Haikyuu Chapter 383 Manga Review: “Superstar”

It’s been obvious in previous chapters that we are no longer in high school. Everyone’s skills have been amped up to 11. They are professionals now, and Haikyuu chapter 383 emphasizes this with a focus on Romero, who has been a professional volleyball player for a very long time.

In the aptly-named “Superstar”, Haikyuu chapter 383 reminds us Romero is a world-class player, and everyone knows it. The chapter opens with a super brief flashback showing most of the major players of this match watching Romero on television before jumping back into the action with Hinata’s serve. Throughout the chapter, we can see how everyone has increased their skill level, but Romero is on another level.

This is is most obvious when Hinata places a ball somewhere with the intent of taking Romero out of the action. Both Kenma and Kunimi acknowledge that it was a good spot to get it, and then Romero uses the motion of his dig to set himself up for his spike. It seems to even surprise Kageyama how well and how quickly he is able to do that.

I absolutely loved that Hinata, Bokuto, and Atsumu all got jealous when Romero complimented Kageyama on his set. It was also great to see that Heitor and Nice can’t resist cheering for Romero, even when he scores against Hinata.

What this also manages to do is toss in an unknown element to the game. I’ve been giggling about the number of reunions, but both teams have a finite set of known quantities. We’re familiar with Kageyama, Hinata, Bokuto, Ushijima, Hoshiumi, Sakusa, and Atsumu. But they aren’t the only ones playing in this game, and we’re starting to see now what the other members of the Jackals and Adlers bring to their respective teams.

That said, I do very much enjoy seeing how far the characters we know have grown. I was expecting a little more from Hinata’s serve, but just seeing that Hinata now does a jump serve is actually pretty great. His game sense seems to have improved as well, as evidenced in the panels above. In a high school match, or perhaps against a less seasoned player, Hinata’s hit to that spot would have done as intended.

The cameos continue in Haikyuu chapter 383, and from unexpected sources. Haikyuu!! is full of many one-off teams, but it seems like we’re destined to find out what happened to at least one player from every team that Karasuno played. (But I’m still waiting on some cameos – Nishinoya, Kuroo, Iwaizumi, and Oikawa, to name a few.) It’s like the Karasuno effect – or maybe the Hinata effect. Or maybe it’s because these are all volleyball players turning up to see an amazing volleyball game.

The action picks up the pace in this chapter, with a little more focus on the game, but there are still moments of great banter among the players. I love how supportive Atsumu and Bokuto are of Hinata, but I also love that Kageyama still can’t resist telling Hinata that he sucks. I also love how everyone gangs up on Atsumu. Oh, but I also love that Akaashi is so proud of how far Hinata has come.

I am still holding out hope for some flashbacks of things we missed during the various time skips. I would expect that we’ll get a few more glimpses of Hinata’s Brazil training any time he pulls off a spectacular move, or that we’ll get callbacks to Black Jackals practice on occasion. There is still a lot I want to know and, I fear, there’s very little time for that to happen.

Have you read Haikyuu chapter 383, “Superstar”? What did you think?

Author: Jamie Sugah

Jamie has a BA in English with a focus in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She self-published her first novel, The Perils of Long Hair on a Windy Day, which is available through Amazon. She is currently an archivist and lives in New York City with her demon ninja vampire cat. She covers television, books, movies, anime, and conventions in the NYC area.

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