Onaga Wataru - Blog Posts

accommodations as a love language: a fukurodani essay

Fukurodani is probably the most unique team in Haikyuu when it comes to the team leadership structure. Bokuto is captain with Akaashi as his vice-captain. However, the unusual part of this is that Akaashi is a second year vice-captain in a team with no shortage of third years. If you know anything about Japanese senpai/kouhai dynamics, you will see how unusual this is. Compared to another second year setter-leader Kenma, Akaashi is very formal with the third years and seems to be a stickler to the system of sports culture.

Another unique thing about Fukurodani is that their captain’s number is 4 instead of 1. It becomes clear that Bokuto who wears the traditional number for the ace functions more as the ace of the team, rather than their leader. The training camp arc further cements this idea with Coach Ukkai and Miyanoshita Eri, manager of Ubugawa, making comments on Fukurodani’s play style:

Fukurodani is a team that has learned to accommodate Bokuto's ups-and-downs. They have complete trust in Bokuto’s abilities and Bokuto has trust in Fukurodani to not lose without him.

They are strong enough without Bokuto,

but they want Bokuto to do well.

Akaashi even states in 244 that although Bokuto's concerns may seem comical to some, they are very important to Bokuto and, therefore, Akaashi takes them seriously as well.

Bokuto is their mood maker and is very reliable. If you look through the Fukurodani matches, he is always the one praising his teammates for good plays and many people have commented that Bokuto being on a roll inspires others to do better as well.

This is especially striking considering Bokuto’s experience with his middle school team, ch. 335, where Bokuto was seen as too much and as a result, he often worked alone. Fukurdani is so important to Bokuto because they represent unconditional love and support.

As revealed later on in the plot, Bokuto is aware of his shortcomings. He takes responsibility for them, but also acknowledges Fukurodani’s help. He appreciates their support so much and wants to repay their kindness.

However, Bokuto is not the only one that receives the endless support of Fukurodani. They are a cohesive team and there are many scenes where they display familiarity with each other’s patterns. 

Akaashi's habit of overthinking is noticed by Saru, Kaori points out that Akaashi is considered odd, Bokuto steps up to show his trust in Akaashi even when he starts to crumble. The team is not surprised when Akaashi starts crying and lets Bokuto be the one to comfort him.

It shows the unconditional love and support Fukurodani has for all members of the team.

They are not overly concerned when a member does not play their best because they trust each other wholeheartedly.

It is significant that they are the only team who are introduced together in the timeskip. It introduces the idea that Fukurodani is still a unit. There are even parallel lines where:

Bokuto, ch. 392: “梟谷(みんな)！！普通になった俺を見てくれ!”

“Everyone!! Look at how normal I am now (how far I’ve come)!”

Akaashi (and implied Konoha, Komi, Saru), ch. 400: “世界！！梟谷(うち)のエースを見てくれ！”

“World!! Look at our ace!”

There is an interesting technique used here in the Japanese where the kanji says “Fukurodani” but the Furigana says “everyone” and “our.” The world “our” is also special because it is “うち” which is a word that derives from “home.” Bokuto belongs to Fukurodani and Fukurodani is narratively a family.

Fukurodani is introduced in Haikyuu when Karasuno is learning to grapple with Hinata's new-found desire to improve begins to destabilize the team dynamic. They show Karasuno that selfishness is okay with your team's support, leading to the honing of new weapons and Kageyama's reclaimation of his crown. They symbolize a different type of strength that Karasuno did not have yet. Although the roles they cultivated allowed for some stagnation and stress during the Mujinazaka match, they were able to overcome difficulties to become even stronger, falling just short of #1 in Japan. Still, their loss became more of a reason to pursue their goals and although not all of them play volleyball anymore, they come together across Japan to support each other.