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rennaeI can't believe I wrote this many words about UshiOi
This isn't supposed to argue about why you should ship ushioi or why any other pairings aren't valid, but rather its just why I ship it.
So Why,
we could have had it all
Well to start with, I've always really liked rival ships, like characters that push each other to go beyond. A driving force. Oikawa's two main rivals are Kageyama and Ushijima. (Iwaizumi has a rivalry with Ushijima too)
But Oikawa takes that rivalry and runs a thousand miles with it.
The first time we see Oikawa and Ushijima in the same panel and Oikawa being a little shit. (A digression, but the French version of this panel is hilariously oddly translated, "Mon petit Oikawa", "Monsieur Ushijima" etc etc)
***EDIT***
(wait here it is )
OKAY I can't find the exact panel where Oikawa messes up a serve because he was thinking about beating Ushijima, but here is the panel that it flashes back to.
Oikawa really really really wants to beat Ushijima which is a big reason for his constant training and improvement. Ushijima isn't physically there for him to compete against, but boy does Oikawa try anyways (how is a setter supposed to beat a spiker??? Oikawa??? ??). Of course, it could be anyone Oikawa is trying to compete against, (like Kageyama) but in this case Ushijima is his first real rival and "wall" that he's trying to overcome. Oikawa gets pretty caught up in trying to beat Ushijima and like I said earlier, he fumbles a serve because he's thinking about how frustrated he is to lose to Ushijima and gets called out.
I also like how they've been rivals since middle school and somehow carried it all the way through to the end of high school. Dang that's some baggage you guys are dragging around.
In Ushijima's case, he highly regards Oikawa's volleyball abilities.
Ushijima thinks...well, really highly of Oikawa. It was pretty character establishing since I expected Ushijima to be an all around arrogant type that didn't think highly of anyone. But in his first real scene in the manga, he hears Oikawa's name once and goes on for 2 pages about how good a player Oikawa is.
Ushijima doesn't completely answer Kageyama's question, he just keeps right on talking about Oikawa.
Even later in the series, when Kageyama reports that he thinks Oikawa got even more terrifying, Hinata flashes back to how highly Ushijima regards Oikawa's abilities because, hey this is Japan talking!! Even more so because Hinata already played and lost against an Oikawa lead Seijou, so he knows first hand that Oikawa is no joke.
They place each others abilities very highly, even if they express acknowledgment awkwardly.
infamous chapter 148
Ah yes, the Chapter where Ushijima and Oikawa actually have a substantial conversation for once off the court and not just talking about each other to other people.
This chapter further establishes that they have a lot of things to work out, re:Oikawa's overwhelming (rather one sided?) rivalry and Ushijima's blatant disregard for Oikawa's pride.
Ushijima....stop....Oikawa isn't in the mood for your badly timed advice. Also 85% of the time Oikawa is talking, Ushijima's only reaction is "?????"
I mean all in all, everything Ushijima said was pretty insulting to Oikawa's pride. And Oikawa serves it right back at him. Good job Oikawa!!!! I think an important thing to note is that Oikawa says "Self-confidence" and not "arrogance" (it is also "self-confidence in the Chinese raws).
And the phrase that spawned a year's worth of memes. Inaccurately spawned a year's worth of memes, to be honest. Since from Oikawa's wording, "Is that what you're saying?", Ushijima never actually told Oikawa to his face that he should have went to Shiratorizawa (sorry I digress, it bothers me how that meme is inaccurate of what the dynamic is). Ushijima just wanted to be on the same team as Oikawa.
MORE ON THIS LATER, as it is further explained when we got more back story on Ushijjima.
Oikawa gives advice RIGHT BACK TO USHIJIMA'S FACE. Yea, Ushijima is going to need that advice.
Rest in Pieces Ushijima 40 chapters later in chp 188.
I will also have to talk about my interpretation of their characters and why I think so before I can really get into it.
grudge holding champion, Oikawa Tooru
To begin with, Oikawa Tooru is a brat.
Thats not to say he's an awful character, he's playing a competitive sport and taunting happens. He just likes taunting. A lot. Maybe too much.
I honestly like the way he's written, since it's really the way a competitive 17 year old would act if they were always second best and couldn't find anyway to get to the top.
He takes it and runs a mile with it (of course). Please stop fighting someone 2 years younger than you....
But he does give Kageyama advice when Kageyama asked for it, albeit in a roundabout way, so there's hope for him in the future to get over it.
