Literature / 2.43 Seiin High School Boy's Volleyball Team

"You believe that we can make it to the Spring Tournament, correct? That's what this 2.43 net is for, correct?"

— Kimichika Haijima

Kimichika Haijima is a talented, but troublesome player. After an incident at his previous middle school, he moves back to Fukui Prefecture. From there, he meets back up with his Childhood Friend Yuni Kuroba, a talented student who unfortunately hangs out with the wrong crowd. Deciding to join the volleyball club at Kuroba's middle school, Haijima practices day-by-day by himself. Noticing this, Kuroba joins him, eventually getting some other students to join their club.

While they grow as a team, things go awry at the Prefectural Championship, costing them their friendship. A few months pass and they both enter Nanafu Prefectural Seiin High School. Joining the weak volleyball team with their friendship on the rocks, they set out to take on nationals.

2.43 Seiin High School Boy's Volleyball Team ^note 2.43 清陰高校男子バレー部, Nī Ten Yonsan Seiin Kōkō Danshi Barē-bu is a Coming of Age Light Novel series written by Yukako Kabei (one of the authors behind K) and illustrated by Aiji Yamakawa, which began publication in 2015. A manga adaptation has been serialized in Josei magazine Cocohana since July 2018. An Anime adaptation by David Production premiered on January 8, 2021 as part of Fuji Television's noitaminA block.

