In short: Haikyu!! VS The Little Giant hits Japanese theaters in 2027, alongside a TV special, Haikyu!! Where Monsters Go. The movie adapts the Karasuno vs Kamomedai quarterfinal, the special covers Fukurodani vs Mujinazaka. Production I.G animates both, Susumu Mitsunaka directs and writes, and only the year is confirmed for now.
When does Haikyu!! VS The Little Giant come out?
In 2027, in Japan. The production committee gave the year and nothing else: no month, no day, no international window. The confirmation landed on August 19, 2026, during Haikyu Day, with a brand new concept visual and a wave of announcements covering the whole franchise, from manga to trading cards.
Haikyu Day falls every August 19: in Japanese, 8-1-9 reads "ha-i-kyū". It is the date the team saves for its biggest reveals, and the 2026 edition delivered. The 2027 window had already been given in late December 2025 with a first teaser, but it was this August 19 that the PV on the TOHO animation channel locked the year for both projects at once.
Click the image to watch the super teaser on the TOHO animation channel.
To be clear about what we actually know: the year 2027, the studio, the director and the adapted matches are confirmed. The precise date, the runtime and any release outside Japan are not. The tighter windows already floating around social media are educated guesses from fan sites, not announcements.
Which manga match does the movie adapt?
Karasuno vs Kamomedai, the quarterfinal of the Spring nationals. In other words, the duel between Shoyo Hinata and Korai Hoshiumi, the spiker the whole high school circuit calls the Little Giant. It follows directly from The Dumpster Battle, the 2024 film that covered Karasuno vs Nekoma.
The title says it all. The Little Giant is Karasuno's former ace, the short attacker Hinata saw on TV as a kid, the reason he ever picked up a volleyball despite his height. Hoshiumi carries that nickname today, and he has earned it: small frame, absurd vertical, complete at every skill. The concept visual puts them forehead to forehead, both grinning, and sums up the film in one image: Hinata faces the living version of his childhood dream.
Production is in familiar hands: Production I.G, the studio behind the entire series, with Susumu Mitsunaka directing and writing, based on Haruichi Furudate's work. One detail Anime Corner flagged back when the December teaser dropped: "the official team dropped the word Final from the branding", even though the project had been presented as a two-film conclusion. The manga is finished, yet several matches have never been animated, and that kind of signal keeps hope alive. Ending a beloved series on the big screen rather than on TV is the same bet the final Attack on Titan film made, and Haikyu already proved in 2024 that its audience shows up.
What is the Haikyu!! Where Monsters Go special?
A TV special airing in Japan in 2027, announced alongside the movie. It adapts the other quarterfinal, the one played on the neighboring court: Fukurodani vs Mujinazaka, meaning Kotaro Bokuto against Wakatsu Kiryu, two of the country's top three high school aces.
The title comes from chapter 336 of the manga, "where monsters go". On the page, Furudate wraps this match in two chapters: the press expects a short format, a single episode or close to it, but no runtime has been confirmed. That is exactly what makes the project interesting. This quarterfinal is one of the passages readers requested the most, because it shows Bokuto at his peak and a clash of egos between net monsters the anime had barely touched.
Click the image to watch the special's teaser PV.
Each school got its own visual with banner and motto: "one ball, one soul" for Fukurodani, with Bokuto and his setter mid-action, and "hit everything" for Mujinazaka, built around Kiryu. Both posters carry the same line: the match starts in 2027.
What else did Haikyu Day 2026 announce?
