#2.43: Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Team

[lemonidae]

BEST DARK HAIRED CHARACTER TOURNAMENT

VOTE MORE!!

[anime-of-the-day]

Anime of the Day Olympic Sports Edition: Volleyball

Haikyuu

2.43: Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Team

Attacker You!

[benratinox]

a bunch of old-old sketches from 2021

[iwatchanimedubs]

2.43 Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Team

Oh boy does this one have a long title. But it's a really solid watch. It's more serious than Haikyu while still presenting similar interpersonal conflicts and resolutions. It's been a little while since I finished this one and it still sticks with me. I started this thinking I would skip the sports animes since I'm not a sports fan, but I'm really glad I didn't skip this one. If I had a rating system, this would be a 10/10, but since I don't I'll say this: I'd rewatch this anime as a comfort.

[magicalgirlmel]

Anime finished this year 36: 2.43 Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Team

6/10

[yuurei20]

Meet the Seiyuu: Ortho Shroud

Ortho's voice actor Aoi Shouta's industry career began when he applied for a karaoke contest at age 17 that was cancelled due to inclement weather. Event organizers selected him from his audition tape to participate in a musical festival, where he won the grand prize.

After singing a cover of Koda Kumi’s “1000 no Kotoba” (featured in Final Fantasy X-2) at a national competition, he was immediately picked up by an agency.

His major debut single Negai Boshi was released on July 26th, 2006 under the name SHOWTA.　

In a “Style of the PRINCE” interview Aoi explains that he had always been interested in a career in anime and video games but his agency recommended against it, citing his lack of experience.

Three years into his singing career he quit his agency to pursue a career in the anime/game industry.

His video game debut was in 2011’s “Black Robinia”, followed shortly by his anime debut eight months later in “You and I”.

He has since voiced characters as Magic-kyun! Renaissance, Dynamic Chord, 2.43: Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Team (all three with Leona's Umehara) and Uta no Prince with Lilia’s Midorikawa Hikaru. (thank you @peppermint-angel for the additional information!)

He has had over 20 lead roles in anime, nearly 50 lead roles in video games and appeared in over 30 stage musicals. As of last month he is a freelance voice actor and singer.

In an interview with CONTINUE magazine Aoi says that he spent the years from his third year in elementary school to his first year of middle school as a hikkikomori, never attending classes.

As a child he underwent intensive training to become a professional tennis player. 

While identifying as male Aoi has expressed that he doesn’t like being restricted by expectations of what he should and shouldn’t do as a man and often styles himself androgynously.

He was cast in the role of Mermaid Princess “Marina” in 2016’s stage musical “The Smile Mermaid”.  

A video from AOI SHOUTA LIVE 2019 WONDER lab. I

[transcendersmedia]

Making sports into drama (and games?)

An anime analysis from a game design perspective

I admit: I am a great sports anime nerd (and I’ve previously written about the volleyball anime Haikyuu and its fandom) – something that also affects my thinking around game design. What makes sports anime so good – better than watching the sports themselves – is that they usually combine the thrill and achievements of those sports with portrayal of the characters performing them. For me, that adds an invaluable component, since I’m also a character and fictional relationships nerd.

Ookiku Furikabutte - manga by Higuchi Asa

I’ve categorized the series based on how much of the dramatic content focuses on the game or sport itself and how much it relies on other factors, such as relationships between characters outside of sports. I’ll put my main focus on the series that primarily revolve around the sport. Many are based on manga, but not all. (Whether the series originates as manga or not might actually also affect the content, but it’s not something that I’ll go into in this post.)

