Honestly the only reason EDILW didn't become a Haikyu!! fan blog over the last few months is that my scanner is broken.

So instead of posting about Haikyu!! on here constantly, I satisfied my compulsion to talk about it with someone by direct-messaging the friend who had recommended it in the first place every time there was a particularly dramatic development in the story (which was, in general, at least once per volume). In fact, I imagine I did so often enough that she has probably since come to regret recommending it to me in the first place.

Anyway, the above two panels (remember to read the dialogue in the first one right to left) are from relatively late-ish in the 45-volume series (Volume 36, I think; maybe 37). It's one of the maybe two instances in the series in which manga-ka Haruichi Furudate sounds like he is commenting on the book itself, in a somewhat meta way.

The character is Kenma Kozume, the setter for the Nekoma High's volleyball team. Throughout the series, he's presented as a rather aloof character, one who, at least in his own articulation of his feelings, is somewhat dispassionate about volleyball, a game he started playing mainly because his best friend dragged him into it (This, despite the fact that he is quite excellent at it).

Kenma is an avid gamer, though, and that seems to have influenced his volleyball abilities, as he's an extremely intellectual player who thinks in gaming metaphors. The moment above is actually a big one for the character, as he has an epiphany of sorts, in which he realizes how much he actually loves playing volleyball, and actually says so out loud.

The way he talks about it though, in that first panel, is pretty representative of the entire comic. It's an extremely action-packed, dramatic, epic-length saga of a comics story and yes, it's just about high school volleyball. 

There Kenma is saying exactly what I've felt since about volume two or so; it's just a comic about volleyball, nothing bigger or deeper or grander or more imaginative, but damn is it fun.