Tanaka Ryunosuke is one of the characters in Haikyuu, before the timelapse he is a wing spiker on team Karasuno
Why do I like Tanaka?
I feel like Tanaka resembles me as a person the most. His mindset of especially in the Karasuno vs Inarizaki match where he knew that although he wasn’t the worst player on the team in terms of ability he was not the best in any category where he concluded that he was nothing more than average.
In the anime:
- Kageyama & Hinata have their quick attack
- Nishinoya is a great defender
- Asahi is a powerful ace
- Tsukkishima is a great blocker
- And the list goes on…
The part that gave me goosebumps was when he said to himself, “My average self, do you really have time to look down like that?“. Then he proceeded to make a sick cross shot winning Team Karasuno set 1 of a 3 set game.
How does he relate to me
I myself am average or even below average in many aspects of life, and although I might have accomplished what some people might think of extraordinary of a high schooler I believe I have put a lot more time to achieve those accomplishments than someone else with my knowledge would take.
The only thing that keeps me going is realizing that I am average and I have been given 2 choices in life and if I want to achieve what I truly want that I need to keep trying until I can do it.
Or as Tanaka (english translation) would say:
“As long as I keep trying until I can do it… I can actually do it”
Reflection
In the scene where he was running up the stairs only to be stopped by the wall that represented his limits but the only way he broke through it was because of the fact that he used the fact that he was average as motivation / reason to break through that wall.
Realistically, how quickly the results appeared in the anime (cough plot armor) will most likely not happen to all of us but I do believe in the fact that if we use Tanaka’s mentality and keep pushing forward I believe that we all can achieve our goals like Tanaka did by perfecting his cross shot and winning his team the set.