Categorizing the shows

Series where the drama is primarily built around the content of the sport:

Ookiku Furikabutte/Big Windup (baseball)

Diamond no Ace/Ace of the Diamond (baseball)

Haikyuu!! (volleyball)

Kuroko no Basket/Kuroko’s Basketball (basketball)

Series where the drama is built around a combination of the sport’s content and other factors:

Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteru/Run with the Wind (running)

Tsurune: Kazemai Koukou Kyuudoubu (archery)

Yuri!!! on Ice (figure skating)

2.43: Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu/2.43: Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Team (volleyball)

Days (soccer)

Re-main (water polo)

Ping Pong the Animation (ping pong)

Series where the drama is primarily built around content outside of the sport:

Free! (swimming)

Hoshiai no Sora/When Stars Align (soft tennis)

Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun/Clean Freak Aoyama-kun (soccer)

Cheer Danshi!!/Cheer Boys!! (cheerleading)

Bakuten!!/Backflip!! (rhythmic gymnastics)

Taisou Zamurai / The Gymnastics Samurai (gymnastics)

It’s interesting to see that the focus on sports content could in part be related to which target group the series is aimed towards. It seems like shounen anime (“for boys”) has a larger focus on sports content, whereas shoujo (“for girls”) and seinen (“for grown-ups”) revolve more around relationships.

Could set-based sports with clear positions be easier to dramatize?

Haikyuu!! - manga by Haruichi Furudate

Both volleyball and baseball translate well into anime format. Volleyball’s set-based play makes it easy to create exciting match portrayals. The game involves turn-taking and players’ positions on the court, including who serves and rotates, creating clear recurring moments of suspense. Since the objective is to win the most sets out of a predetermined number, the outcome of a match isn’t known until the decisive set is played.

The psychological play and complexity

Ookiku Furikabutte - manga by Higuchi Asa

The complexity of baseball could be seen as a disadvantage due to its difficulty to comprehend, but it’s a double-edged sword, since the complexity also adds excitement. Baseball matches as a whole can become slow, especially if the teams are adept at defense and don’t allow scoring hits. However, in anime, unlike in reality, there’s the possibility to cut or quickly summarize dull parts of the match.

Baseball and volleyball gameplay loops

A Gameplay Loop is a game design term that is used to describe the repetitive activities that a player will take while playing a game. It, essentially, defines what the player DOES while playing. – Engaged Family Gaming

Diamond no Ace - manga by Terajima Yuuji

In volleyball, a loop begins with one team serving, the ball is then moved between teams by players with various roles (such as setter, wing spiker, blocker, libero) until it hits the floor on one side of the net, determining which team scores a point. This loop is integrated into the larger system by having the first team to reach a certain number of points win the set, while the overall match aims to win the most sets out of (usually) five.

Do shorter loops and turned-based sports make for better drama?

The smallest loops in baseball and volleyball are clear and quite short, allowing for detailed focus on the characters executing decisive actions. The moments before a serve/pitch provide space for inner monologues and character communication. Side changes and innings/sets frame the matches, making it easier for viewers to follow, compared to more fluid sports like basketball or soccer. In turn-based sports, breaks are incorporated into the game’s design. Therefore, I believe that turn-based sports, where players also have very specific roles, are more favorable to portray, than sports where players have more similar roles and the game is more fluid. (Perhaps this is why Kuroko no Basket assigned supernatural abilities to the players, adding an extra dimension to the game that makes it a little more video game-like? Well, it could also be because the creator wanted to make a series about basketball players with supernatural abilities. Personally, I find that supernatural abilities detract from the intrigue of sports, but that’s a matter of taste.) 

Haikyuu!! - manga by Haruichi Furudate

Teams are great for drama

I believe team sports are better suited for storytelling than individual sports. This might be because team sports allow for more complexity in the narrative, as players within a team can be rivals, while also depending on each other to develop and win. Opposing teams are obvious antagonists, but the most interesting events often happen within the teams, between the characters that viewers have come to know, and whose development they are following. Team sports also have recurring tournaments where teams can face the same opponents multiple times, enabling long series that maintain suspense. This exists in individual sports too, but individual competition feels more one-dimensional than team-based competition. So, aside from game (sports) design itself, the setup around teams, tournaments, and matches also influences the narrative. Series centered on individual sports tend to focus more on character relationships outside of competitions, possibly because the sport itself doesn’t provide enough material to build drama solely around it.