I don't think Oikawa has ever said he hates Ushijima, despite how annoyed he gets every time they see each other. Oikawa hates the raw talent geniuses possess, not the person specifically (ie Ushijima, Kageyama). Oikawa is a lot more fixated on beating/playing against Ushijima than the other way around.
hey there grand ace, Ushijima Wakatoshi
Ushijima has the skills and accomplishments to back up what he says to people. He's one of Japan's representatives for a reason.
But he is often brutally blunt and doesn't think about how his words will be taken.
Yes, this statement is statistically correct as Seijou lost to a Karasuno team without a libero and ace just because Oikawa wasn't there. BUT USHIJIMA DON'T ACTUALLY SAY THIS OUT LOUD??? He needs to learn to have a filter.
He does understand he's a little too blunt sometimes, so there's hope for him (I think). So its not like he means to offend, because all Ushijima does is state facts. Most of the conversation in chapter 148 is Ushijima unnecessarily stating facts at Oikawa.
Even Oikawa (and Iwaizumi) seem to understand he doesn't mean harm by his (stupidly statistically correct) statements even if it really pisses them off.
Ushijima also gets along fairly well with his team despite his first impression of a loner that runs ahead of everyone in his team. So its not like he's incapable of being a team player. He doesn't even have a negative moniker like Kageyama.
We've been told that the Shiratorizawa team switched its setter from Semi Eita to Shirabu Kenjirou because Shirabu's sets are more "regular and less risky" than Semi's more flashy and less stable (and probably more like Oikawa's setting).
We don't know Ushijima's thoughts on this, but based on this environment I wonder why he thinks Oikawa would have done well at Shiratorizawa. Unless he just really really wants to play volleyball with Oikawa. Then, well, dream big Ushijima.
Ushijima's thing with Oikawa's abilities and why he thinks Oikawa should have gone to a stronger school stems from what his father told him.
Ushijima really looked up to his father and what he told him forms a basis for what he wants to be.
What he wants to be is 1) a reliable ace that can be depended on, and 2) a team full of strong people to have a really strong team
Which is in line with what Haikyuu is saying, 6 people on the court is stronger than just one person. This also explains why he is so hung up about Oikawa not choosing the same team as him, he wants to play with someone strong and Oikawa is the strongest setter he knows. High praise from someone that has gone to the nationals yearly since at least at least second year of middle school.
started from the bottom now the only way to go is up (right?)
Even though Oikawa has a lot of Problems right now against him working well with Ushijima (both on a team and on a more personal level), I think they could work after some development. We're told in the manga that Oikawa can work well with anyone.
So in any future team ups where they are forced to work together, teamwork shouldn't be a problem. They're both very strong players, so any team that has both of them are going to dominate.
And from chapter 188, remember we got this panel:
Jump serve that sick burn back...at...yourself?? Oikawa admits he goes overboard with things. I feel like this was a turning point, since Oikawa leaves Ushijima with a lot of things to think about.
I'm hoping for another post match talk between the two of them since the Karasuno vs Shiratorizawa match ended with Shiratorizawa's defeat (Specifically, Ushijima's first defeat in Miyagi prefecture in probably...forever). Oikawa is at the match, he's ready to drag Ushijima through the mud. Its going to be savage (I hope), it'll make Ushijima rethink his philosophies (I HOPE) and maybe after they're done talking at each other there can be a fresh start in the future for working together (I REALLY HOPE??).
I think for them to build any relationship, Oikawa has to let go of his grudge (boy is Oikawa good at holding grudges), and Ushijima has to learn to talk to express himself more, get a brain to mouth filter and think beyond just volleyball. They both need a lot of character development and it might be impossible for them to reconcile their differences before they leave high school, but I think if they are forced to work together later after some time to cool their heads (college? national team? OLYMPICS????), they can effect each other positively. And of course, win all the volleyball matches. I would like them to win. I like winning.
They also work really well in romcoms....I love romcoms. Boke and unknowing tsukkomi. Shiratorizawa and Seijou teams suffering unnecessarily because their captains Can't Get Their Acts Together. That's the content I'm here for.
(yea me too)
This got a lot longer than I wanted, now all of the world knows how deeply invested I am in fictional volleyball homos (jk if you've known me for more than 5 minutes, you probably already know already...)
Thanks for reading!!
Summary: I like them because they have a rival dynamic with each other. They acknowledge that their individual skills have a history of annoying each other (well one of them at least, albeit unintentionally), but they have a lot of potential for the future. They'll bring each others abilities higher and could work very well together if they tried in the future after getting to know each other better. Also I want them to kiss (and more). They're a romcom in the making.