2.43 Seiin High School Boy's Volleyball Team provides examples of:

• The Ace:
  • Haijima is considered this In-Universe, being not only an incredible setter, but also an on-par receiver and spiker. He's also a skilled strategist. Because of this, Kuroba believes that Haijima could carry the whole team to nationals during the Prefectural Championship, which is simply not the case.
  • Subaru Mimura is this for Fukuho Tech, being their ace spiker who can burst through difficult blocks with his Signature Move "Demon Bazooka". This is despite the fact that he got surgery on both of his knees and sometimes needs to tap out when his knees are giving him trouble.
• A Day in the Limelight: Chapter 6/Episode 6 switches up perspectives from the Seiin team to Fukuho Tech, their main rival.
• Affectionate Nickname: Kuroba initially calls Haijima, "Chika" - a shortened version of his first name - but quickly switches to his last name after seeing how much he's changed. Miss Minami also uses this after Haijima comes back to Tokyo.
• Brutal Honesty: Haijima has zero filter and will say what he wants, when he wants, feelings be damned. This comes to a head after the Fukuho practice match, when Haijima suggests that Oda sit out of the team for the first match of the prefectural qualifiers. Despite his best efforts in explaining, he ultimately goes a bit too deep, leading to the team to rightfully push back at him - he may have his reasons, but they can't give up their emotional pillar that easily.
• Character Development: Kuroba mentions in the first episode of the anime that Haijima was an unathletic crybaby. Jump forward to today, Haijima is considered The Ace who's also quite the Jerkass. Haijima gradually takes a level in kindness throughout the series, though he's still plenty blunt.
• Childhood Friends: Haijima and Kuroba were this back in the day, but it seems that only Kuroba really remembers this, though he's proven wrong when Haijima introduces him to his former middle school team.
• City Mouse: Subverted. Haijima was from Tokyo, but it's revealed early-on that he originally lived in Fukui when he was a child before moving to Tokyo.
• Compressed Adaptation: Due to the nature of only having half an hour (23-or-so minutes if you don't count the commercials) to cover a chapter an episode, the anime adaptation naturally cuts out many smaller events to move the story along.
• Dark and Troubled Past:
  • Haijima caused one of his previous teammates to nearly commit suicide as a result of his demands, something that he obviously not proud of.
  • Both Mimura and Ochi from Fukuho suffered from knee injuries a couple of years ago from volleyball practice. While Mimura was able to get surgery and get back to playing in no time, Ochi's injury was far more serious and led him to eventually taking on the manager position instead.
• Demoted to Extra: Ibara Suemori and by extension Kanno get this. Ibara was an important secondary character in the novels but her plotline, which was heavily connected to Kanno, was cut out because it didn't have much connection to the main plotline about the boys' team. Ibara ended up only as a small cameo.
• Driven to Suicide: Yori reveals that Haijima caused one of his teammates to nearly do this back in his previous middle school team. Then it's revealed that Sota, the teammate supposedly tried to commit suicude, was a part of a joke that Meisei did as a way to get Haijima off the team.
• Foil:
  • The Fukuho Tech and Seiin High School volleyball teams are this to each other. While Fukuho are tight-knit and incredibly goofy at times, Seiin are far more ragtag and straightforward - though not without their silly moments. Fukuho have won the Inter-High in Fukui for years now, but Seiin are an underdog team that only managed to emerge because of Haijima and Kuroba's combination. Fukuho are set up to be a team that is centered around their ace and captain while Seiin are far more reliant on the whole team playing together.
  • Haijima and Mimura are set up this way. While Haijima is a setter that demands the best out of his team, Mimura is a spiker who expects his team to rely on him during matches even when he's clearly not at his best. Haijima unites Seiin with his impressive sets and clever plays, while Fukuho is centered around Mimura's incredible skillset, giving most of their spikes to him during the game.
• Hair-Contrast Duo: Haijima and Kuroba. Haijima is a blonde, no-nonsense volleyball player who's quite hard on his teammates, while Kuroba is a black-haired player who admits that he tends to get bored easily.
• Height Angst:
  • Haijima expresses a mild form of this in the second episode when Kuroba is measured to a whopping 179.2 centimeters ^note around 5'11" a mere 2.3 centimeters higher than his height (176.9 centimeters ^note around 5'10)
  • Oda, the captain, admits that he went through many phases of this before he realized that he just wanted to play volleyball for fun, rather than to win. This is a key point in Haijima's reasoning for benching him; despite his passion and emotional intelligence, there is simply no way to get around his height.
• Hidden Agenda Hero: Misao Aoki claims to have "ulterior motives" that no one knows about, but it gets results nonetheless. While he's quite the shifty character - throwing matches and recording fights for his own gain for starters - he's still one of the good guys.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Kuroba is a downplayed version of this. As much as he knows that Yori and his friends are terrible people, he stills hangs out with them.
• Hypocritical Humor: Kuroba says to Itoko that he's not excited to see Haijima once again... only to run out and try to greet him the second he sees him out the window.
• Icy Blue Eyes: Haijima has dark blue eyes, but his blunt, stoic nature cause them to be this.
• I Work Alone: Explicitly averted. As much as Haijima is an incredible player, he simply knows that he can't play the whole game by himself. This is one of the reasons why his friendship with Kuroba sours; Kuroba's abandonment caused the team's morale shift to him and only him, causing him to take on too much and eventually lose the game.
• Jerkass: Yori and his friends are quite abrasive to be around, especially when Kuroba starts hanging around Haijima. They, particularly Yori, actively push him around and even reveal that Haijima caused one of his teammates back in his previous middle school to nearly commit suicide as a result of his demands. Yori goes through enough development thanks to Kuroba's passion for volleyball to become more a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
• Jerkass Realization:
  • It's implied that Haijima went through this after news came out that one of former teammates tried to commit suicide, directly because of his demands.
  • Kuroba realizes this when he's told by his advisor that as much as Haijima is a stellar player; he simply can't hold up the team by himself.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Both of the leads are this, albeit in different shades.
  • Haijima is a straight example, being an abrasive, no-nonsense player who demands the best out of his team. However, he is willing to go out of his way to teach his middle school teammates the ins-and-outs of volleyball and actually likes being a part of a team, but his pushy nature gets in the way of that. He is also very willing to shell out the compliments if he's particularly impressed with someone.
  • Kuroba is a downplayed version. While he's a nice, if not meek person, but he's also a Horrible Judge of Character and is willing to talk shit about Haijima with his teammates behind his back after the fiasco of the second qualifying match. He was also willing to bail on his teammates during the third match because he simply didn't want to play.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Averted. As it is set in Fukui, most of the characters speak in Fukui-ben. A notable exception to this is Haijima, who speaks in Tokyo-ben as he's lived there for a good portion of his life.
• Odd Friendship: Aoki admits this during a conversation with Oda, stating that his ulterior motives put him at odds with Oda's pure intentions. Oda doesn't get it, but he's still close friends with him nonetheless.
• Oddly Small Organization:
  • Downplayed. The Monshiro team are comprised of eight players, instead of the usual 12. Nagato, one of the Monshiro players, lampshade this when they win their first game.
  • This is also downplayed with the Seiin team, as they only have eight of the requisite 12 members, though this is hand-waved with the fact that Seiin is a fairly small school.
• One Head Taller:
  • Oda is this to the entire team, being a mere 163 cm. ^note around 5'3" This is especially apparent when he's next to Aoki, who's 193 cm. ^note around 6'3", a 30 cm. difference between the two.
  • Mimura and Ochi also share this, being respectively 189 cm. and 168 cm. (around 6'3" and 5'6").
• Performance Anxiety: Kuroba suddenly gains a pretty nasty case of this in the second match of the Prefectural Championship, causing Haijima to take over in his stead. The third episode shows that he still very much has this, affecting his performance drastically during previous matches before Haijima joined. While it's not so prevalent later-on, the others mention that Haijima keeps him in check with his sets.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Downplayed. The Monshiro Middle School team were simply a bunch of kids that had no other club to fall back on, resulting in this. Luckily, Haijima's teachings allow them to grow into a fairly competent team.
• The Reveal:
  • The first episode of the anime drops the bombshell that Haijima caused one of his teammates back in his previous middle school to commit suicide because he pushed them too far.
  • When Haijima and Kuroba go back to Meisei, one of Haijima's former teammates reveal that Sota's attempted suicide was a joke by the team to kick him off the team.
  • Ochi was actually part of the Fukuho team a couple of years ago, but a bad knee injury caused his coach to suggest that he becomes the manager instead.
• Signature Move: Mimura has the "Demon Bazooka", which is just a spike turned up to eleven and then some with his monstrous strength.
• Sliding Scale of Plot Versus Characters: 2.43 has a decidedly loose plot, rarely putting a vast amount of focus in the game strategies and plays itself, but it generally makes up for it with its character focus and development.
• The Strategist: Haijima takes on this role, as his experience and position give him an edge in-game.
• Stoic Spectacles: Haijima often wears glasses off-court and often wears a dour, cold expression.
• Teens Are Monsters: The Meisei team thought that it would be a good idea to play a joke on Haijima about Sota's attempted suicide, never giving a second thought as to how much it affected him in the long run.
• Those Two Guys: Uchimura and Hakao serve to fill the Seiin team with two extra players that they can switch out. Uchimura gets more character development than they both of them thanks to conversation with Kuroba in episode 7 and replacement of Oda in episode 8's game.
• Time Skip: The series goes through quite a few, from Haijima and Kuroba's middle school days up to when the both of them enter Seiin and the volleyball club.
• Underdogs Never Lose:
  • Averted. Despite Haijima's incredible skillset, Monshiro ultimately lose their third match because Kuroba wasn't there to play with them.
  • Played straight when Seiin finally nabs Haijima on to their team. They continually win games thanks to Haijima's skill and strategies and Kuroba's incredible spikes, while the others give it their all to support them in-game.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Well, more like "Violently Protective Best Friend". As soon as Haijima talks smack about Oda's height, Aoki kicks him directly in the desks. Oda's expression implies that this isn't the first time this has happened before.

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