if you have friends which haven't seen haq then you'll likely know the pain of trying to explain to them why some of haq's best scenes are so good you and I know how hype moving and in some cases lifechanging the series best scenes can be but trying to explain to someone why single receive block or spike is so incredibly moving it's kind of hard to do but there's one scene in particular that on my latest rewatch really stood out to me somehow without a single thing happening just a bit of camera
movement and a single line we get a scene that turned one of the most overlooked characters in the series into one of the greatest of all time tatashi Yamaguchi and his success in fighting back against an all too relatable feeling for the first two episodes of hiq he doesn't really feel like too much more than tsushima's sidekick he even initially brags about tsushima's height similar in absence of something to brag about himself with everything else going on and a focus really being on the oth
er characters he kind of slips under the Raider a bit for the first half of season 1 and I didn't really think much of him as a result but there's a scene in episode 14 where he gets his first set up something down the line his conversation with Shima in which he walks in despite the shot being closed and asked him to teach him how to do a jump float serve because he never wants to be the only first you're on the bench the whole game again maybe this won't make sense to some people but to feel a
s though you're good enough that you're not a failure and you can do the same things as everyone else is a blessing you only really appreciate if you used to not feel that way and it's also something that absolutely consumes you when you feel as though you're not enough that you can't do anything right you can't do the same things as everyone else like there's this curse or barrier that just seems to stop you again and again it's something I so desperately wanted when I was younger yet saw so ma
ny people around me taking it for granted I don't know how many people will be able to relate to that but I'm sure we can all at least relate to that frustration of wanting to be better and the timid shy Yamaguchi going out of his way to seek out Shima really says so much about him and he had a ton of respect for me in the scene because it would have been all too easy for him to just kind of resign himself to the sidelines to say well it's rare for first is to play it's just Hiner kago and sukim
a all exceptional in some way next year I'll be on the team there wouldn't have been this risk of embarrassment or failure it would have likely been a very comforting thing to tell himself and that's the option I took myself for so long but not only does Yamaguchi actively seek out way to get what he wants he goes for being a pinch server the only play where you're not just standing side by side with your team as equals you're carrying all the expectations on your back it really is so admirable
I have a ton of respect for his resolve and initiative a ton to admit hey I'm weak right now and I'll do whatever I can to change that can you help me and so Yamaguchi starts practicing alone at night in a cold dark parking lot in the hope of that one moment where it all changes for him soon enough krasno enters their first regional qualifier and of course eventually end up against their biggest Rivals Alba josi jumping ahead to the third set the momentum is building and building against carasim
oa's tactics are breaking them down Point by point and the focus of the game is on the two genius Setters going against each other at a level Way Beyond anyone else on that Court desperate to find a way to shift the moment back coach ukai do something completely unexpected to everyone even yamaguchi's Mentor Shima he Subs the terrified shaking Yamaguchi in and as he steps on the court he's shocked by how different it is the intensity and heat of the Court gives a very cold reminder unfortunatel
y no matter how much you hype yourself up and play things out in your mind the second you're confronted with whatever it is you were dreading your body is going to tense up you're going to nervous and which were literally anywhere else and you've got to be prepared for that as Yamaguchi tries to calm his nerves desperate for his one chance to prove himself to work out he shakingly sends his jump float serve towards Alba josi only for it to not even make it over the net and I don't know about you
but I can think of at least a dozen moments where I felt exactly like Yamaguchi in this scene deflated inferior as it there some barrier between him and everyone else but as he walks off devastated by what's happened to the rest of the stadium is really not a big deal it was just one point a point that was just used to calm krasno down a bit the next Point starts and it's already been forgotten but to Yamaguchi that was everything his whole selfworth his confidence he put his very Soul into tha
t serve and it didn't work out so that's that right well no of course not Yamaguchi seemed convinced that's the end of his volleyball chances but Dai shows why he's Captain as he tells him you'll get it next time which seems to be a huge shock to Yamaguchi I've always loved the way haq deals with failure and setback it's always heartbreaking and painful but it's never the end and nor does it ever end up as badly as you'd expect it to you get way more chances than you realize and Yamaguchi does g
et another chance in the rematch of ala josi in season two but before that he has a talk of his teacher that gives us an unforgettable line following their defeat earlier that day when Shima asks him did you enjoy it he responds with a flat not really before spilling all his frustrations out and shim's response really stuck with me to get the most out of sports you have to be strong it's not that you have to be the greatest in the world but being too weak to do anything sucks it's frustrating an
d we might not admit it but none of us want to be the one ranked last the moment Shima got his first service Ace and realized what he could do his love of volleyball truly began in a sentiment that really mirrors Tuk kashima's Journey we just need one moment to change the way we see everything except unlike Suk kushima who Str see any meaning or point in striving to be better Yamaguchi and Shima were obsessed with wanting to reach the same level as those around them and what I really love about
yamag UI story is it shows this whole idea of talent in such a realistic yet positive light sure he doesn't have the same gifts as hin kagi Amar suuk kushima he doesn't really have that innate talent that could help him reach the level of someone like Usha Waka but if he practices and puts to work in can be damned good at whatever he practices I imagine he felt the same thing that I have many times and maybe you have two that something is wrong with us that for one reason or another we're just n
