to do those penalty exercises. While they failed numerous times to overcome their “National-level” opponents, they did show improvements that will go a long way for their matches in the Spring High Preliminaries.

Overall, I had an amazing time reading this third arc and seeing everyone improve on their team formations and individual skills. The ending to this arc was also incredibly moving and made me hungry for some delicious food.

Thanks for reading my manga review, everyone! I would highly recommend Haikyū!! Let’s keep it reading for the “Spring High Preliminary Arc”!