Inarizaki and the theme of sound, the greatest feat of Haikyuu narration (to me):

Manga is a medium in which you can’t directly use sound or movement to express something, as opposed to anime. A mangaka has to find a way around it. And Furudate managed to create an atmosphere around sound despite those limitations.

I’m going to focus on sound today using the wInarizaki match to illustrate it.

Sound is one of the main features of this game with the cheer squad, the silence, booing, drums.. So much so that we actually see the Inarizaki cheer squad before the team, as Karasuno enters the gym:

Here we have the first technique to « show » sound: growing sound effects (sfx) as the team gets closer to the source of the noise.

Right after that we get those dynamic straight lines on the crowd and instruments to create an oppressive atmosphere, and those banner-looking sfx:

Still in the same chapter, we have the sfx covering the bubbles of dialogue to give the sensation that the cheer squad is covering every other noise:

We then get quite massive and repetitive sfx as Atsumu walks to serve, creating a rythm of sort with his steps, which he then stops by himself, leaving only small silence sfx that shows the difference with the noise from the start of the chapter:

This silence remains quite oppressive with the use of shadows and proportions of Atsumu’s fist.

As both Atsumu and Asahi serve, we get a new trick. This time we have large bubbles of loud people over multiple pannels, highlighting the noise, so different from the silent gym. The booing also covers Suga’s bubble again:

There is this oppressive tone again to the booing with those straight lines:

Right after that we get something unusual, it is the cheer squad that calls the chance ball instead of the player receiving, who stays silent, showing how intrusive they are in the game:

As Suna serves right off the whistle blow, we get two panels on the whistle and one on Suna watching the referee. How could you make your readers more focused on the whistle blow than that ?

An interesting contrast occurs on Karasuno’s shocking broad attack as we get a large sfx on Hinata’s spike and then none, not even the one representing silence:

This is a technique that is reused later on Hinata’s (cult) receive, no sfx at all again, only silence and shock:

Another way to contrast with the crushing tone the cheer squad gives is to put the sound effects behind Kageyama as he serves, as opposed to the previous ones covering players, showing that the noise isn’t affecting him in the slightest:

This one is a pretty classic use of the form of the sound effect, as it draws in length through the page, showing how long the booing is:

And after Kageyama’s moment, it’s time for chapter 251 main feature: rythm.

The use of alternate panels showing clapping or people hitting drums gives an impression of rythm as you go through the pattern:

Now this is a really good one, notice how every panel we get one more sfx until we get to the toss where the rythm is finally in place and looking really intrusive:

This makes the silence even heavier in contrast:

Fortunately for Karasuno, this atmosphere won’t last forever as the Japanese Taiko arrives:

We then get a showdown between the two cheer squads, with quite obvious parallels even in the panneling, as we see Inakou’s from the front and Karasuno’s from the back:

Now this is surely my favourite. Saeko’s group is here to change the mood, they do so by giving another tempo to block the crushing atmosphere. The second page depicts this with a calm flutist and Krsn sfx literally blocking Inarizaki’s. This is pure genius:

There are three techniques left that I noticed, the first one is to throw bubbles and sfx of different shapes and in every angle to show how helpless and stressed Yamaguchi felt as he couldn’t find his reset point:

The second one is the use of a large sound effect to cut off Hinata’s joy by literally cutting the page in half:

And lastly the fist of Atsumu going over the two other panels, to stop their noises, with the trick of the sound effects disappearing from one panel to the other:

As you can see, there are multiple ways to trick the audience into « seeing » sound when you can’t actually make it audible. Furudate is a master at this and it is a delight to analyse.

« We aren’t limited to one way of being great »- Furudate to other mangakas while overcoming his medium’s limitations

Would really appreciate Rts and comments on this one as it might be my longest rant ever. Kita out