technical data. Photos by Richard A. Brooks, Yuichi Yamazaki, and Kazuhiro Nogi.Video by Atish Patel
Ahead of the Paris Olympics, the national team has been ranked 4th in the world, and with the popularity of the manga soaring, men's volleyball is booming in Japan.
“Haikyu!!” is the story of a school team centered around an inspirational manga hero who is determined to overcome hardship and his diminutive stature, and has sold 60 million copies since its release in 2012.
It has become a blockbuster anime series, and the new movie Haikyuu!! Trash Battle has grossed 10 billion yen ($65 million) at the Japanese box office and will be released in North America this month.
Masahiro Yanagida, captain of the Japanese national team
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He said he was “very grateful” that the fictional team's accomplishments helped spark a boom in on-court numbers from 2018 to 2021.
“I myself own every volume of the manga,” he told AFP, recalling how he was “completely hooked” by the manga's “very realistic” portrayal of sports.
According to official records, the number of members of the boys' high school volleyball team has soared from 35,000 in 2012 to more than 50,000 this year.
Among those who have received inspiration is Kaede Sakashita (10), who is trying to imitate “Haikyu!!''. Elite setter Atsumu Miya and his Roland Zitos at a sports hall in Tokyo.
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“He is my role model,” Sakashita, a member of Tokyo's Sugiichi Junior Volleyball Club, told AFP.
“Haikyu!!'' fan base extends beyond boys.
For Nanami Fujiki (22), this manga ignited her “love” for sports.
“Before, I wasn't interested at all…I didn't even know the rules,” she told AFP at the Haikyuu!! pop-up store. merchandise.
But now, thanks to this series, “I can enjoy the actual matches in a different way than before.''
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The current national team reflects the comic reality with star players like Ran Takahashi, a hugely popular 22-year-old who plays in Italy's top league.
Despite not being tall by volleyball standards, the 1.88m (6ft 2in) outside hitter wowed the world last year with her pirouette spikes with her back to the net – straight out of Haikyu!! It's like a character.
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“I feel that the visually interesting play of Japanese volleyball is increasingly captivating audiences around the world, probably thanks to 'Haikyu!!'” Takahashi told AFP.
“Some might say that the quality of Japanese volleyball is approaching that of anime.”
The glory days of Japanese volleyball date back more than half a century.
The women's team “Oriental Witches'' famously defeated the Soviet Union to win the gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, followed by the men's “Munich Miracle'' gold medal in 1972.
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Since then, the women's athletes have improved and won a bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics, but they have not yet qualified for Paris.
Meanwhile, men's players “have been stagnant for many years,” Japan Volleyball Association spokesman Naohiro Kakitani told AFP.
Kakitani believes that the advancement of players like Takahashi and Yuki Ishikawa (28) to Italy's top league, as well as the team's transformation since French manager Philippe Brain was appointed in 2017, are turning points. Kakitani added.
Last year, Blaine's team placed third in the Volleyball Nations League, the first medal for a boy in a major international tournament in 46 years.
“They are now at a completely different level that we could never have dreamed of in our time,” Yanagita said.
However, the sport still faces challenges, with critics pointing to the low profitability of Japan's top-level V.League.
Many of the teams in the league are supported by companies, and players don't earn a living from volleyball, which can lead to low motivation, Yanagida said.
Yanagita's current club, the Tokyo Great Bears, is breaking that conventional wisdom.
The club president, who wears pink uniforms, is actively shedding the aggressive, macho image that is common among male athletes, in order to “make sure that female fans don't feel ignored.” Ken Kubota told AFP.
By combining this approach with tie-ups with YouTubers and musicians, Tokyo Great Bears was able to draw the largest crowd in the men's division for the second year in a row.
“I wanted to prove that volleyball can attract spectators,” Kubota said.
And it's a way of thinking that resonates with Takahashi, who has made himself a marquee volleyball player by modeling and singing on YouTube.
“I want to make volleyball a dream sport for children,'' she said.