Inarizaki Karasuno
We Don't Need the Memories
Nishinoya!
All right!
I knew it...
Yeah...
Miya Atsumu
has been targeting Nishinoya ever since the second set.
It looks like all the servers are deliberately trying to avoid Nishinoya.
This is probably Nishinoya's first time...
He's going through the humiliation of being targeted.
Haikyu!!
Miyagi Karasuno
Episode 19: The Ultimate Challengers
Chikara.
Could you tape me up? I suck at it.
Sure.
Did you sprain your finger? Are you okay?
Yeah, I'm fine.
Inarizaki #7's serve is intense.
Yeah. And he's going after the libero, who can only defend.
Oh?
That libero's really good and full of energy.
If they crush him, that team's in trouble.
Really?
"There's no way we can pick up balls that even our libero can't get..."
That's probably what Miya Atsumu is thinking, so he's putting pressure on them that way.
It always feels great when you get a service ace against a strong opponent.
There he goes.
What?
Atsumu is amazingly, incredibly thoughtless at times.
Huh?! That's so rude!
All right!
You've got this, Nishinoya-san...
Nice serve!
We Don't Need the Memories
Inarizaki High School
Four steps...
So it's going to be a jump floater.
Miya Atsumu...
manages to get two service aces against their libero!
Nice serve, Atsumu! Nice serve, Atsumu! Push it, push it, Atsumu!
One more time!
It totally looked like he got that.
Its path seemed to change right by his hands.
When you're digging the ball, the surface that the ball can hit is narrow.
If the point where it hits is just a bit off, the ball goes a weird way.
Yeah, totally!
Nishinoya missing two serve receives in a row is just...
I've never seen him do that.
Volleyball isn't a sport where you can finish things off on your own.
If you can't get the first receive up, nothing's gonna start.
That's why the emotional damage from missing a serve receive is huge.
Not to mention, if the libero, who's in charge of defense, can't defend,
there's no point in him being on the court.
I can't count how many times Nishinoya's cheered me up.
Because you have me guarding your backs.
What am I supposed to say to him?
Noya-san—Whoa!
The hell?
What's he doing?
The penalty finger push-ups from practice...
Nishinoya's doing his best to stay calm right now.
That guy's the best.
Yes!
Follow up!
Cover!
That was a weak receive!
Asahi-san!
I'm not gonna be able to hit it that hard.
He went for the setter!
The first to touch the ball is Miya Atsumu!
At the same time, Miya Osamu is right under the ball!
He's not even a setter and he pulled off a C-pass?! On a counter, too!
He's covering for his twin.
That's within expectations.
Got him.
We Don't Need the Memories
The one who just got the ball up wasn't the setter. It was Miya Osamu!
Nice kill.
Nice toss.
What was that just now?
He totally had that block.
Don't worry.
You're a great blocker.
Jackass.
Inarizaki Karasuno
They got another one.
What's up with Suna-kun? He wasn't standing out much on offense at first,
but is he getting into his groove?
Rintaro starts off slow.
And I'll have you know...
He knows how to control the opposing team's blockers.
Rintaro's weapon is his wide contact point from side to side.
If a normal guy's range is about this much,
Rintaro's range is about this much.
When he spikes, he doesn't just use his arm or his shoulder.
He uses his whole upper body.
His core.
Since he uses his whole upper body, his spikes stay powerful.
It's completely different from just lightly tapping on the ball.
I don't really get it... But basically, when he's about to get blocked,
he somehow gets through the block. It's happened a few times.
Oh, and what about him controlling the blockers?
Just watch.
Out!
Damn it!
All right! Asahi, get a nice serve in!
Why are you all sad that I messed up?
Fire it up, fire it up, Karasuno!
Inarizaki Karasuno
Get it, get it, Karasuno!
Fire it up, fire it up, Karasuno!
Get it, get it, Karasuno!
Aran!
Yes!
That was a powerful service ace!
Sorry.
Worry about next time.
Karasuno hasn't been doing their best with serves in the second set,
so hopefully they can turn things around here.
Aran!
Go! Block that ball, Tsukki!
Two blockers!
Well done.
We Don't Need the Memories
Nice kill, Rintaro! Yes, yes, Rintaro! One more time!
The better the blockers are,
the easier it is for Suna to control them.
Haikyu!!
Well, did you see that?
Huh? Wha?
Inarizaki Karasuno
Did you figure it out?
Their #10 looked totally ready to hit a cross shot.
Tsukki immediately reacted to that and tried to block him off,
and Kageyama also immediately jumped in to support him.
But...
His approach and the way his body's facing are both feints.
He lures the blockers into thinking he's going to do a cross shot,
then does the opposite midair.
And he does all this without losing any power to his spikes.
Middle blockers' quicks usually end up more compact than other attacks.
They're usually quick enough to get through the blockers.
But...
Rintaro can use his quick to go head to head
against the blockers once the toss goes up.
Man,
nationals are scary.
We just need to get them off their game so they can't use their quicks!
We need to go all out with our serves and spikes!
Yeah!
Nishinoya!
Nice receive!
Another powerful serve!
The fact that he managed to get it up is amazing, too.
One touch! Cover!
Left!
Three blockers!
That was an intense spike from Ojiro Aran!
The ball is right above the net!
Akagi!
Kageyama pushes it in!
Left!
Here comes Ojiro Aran from the left again!
Stop him!
No slacking!
Three blockers!
That spike got past the three blockers and packed a punch!
It might've gone above the block. That was high!
But now, Karasuno has a chance to fight back, and—
Yeah!
Ojiro Aran slams it into their court!
He managed to get three spikes over in a less-than-ideal situation.
He truly tore through for that point!
Inarizaki Karasuno
Nice kill, Aran! Jump, jump, Aran! One more time!
