HAIKYU!! 3rd Season

Haikyu!! Karasuno High School vs Shiratorizawa Academy is the third season of the popular volleyball anime Haikyu!!. It aired on MBS in Japan from October 8 to December 10, 2016. It is a short season of only 10 episodes, and almost all of it is about one single match. The show was made by Production I.G, directed by Susumu Mitsunaka, with scripts led by Taku Kishimoto. It is based on the manga by Haruichi Furudate and adapts the second half of the story's Spring High preliminary arc.

The series follows Shoyo Hinata, a short boy who fell in love with volleyball after seeing Karasuno High play on TV. He joined Karasuno himself. There he teamed up with Tobio Kageyama, a gifted setter who was once his rival. A setter is the player who passes the ball up so a teammate can spike it. Together, Hinata and Kageyama built a famous fast attack. Karasuno was once a strong team, but it had lost its fame. People called it a crow that could not fly.

In this season, Karasuno is one win away from the national tournament. This is the final of the Miyagi Prefecture qualifier. But the team in front of them is Shiratorizawa Academy, the strongest school in the area. Shiratorizawa's ace is Wakatoshi Ushijima. He is a powerful left-handed spiker and one of the best young players in all of Japan. Next to him is Satori Tendo, a strange and clever blocker who loves to guess where the ball will go. Other strong players, like the setter Kenjiro Shirabu and the first-year Tsutomu Goshiki, make Shiratorizawa even harder to beat.

For Karasuno's third-year players, like captain Daichi Sawamura, vice captain Koshi Sugawara, and the ace Asahi Azumane, this match means a lot. It is their last real chance to reach nationals before they finish school. The quiet first-year Kei Tsukishima, a tall middle blocker, also gets a big role. He must face Ushijima's strong attacks again and again. Libero Yu Nishinoya and spiker Ryunosuke Tanaka bring energy, while coach Keishin Ukai and teacher Ittetsu Takeda guide the team from the bench.

Because the season focuses on one long match, it feels very intense. Every point matters. The show slows down to show what each player is thinking, how they read the other team, and how they change their plans. Hinata, the smallest player on the court, keeps trying to prove that height is not everything. The show is full of hard work, teamwork, and growing up, but also jokes and warm friendship.

The opening song is "Hikariare" by Burnout Syndromes, and the ending song is "Mashi Mashi" by Nico Touches the Walls. The Haikyu!! anime is often named one of the best anime of the 2010s, and critics praise its focus on the whole team and its exciting animation. Many fans see this match as one of the high points of the entire series.