Haikyu!! is teaming up with Japan’s Spring High volleyball tournament for the first time in seven years, and creator Haruichi Furudate drew a fresh illustration of Shoyo Hinata to mark the pairing. The artwork appeared during the Jump Press livestream on Monday, the same event where Nue’s Exorcist announced its anime adaptation, and then went up on the official Haikyu!! X account.
Why the Spring High connection matters
The last time the franchise worked with the tournament was 2020, which makes this a homecoming of sorts. Spring High, usually called Haruko, is the national high school volleyball championship, and it is the same tournament that structures the plot of the manga itself. The series has always been about a high school team chasing a spot on that stage, so a partnership with the real thing closes a circle.
For the tournament itself, the partnership is a familiar kind of crossover in Japan, where a popular series lends its characters to a real event and the event gets a recognizable face for its posters and broadcast. Haikyu!! fits better than most, because the two share the same subject rather than a loose theme.
Furudate’s illustration features Hinata, the series’ lead, and the timing is deliberate. The franchise has two projects lined up for 2027: Haikyu!! vs. The Little Giant, the second entry in the Haikyu!! Final film series, and a short anime titled Haikyu!! Where Monsters Go. Both were confirmed to arrive that year, and the collaboration is an early piece of promotion ahead of them.
The 2027 film lineup
The film line is worth revisiting. The first Haikyu!! Final movie, The Dumpster Battle, released in 2024 and picked up a wide theatrical run overseas. The second film is named after the Little Giant, the undersized ace who inspired Hinata as a kid and who has hovered over the whole story without ever taking the court. The short, Where Monsters Go, is a separate piece that will ride alongside it. Our 2027 anime release guide tracks both alongside everything else dated that year.
What Haikyu!! has done since the manga ended
Haikyu!! started as a manga by Furudate in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump, where it ran from February 2012 to July 2020 and finished at 45 volumes. Viz Media publishes it in English. By December 2025, the series had more than 75 million copies in circulation, and it won the 61st Shogakukan Manga Award in the shonen category in 2016. The anime adaptation is one of the more durable sports series of its era, and the films have kept the name in front of audiences long after the manga ended.
There is also a practical reason to watch this one. Furudate has drawn very little since the manga ended, so new art from the creator is an event for fans. A single illustration is not a new chapter, but it is the kind of thing that trends in Japan and gets shared widely, and it keeps the franchise visible during the long wait for the 2027 films. The same Jump Press stream that debuted this illustration is also where the Nue’s Exorcist anime was revealed, so the event covered a lot of ground in one sitting.
Expect more on both films as their release windows get closer. A concrete date for Haikyu!! vs. The Little Giant has not been announced yet.
Source: Anime Corner, citing the official Haikyu!! X account and the Jump Press livestream.
Featured image: New Haikyu!! illustration by Haruichi Furudate for the Spring High collaboration, via Anime Corner.
