The anime, 2.43: Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Club, is based on the light novel series by Yukako Kabei. The 2.43 in the title signifies the height of the net in Men’s Volleyball games in meters. The light novel was later adapted to manga with illustrations by Aiji Yamakawa. This was later taken up by David Productions to serialize into an anime under NoitaminA block. The anime had its first episode premiere on January 8, 2021. According to the synopsis, the story revolves around two boys, Kimichika Haijima and Yunii Kuroba. Kimichika Haijima comes back to his maternal hometown, Fukui, after an incident occurs in his Junior High School in Tokyo. In Fukui, he is reunited with Yunii Kuroba, his childhood friend. He has amazing physical abilities owing to his height and stature but tends to get vulnerable under pressure. Haijima being a genius setter, forms a great duo with Kuroba.
2.43 Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Club Episode 1 Recap
The episode titled “Childhood Yuni and Chika” starts off by giving us a sequence of a volleyball match. Meisei Volleyball club was having a hard time as the spiker was getting blocked over and over. Kimichika Haijima, the team setter, is benched and looks on as the replacement setter who has had enough. Haijima believes that if he was in the game, they could win the match. And it was not his fault to be benched by the coach. The PTA had certain complaints that Haijima could shut down just by the win. This was related to the absence of Sota Yoshino in the club. During this, the coach receives a phone call informing that Yoshino is at the hospital. We are shown much more regarding this later, as we see Haijima traveling back to his maternal home at Fukui.
Childhood Friends
Haijima and Kuroba saying goodbye to another back in kindergarten
We are shown a scene from the past, as a very young Kuroba runs over to Haijima’s place. Haijima was about to leave for Tokyo, meaning that they won’t be able to see each other anymore. They say their goodbyes promising they will never forget one another.
Now years later, we see Kuroba looking out of the window, which was imagining the aforementioned past. Just then, his cousin comes telling him that apparently, the new transfer student will reach late. She enquires about him as she knows that Kuroba was childhood friends with him. Kuroba responds by saying that he was an average four-eyed shrimp which was bad at sports. After she leaves, his friends ask him if he was looking forward to meeting his old friend again. Kuroba denies it but is pretty eager to meet him himself.
Reunion
Kuroba wonders why Haijima hadn’t come to meet him yet, even though he moved back during winter break. As he swipes his hand over the condensed window, he sees Haijima walk inside the school gate. Seeing this, Kuroba runs down and greets him. But to his surprise, he gets ignored as Haijima walks past him. Back in class, the homeroom teacher introduces Haijima to the class and asks Kuroba to guide him through the club. As Kuroba wonders why he got ignored, Haijima asks about his position on the court. Kuroba then explains about the club’s status as something they made up as they had to be in a club. They had never played a match while they practiced whenever. Haijima is a bit frustrated as he calls Kuroba to be uselessly big then.
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Putting Life to Use
Haijima catches up with Yori.
Kuroba visits his cousin, Yori asking him if he remembers Haijima and if he knew why he left Fukui. Yori does remember him and says that he left Fukui as his mother had passed away. His father, originally being from Tokyo, moved there. Kuroba wonders why he came back but is unable to ask him as his barrier feels impenetrable. While he wonders why he was called uselessly big, he gets a call to go back home for dinner. As Yori and Kuroba were about to leave, they meet Haijima going back home from school. He had been practicing alone. After a few words to catch up, Haijima tells Kuroba that he was wasting away his life. Implying that he was making good use of his own life.
The next day when Haijima was practicing his spike serves, Kuroba had come to check on him. Being the only ones practicing, the girls try to take over the court. That’s when Kuroba interrupts, pretending that he was late for practice. Kuroba tells that he came to see what Haijima was doing with his life and compliments his spike serves. And tells him that he will practice with him. To this, Haijima gets excited as he goes to grab his contacts.
Volleyball Practice
Haijima and Kuroba get their heights checked.
After the two warmups, they get their heights checked. Kuroba was 175 cm, while Haijima was 172.7 cm. Even though he was a setter, Haijima wanted to become taller. As taller players tend to have a better reach. This reach helps them put out more efficient tosses while being close to the net. He had even made himself ambidextrous so as to have multiple options to do a dump. While they practice, other members join them, and a month soon passes by. After a month’s practice, Haijima can see that Kuroba has good eyes, flexible shoulders, and can stay in the air well. And he can only get better considering he will get taller. This surprises Kuroba as he felt that Haijima considers himself better than others and would never acknowledge someone else.
As the two walk back home, they wonder about the prospects of their team. Haijima wants to play in matches and tournaments. Therefore he assures to get the team presentable by summer.
Why Haijima Came Back
As they were walking past Yori’s place, he and his friends come out. They start to hustle Kuroba when Haijima pulls him away, saying he was wasting time. Yori stops them by asking Kuroba about his intentions with volleyball and was serious about it. On being pushed to answer, Kuroba admits that he gets into things and gets bored of them pretty soon. Haijima asks him if he was serious and tells him to quit now and not ruin the tournament.
As Haijima starts getting frustrated, Yori states that he found out why he had come back to Fukui. He found out from Haijima’s grandfather what his school was and looked it up online. Apparently, he was widely hated as there were endless insults about a genius setter. He asks Kuroba not to get too wrapped up in volleyball as Haijima would do whatever it takes for the game. We find out that Haijima used to shout at Sota Yoshino for not getting the receives up. So he stops coming to practices, which leads to a complaint by the PTA. Because of this, Haijima was benched for the match, during which the coach received a call. Apparently, Sota Yoshino was in the hospital, who was found at home trying to commit suicide. Due to this, Haijima was blamed for pushing his teammate over the edge for just not listening to him.
Haijima back in Tokyo during Meisei’s Volleyball game.
When will Episode 2 Release?
The second episode of 2.43: Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Club will be released on Friday, 15 January 2021. The episode will start airing at 2:10 am JST. Be sure to change the above time to your local time zone to watch the episode as soon as it airs. One can even visit its official website at 243anime.com to look into its background or other such details. And the episode will be available to watch on AnimeLab and Funimation.
2.43 Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Club Episode 2 Spoilers
In the next episode, we will see what the future holds as Kuroba now knows of Haijima’s past. From the synopsis itself, we can deter that the two get along. They are bound to form a great combo only to split away after a fight at the prefecture tournament. As of now, we can’t be sure how much the next episode will show. But going by the synopsis, the two will enroll in Seiin High School. In the volleyball club, they are bound to meet the hot-blooded 163cm captain Shinichirou Oda. And the genius vice-captain Misao Aoki with his third-year pair. There are a few second years, too, including the sunlight allergic Akito Kanno, who has to wear long sleeves, always. This newly formed team surpasses its limits as it becomes one of Fukui’s rising team. During this journey, they are approached by several rivals.
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