Why Sendai Is the Series' Home Turf
The campaign, reported by Japanese anime news site Anime Anime, is a homecoming. Sendai is the capital of Miyagi Prefecture, the region where Karasuno High School and its original rivals play. The seven characters recording new audio for the campaign all come from Miyagi teams: Karasuno's Shoyo Hinata and Tobio Kageyama, Aoba Johsai's Toru Oikawa and Hajime Iwaizumi, and Date Tech's Takanobu Aone, Kenji Futakuchi, and Kanji Koganegawa.
For JR East, the collaboration is part of "Beyond the Border," a group-wide growth strategy that aims to get people moving between big cities and regional destinations by building trips around entertainment they already follow. Haikyu!! brings serious pull for that job. Haruichi Furudate's manga, a hot-blooded youth drama about high schoolers who pour everything into volleyball, ran in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump from February 2012 for eight and a half years and has over 75 million copies in circulation. The TV anime ran four seasons between 2014 and December 2020, and the February 2024 film Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle grossed more than ¥20 billion (approx. $130 million) worldwide and won Excellent Animation of the Year at the Japan Academy Film Prize.
New Character Audio on the Tohoku and Akita Shinkansen
Starting August 19, riders on the Tohoku and Akita Shinkansen lines can open Locatone, Sony's location-based audio app, and listen to original voice content from all seven characters. Four versions are available, labeled Type A through Type D.
There is also a perk for fans traveling to the city. Passengers who book a Shinkansen e-ticket with Sendai Station as their destination and enter through the website for JRE POINT, JR East's rewards program, receive an original "Welcome to Sendai!!" digital image. On top of that, 100 winners will be drawn to receive an exclusive collection card in the campaign's original design.
A Merch Pop-Up and Kageyama on the PA System
From August 26 to September 2, the event space in front of Sendai Station's stained-glass window hosts a limited-time merch sale built around the campaign's art of the characters in station-attendant-style uniforms. According to the Anime Anime report, the lineup includes acrylic stands, clear file folders, clear hand fans, clear sticker sets, button badge sets, name badges, iridescent charms, trading cards, and rocking acrylic blocks.
The station itself joins in, too. Throughout the campaign, Sendai Station will play three special in-station announcements: a Hinata solo version, a Kageyama solo version, and one with the pair together. Anyone passing through the station has a reason to linger on the platform.
Looking Ahead
The "Welcome to Sendai!!" campaign runs through October 31, 2026. No international component has been announced. The franchise's bigger news arrives in 2027, when two new anime projects land: Haikyu!! The Movie: VS The Little Giant, covering the Karasuno vs. Kamomedai quarterfinal, and the special anime Haikyu!! The Place Where Monsters Go, covering Fukurodani vs. Mujinazaka. The two matches play out on the same day at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, with series studio Production I.G producing the film. Crunchyroll has already posted an official English teaser trailer for the movie.
International fans who want to catch up before then have options: the TV series streams on Crunchyroll and Netflix, and Viz Media publishes Furudate's manga in English.