Yamaguchi Tadashi: Haikyuu's Greatest Underdog Story

foreign [Applause] the court a brutal beautiful world it is the realm of two meter Giants and pinpoint Setters of hungry beasts and monstrous Talent of thousands of dreamers and a handful of victors after all the view from the top is a rare sight even for those born to Grace it in that world of genius and passion of experience and hunger of absolutes and certainties stands a scrawny anxious boy watching from the sidelines as he questions his place in this banquet of monsters he reaches out a nervous hand grasping for something anything yearning to be a part of that brutal yet beautiful world alas he is no genius he is no monster he is no freak Yamaguchi tarashi is nothing but average the bright lights overwhelm him the ecstatic crowd unsettles him and the tall towering ever-present expanse called the net frightens him every single day every single moment sitting on that bench he thinks I'm not good enough I'm worthless I don't belong here I will never belong here and yet he still wishes to see the view from the top more than anything else out of all the characters in haikyuu Yamaguchi was the first one I resonated with on a personal level and his journey was one of the biggest reasons I felt so deeply in love with this story after all I've been where he's been I've felt what he's felt but it was this seemingly normal guy who I thought would be nothing more than tsukishima's sidekick it was him who taught me that you cannot wait for an opportunity to come to you you cannot sit there and bask in your burdens expecting things to just work out you have to forge your own path through all the anxiety all the doubts all the stress sometimes all it takes is a little belief in yourself and one deep breath foreign was first introduced I really wasn't expecting much from him he was the guy that just followed tsukushima around and that's honestly all I thought he would ever be after all he had a personality that didn't seem like it would mesh with the other boys Hinata and kagayama were these aggressive passion-filled idiots daichi was a firm leader sugawara was a calm but reliable voice tsukushima was a problem but also stood out in his own way yet Yamaguchi was passive introverted scared and in retrospect I love that not everyone on a sports team should be a meathead or a Super Genius or even a socially well-rounded person especially in a team like karasuno which was filled with players aiming for the top having someone who just joined the club out of love for the sport someone who just wanted to do something after school grounds the team in reality but among hyper passionate monsters it's easy to Lose Yourself sometimes they shine so bright you can't even fathom catching a glimpse of them you think how in the world can I catch up to them compared to these guys who eat live and breathe volleyball what can I even do other times however they shine so bright it makes you want to shine a little brighter yourself and when you grasp that feeling of frustration that feeling of wanting to change one day or another a ray of Hope will come your way for Yamaguchi that Ray of Hope was a little practice match against the karasuno neighborhood association as he manages the score on the sidelines now accepting his fate as a benchwarmer there suddenly comes a moment that shines brighter to him than anything he'd seen on the court before brighter than the reforged ace Asahi brighter than the Unstoppable Guardian nishinoya shining brighter than any monster on that Court was a single serve [Music] the jump floater it would be a while till that moment ignited something within him it would be a while till his purpose would become clear to him but whether he realized it or not that one serve would change yamaguchi's life forever as the days passed and the rest of the first years flew higher and higher reaching unimaginable Heights Yamaguchi came to a sad but real understanding after the intense practice games against nekoma just a few days before the inter-high tournament Yamaguchi finally realized that he had been left behind the sad truth was that Yamaguchi had nothing to offer the team everything he could do someone else could do better right now all he could do was helplessly watch from the sidelines as the rest of the first years made it into the starting lineup leaving him further and further behind perhaps at the beginning he thought they would all be on the bench together and that's a comforting thought but to be on the bench all alone now that that is heartbreaking it's a feeling I know too well that feeling of complete and utter despair when you realize you're all alone all the way back at the starting line you blame the world for its unfairness and pull yourself down for not being as talented as the rest of your peers and that frustration that feeling of worthlessness is unbearable but it's in that darkness that void of helplessness that the Ray of Hope shines the brightest he may not be able to set like kagiyama receive like nishinoya or Spike like Asahi but there was one play that no one had mastered the only individual play in volleyball but a play that required one to overcome the battle against oneself frustrated and fed up with himself Yamaguchi heads over to his local convenience store whose owner Makoto shimada had previously caught his eye after all this was the man who had demonstrated the jump floater serve and so Yamaguchi asks shimada if he can teach him the jump floater you know what's really inspiring about this moment is that Yamaguchi could have simply chosen to accept his spot on the bench and forever lament the fact that he would simply never be as good as the others he could have gone down that path and it would have made him bitter resentful yet he chose to take a leap of faith he took a step forward he took initiative which in of itself made him a completely different player than he was just a few hours ago sure his reason for taking the step might be trivial the fact that he didn't want to be the only first year to be left out but no matter the reason Yamaguchi wanted to forge his own path and suddenly Yamaguchi was the character I was cheering for the most to me he was the True Underdog of haikyuu and I wanted to see his ark his moment unfold more than any other character can we also take a second to appreciate shimada he really didn't have to train Yamaguchi but he took time out of his Knights gave the boy a space to practice and I respect that night I think shimada