Haikyuu Speculations

So my speculations were wrong, of course.

Look, the intervening chapter between the new arc and the Nationals arc is rushed. The info dump is not well done and we've at least seen more of the third years passing the torch with Asahi entrusting the ace role to Tanaka. Just something more because it's just so sudden. We could've gotten the flow of time till the third years' graduation like three chapters at most instead of just one chapter with rushed info-dump.

While we have seen Hinata evolve as a player, we still have no clue if Hinata achieved his desire for the ace role. Because it seemed so rushed, the buildup to would-be rematches like Date Tech, Nekoma, and Kamomedai is lost. Any promises made were done offscreen. For the love of Godoka, what in the hell happened to Hyakuzawa? Because Hinata flat out said to him that he wanted him strong just so he could have a match with him. Captain Ennoshita? The confidence of Kinoshita and Narita? Ace Tanaka and his relationship with Kanoka? What the fuck happened to Fukurodani? At least I know where Bokuto is going but I don't know what happened in the nationals then!

Like, could've at least seen their matches? Or interactions before and after matches? A montage or this arc is going to be non-linear?

It was so rushed that if you didn't know that the mangaka is planning the Olympics arc, the chapter blindsides you. Seriously, I didn't even know the mangaka is planning a time skip and it came out of nowhere. Naruto and One Piece have a logistic reason for the time skips because it flowed easily into it. Heck, there's better transitions had been better done in Haikyuu arcs before so the rushed intervening chapter is probably the worst written of the entire manga I have seen.

While I am happy to see Yamaguchi as captain in his third year up to making the team go up to the third place at Nationals, what happened to Tsukishima? Because while Kei now has a deep love for volleyball, probably selecting a college with a strong volleyball team, I don't think the attention was drawn about going pro in his end. Unlike Kageyama who immediately joined the pro leagues, we learn Tsukishima go to college instead. Kei did want to block Hinata but I don't think he would ever will, the rate the story is going. Kei is unlikely to go pro in the likes of Oikawa, Hinata, Ushiwaka, and Kageyama.

Because of the rushed way the ending happened, I was left thinking what the fuck happened to these characters and did they ever achieve their goals or manage to get their character shown after the matches?

In the nationals, we were shown the Miya brothers and the so forth. After the Miyagi finals, we just saw Ushiwaka passing the torch to his juniors. Just what the fuck happened because it was just so fast and somebody who is used to Haikyuu's pacing is going to surprised going into the International arc.

People are allowed to feel the way they do, regarding the sudden change because they have little time to adjust. Even past arcs in Haikyuu spent a few chapters before it flowed into the new arc. Just look at the intervening chapters between the nationals arcs and the practice arc.

Regardless, I rethought the path of the story going on. The Tokyo Spring Nationals arc is dedicated to regaining Karasuno's glory, particularly since the seniors just wanted to go Nationals and not win exactly. Bokuto actually said that Fukurodani is going to win and we have no freaking clue who won in the end. At least, we got Karasuno's place in the third year. Just who won the first nationals Karasuno went to?

Because the scene is not in the anime, Hinata and Kageyama actually made a promise to meet each other in the Olympics. Not in a match since they are different disciplinaries as of currently but they will sometimes years into the future.

We should've seen this coming because Kageyama went to that path the fastest, immediately joining a pro team and then selected to join the National team to represent Japan at the Olympics. Of course, he didn't win in Rio 2016 but he probably wanted to win with Hinata.

This final arc, which I'm going to call the International Pro League arc and the Olympics arc, is going to be Hinata and Kageyama's goal to win the medal with Oikawa and Ushiwaka.

We haven't seen the rest of the cast yet, introducing little by little either through flashback or time skip. I'm pretty sure we're going to see them one way or another because it would be a disservice to the characters who are probably going to be pros unlike the characters we are focusing are in this arc extensively. While we'll likely see supporting characters from the original Japan teams, we are going to see support from Brazilian characters as well.

What I'm more surprised about to see international leagues and pros into this.

I had already guessed the pros would be in Haikyuu because it's Kageyama and Hinata's goal. It's part of their promise so of course, we'll likely see teams against each other in an international league before officially joining the national team together.

Hinata and Oikawa vs Ushiwaka and Kageyama in a match before the Olympics before all of them are selected to the National Team for the Olympics.

I'm at least sure of that since we're a year past the 2016 Rio Olympics. Hinata is one year into his stay in Brazil. He could probably move to Argentina to join Oikawa or something. He obviously didn't participate in the beach volleyball part of the Olympics nor the indoor volleyball.

What is with sports manga/anime with international and pro leagues nowadays?

Daiya no Ace featured an American team.

Free is diving more into pro leagues with Rin actively training to participate for the Olympics. We've seen more of Australia than what happened in season two.

And now Haikyuu is going headfirst into the Olympics training for the 2020 Olympics.

Baby Steps featured pro leagues with the main protagonist choosing to go pro. But this is before all these started into the pro international leagues themselves.

From what I could gather, Yuri on Ice probably kicked it off since it's the first to feature only the international leagues for a mainstream audience.

But these mangakas have to be careful because the international league demanded much more from their athletes. If they are training to be an Olympic athlete, then they better train to be one.

If you are training for the Olympics or at least major leagues around the world, the athletes have to be serious.

And the characters in these arcs now and then are completely serious.

And anybody thinking Haikyuu is going to end like in a few chapters... No, it's not. Have you seen long-running manga with long arcs? It's not gonna happen that soon, probably in a few years give or take. Let's just hope Furudate doesn't rush out the final arc as he did the interval chapter between the final and the Nationals arc. Given the mixed responses to the interval chapter, it's better for Furudate not to rush it out just because he was burnt out. Furudate took a semi-vacation to Brazil so he could've gotten time to rest and think.

We are in the year 2017 canonically, just a year after the Rio Olympics. We literally just seen Hinata watching Kageyama in a volleyball match on TV while doing his delivery work. It had been hinted that Hinata was in Rio by the time Olympics took place since it's implied he moved there sometime in the next school year and he's currently nineteen.

There are three years left until we head to Tokyo in 2020. Commonly in Haikyuu or sports manga/anime, they'll always be a training arc before the tournament. Haikyuu would have the training arc before the tournaments arc.

Because given the mixed responses to the sudden time skip that I'm pretty sure nobody has the time to adjust to the change - just one chapter -, the mangaka has to be careful if we are going to have another time skip so suddenly in the final arc. We're having a flashback to Hinata's beginnings in his stay in Brazil and reconnecting with Oikawa.

Even if people say it's the final arc, it's gonna be dang long. Just like the Wano arc having five acts just like kabuki and many fans including me are pretty sure the arc is going to be pretty long, I'm pretty sure there are mini-arcs within the final arc.

And hell yeah, Hinata is an OP fanboy and loves Zoro! Pedro couldn't even choose though Luffy is definitely one of his favorites!