With the success of the Decisive Battle at the Garbage Dump film, why is the Haikyuu!! anime ending? We found out

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Endings in anime are sometimes hard to swallow. We’ve all gotten so attached to the characters in Haikyuu!! that knowing their story will soon come to an end is heartbreaking. However, as tough as it is, we at least have two feature-length films coming to wrap up the Haikyuu!! anime. Still, fans might be wondering exactly why the Haikyuu!! anime is ending in the first place.

The answer isn’t in how declining ratings or lack of interest from fans. More than ten years after the first season aired in 2014, there has been enough hype around the Haikyuu!! anime to send the first of two ending films, Decisive Battle at the Garbage Dump, to number one at the Japanese box office, with ticket sales on par with the latest One Piece film. Fans are clearly still hungry for more volleyball action, so why not keep the story going?

The main answer is simply that the story has ended. At least, the source material has ended. The Haikyuu!! manga, which was written and drawn by Haruichi Furudate, ended its run in 2020 after more than 400 chapters. The story Furudate wanted to tell focused on the revival of the Karasuno High School volleyball team and the rivalry and friendship between Shoyo Hinata and Tobio Kageyama. That plot is nicely and emotionally wrapped up at the end of the manga’s run. Even with an extra chapter released in 2024 to celebrate the release of Haikyuu!! Decisive Battle at the Garbage Dump, Furudate felt that the story of Haikyuu!! is done.

This doesn’t mean that there will never be more Haikyuu!! anime in the future. Shows occasionally come back after they finish, either because the original mangaka returns or even without their involvement at all. However, for now, the Haikyuu!! anime is rapidly approaching its climactic and emotional ending and we all just need to brace ourselves for it.

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