Not yet, Sensei.
That was clearly our mistake. Our boys know that.
More importantly, we don't want to let Ojiro Aran rest for even 30 seconds right now.
Yeesh. Their #4 reminds me of Ushiwaka.
What makes him different from Ushiwaka is that he's actually receiving serves.
Meaning they can aim their serves at him,
and they've actually gotten quite a few service aces against him.
That's definitely a stressor.
And there are plenty of difficult tosses going up,
followed by a bunch of solid blocks.
His exhaustion and irritation are definitely brewing, as they should be.
Or so I think!
Sorry, follow!
Tanaka-san!
Yeah!
Ryu, you're so badass!
Fly
Tanaka Ryunosuke from Karasuno High School!
Good job, Tanaka!
He's breaking through Inarizaki's obvious advantage with that one.
Tanaka-san, nice kill!
Yes!
And now, Karasuno High School is going to bring in the third-year Sugawara.
I'll get revenge for Nishinoya.
I'm not dead!
Sugawara-san's going in to replace Tsukishima.
Which probably means that Kinoshita won't be serving.
That was my 25th service ace in my visual training.
Hey!
We took the first set,
but you guys aren't actually thinking that we can let them have the second set, are you?
We're winning this thing at 2-0!
Yeah!
Jaybird Inn
I want you to put pressure on Ojiro Aran as much as possible.
With blocks, and of course, serves.
I definitely won't complain if you get service aces off of him,
but the ideal is to get him to fall to one knee.
Even if I'm only on the court for twenty, ten...
Even five seconds...
I'm going to annoy the hell out of Inarizaki!
Front! Front!
That was a rather risky shot for Karasuno's Sugawara!
Osamu!
Kageyama, get the last!
Left!
Yeah, yeah.
It's a bit low...
Nice kill, Aran! Nice kill, Aran! Jump, jump, Aran! One more time!
Aran, calm down!
Right!
This time Inarizaki is using their pinch server.
The first-year, Riseki Heisuke.
I spent all three years of middle school on the bench.
The one time I came on as a pinch server, I messed up my serve and that was it.
Nice serve!
We Don't Need the Memories
There's no point if I miss.
I need to get that point.
I'm getting it in there.
Well, Riseki definitely got the ball into the court.
Asahi!
Got it!
Heck yeah!
We Don't Need the Memories
What the hell was that serve?!
Why are you even here?!
No one asked you to just give them the ball!
Wow, I haven't heard this in a while.
What is this?
Booing? They're booing their own side?
But he didn't miss the serve, did he?
What is this?
Inarizaki's harsh critiques.
I heard that if you make a weak play, their cheer squad gives you an earful.
You're probably hearing it now.
Aw, that's really mean, considering he's not even a pro.
This is why I told you to take that chance.
You always think too hard about this.
We don't need a guy who just gets the serve over on our team.
Whether we're in the lead or not.
Right.
Fly
A no-touch ace!
That speed! That direction!
Sorry!
Get over it! Don't worry about it!
No one was gonna be able to touch that one.
That's...
Kalm Kageyama.
The hell are you talking about?
I think it's pretty self-explanatory, but it's a calm Kageyama.
Like when I'm able to do quicks without closing my eyes,
or when he got Tsukishima's point of impact higher. Times like that.
It's basically when he's in the most tip-top shape.
But it's only his face that's calm.
He's still as harsh as ever, so you need to proceed with caution.
This tends to happen a lot when facing a powerful foe.
At some point, you turned into an instruction manual.
The air is really prickly.
Inarizaki High is calling their first timeout.
Let's go, Ina High!
We Don't Need the Memories
But wow, both sides have some really powerful serves.
Fly
Both schools have a variety of attacks that are very powerful.
If they don't get aggressive with their serves and stop the other team's quicks,
Just keep pressing the attack like you have been. Don't falter on receiving, either.
the other side will definitely get a point.
I'm sure you're all tired about now, but so are they.
We've got the game in our court right now.
Will Kageyama's serves turn the tables around for Karasuno?
Make sure you concentrate.
Right!
Yes!
He got another one in!
All right!
That timeout sure didn't kill his concentration!
Miya Osamu Miya Atsumu
Seriously?
One more time!
Gin!
Aran!
Even if we can't totally break them down mentally,
just the slightest annoyance...
If they hit aggressive spikes toward us even a little...
Left, left!
Three blockers!
That'll give us a huge chance for a turnaround.
Yes, yes, yes, yes!
Here it comes!
Oh, hey. Is that...
Yeah...
That was an annoying out.
Fire it up, fire it up, Karasuno!
Fly
Damn it!
And the ball is sailing right back over to Karasuno's side.
Too damn fast!
Don't go getting a big head, now.
Samu!
Yeah!
Ojiro Aran definitely got that one over.
Nice, nice, Aran! One more time!
He's making his presence known as the ace!
Atsumu-kun's dig was amazing.
But Kageyama Tobio and Miya Atsumu are candidates for the national youth team
and excellent setters.
You can see the sparks fly even when they're not setting.
Osamu! Put the finisher on this second set already!
Also, I definitely got way more service aces than you today!
Would you shut up?
Shit.
Inarizaki
That was a little too powerful and definitely went out.
It took flight!
You don't need to hit a home run here!
You do that too, sometimes!
It's because you provoked him.
Ow!
Osamu-kun looks pretty calm, but hates losing.
Well, think about who his other half is.
Even the slightest wavering of their mental strength...
will throw them off their usual plays just a bit...
It's in!
Then irregularities start to pile up.
Gin!
And that changes the flow.
Sorry!
Don't worry about it!
It's all good, Asahi-san.
Sorry!
Let's get our rhythm back. Let's calm down.
Episode 20: Leader
Next time, "Leader."