Translating sports into drama - and games!

When translating sports into drama, there are factors that can both facilitate and complicate the dramatic buildup. If the focus is on the game itself, it’s advantageous if the game has a high level of complexity, clear/short loops, and specific roles, preferably with inherent conflicts. Among the sports I’ve seen depicted, I would say that baseball has the greatest potential to create compelling drama. However, with that said, the storyteller’s skill will likely have a bigger impact on the story than the design of the sport itself.

I’ve based this analysis on anime series, and they have their aesthetics, structures and way of portraying things. I’m very curious as to whether the components of a great sports anime – sports/game content together with character development and relationships – could also be made into great games. The content of digital games and anime series are very different, but I think there are still learnings to be made from analysing and also comparing those media forms.

Please let me know through our social channels which games you have played that include sports mechanics and relationships. I have played Pyre, which I think combine those things well. I also have Roller Drama on my to play-list, but I would like to know of more games that focus on sports and relationships (sports relation games!).

A last side note: When there was finally an anime about Water Polo – Re-main – the creators missed the opportunity of telling the amazing story on how this sport might have come into fruition – as a water based version of horse polo, called Polo Aquatic, where players rode on barrels hitting a ball with sticks… I mean, that’s something you can’t exclude!

[randomidiocyncrazies]

N P T Y!

thanks for the ask! i kinda went ham on the AU question lol

N - Name three things you wish you saw more of in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

oof this is hard! the thing is. i'm an extremely fickle mistress, so i don't really have a 'main' fandom? also i think most of what i want from fandom is extremely generic (more gen fic, more femslash, more AUs with interesting worldbuilding, more rarepairs etc etc) and most of my specific comments are aimed more at the source material than at the fandom

(that said, if anyone writes political intrigue and/or the mundane stuff of nation building about the Kree/Skrull Alliance please please please link! there's so much story potential there..............)

P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas).

okay so i LOVE most AUs, but my favorite are well-done roleswaps (by which i mean the characters' core personalities are intact, it's just that their circumstances have changed). I mean... i still lowkey think about the Persona 4 adult investigation team AU a friend and I talked about almost 10 years ago lol

(oh! speaking of the Persona franchise, i've always kind of wondered what would happen if P4 protag moved to Sumaru City after P4 and gets Jun Kashihara from Persona 2 as his homeroom teacher, and one way or another accidentally triggers a way for Nyarlathotep to return (most likely with P4 protag coming into contact with Tatsuya by chance through Jun)—after all, the theme of Persona 4 is to lift the fog of deceit, but not all truths should be remembered... though I guess this isn't really AU since it could theoretically happen as long as you handwave the mechanics about how personas/Nyarly and Philemon work)

my other pet AU is the Appmon Utena AU because narratives about roles and agency fascinate me! (appmon and utena endgame spoilers in linked posts)

as for something that I'm mostly making up right now........... uhhhh Loveless AU for Oda and Aoki from 2.43 Seiin High School Men's Volleyball Team, but only about the concept of Fighter-Sacrifice pairs and not... everything else (I have not read Loveless but it's got A Reputation)—mostly because i think it'd be so interesting if their pair name is "Selfless", seeing as Oda tends to think of himself as selfish in the novel, while Aoki's speech about "no need to thank me, I'm doing this because of ulterior motives" and his utter devotion to Oda's cause makes me kiiinda feral. (and from what little i understand about the general power dynamics of Fighters and Sacrifices, i think it makes sense for Oda to be the Sacrifice and Aoki the Fighter? idk)

i haven't thought of why they're marked, since they're meant to be Just Some Guys in 2.43 (i.e. not one of the star players on the team)

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending? 

