One of the most highly anticipated upcoming anime projects is none other than the Haikyu!! FINAL movie, set to conclude the beloved sports anime series with a two-part film. While there’s still no release date or significant information for the upcoming project, fans were given a tease of some news to come recently.
Last week saw the unofficial announcement of the kick-off event for the Haikyu!! FINAL film, originally set to be held in mid-August of 2023. While this information did come from unofficial sources in the form of leaks, said sources are held in high regard as being generally accurate and reputable in their claims.
However, the official announcement for the Haikyu!! FINAL kick-off event has finally come from the franchise’s various official Twitter accounts. Intriguingly enough, the official release date is substantially different from what leakers initially claimed, suggesting either inaccurate information on their part or an unexpected rescheduling by the adaptation team.
Haikyu!! FINAL kick-off event delayed to September, occurring alongside “largest event ever held” for franchise
The latest
On Tuesday, June 20, 2023, the official English Twitter account for the franchise shared that the Haikyu!! FINAL kick-off event is now set to be held on Sunday, September 24, 2023. The event will coincide with the Haikyu!! Festa 2023, the Grand Send-off Party, which will also be the largest event ever held for the franchise.
While it’s unclear exactly what fans can expect from the upcoming event, many are expecting a yearly release window to be announced for the film at the very least. Others are asserting that a fairly narrow release window and a teaser trailer will premiere at the event, both of which would be the first significant promotional material the film has received.
Such theories are further supported by the fact that several cast members from the central group of characters will be present at the event. These cast members and the characters the play include the following:
- Ayumu Murase (Shoyo Hinata)
- Kaito Ishikawa (Tobio Kageyama)
- Koki Uchiyama (Kei Tsukishima)
- Satoshi Hino (Sawamura Daichi)
- Yuu Hayashi (Ryunosuke Tanaka)
- Nobuhiko Okamoto (Yu Nishinoya)
- Kaori Nazuka (Kiyoko Shimizu)
- Sumire Morohoshi (Hitoka Yachi
Typically speaking, convention stages and events with large cast presences such as the above are hotspots for significant release information on an upcoming series. This includes trailers, release dates, key visuals, and so on, all of which are seemingly in play for the upcoming event set to take place later this year.
Considering that fans are also getting excitedly impatient for new information on the upcoming project, it seems like the perfect storm for a significant reveal at the event. Exactly what this reveal will be is currently unknown, but it seems almost certain to be imminent and inevitable.
Be sure to keep up with all anime, manga, film, and live-action news as 2023 progresses.