The theme of selfishness in Haikyuu or Why Prioritizing What You Want May Be Good

The selfless shounen protagonist trope is definitely a familiar one. In general selflessness is always said with a good connotation whereas the word selfish is viewed as bad

Ultimately though, selfishness means prioritizing one's wants and needs first and Haikyuu shows an interesting theme of why that can be a good thing. This is shown starting all the way from Hinata the protagonist to Oikawa the final boss.

Hinata is actually , inherintely selfish. He's not an ill intentioned kid and is an excellent communicator so we miss that a lot.
He wants Hyakuzawa to get better so he can beat him at his best.
He wants Yachi to join the volleyball club so the club can have more managers.

He practices receives tirelessly with Kageyama because he wants a toss to spike. He jumps up for each and every toss.He says give me the next one too and I'm going to stop closing my eyes now and he gets Atsumu to bend over backwards in a limbo set for him.

It's inherintely tied to the hunger he feels to improve but that hunger is tied to a selfish need to level up and stand strong alone.

You know the best part? That's not a bad thing. And it's so inherintely Hinata. As seen by the people he helps who he tells to ALSO BE SELFISH

He tells Kageyama that there's nothing wrong with voicing what he wants and being the King of the Court. Problem with Kageyama was the WAY he expressed his desires not the fact that he was expressing them.

And not holding back put Kageyama and Karasuno on a new level. The Birth Of the New King Of the Court.

He tells Yachi to stop letting her mom rule her life and be selfish and go for what she wants otherwise she'd never move forward.

He tells Kindaichi that there's NOTHING WRONG with sticking to what you want and not backing down and THATS WHY KAGEYAMA IS FINE. Which makes sense because it was middle school both were probably in the wrong and false apologies and misplaced guilt wouldn't have helped.

The Kitaiichi Trio are never shown apologizing for the beliefs they held but are shown moving on from the past and accepting each other as they are.
That's beautiful.

It doesn't stop at Hinata.

The whole of Karasuno are shown that they are allowed to be selfish and go for what they want. The omnivorous crows that eat up everything in existence.

I like this scene with Asahi exerting his dominance as an ace after Hinata collided into him .
( I can't find pic of scene )

Because like Osamu said you see someone greedily gobbling up "good grub" and it makes you hungrier.

It's shown when Bokuto tells Kiryuu that not being selfish is hindering both him and his team. Whilst hitting every toss is cool, pushing your teammates to give you better tosses is better for you and the team.

It's shown when Oikawa states his worthless pride and sticks to it. He wants to beat everyone, he wants to win and he'll go to Argentina all the way to prove it. And now he's the starting setter for the Rio Olympics.

This isn't the route I thought we would go down but in terms of that selfishness and prioritizing one's personal wants, this makes sense. This may be flawed, I'm still processing Oikawa but I think that he's like Hinata in this regard.

Prioritizing what you want and being selfish isn't a bad thing and in fact can be a good thing. Martyrdom sometimes leads to resentment, irritation, repressing your own self and ill health.

I learnt that the hard way and this theme in haikyuu haunts me hence the thread. It shows me the inherent benefits of being selfish. That it's not always bad, in terms of you and others around you.

Feel free to give me your thoughts I do have flaws in my writing and analysis but I wanted to share this.