i wanna talk about haikyuu ch 338 and the final shift in hinatas goals.

[thread]

we get this spread to start off with. a spread of hinata running after something unseen, and kageyama following behind him.

so ch 338 is not only the infamous chapter where hinata waxes poetic about kageyamas journaling, but...

(this part is so funny to me because literally 30 chapters later hes in brazil thinking of kageyama while he eats breakfast, but i digress)

but this is also the chapter that hinatas idol, the person hes been chasing to emulate, the little giant is revealed!

but it turns out the little giant isn't who hinata had thought he would be at all.

something important to note here is that the person who calls to hinata and get him to refocus after this reveal...is kageyama.

so in this chapter we get
-hinata praising kageyama
-restating his goal of catching up to and beating him
-the little giant revealed to him, BUT...he isnt disappointed at all.

hinata had something he was chasing after...but his goals have been shifting to something else...

this shift has been hinted at for a long time. in ch 208 we see hinata chasing the visage of kageyama up a mountain on his bike.

kageyama being hinatas goal is even paralleled to that moment in chapter 1 where he sees the little giant for the first time.

hinatas goals have shifted entirely by the time he is in brazil. he views kageyama not just as a rival but as an inspiration in the same way he saw the little giant.

and the major point in all of this is that kageyama has been waiting patiently for hinata. running by his side and waiting for hinata to see him...

and now they are finally running together, towards one another.

in conclusion, they have always been waiting.