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Thread on Hirugami Sachiro's character and growth:
(this is a spontaneous thread and may not be very clear or properly articulated. just some observations and interpretations of mine.)
I believe Hirugami Sachiro's story has a lot to do with innate talent and skills that come with practice. His character is quite complicated and though this is not a full character analysis I believe there's a lot to learn about him just from 351 alone.
Having been introduced to volleyball by his family he thought it was only natural for him to play, and he had thought the sport was fun because of the innate talents that were given to him.
Starting with when Sachiro first joined Yurisei, he wasn't comparing his abilities with his teammates, instead he used word of encouragement and tried to best himself each time. Using repetition to start each sentence with "I" we see that he's thinking about no one but himself.
Going forward to after he had participated in their first practice match he became aware of his incompetence when it comes to playing on a team, how there's a huge deviation from what he had expected for his own performance on court, his "encouragements" for himself started to—
—turn into heavy blame which will eventually became the cause of the guilt he feels when he makes a mistake on court. There can often be a feeling of loss when one realizes that their talents may not be enough for others and people can internalize it as being below others.
To make up for that loss Hirugami started playing "like a man possessed" as Osamu says in chapter 360, and was "always on edge". Not wanting to make a wrong move that could possibly set him back from his long hours of practice and hard work.
Wanna talk about the role of being able to "Connect" in this chapter and his interpretation of it. It's obvious that he understands how important it is for the team to connect their plays, but he sees it as an individual responsibility instead of it being a team effort.
I believe this is where he falls short and how he ended up experiencing burnout. Like here how he thinks it's his teammates fault for not being able to perform at their best, he implements that same mentality on himself, blaming himself and his own hands for the mistakes made.
Tying up both topics, Hirugami being able to change his view on given talent, skill and practice is only possible because of Hoshiumi helps him realize that he has a choice to pursue what he likes and there are more options than just volleyball.
Jumping to details in the art work for second and talk about the clever use of highlight in Hirugami's eyes, showing how he's "lost the light in his eyes" from guilt and overworking himself.
We see it again during the conversation he has with Hoshiumi about not liking volleyball, first being able to open up andexpress his frustrations and dislike for volleyball. Then when he realizes that he doesn't have to keep on playing volleyball does it fully return.
Also this specific panel where he's walking down a dark halway, the perspective we see him is as if we're looking through a fisheye lens. The sound effects clearly showing the heaviness of his foot steps. There's the phrase "light at the end of the tunnel" which I think is—
—perfect to describe how Sachiro feels in this very moment, when all that's ahead of him is darkness.
This panel also reminds me horror films, when a character is alone and walking down an unfamiliar path, fearing and dreading for what they may or may not find.
Lastly, comparing the hallway panel to when Hoshiumi told him he's able to just quit volley, like Hirugami said himself, he no longer has a one track mind, he's able to see all the possibilities around him and his ability to choose which path he wants to take.
+This isn't exactly related but I thought it'd be fun to point out how genius it was for Furudate to place Hirugami and Asahi together at the net because it's obvious that what Hirugami has gone through is what Asahi needs to go through himself to finally reach the end of his arc
The shackles Hirugami mentions is what is holding back Karasuno during the match, physically unable to shake off the blocks and trapped mentally because they (mostly Asahi) fear they will be the reason their team loses. Kamomedai match is so brilliant the way it's written.
