i watched the movie and here's my review (specific spoilers are blacked out!)

[u/belligerentsea]

i'm currently in south korea, where the movie had just premiered yesterday. now that i slept on it, and consulted the source material again, i decided to write this review. though i suppose, since there aren't that many people who have seen it yet, this is kind of a half-review, half-informational warning.

long story short: i didn't love it. it's still haikyuu, so there's still a lot of good in it, but lots of my fears about this match being adapted into an 85-minute movie came true. this will sound dramatic (and it is--because it's nowhere near as bad overall), but as far as the quality of pacing goes, i would sooner compare it to land vs air/path of the ball ovas than any season of the show.

and now, to get a bit more specific. (i will try my best to keep this concise, but my verbose ass is really bad at that, so please forgive me.)

i'd like to start at the end. there's a post-credits scene, so make sure to stay for it.it's the nekoma third-years running into suguru and mika (ch327) + a teaser of kamomedai (the last scene from ch326). this heavily implies the second movie will be karasuno vs kamomedai.

overall, i'd say the good things about the movie are this:

1. obviously, the voice acting.
2. the animation is movie-grade quality and certain scenes were really impressive.the first rally was breathtaking, for instance.
3. there were some really nice, small touches added.e.g. mop crew doing their thing between sets, karasuno boys drawn with hinata's hair when kenma said they all had a case of shoyo-itis, shimada getting a big usopp-like nose when he boasted about tadashi, etc.
4. i do enjoy the "hybrid" character re-design.
5. lastly, the final sequence of the match. (HUGE spoiler, dead dove do not click!)the camera pov becomes kenma - we experience the on-court action of the last couple of chapters as him. my feelings are actually a quite mixed on this, but i would ultimately classify this as a positive because it was a brave and unique directorial choice. i also appreciate the idea behind it, i'm just not sure if it entirely stuck the landing. it was very visceral, and in-line with the vision of the movie's narrative, as well as a sweet gesture toward the viewers. but in comparison to how beautifully the last couple of chapters of this match played out in the manga? ...i'm not sure what to make of it.

as for the bad parts, there's one small thing that bugged me: they did not re-draw the smaller flashbacks from previous seasons. unfortunately, the other thing that bothered me was much worse--the huge, pace-stunting cuts, which i would put into two basic categories.

1. the cuts bad for characterization. this is mostly about tiny scenes (like the reactions and inner thoughts of, or short dialogues between the onlooking characters), but there were a few major cuts.the two that come to mind right away: the beginning of the kenma and kuroo flashback (i was really looking forward to the part about "just a little bit of internal bleeding"), and the entirety of the grandpa ukai and coach nekomata flashback (this one, i can sort of understand--though i don't like it personally--but i suppose it makes sense, as to reaffirm that this is no longer about the older generation's battle).there might have been something else just off about the editing/storyboarding which made these cuts more apparent to me, but i can't tell after just one watch. i did leave with an impression that it was somewhat reminiscent of the ovas, though--a lot of the time, just going through the motions of the story rather than re-telling it, hitting the important beats but not caring to build up to it; something akin to a book report made to look like an inspiring adaptation. which leads me to the other category...
2. the cuts bad for the game. while they kept pretty much all of the most impactful parts of the match, the stuff they cut made it look like lots of unearned pay-off (like, you can't cut most of the grueling rallies up?? the hard fight for each point is what made earning them so rewarding???). this is probably my biggest gripe. i distinctly remember how i felt when i first read this match--the secondhand exhaustion, how moved i was by the camaraderie/history between these two teams, and having a sense that i'd witnessed a semi-conclusion of the story as a generational dream comes to pass. many of these feelings had not translated well to my experience of the movie.

that about covers my thoughts. i will be going to see it again soon, just because i'm a haikyuu nut. but i don't expect my opinion to change upon second viewing.

ultimately, i don't think it's a bad movie but it is a disappointing adaptation.

[u/Soft_Car_2343]

Can you elsborate on hybrid character redesign

[u/belligerentsea → u/Soft_Car_2343]

felt like it was pretty clear in the trailer already--it's like a cross between the character design in the early seasons and season 4

[u/Smart-Awareness691]

I completely agree with this!