WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 4, Episode 21 of Haikyuu!!, now streaming on Crunchyroll.
It's been a rough match for Karasuno's guardian deity, Yu Nishinoya. While the libero is known for his fantastic, superhuman-like receives, Inarizaki has abused his one weak point. Atsumu Miya is a versatile setter who can deliver powerful spike serves and crafty jump floaters. Those jump floaters can prove incredibly difficult for Nishinoya, especially since he struggles with overhand passes.
In Episode 21 of Haikyuu!!'s fourth season, Atsumu gives Inarizaki a boost by targeting Nishinoya with jump floaters in the second set, which was part of the winning strategy for the third and final. That success, however, doesn't last. Nishinoya, who suffers from an over-reliance on underhand receives, finally displays perfection with an overhand play to set up a score that holds Atsumu to one serve. But it's what happened prior to this moment that sets Karasuno up for a potential victory.
Hisashi Kinoshita is one of Karasuno's pinch servers who just started seeing playtime just before Nationals. He has a great jump float serve of his own that he showed off during practice. Earlier in the season, Nishinoya specifically asked Kinoshita to hit jump floaters his way so he can practice overhand receives, noting how great his jump floaters are. At Nationals, Kinoshita has had a few chances to show how he can be valuable to the team. He gets nervous easily, and anxious about making an impact on the game. He gets another chance to demonstrate his skill after being subbed in, but he leaves completely dejected after his one serves yields no points for his team. Even worse, the ball lands near his feet as he stands frozen by his own fear.
A timeout later and Nishinoya is on the sidelines recalling his childhood and depicting how scared he used to be. It was his grandfather who taught him to never waste an opportunity to try something new. He tells his team that Astumu's serves fill him with the same kind of fear he used to feel. When Atsumu delivers his jump floater Nishinoya, again, stands still, despite proudly proclaiming that being scared is a waste of time. That's when Kinoshita screams from the bench to tell Nishinoya to reposition himself for the receive, and Nishinoya demonstrates a perfect overhand receive, allowing for the rest of the team to score.
It's a massive moment for Karasuno as they finally stop Atsumu's targeted assault and an even greater moment for the development of both Kinoshita and Nishinoya -- their interactions are helping to promote each other's confidence. While Nishinoya is usually the most confident on the court, he's starting to confront areas of his play that could be stronger and become more secure in displaying those skills. As for Kinoshita, it would help him to let go of the crushing weight he feels to make an impact with his serves -- if he can make an impact in other ways. In addition, it's great for him to see someone he looks up to going through a similar process he is.
The match is still in the middle of the third set and will reach its conclusion soon. This stop was necessary to prevent absolute routing from Inarizaki. Inarizaki is still strong and will not be easy to close against, but for now, there's still promise in Karasuno's future.
