Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle

Shoyo Hinata joins Karasuno high school's volleyball team to emulate his idol, the Little Giant; but he has to team up with Tobio Kageyama, his former rival.

Release date: February 16, 2024 (Japan)

Director: Susumu Mitsunaka

Distributed by: Toho Co., Ltd.

Adapted from: Haikyu!!

Box office: $92 million

Language: Japanese

This is the second highest-grossing movie of the year in Japan, but unless you’re a teenager, an anime junkie or really, really care about volleyball, you’re unlikely to get much out of it. Storywise, it feels a little like walking into a play halfway through – which in effect you are, unless you’ve followed Haruichi Furudate’s huge-selling, long-running manga, from which this is adapted, and the 85 episodes of TV anime it’s already spawned. Even the title will be indecipherable to newcomers: “haikyuu” is Japanese for volleyball; the “dumpster battle” refers to our two rival high school teams and their urban-wildlife mascots, a crow and a cat.

With very little preamble we’re thrown straight into a high-stakes match between these teams – a third-round playoff in Spring National tournament – and that’s where we stay for the duration. There are occasional flashbacks illuminating relationships between some of the players, not least our central rivals: hyperactive Shôyô Hinata, who’s super-fanatical about the sport and overcomes his short stature with his powerful jumping abilities; and cool, angsty Kenma Kozume, who appears to be existentially indifferent to everything, including volleyball, despite being a master tactician at it. Hello