"Haikyû!!: Sainou to sensu" or "Haikyu!! 3: Genius and Sense"is a Japanese Japanese-language film from 2017, so this one is already over half a decade old now. The director is Susumu Mitsunaka and the two writers are Haruichi Furudate and Taku Kishimoto and all three of them have also worked on the television series that this film is linked to, so it is actually a spinoff you can say and the focus in the series is on volleyball. If you hear about Japanese anime elaborating on this sport, then maybe the first series or character that comes to mind is Kozue or Mila as she was called in my country, but yeah, if we look at when her show was made and how old it is by now, then you can surely say that Mila would be an old lady by now and the kids or boys in this one here are the new generation that has taken over. However, the charm felt completely absent almost for me here. I am not saying that Kozue's series was particularly realistic in terms of the depictions of the sport, but that one at least had heart and emotions somehow and this one here is missing it altogether. I mean they were not even going for it really I would say. Perhaps it is essential to have seen at least parts of the series that it belongs to in order to enjoy the action and appreciate it somehow, but I personally think that in order to like a film or series, you should never be obliged to have watched another release, especially not a long-running series. That is just my opinion though. The one thing I can say is that the outcome of this movie did not really get me any curious to check out the series soon. Sorry.
It also seemed fairly messy plot-wise. A bit on the chaotic side. Early on, there is a really fast introduction of some teams and I am not even sure why they did that. I assume these squads are part of the series on one or several occasions, but they presented so many characters early on here that never showed up in the movie again that it was just not a wise choice and approach. There were also many still shots early on, some of them with the camera moving in or out, which felt a bit exaggerated quantity-wise in the sense that it was almost a graphic novel. This is of course a matter of taste if you like it or not, but they quickly moved away from this approach there and it became a more standard anime film for the rest. When I said earlier that the story felt chaotic, this also includes the characters. Some seemed to be key players, but at some point surprisingly disappeared from the film and were almost never seen again. This includes the kid that is training so hard to get used to a new jump shot or technique at some point when his teammate does not agree to introduce something new so shortly before an important match. Where did this innovator go? I am not sure. He was actually easy to identify because of his read hair and the unusually small size for the sport and his high-pitched voice. During this then crucial volleyball game, he was not a factor at all anymore with the exception of one moment when he impresses the coach of the enemy team because of his jumping power.
Players were jumping in the way of their teammates in a pretty brutal manner almost on more occasions than you see it during a whole year with your local volleyball team you could say. This is one of the aspects where the film did not feel particularly realistic as I stated earlier. This also had to do with some of the talking about techniques players use when showing special movies. Or the display of those even. But yeah, you get the message. I have never been a big fan of or expert on volleyball, but even I see it that this is not how the sport functions. So it is of course a crucial problem if the key aspect of it all is a bit on the messy side. It was rather the small moments the film offered that were more about comedy when it worked kinda well and when I felt somewhat entertained. I will just mention two: The first one would be almost the very start of it all when one character goes crazy about two girls in an embarrassing fashion that we see on Pokémon for example too. The second would be when the girlfriend of one character that we know nothing about really goes crazy in the audience after her man (or boy) made a good move on the field. These exaggerations are always highlights comedy-wise in anime films. There is no denying that and it also applies to this film we have here. At least on some occasions. Not every scene was a winner there either. There was also one female character, I think was the one who helps the guys train on one occasion during an extra shift, that was depicted a couple times in a bizarrely exaggerated manner animation-wise, something you know from "Sailor Moon".
So yeah, the somewhat strange thing you can say about this film is really that every time it moved a bit away from the central aspects of the outcome, it did get fairly watchable, but of course, this is overall not the road to take in order to come up with a high-quality film. I am actually fairly surprised even that this was on German television last night to be honest because I think that judging from the number of ratings on imdb itself and also the fact that it had zero reviews before mind, this is a film that even in Japan not too many people have seen, one that probably only the very biggest fans of the aforementioned volleyball-themed series have given a go. To be fair, even if my review here seems mostly negative, I must say that it is also not a disastrous film by any means. The 7.1 it has from slightly over 100 votes in summer 2023 is nonetheless far too high from my perspective. The negative recommendation I have or also want to give for this one here was never really in doubt since the very start. Inclusions that were slightly memorable like the guy with the light hair, who was also not really appreciated too much by his teammates as you could think, felt either too much for the sake of it or were not frequent enough for a positive recommendation. Admittedly in this very specific example there, it can be said that it was interesting and different that he did not rule from the very start, but messed up his first attack even that cost his team the set before firing winners like crazy. Are they called "winners" in volleyball as well or just in tennis? Well, you know what I mean.
