Highlights
- Haikyuu showcases the power of passion, teamwork, and dedication in achieving goals. Karasuno exemplifies this through their journey to Nationals.
- Kenma’s growth from an introverted, unmotivated player to a strategic, dedicated team member is highlighted in Haikyuu, showing the power of mentorship.
- Kenma’s evolution in the sport exemplifies the importance of pushing oneself, forming friendships, and finding passion in the face of challenges.
Undoubtedly one of the best sports anime out there, Haikyuu is the epitome of finding something you love, and pouring your heart and soul into it. The boys of the Karasuno High volleyball team exude this pure passion in their own individual ways, which leads them to enjoy the fruits of it. Through teamwork, discipline and endless practice, Karasuno have finally achieved their goal of making it to the National volleyball competition, where they compete with other teams just as passionate as they are. However, not everyone feels this fiery passion for sport.
Kenma Kozume of Nekoma High, Karasuno’s main rival school for years, does not appear all that motivated to even attempt to be a good player on the team. This changes at the tail end of the anime and is particularly evident in the movie that came out this year. An introvert, Kenma looks particularly out of place among his boisterous teammates. The movie showed us that Kenma has grown a lot since he was a kid, and has developed into a smart volleyball player with a quiet bubbling love for the sport.
Kenma Before Volleyball
While not a proud thing to admit, Kenma has never made a friend on his own. He was comfortable being “as invisible as possible” because he is incredibly anti-social, but he does care what people think of him. His only friend as a young child was Tetsurō Kuroo, the current captain of Nekoma’s volleyball team. They were neighbors as children and, due to their same ages, they often played together. While Kenma always had his nose in a video game up in his bedroom, Kuroo bugged him to join the volleyball team. To Kenma, sports was always “meh,” but the team he joined was good, so he kept it up even in high school.
Kuroo encourages Kenma to stick with the sport
Even as they grew up, Kenma was always smaller and quieter than everyone else. When he got to Nekoma High School’s volleyball team with Kuroo, he was often picked on by the third-year students on the team. They would make him clean up on his own or pick up volleyballs after them. This did not sit right with Kenma. After all, wouldn’t it be easier and faster if everyone cleaned up?
Kenma very quickly observed the high-horse attitude of his upper classmen, which made him want to quit the team. Kuroo complimented him on his keen observation and his logical way of thinking. Kenma felt like his intelligence was not rewarded here. Whenever he suggested something, the senior students would call him a “smart-mouth”, once even making him run almost double the laps of the other first-years.
Kuroo was the first person to see Kenma’s skillset in volleyball. He reassured him that those third-years would graduate from Nekoma soon and their real coach, Coach Nekomata, would be returning. Kuroo encouraged him to stay on the team because he knows that in time, Kenma will be a major asset to Nekoma.
Kenma may be incredibly introverted, but he trusts Kuroo implicitly. He could have ignored Kuroo’s advice or be pessimistic about the situation, but Kuroo has always looked out for Kenma since they were young children. That trust persists even till this day, and Kuroo has never steered him wrong. Subsequently, Kenma stuck with volleyball at Nekoma.
“Gutless”
An uncommon review of Kenma as a volleyball player is his low energy or lack of guts. He never used to put his heart and soul into the sport, as if giving a small percentage of energy would render him useless. A particularly spirited player on the team is Taketoa Yamamoto, a loud, energetic player who is powered by aggressive determination. Yamamoto is everything Kenma was not: motivated, determined and abrasive. He gave 100% in every workout and practice, to the point that Kenma noticed it was not serving him very well on the court.
Kenma bravely mentioned to him that he could relax his shoulders a bit, at which Yamamoto got defensive. He wanted to show off how hard he was working, so he couldn’t afford to relax. More internally, he felt like slowing down meant that he was gutless. Kenma was not sold on this way of thinking. He said that he should stop blaming his actions on a vague concept of “guts”, and look inward as to identifying a real specific problem that can be worked on. Yamamoto said that he let this opposing team get to him, he concentrated too hard on the ball and that he was trying to hit all the difficult returns. To Kenma, these are very solvable specific problems, so he couldn’t understand why he would blame “guts” for them. In a burst of confidence, he tells Yamamoto that all his excessive weight training and running are needless if he is going to blame a general concept like “guts” as the reason for his performance on the court. He says that it actually has nothing to do with guts, but it is “self-satisfaction”.
This angered Yamamoto, causing him to retort with his own assessment of Kenma. He yells at Kenma for not going after the many balls that came his way. He yells that Kenma has no trace of guts at all on the court, and how can someone play like that? Yamamoto continues saying that he never tries in matches. He ends his rant by saying something particularly triggering to Kenma: “I don’t want to hear about guts from a gutless brat like you!”
Kenma finds his voice and fights back at Yamamoto. He says all he can talk about is an ambiguous concept like guts. Guts will not help him to win, but a strategy would; Yamamoto completely disagrees with this. After this fight, both boys seem to understand each other a bit more. Yamamoto plays more smartly, and Kenma plays with more intensity. Even Yamamoto noted this, saying that even though he lacks determination, he is an intense competitor. Eventually, they become good teammates, with Yamamoto inviting him to call him Tora like his other friends.
It’s exchanges like this that help mold Kenma. Kuroo got the ball rolling from when they were children, but interactions like the one with Yamamoto have brought Kenma out of his shell more. If Kenma did not care about the team or the game, he would not have gone out of his way to argue with Yamamoto about playing better. A boisterous team like this is exactly what Kenma needs. He is surrounded by bigger personalities who force him to speak his mind, but they also listen to and respect him.
Kenma Right Now
Fans first meet Kenma in the anime through Hinata. Kenma has quite a mysterious presence, at first. He is soft-spoken and seemingly unmotivated. Hinata’s first impression is a lasting one. He is extremely passionate about volleyball from the get-go. Kenma, on the other hand, is slightly lazy and a bit nonchalant about the sport.
The more fans see of Kenma, they realize exactly why he is on the team. Not only is he a fantastic setter like Kageyama, he is also the brains of Nekoma. He works smarter, not necessarily harder. His team trust him to concoct strategic plays for them, which is one of the reasons they are such a successful team.
The most recent movie, Haikyuu: The Dumpster Battle, and season four of the anime show Nekoma in action during Nationals. We see that Kenma genuinely cares about his team winning. For now, the stakes are higher than he’s used to. He wants to win just as much as they do. He devises their plans and also puts his all into the physical game, despite his lazy nature. His teammates are even so proud of him when he tries hard, much to Kenma’s embarrassment.
It’s a concept all are familiar with: extracurricular. Everyone has experienced going to high school and choosing a club to join, even against their will sometimes. Kenma goes through exactly that, but shows the importance of sticking with something one loves. Kenma did not love volleyball in particular, but with the support of friends, he continued and blossomed in the sport. It is important that people pursue their passions, for they lead one to lifelong friends, valuable life skills and grow as people.
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