WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 4, Episode 17 of Haikyuu!!, now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Haikyuu!! takes a break from the Karasuno-Inarizaki match in Episode 17 to cast a spotlight on Karasuno's Tokyo-based rival, Nekoma High School. The episode focuses heavily on the backstory of Kenma Kozume, a first-year student and starting setter for Nekoma. In the present day, Nekoma is up against Sarukawa Tech who looks to target Kenma's weaknesses in order to win.
Kenma has never been outspoken. He's rational, strategic and analytical, and although he's quiet, he's not exactly timid. Kenma struggles physically during practice but uses his inventive mind to distract himself during long laps by fantasizing about video game scenarios. It's well-known that Kenma prefers to put in minimal effort physically, but on the court, he makes up for it with his quick, strategic wit and knowledge of the game.
This tends to upset people like Kenma's teammate Taketora Yamato, also known as Tora. Tora is boisterous and passionate about everything he does, a guy that's all about effort. In the flashback he's shown going on morning runs, routinely lifting weights, and ultimately failing during Nekoma's first practice match of the season. He had been antagonistic to Kenma during practices, but this time Kenma decides he should reach out and help Tora after his embarrassing display.
Kenma offers advice on Tora's form by telling him he should relax his shoulders. However, Tora doesn't respond as Kenma had hoped. Instead, Tora calls out Kenma for being too relaxed all the time and not going for every chance he gets. Tora also refers to his "guts" and insists that the issue must be that he didn't put in enough work and effort to be victorious. The rational Kenma responds that he should focus on the real source of the problem instead of feeding his own ego with unfocused determination.
A fight breaks out between the two of them until Fukunaga, another Nekoma first year, freezes the scuffle with a bucket of water. This moment is something of a turning point for Kenma as the adversarial energy between him and Tora pushes the setter to proudly display his strengths during practice matches and against opponents. There is clearly more fire and passion behind his decisions, despite his disdain for physical exertion. After seeing how much-calculated effort he puts into the right play, Tora realizes Kenma has earned his respect.
Back to the present day, Sarukawa Tech is starting to realize the seeds of their master plan to defeat Nekoma's strong defense -- and it all starts with Kenma. While Kenma is strong mentally, the coach knows that he's not as strong physically and looks to throw Nekoma off their rhythm. If successful, Kenma will have to use a lot more energy to move around. Yet again, some other force is challenging Kenma to expand his range of effort in a way where his brainpower may not be able to compensate. In order to get past this obstacle, Kenma has to level up -- or it might be game over for Nekoma.