ever going to get there wherever there may be that there's some invisible wall that just won't let us pass but as Yamaguchi shows sure we're not all born the same but we're not actually as different as we might think chances are if you just keep doing the right things in spite of all those doubts you will catch them it's pretty incredible really just how much humans can improve or something when they keep at it in carno's second attempt at qualifying for Nationals in the quarterfinals they end u
p against a team we've never seen before and Yamaguchi gets a chance to serve he sends the ball up and it hits the net causing him to pallet but the point still goes through he's so needlessly harsh in himself saying oh it's a point but who cares I just got lucky and I'll miss the next one and I don't want to mess this up give yourself some credit bro the only person who thought that about her serve was Yamaguchi everyone else was excited by the point he's the only one putting himself down for i
t he's being way too hard on himself seen his successors as somehow inferior to everyone else's and that's going to be a major point I come back to thanks to tokushima but before that Yamaguchi gets a second serve and all those doubts make him too scared to go for a jump floater he just stands there and goes for the safe option abandoning his whole journey his very strength crno wins the point hand as a result the set but kukai is not happy there's an idea that comes up in multiple character sto
ries in highq that running away from something you really want because of a failure or two only makes it worse sure you get to hide away from the pressure from the embarrassment and frustration but something much worse takes its place now I actually don't think quitting is always a bad thing you might be surprised to hear me say that but sometimes something just isn't resourceful for you anymore not every member of crno plans to keep playing volleyball once they graduate and that's not the quitt
ing at all it's just simply that they have other things they want to focus on in the future but you know when you're giving up just because you're scared or you're not willing to put the work in you know if you're stopping for good reasons or not you can't fool yourself and it's clear which one it was for Yamaguchi as well and the frustration he felt felt far worse than even the worst serve would have I still sometimes think back to things years ago where I chicken out because I was scared of fa
iling yeah I've never once regretted my actual failures nothing hurts more than running away and I know this there's a bit of a side tangent and you guys probably just want to get to the next match but I do just want to mention this idea that ukai kind of touches on I'm sure we'd all agree that anyone who looks down at someone for trying to improve themselves isn't a nice person especially someone who puts down someone who's still practicing and improving for making one mistake that's really not
the kind of person we'd want to deal with at all right and yet often we do do that to ourselves Yamaguchi certainly does he even though never in a million years would he be that harsh to anyone else for one mistake something to think about anyway moving on kashow wins the game and it's finally time to take on Alba josi again as the long awaited rematch begins Yamaguchi watches on as two jior Setters once again fight for control of the game Carno take the first set and H is initially a problem f
or iawa and his team but with their new wether Mad Dog on top of a car's monstrous serves crar are slowly being broken down and falling apart with h to finally being shut down with seemingly no way out and the points piling up ukai is at a loss for a count strategy using his final timeout early everything crer has relied on up until now has been dismantled with no fix in sight but even as the pressure and intensity mounts on the court there's one man standing on the sidelines who's even more int
ense than any of them he's had enough of seeing everyone around him get what he wants except him please put me in the game the score is 2319 a four-point gap is hard enough to overcome let alone with just two points remaining yeah Yamaguchi Subs him relaxed and ready he's not looking at the score krasno Hypes him up but he doesn't need it he's been preparing for this moment for months these 8 seconds are all he needs as Shima says just by having spoken to ukai this isn't the same Yamaguchi and i
t really shows even oawa notices it and so the whistle finally blows the stadium goes silent and he takes a deep breath this is his moment it's out [Music] [Applause] carno's halfth of the stadium erupts whilst Albert jiz is confused by why one point deserve such celebration but they didn't see the months of frustration the late practices the doubts the despair the desire to just feel adequate and as Suk kushima says and I love this part it shouldn't be a surprise he's practiced serving more tha
n anyone so why wouldn't he score a service Ace there's never anything wrong with Yamaguchi that arguably wasn't anything special about what he did either he just practiced and practiced and again why wouldn't someone could put in that much work of a great serve that barrier that curse the way pasted it was simply time time spent wisely and now Albert joseo looking at his serves with the same fear carass no have avoid cars he's done it he's proved himself completely wrong and now ala josi suppor
ters are proven even more wrong because it's not just one point he gets another serve and gets a second Point against a player he would have only been able to look out with Envy months prior against six players he would have envied a third Point goes over thanks sukima and as yamaguchi's fourth serve goes through carasso tie up and his mental barriers shatter Shima sums it up perfectly he's no longer worrying about getting it over he's focusing on where he's aiming and if Yamaguchi story resonat
es with you if you have this desperate desire to stop being so hopeless that moment will come where you suddenly realize you don't have to try and scrape by for the bare minimum anymore and soon enough you'll forget you ever did Yamaguchi serves are eventually stopped but this time he walks off of his head held high as he should and what a beautiful story so much of this I wish I could sh my younger self because it's just packs full of so many real downto Earth Little Gems and I really hope you
guys enjoyed this video as much as I did thank you very much for watching if you want more highq content I'll put the playlist on your screen either way hope you have a great day and see you again soon
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