A second-year foreign exchange student from America transfers into Karasuno High School right in the middle of the school year. His Japanese is clumsy and limited—sentences half-learned, verbs mixed up—but he always tries, bowing a little too much and smiling nervously when he speaks. On his very first day, instead of heading straight to class, he walks into the gym clutching a slightly wrinkled boys’ volleyball club application, determined to join despite not fully understanding how school clubs work in Japan.