saw a young boy trying to find his place in the world trying to find a purpose that night I think shimada saw himself in Yamaguchi from then on practicing through the nights pushing himself every single day Yamaguchi was on a mission to master the jump floater however it was still too soon after getting no play time in the entirety of the inter High tournament Yamaguchi is called Over by coach ukai as a last minute Wild Card against sajo who have completely adapted to karasuno's plays his first ever official game and boy was the pressure immense final set seijo leading 1916 and the weight of the world on the scrawny young boy's shoulders nervous shaky and scared out of his mind it was no surprise that Yamaguchi completely and utterly failed and man was that heartbreaking but genius the embarrassment the guilt the frustration you can see him go through all of these emotions in a matter of seconds and it's a moment that would forever be engraved in his memory after all in order to reforge yourself you have to be broken thematically I think it was a genius decision to have Yamaguchi become a serve specialist after all the serve is the only individual play in volleyball and yamaguchi's battle first and foremost is with himself the only way to pull off consistent and deadly serves is confidence belief in your own abilities but it's much easier said than done no matter how much you believe you just don't Master a skill overnight and that's what's so beautiful and relatable about this character he fails he fails miserably and terribly as we all do at some point in our lives when you feel like you've achieved Nothing in life when you feel like you've amounted to nothing it's hard to think you'll ever pull it off until two years ago that's exactly how I felt I hadn't mastered anything in my life and I hadn't achieved anything on a level I could be proud of I was genuinely lost just like Yamaguchi though I had a moment and I decided to start this channel and you know when you're putting in that work every single day when you're desperately trying to make the only thing you have work that belief arises on its own that burning feeling of wanting to see all this effort finally be rewarded lights a fire in your heart I know it's not today I know it's not tomorrow but this is all I have and one day I'm going to nail the serve and on that day it'll all be worth it throughout the second season that is exactly what Yamaguchi is in search of practicing restlessly in the Tokyo training Arc and trying to keep up with the rest of his teammates but still he's not quite there yet his recent failure weighed heavily on his mind and just thinking about experiencing that Feeling Again frightened him he needed one final push in the quarterfinals of the spring qualifiers as karasuno faces off against wakunan Yamaguchi is called upon once more and while his skill had drastically improved his confidence his belief in himself was another story in a moment of panic and stress of being overwhelmed and scared Yamaguchi abandons the jump floater and does a normal serve focusing on getting the ball over the net more than anything else he had failed again I love this moment because it grounds yamaguchi's journey in beautiful beautiful reality it's only been a few months since his failure against seijo and so it makes complete sense for him to freak out on that court again sometimes when the risk seems too high when previous failures haunt our conscience we tend to take the easy way out the safe way out after all if I failed once I'm bound to fail again right it's a mindset that's too damn relatable but one that kills any and all growth if you never take any risks if you never take that leap of faith why the hell are you even on this team one of my favorite scenes is an absolutely Furious coach ukai shouting yamaguchi's name as he heads towards him ready to chastise him for running away but enoshta comes in between them stopping ukayan saying he knows coach I think he knows better than anyone else Yamaguchi tears up in a heartbreaking scene unable to contain his emotions as he comes face to face with his failures what matters most is not that he failed not that he ran away is the fact that he knew he immediately knew he'd messed up a dejected yet motivated Yamaguchi runs over to ukai after the game apologizing for his mistake and demanding one last chance one last chance to prove himself one last chance to grasp that moment one last chance to forge his own path just the conviction in his voice is enough to show us how much he's grown since season one and man is that a bone-chilling realization this is not the same boy who watched as his friends passed him by this is not the same boy who cowered in the fear of challenge this is the face of a man who wants to see the view from the top [Music] and well it was about time Yamaguchi joined the banquet of monsters himself in the long-awaited rematch against Alba josai as karasuno is backed into a corner with seemingly no way out but defeat we get a moment that I will forever remember as one of the greatest moments in all of Sports Anime the camera slowly revolves around karasano's Beacon of Hope a young man named Yamaguchi Tadashi a young man who was nothing more than average [Music] against the very same team he had failed against in the very same position he had been in facing the very same fear he had felt before Yamaguchi walks onto the court with a look of determination and resolve stronger than ever before after all through all the anxiety all the doubts all the stress sometimes all it takes is a little belief in yourself and one deep breath [Music] [Music] [Applause] foreign From the Ashes reforged into the hero of karasuno Yamaguchi scores Five Points back to back leveling the score and single-handedly bringing his team back into the game looking back this was the moment that had me hooked on high q and the moment that this story became more than just an anime to me to see a character I related to on such a deep level to see him grow and change to see him succeed and win was powerful and it meant more to me than I could ever imagine truly Yamaguchi had finally become worthy of standing in the brutal beautiful world he'd always dreamed of he'd finally become worthy of standing on the court and if he can do it so can you

Channel: Harsh Reviews

Views: 51,789

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Id: 5U4PmKigiOM

Length: 17min 23sec (1043 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 28 2023