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the roles of daichi and kita and how they intertwine but never meet: a brief character analysis (or a thread of my take on ch. 283)
as defensive specialists, third-years, & captains of their respective teams, daichi & kita play similar roles on court by being the sturdy foundation that allows their teammates to stay aggressive. it’s their duty to patch up the holes left by their kouhai, as kita sums up here:
however, daichi differs from kita in the sense that he participates in offensive plays—often leaving his position to act as a decoy with the rest of his team—and this is where kita starts to draw question.
to kita, consistency is a key element to his job as the cushion his teammates depend on, so why would daichi, someone shares the same role as him, throw that away to be a decoy? why waste all that energy and leave karasuno without its defense?
the answer is this: daichi and kita, though strikingly similar, have different definitions of what it means to support their team.
kita supports inarizaki by preventing his team’s slacker tendencies as well as being there to catch their mistakes when need be. i’m sure furudate intended to show this off when kita saved the twins botched quick attack.
daichi, on the other hand, has another purpose besides defending and that’s to score. i believe there are a few points where daichi says he isn’t letting his kouhai take all the glory. and it’s true, he doesn’t.
karasuno’s strength lies in their offensive cannon—it’s all or nothing to them and that’s what makes them a strong contender. to karasuno, daichi’s decoy and potential as a hitter could mean the difference between a lost point and a score.
and it isn’t that kita is less skilled than daichi or that kita isn’t capable of the plays that daichi does. rather, it’s that inarizaki’s offense doesn’t necessarily need kita in the same way karasuno needs daichi.
inarizaki’s offense is good. really good. and it’s because inarizaki has enough offensive power and seasoned experience that they are able to forgo the need for stamina-expending attacks like performed by karasuno. but it’s not infallible, and that’s why kita’s there.
daichi ends up proving kita wrong by being the one to be tossed the ball & spiking it past the blockers, right out of kita’s arms. this in itself is enough evidence that karasuno’s decoy work wasn’t for naught. they were able to trick even kita into an inaccurate prediction.
i think it’s accurate to say both captains supported their teammates 100% to their capabilities and at the same time i like to think kita came to understand that despite his original beliefs (i mean look at that smile).
kita wasn’t wrong to think daichi was like him, but he also wasn’t right to assume their definitions of support were completely synonymous. in my opinion, i think that’s what makes this chapter so intriguing+
kita shinsuke—someone who was introduced as having such a profound outlook on the world—being proven wrong by one sawamura daichi
so yeah... in conclusion: daikita