This isn't supposed to argue about why you should ship ushioi or why any other pairings aren't valid, but rather its just why I ship it.
So Why,
we could have had it all
Well to start with, I've always really liked rival ships, like characters that push each other to go beyond. A driving force. Oikawa's two main rivals are Kageyama and Ushijima. (Iwaizumi has a rivalry with Ushijima too)
But Oikawa takes that rivalry and runs a thousand miles with it.
The first time we see Oikawa and Ushijima in the same panel and Oikawa being a little shit. (A digression, but the French version of this panel is hilariously oddly translated, "Mon petit Oikawa", "Monsieur Ushijima" etc etc)
***EDIT***
(wait here it is )
OKAY I can't find the exact panel where Oikawa messes up a serve because he was thinking about beating Ushijima, but here is the panel that it flashes back to.
Oikawa really really really wants to beat Ushijima which is a big reason for his constant training and improvement. Ushijima isn't physically there for him to compete against, but boy does Oikawa try anyways (how is a setter supposed to beat a spiker??? Oikawa??? ??). Of course, it could be anyone Oikawa is trying to compete against, (like Kageyama) but in this case Ushijima is his first real rival and "wall" that he's trying to overcome. Oikawa gets pretty caught up in trying to beat Ushijima and like I said earlier, he fumbles a serve because he's thinking about how frustrated he is to lose to Ushijima and gets called out.
I also like how they've been rivals since middle school and somehow carried it all the way through to the end of high school. Dang that's some baggage you guys are dragging around.
In Ushijima's case, he highly regards Oikawa's volleyball abilities.
Ushijima thinks...well, really highly of Oikawa. It was pretty character establishing since I expected Ushijima to be an all around arrogant type that didn't think highly of anyone. But in his first real scene in the manga, he hears Oikawa's name once and goes on for 2 pages about how good a player Oikawa is.
Ushijima doesn't completely answer Kageyama's question, he just keeps right on talking about Oikawa.
Even later in the series, when Kageyama reports that he thinks Oikawa got even more terrifying, Hinata flashes back to how highly Ushijima regards Oikawa's abilities because, hey this is Japan talking!! Even more so because Hinata already played and lost against an Oikawa lead Seijou, so he knows first hand that Oikawa is no joke.
They place each others abilities very highly, even if they express acknowledgment awkwardly.
infamous chapter 148
Ah yes, the Chapter where Ushijima and Oikawa actually have a substantial conversation for once off the court and not just talking about each other to other people.
This chapter further establishes that they have a lot of things to work out, re:Oikawa's overwhelming (rather one sided?) rivalry and Ushijima's blatant disregard for Oikawa's pride.
Ushijima....stop....Oikawa isn't in the mood for your badly timed advice. Also 85% of the time Oikawa is talking, Ushijima's only reaction is "?????"
I mean all in all, everything Ushijima said was pretty insulting to Oikawa's pride. And Oikawa serves it right back at him. Good job Oikawa!!!! I think an important thing to note is that Oikawa says "Self-confidence" and not "arrogance" (it is also "self-confidence in the Chinese raws).
And the phrase that spawned a year's worth of memes. Inaccurately spawned a year's worth of memes, to be honest. Since from Oikawa's wording, "Is that what you're saying?", Ushijima never actually told Oikawa to his face that he should have went to Shiratorizawa (sorry I digress, it bothers me how that meme is inaccurate of what the dynamic is). Ushijima just wanted to be on the same team as Oikawa.
MORE ON THIS LATER, as it is further explained when we got more back story on Ushijjima.
Oikawa gives advice RIGHT BACK TO USHIJIMA'S FACE. Yea, Ushijima is going to need that advice.
Rest in Pieces Ushijima 40 chapters later in chp 188.
I will also have to talk about my interpretation of their characters and why I think so before I can really get into it.
grudge holding champion, Oikawa Tooru
To begin with, Oikawa Tooru is a brat.
Thats not to say he's an awful character, he's playing a competitive sport and taunting happens. He just likes taunting. A lot. Maybe too much.
I honestly like the way he's written, since it's really the way a competitive 17 year old would act if they were always second best and couldn't find anyway to get to the top.
He takes it and runs a mile with it (of course). Please stop fighting someone 2 years younger than you....
But he does give Kageyama advice when Kageyama asked for it, albeit in a roundabout way, so there's hope for him in the future to get over it.
