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Posted in: Anime, Crunchyroll, Movies, Review, TV | Tagged: anime, Crunchyroll, Feature Film, Haikyu, HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle, sports manga
HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle Isn't Just Anime – It's Pure Cinema
HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle proves that anime feature films are now every bit as cinematic and visceral as their live-action counterparts.
HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle is a theatrical feature film spinoff of the hit sports anime from Haruichi Furudate's volleyball manga series HAIKYU!!, and never mind that it's anime, it's pure Cinema, as much an action film as Furiosa is. And it's all about one volleyball match between two evenly matched teams. And through that, we run the gauntlet of friendship, camaraderie, and warfare.
These days, feature film spinoffs of popular anime TV series are standalone stories that can't change the continuity of the series or end the story unless they come after the final episode of the series. That means a HAIKYU!! movie has to tell an exciting story without changing any of the main characters' story arcs or resolving any of their ongoing plotlines from the series, though it does bring a major plotline to a head. Karasuno High School and Nekoma High School finally face each other in an official match for the first time ever in the series, in the third round of the Spring Nationals. Shoyo Hinata had been moping like a drowned puppy since he lost a tournament against his idol and rival Tobio Kageyama. When Hinata starts high, he finds himself on the same team as Kageyama, and the two start working together to win the tournament.
In HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle, volleyball is warfare, except fortunately nobody dies. It's a combination of observation, psychological warfare, and changing strategies. The movie uses every trick from manga and anime to get you inside the characters' heads and inside the volleyball match. It cuts between the match in real time and flashbacks to the days and weeks before to show the relationships and rivalries between the boys. There's wary friendship and surprising gentleness in the way they relate to each other in a complex portrayal of masculine loyalty and kindness. There's no melodrama about hurt feelings or revenge. This is a particularly idealised Japanese portrayal of young masculinity expressed through team sports.
Then there's the animation. The scenes of the match alternate between wide shots to putting you right in the court through the eyes of one of the players, something live action could never do. The camera goes high and swoops with a player in a way almost impossible, even with a drone in live action, or low alongside a player jumping and sliding to the ground as he tries to intercept a ball. Manga and anime have always used cinematic techniques to tell stories in the most visceral way possible, but HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle shows how anime has surpassed live-action in storytelling. The movie tells a complete story in 90 minutes and, without death or bloodshed, is as thrilling as any action movie.
HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle is now in US theatres, and the series is streaming on Crunchyroll.
HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle
8/10
A sports anime feature film spun off from a hit anime and manga series, HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle is a story about a single volleyball match uses sport as a metaphor for warfare and an affirmation of male friendship and respect without bloodshed or death, using every visual storytelling technique from both anime and manga to show that the medium has surpassed live action movies to become pure Cinema.
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