As I am getting closer to the end of my review, I would like to make a little reference to the end of the movie and there we see two characters show their respect for each other out there in the street, for once not inside the gym. Their opinions may have differed on a few occasions and they may even become rivals, but they do not despise each other. I wish this scene could have been as memorable to me as it was intended, but it just wasn't. This statement applies to a lot more from the film. What was going on in the crowd or audience was often more interesting than what happened on the field. I give this film a thumbs-down and I am glad it was only 1.5 hours long, minimally under even. Go skip the watch here or probably you can decide for yourself because you have probably seen more from this franchise than I have when wondering if you should also go for this feature film. I say that you shouldn't. The characters are not memorable enough, the plot is not interesting enough and the sport depicted here also deserves better I'd say. I have no intention to see the fourth and apparently final film any time soon, the one that will be on next week and was also released in the year 2017 just like this one here. Seems unlikely that more will follow with the time passed since then. To sum it all up, it can be said that at times it was fairly difficult to stay focused and understand what was going on exactly. That is all. Watch something else instead. No negative words on the original voice actors though as I watched a dubbed version in my native language and those were fine I suppose or at least not among the movie's biggest weaknesses.
It also seemed fairly messy plot-wise. A bit on the chaotic side. Early on, there is a really fast introduction of some teams and I am not even sure why they did that. I assume these squads are part of the series on one or several occasions, but they presented so many characters early on here that never showed up in the movie again that it was just not a wise choice and approach. There were also many still shots early on, some of them with the camera moving in or out, which felt a bit exaggerated quantity-wise in the sense that it was almost a graphic novel. This is of course a matter of taste if you like it or not, but they quickly moved away from this approach there and it became a more standard anime film for the rest. When I said earlier that the story felt chaotic, this also includes the characters. Some seemed to be key players, but at some point surprisingly disappeared from the film and were almost never seen again. This includes the kid that is training so hard to get used to a new jump shot or technique at some point when his teammate does not agree to introduce something new so shortly before an important match. Where did this innovator go? I am not sure. He was actually easy to identify because of his read hair and the unusually small size for the sport and his high-pitched voice. During this then crucial volleyball game, he was not a factor at all anymore with the exception of one moment when he impresses the coach of the enemy team because of his jumping power.
Players were jumping in the way of their teammates in a pretty brutal manner almost on more occasions than you see it during a whole year with your local volleyball team you could say. This is one of the aspects where the film did not feel particularly realistic as I stated earlier. This also had to do with some of the talking about techniques players use when showing special movies. Or the display of those even. But yeah, you get the message. I have never been a big fan of or expert on volleyball, but even I see it that this is not how the sport functions. So it is of course a crucial problem if the key aspect of it all is a bit on the messy side. It was rather the small moments the film offered that were more about comedy when it worked kinda well and when I felt somewhat entertained. I will just mention two: The first one would be almost the very start of it all when one character goes crazy about two girls in an embarrassing fashion that we see on Pokémon for example too. The second would be when the girlfriend of one character that we know nothing about really goes crazy in the audience after her man (or boy) made a good move on the field. These exaggerations are always highlights comedy-wise in anime films. There is no denying that and it also applies to this film we have here. At least on some occasions. Not every scene was a winner there either. There was also one female character, I think was the one who helps the guys train on one occasion during an extra shift, that was depicted a couple times in a bizarrely exaggerated manner animation-wise, something you know from "Sailor Moon".
So yeah, the somewhat strange thing you can say about this film is really that every time it moved a bit away from the central aspects of the outcome, it did get fairly watchable, but of course, this is overall not the road to take in order to come up with a high-quality film. I am actually fairly surprised even that this was on German television last night to be honest because I think that judging from the number of ratings on imdb itself and also the fact that it had zero reviews before mind, this is a film that even in Japan not too many people have seen, one that probably only the very biggest fans of the aforementioned volleyball-themed series have given a go. To be fair, even if my review here seems mostly negative, I must say that it is also not a disastrous film by any means. The 7.1 it has from slightly over 100 votes in summer 2023 is nonetheless far too high from my perspective. The negative recommendation I have or also want to give for this one here was never really in doubt since the very start. Inclusions that were slightly memorable like the guy with the light hair, who was also not really appreciated too much by his teammates as you could think, felt either too much for the sake of it or were not frequent enough for a positive recommendation. Admittedly in this very specific example there, it can be said that it was interesting and different that he did not rule from the very start, but messed up his first attack even that cost his team the set before firing winners like crazy. Are they called "winners" in volleyball as well or just in tennis? Well, you know what I mean.
As I am getting closer to the end of my review, I would like to make a little reference to the end of the movie and there we see two characters show their respect for each other out there in the street, for once not inside the gym. Their opinions may have differed on a few occasions and they may even become rivals, but they do not despise each other. I wish this scene could have been as memorable to me as it was intended, but it just wasn't. This statement applies to a lot more from the film. What was going on in the crowd or audience was often more interesting than what happened on the field. I give this film a thumbs-down and I am glad it was only 1.5 hours long, minimally under even. Go skip the watch here or probably you can decide for yourself because you have probably seen more from this franchise than I have when wondering if you should also go for this feature film. I say that you shouldn't. The characters are not memorable enough, the plot is not interesting enough and the sport depicted here also deserves better I'd say. I have no intention to see the fourth and apparently final film any time soon, the one that will be on next week and was also released in the year 2017 just like this one here. Seems unlikely that more will follow with the time passed since then. To sum it all up, it can be said that at times it was fairly difficult to stay focused and understand what was going on exactly. That is all. Watch something else instead. No negative words on the original voice actors though as I watched a dubbed version in my native language and those were fine I suppose or at least not among the movie's biggest weaknesses.
