Haikyuu!!, OPTIMAL Theory and Genius.
Introduction
Haikyuu is one of my favorite pieces of media of all time. Apart from the art style and the animation, there is something extremely deep that the series is able to grasp at emotionally and it had a lasting impact on me when I watched it (and one of the few things I consider worth re-watching). Though the story is full of many monologues and perspectives of different characters, I believe that it has even more philosophical depth than what would be demonstrated by just those words alone and that is what was able to connect even more deeply with me. The more that I think about it, the richer insights it conceals, and as it plays out on screen there is some substance to it which defies merely linguistic conceptions. I think other pieces of media or art probably have such substance behind them too, however nowhere is it more clearly relatable to me, (from what I've seen until now) than Haikyuu.Hunger
What Haikyuu is really about for me, is an attempt to describe the hunger or the will to power (if I may use that term)- how it manifests, and how it relates to innate talent and excellent performance. Many shonen anime try to articulate on this raw primal hunger (e.g- Naruto or Hunter x Hunter) though due to the settings they end up being in, it is never unconcealed better than in Haikyuu. This raw hunger (if I were to try to define it, though like most things their true meaning escapes linguistic prisons) is the unflinching resolve, determination and endless curiosity/fascination to improve and express, without resent for whatever circumstances life throws your way. It's the very spirit of evolution itself which is an incredible tool to have as one goes about life.It is what I think this quote from Hunter x Hunter about tries to express.
"Now I understand why this kid interests me. He doesn't care about right or wrong. When I admitted to making forgeries and when that trader gave me a hard time... He didn't react with accusatory glares or by plotting his own evil deeds. His reaction was very simple. Innocent curiosity! He opens his mind to everything that impresses him, right or wrong. Which means that he's dangerous... Someone who can never truly be appraised."
Similar lines of thought are echoed by many different Shonen anime and pieces of media. The fact is that as humans we are capable of much more than we think we are. Many times when life gets tough, we are put in touch with this primal hunger of ourselves and in our deepest concentration, there is something which dissolves. When our separate selves are dissolved, we are put in touch with the very dance of being.
Genius
Though almost all characters in Haikyuu are rich and wonderfully written, Oikawa and Shinsuke are two of my most liked characters. It seems on the surface that they have opposing philosophies however when we analyze them further, they are really the same thing.Kita is reliable and process driven. He is someone who partakes in life by performing the same set of actions incredibly consistently day in and day out, and he sees his results as the outcome of this process driven life he lives. He is so methodical with his approach that he doesn't realize what it means to be nervous or to be unable to perform something you tried out in practice. Though this sentiment makes him incredible as a captain for Inarizaki, it also reveals something which is lacking in his philosophy.
Kita's speech about genius is perhaps one of the most insightful anime monologues of all time, but it is also betrays a lack of self awareness for one reason. In the first part of his speech he talks about how we are bound to meet many people who make us feel that we will never be able to surpass in some field, however to label them as genius is a resignation from trying to achieve our own highest potential and to combat them (whatever that means) from that level. These so-called geniuses are the people who just continue trying different things regardless of whether they get ostracized and as a result they do what an average person does from 1 to 10 from 1 to 20 or from A to Z or a denser 10 or a more efficient 10. This line expresses the close correlation of the will to power and creativity- the constant dedication and love for anything itself blooms into competence. However after this Kita says that he is a "mortal" who has stumbled onto a "banquet of monsters" who profess their love for volleyball everyday. He is unable to perceive his own resilience and consistency as the traits of a monster which we see only from the outside, or perhaps this is humility. Anyway, the end result of this is that Kita himself places himself a bit lower than these so called monsters (maybe because there are other things in life which he wishes to pursue), which is the reason why he could never compete with the likes of Hinata. If he was truly living on his edge, then he would be trying out new things even inside matches like the atsumu twins.
On the flip side, Oikawa's character arc comes to pretty much the same conclusions even though he starts from different premises. Oikawa's initial journey is characterized by bitterness; He accepts that there is no way he can be as good as the innate geniuses Kageyama and Ushajima. His bitterness persists and he wallows in it, and all the forces in the world allow him to rationalize it to himself. "Haven't I done enough?", "Why am I still not better after training harder?". However, when the Argentinian coach sternly tells him that there is more he can do, to improve the connection to his teammates, or to train his own body and mind to the absolute limit, he realizes the futility of resentment. Resentment is nothing but poison for the soul which kills your potential. And so what initially begins as an act of defiance against the self pitying indulgence of his ego reaches its finale when he sets like a "genius" in the match against Karasuno. After that, Oikawa realizes that he can be a genius too and then the playing field is truly level.
For true excellence a sort of selfishness is required. To see yourself as totally equal to even geniuses, or hell, to not even see the other person in the first place; to only see the relation between you and your craft, to profess your love for it through dedication everyday and to continuously try more and more different ways to improve without getting discouraged at all, and using others you encounter on your path as challenges for improvement. In all these cases a sort of dissolution is attained in the limit, the sort which is characterized in the quote fake it till you make it. In true focus, even a contrived urge driving you towards excellence dissolves. In the pursuit of excellence, one becomes excellent or 'stands out' as the etymology reveals.
OPTIMAL Theory
The OPTIMAL (Optimizing performance through increased motivation and attention for learning) is a framework for motor movements which basically says that action and perception form a sort of feedback loop. The better you think you are at something, The more agency you take and the more you focus externally, the more motivated you get for performing that task and the better you get at it. I think it can also be applied to almost all aspects of life.Coming back to the Oikawa example, this is why asking "Haven't I tried hard enough" is futile. Whatever metric you choose to evaluate yourself by tells you whether you tried hard enough or not. If you studied hard for an exam but failed to focus in the test or if you didn't study hard enough, your result will reflect the same thing. Comparing yourself to others is also futile as all of us are fundamentally different. Competing with someone where both people try to evolve to best perform by a certain metric is a much better option, which doesn't involve comparison which wraps us up in the pain/pleasure matrix and the functions of the ego. It is up to you to be honest with yourself and realize your shortcomings. It is also up to you to not start rationalizing because all rationalizing comes from resentment; subtle or brazen, and it won't help you to improve.
Geniuses are not just geniuses because of what they have achieved in the past. Their dedication to the craft is an ongoing and alive process, which again Haikyuu describes perfectly with Hinata and that look in his eyes we often see. Geniuses or "Monsters" are not only better than the average person at present in terms of abilities; They are also focused harder on the task and improving at a faster rate. This feedback loop of competence continuously keeps running, motivating them to get even better, 'sinking deeper in love with the sport' - so if you really want to do your best at something you need to constantly look for ways to improve. This process is beautiful, but one should have no idealized conceptions of what it will be like. It is beautiful as the afterglow of an extremely hard workout, which doesn't come before the point of having possibly worked so hard that you puke. Overthinking or being anxious of the fact that you can never be as good as other people only hinders the authentic unfoldment of the relation between you and what you choose to dedicate yourself to.
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