A Pro Athlete and Hinata's Voice Actor Break In the Event
The day before the public opening, a media preview brought together Ayumu Murase (Iruma Suzuki in Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun, Kage in Ranking of Kings), who voices protagonist Shōyō Hinata, alongside two players from Osaka Blueteon of Japan's top-tier SV League: active pro Kōtarō Kaneda and recently retired Japan national team member Kunihiro Shimizu. A group of local Osaka youth volleyball players also joined.
The standout moment came at the "Aim for the Highest Spike Reach Challenge!!" booth, where Kaneda challenged Tetsurō Kuroo's fictional spike reach and cleared 314 cm. He later praised the receive challenge's realism, noting that even professionals struggled to react in time. "You have to move laterally and use proper hand positioning, just like in an actual match, to score well," Kaneda said.
Shimizu, who retired after the 2025–26 SV League season, called the whole experience "more like an attraction than an exhibition" and admitted he was sweating by the time he finished. Murase tried the receive challenge himself and came up empty. "Not even close. I missed everything," he laughed. "The balls felt about three times faster than they look in the anime."
Murase also previewed the event's newly recorded audio guide, saying the fresh dialogue captures the characters' friendships deepening in ways that feel distinct from the TV series.
Three Zones: Jump, Spike, Connect
The event is built around three themed areas that combine video analysis segments with hands-on play.
Jump opens with Tetsurō Kuroo, Kenma Kozume, Morisuke Yaku, and Kōtarō Bokuto breaking down the jumping techniques of rivals like Tōru Oikawa, Wakatoshi Ushijima, and Atsumu Miya. The centerpiece is the spike-reach challenge: visitors jump in front of a 5-meter wall with a net projected at the regulation 2.40 m height and compare their reach to six characters from the series.
Spike traces Hinata and Kageyama's combination attacks through four interactive court sequences. Visitors experience the minus-tempo quick, the broad attack, the back attack, and the "don jump" from different on-court vantage points. Video segments featuring Hinata, Kageyama, Tsukishima, Nishinoya, Oikawa, and Ushijima revisit key match moments, from the Shiratorizawa showdown through the Spring Tournament's Nekoma "Dumpster Battle."
Connect puts the Miya twins, Atsumu and Osamu, in the commentary booth, their Kansai-dialect banter setting the tone. The receive challenge places visitors on a regulation-sized court to dig serves from Oikawa, Ushijima, Atsumu, and Yamaguchi. Results are ranked across five tiers, from "First Day of Practice" to "Libero Level," with 30 possible result variations.
An opening theater greets visitors with newly recorded lines from all 12 featured characters, performed by the original anime cast: Ayumu Murase (Hinata), Kaito Ishikawa (Kageyama), Kōki Uchiyama (Tsukishima), Nobuhiko Okamoto (Nishinoya), Daisuke Namikawa (Oikawa), Yūichi Nakamura (Kuroo), Yūki Kaji (Kenma), Shinnosuke Tachibana (Yaku), Ryōta Takeuchi (Ushijima), Ryōhei Kimura (Bokuto), Mamoru Miyano (Atsumu), and Hideaki Kabumoto (Osamu).
Looking Ahead
The Osaka run at Dojima River Forum continues through August 2, 2026. The event then moves to Belle Salle Roppongi in Tokyo from August 7 through September 13.
A separate Haikyu!! Exhibition: The Challengers is also scheduled for the Mori Arts Center in Tokyo from October 30, 2026, through January 11, 2027, giving fans visiting Japan two distinct Haikyu!! events later this year.
The event is organized by Dentsu and Muvents Japan. No international tour dates have been announced.
For fans outside Japan, the Haikyu!! anime, produced by Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell, Psycho-Pass), is streaming on Crunchyroll and Netflix. The source manga by Haruichi Furudate ran in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump from 2012 to 2020 across 45 volumes and has surpassed 75 million copies in circulation. Viz Media publishes the English-language edition.