i'm not willing to die on this hill, but i have this entire elaborate headcanon about Euanthe from Counter/WEIGHT having a dead fiance and them being essentially an anti-stratus due to the programming language disconnect between the Divines and the Apostolisian mechs. both are just something i pulled completely out of my ass tho (note: Twilight Mirage is the last sci-fi season from friends at the table that i've completed)

as for something i'm slightly more willing to die defending: Yukiko and Chie from Persona 4 lived on takeout for like 4 months after they got their own place, before grudgingly learning how to cook at the Inaba community center (also Yosuke heckles them about it and sends shitty pics of his humble homemade dishes at ridiculous hours to taunt them about it—at least, that's how they interpret his gesture

and i mean. they aren't entirely wrong about that.)

Y - What are your secondhand fandoms (i.e., fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)?

oh boy most popular media is like that for me... i feel like ORV is one of these even though i did read some of it? (and i mean. i do plan on reading past ch 75 of ORV one of these days.) i've heard stuff about SVSSS (about a rarepair/side character) and the Owl House seems interesting from the general impression i get from my dash

I guess i also. learned about SPN on tumblr (and know more than I want to, even though in the grand scheme of things it's not much at all)

[ask prompts here!]

[katokoart]

Enjoy my take on Haijima Kimichika from anime 2.43: Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Team :3

This was part of term 8 (2021)

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[lemonidae]

BEST DARK HAIRED CHARACTER TOURNAMENT

Round 1:

Megumi Fushiguro (Jujutsu Kaisen) Lost to Choso in Round 1, Saved in Round 1.5-D

Yuni Kuroba (2.43) -vs- Gou Nagakura (Battery)

Round 2:

Megumi Fushiguro (Jujutsu Kaisen) -vs- Yuni Kuroba (2.43)

VOTE MORE!!

Best Light Haired Character Tournament

[anime-of-the-day]

Anime of the Day: ​​Pull List

2.43: Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Team

Alt title: 2.43: Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu

Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san

Alt title: Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-san

When Will Ayumu Make His Move?

Alt title: Soredemo Ayumu wa Yosetekuru

[benratinox]

it's been a long time since I last drew him. these two sketches of mine still remain in my heart, though

[1-800-mechanicalpencils]

Here is my starting list of animes

- The Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting

- Wave!! - let's go surfing!

- 2.43 seiin high school boys volleyball team

- The slime diaries

- Laid-back camp

I'm really hoping these are going to be good, what tiktok recommended but if anyone has any suggestions lmk!!

[aceofbooks]

Favorite Animes

I don’t read manga

not comprehensive, italics indicates a comfort anime

Haikyuu!!

Death Note (don’t read into this being a comfort anime)

Buddy Daddies

Ascendance of a Bookworm

Bungo Stray Dogs

Dead Mount Death Play

Goblin Slayer

Log Horizon

Dr. Stone

Tokyo Revengers [not caught up]

My Hero Academia

Attack on Titan [not caught up]

Moriarty the Patriot

Dances with the Dragons

Burn the Witch

Bluelock

2.43: Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Team

Blood Blockade Battlefront

Black Clover

Fairy Tail

The Case Study of Vanitas

Ouran High School Host Club

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Fruits Basket

Spy X Family

Fire Force

Soul Eater

Assassination Classroom

Magi

Hell’s Paradise

Violet Evergarden

Romantic Killer

7 Seeds

Dungeon Meshi

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End

Jujutsu Kaisen

Demon Slayer

The Apothecary Diaries

© divider from @/saradika-graphics 🩶

[dejwrldarchived]

what’s an underrated sports anime i can watch or read the manga of?

remain, 2.43 seiin high school boys volleyball team, the salaryman’s club, initial d, and welcome to the ballroom

[careysattheonsenagain]

If you don't shout, "JUST GO AHEAD AND KISS HIM ALREADY!!" at least once every episode, is it even a sports anime?