Haikyuu Chapter 392 Manga Review: “Just a Star”

Haikyuu chapter 392 is all about Bokuto, and I love that crazy owl so much that I couldn’t not review it. One thing “Just a Star” goes to show is just how much every single character has grown and matured – even Bokuto, who seems to be just as crazy as ever.

I cannot believe I waited six months just to learn that Fukurodani lost Nationals. It was just assumed by much of the fandom that the ultimate winner of the spring tournament would be our favorite owls, but Haikyuu chapter 392 reveals they lost the title match and had to settle for second place.

On the one hand, I was hoping that the winner would be a team with which we were familiar, so that I could feel happy for someone, even as I was gutted for Karasuno. It feels like Fukurodani were being hyped up and to see them lose to a team that hadn’t been introduced before is very anticlimactic.

On the other hand, losing Nationals like that probably went a long way into helping Bokuto grow as a player and settle his wild moods a bit. With those opening panels showing us how he reacted to finding out he was on the same team as Atsumu, you can tell he isn’t quite as beholden to his mood swings as he was in high school. Ultimately, Haikyuu as a manga is not about the result, it’s about the game.

Defeat tends to be a better teacher than victory. And in real life, people don’t win just because we know them. But this isn’t real life, this is a manga, and I will continue to live in denial that Fukurodani totally won, OK?

This is one of those times when that meme “maybe the real [blank] was the friends we made along the way” is actually true.

That cut from Bokuto’s serve in the current match to his spike getting blocked on the final point at Nationals was brutal as all get out, I’m not going to lie. But that short set from Konoha was nicely paralleled by Hinata’s short set, off of which Bokuto scored. Even when I’m disappointed by a plot point, I can’t help but be impressed by the overall skill of the storytelling.

I also genuinely loved the callback to the “way of the ace”, aka the t-shirt Bokuto wore that Hinata admired and ended up purchasing for himself at Nationals. Haikyuu is big on callbacks, from chapter titles to dialogue, and I always get a thrill whenever I see one.

Haikyuu chapter 392 is probably one of my favorite post time-skip chapters, up there with Kageyama’s. I love Fukurodani as a team and have always cherished when chapters focused on them. This chapter was just so cute, with bringing back the other alums and seeing where they are (I laughed out loud when I saw that Yukie is a nutritionist – girl ate like five rice balls at once!) and getting to see little snippets of the team dealing with Bokuto’s antics.

And I can’t help but giggle that the order of people notified after Bokuto injures himself failing at a backflip goes Coach, then Akaashi, then the ambulance.

So, today I learned there is a theory out there called “bathroom theory“, which is that we are getting character backstories in the order they encountered Hinata as he was heading to the bathroom before the current match. As the focus of Haikyuu chapter 392 was on Bokuto, this seems to be true. We still have Hoshiumi, Ushijima, and Sakusa who haven’t gotten a focus, but I hope that Bokuto gets at least one more chapter, because I love him so much.

Have you read Haikyuu chapter 392? 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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