I don't think Oikawa has ever said he hates Ushijima, despite how annoyed he gets every time they see each other. Oikawa hates the raw talent geniuses possess, not the person specifically (ie Ushijima, Kageyama). Oikawa is a lot more fixated on beating/playing against Ushijima than the other way around.
hey there grand ace, Ushijima Wakatoshi
Ushijima has the skills and accomplishments to back up what he says to people. He's one of Japan's representatives for a reason.
But he is often brutally blunt and doesn't think about how his words will be taken.
Yes, this statement is statistically correct as Seijou lost to a Karasuno team without a libero and ace just because Oikawa wasn't there. BUT USHIJIMA DON'T ACTUALLY SAY THIS OUT LOUD??? He needs to learn to have a filter.
He does understand he's a little too blunt sometimes, so there's hope for him (I think). So its not like he means to offend, because all Ushijima does is state facts. Most of the conversation in chapter 148 is Ushijima unnecessarily stating facts at Oikawa.
Even Oikawa (and Iwaizumi) seem to understand he doesn't mean harm by his (stupidly statistically correct) statements even if it really pisses them off.
Ushijima also gets along fairly well with his team despite his first impression of a loner that runs ahead of everyone in his team. So its not like he's incapable of being a team player. He doesn't even have a negative moniker like Kageyama.
We've been told that the Shiratorizawa team switched its setter from Semi Eita to Shirabu Kenjirou because Shirabu's sets are more "regular and less risky" than Semi's more flashy and less stable (and probably more like Oikawa's setting).
We don't know Ushijima's thoughts on this, but based on this environment I wonder why he thinks Oikawa would have done well at Shiratorizawa. Unless he just really really wants to play volleyball with Oikawa. Then, well, dream big Ushijima.
Ushijima's thing with Oikawa's abilities and why he thinks Oikawa should have gone to a stronger school stems from what his father told him.
Ushijima really looked up to his father and what he told him forms a basis for what he wants to be.
What he wants to be is 1) a reliable ace that can be depended on, and 2) a team full of strong people to have a really strong team
Which is in line with what Haikyuu is saying, 6 people on the court is stronger than just one person. This also explains why he is so hung up about Oikawa not choosing the same team as him, he wants to play with someone strong and Oikawa is the strongest setter he knows. High praise from someone that has gone to the nationals yearly since at least at least second year of middle school.
started from the bottom now the only way to go is up (right?)
Even though Oikawa has a lot of Problems right now against him working well with Ushijima (both on a team and on a more personal level), I think they could work after some development. We're told in the manga that Oikawa can work well with anyone.
So in any future team ups where they are forced to work together, teamwork shouldn't be a problem. They're both very strong players, so any team that has both of them are going to dominate.
And from chapter 188, remember we got this panel:
Jump serve that sick burn back...at...yourself?? Oikawa admits he goes overboard with things. I feel like this was a turning point, since Oikawa leaves Ushijima with a lot of things to think about.
I'm hoping for another post match talk between the two of them since the Karasuno vs Shiratorizawa match ended with Shiratorizawa's defeat (Specifically, Ushijima's first defeat in Miyagi prefecture in probably...forever). Oikawa is at the match, he's ready to drag Ushijima through the mud. Its going to be savage (I hope), it'll make Ushijima rethink his philosophies (I HOPE) and maybe after they're done talking at each other there can be a fresh start in the future for working together (I REALLY HOPE??).
I think for them to build any relationship, Oikawa has to let go of his grudge (boy is Oikawa good at holding grudges), and Ushijima has to learn to talk to express himself more, get a brain to mouth filter and think beyond just volleyball. They both need a lot of character development and it might be impossible for them to reconcile their differences before they leave high school, but I think if they are forced to work together later after some time to cool their heads (college? national team? OLYMPICS????), they can effect each other positively. And of course, win all the volleyball matches. I would like them to win. I like winning.
They also work really well in romcoms....I love romcoms. Boke and unknowing tsukkomi. Shiratorizawa and Seijou teams suffering unnecessarily because their captains Can't Get Their Acts Together. That's the content I'm here for.
(yea me too)
This got a lot longer than I wanted, now all of the world knows how deeply invested I am in fictional volleyball homos (jk if you've known me for more than 5 minutes, you probably already know already...)
Thanks for reading!!
Summary: I like them because they have a rival dynamic with each other. They acknowledge that their individual skills have a history of annoying each other (well one of them at least, albeit unintentionally), but they have a lot of potential for the future. They'll bring each others abilities higher and could work very well together if they tried in the future after getting to know each other better. Also I want them to kiss (and more). They're a romcom in the making.