A lot, and almost all of it dated. The most concrete drop went live the same day: the Haikyu!! BOS album by Burnout Syndromes, the band behind three of the show's openings, streaming since August 19. The rest stretches into January 2027.
| Announcement | Date | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Haikyu!! BOS album (Burnout Syndromes) | August 19, 2026 | 12 tracks: the series' themes covered by SPYAIR, NICO Touches the Walls or Sukima Switch, plus FLY HIGH!!, Hikariare and PHOENIX |
| Character Remix Bonds manga: Hinata and Kageyama | September 4, 2026 | 2 volumes revisiting all 402 chapters through the duo's bond (Japan) |
| Volleyball Card Game BREAK, Booster 4 | October 24, 2026 | A Toru Oikawa card drawn by Yuki Tabata, the Black Clover author |
| Haruichi Furudate Exhibition: Challengers | October 30, 2026 to January 11, 2027 | Mori Arts Center Gallery in Tokyo, with a pop-up café in Ginza |
| Stage play Gekidan Haikyu!! Winners and Losers | TBA | Third play by the troupe, covering the Interhigh preliminaries and Date Tech |
Burnout Syndromes are celebrating ten years since their debut: the band started in 2016 with FLY HIGH!!, already for Haikyu, and dropped a PHOENIX music video cut to manga panels the same evening. The album is on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube Music, so it streams worldwide, which is not the case for the exhibition or the remix manga, Japan-only for now.
Where can you watch Haikyu!! before 2027?
All four seasons and the OVAs stream on Crunchyroll in most regions, including North America, Europe and Latin America. The Dumpster Battle, the 2024 film that leads directly into VS The Little Giant, went through theaters before home video. If you stopped after season 4, you have a year and a half to catch up, which is plenty.
The previous film also gives a sense of what to expect. The Dumpster Battle passed 10 billion yen at the Japanese box office, around 59 million euros, and grossed about 3.6 million dollars in US theaters, with most international markets getting it a few months after Japan's February 2024 premiere. Nothing has been announced for VS The Little Giant outside Japan, but if the pattern repeats, international releases would trail Japan by a few months. That is my projection, not an announcement.
On the shop side, our Haikyu shelf is small but it moves. The black Karasuno jersey with Hinata and Kageyama prints at 29.99 EUR is our best rated item in the universe, 4.9 out of 5 across 54 reviews, and like the rest of the shelf it runs Asian sizing: I systematically recommend one size up from your usual EU or US size. For a full Shoyo Hinata cosplay, the orange Hinata wig (29.99 EUR) is all you need on top of the jersey, and the volleyball sports bag rounds out the training look. A jersey plus a wig is exactly the combo I push in the easy cosplay guide for beginners: no sewing, low budget, instantly recognizable character. The rest of the apparel lives in the manga clothing collection.
Frequently asked questions
Will the Haikyu!! VS The Little Giant movie get an international theatrical release?
Nothing outside Japan has been announced as of August 20, 2026. The previous film reached theaters across Europe and the Americas a few months after its February 2024 Japanese premiere. A similar rollout is plausible for VS The Little Giant, but until distributors speak up, treat any circulating date as a rumor.
Who is the Little Giant in Haikyu!!?
Originally, it is the nickname of Karasuno's former ace, a short wing spiker Shoyo Hinata saw on TV as a kid, the player who sparked his vocation. In the manga's final stretch, the nickname belongs to Korai Hoshiumi, Kamomedai's ace. The movie's title plays on that passing of the torch: Hinata faces the player living the dream he chases.
Is Where Monsters Go a movie or a TV special?
A TV special, airing in Japan in 2027, not a theatrical feature. It accompanies the movie by adapting the Fukurodani vs Mujinazaka quarterfinal, played at the same time as Karasuno vs Kamomedai in the story. Its exact length has not been communicated, and no international platform is attached yet.
Is the Haikyu!! manga finished?
Yes, since July 2020. Haruichi Furudate ended it at chapter 402, collected in 45 volumes. The Character Remix Bonds release announced for September 4, 2026 is not a sequel: it is a two-volume selection of scenes revisiting the whole series through the Hinata and Kageyama bond, Japan-only for now.
How many seasons of Haikyu!! should I catch up on before the movie?
Four seasons, the OVAs, then the 2024 film The Dumpster Battle. VS The Little Giant picks up the national tournament exactly where that film stops. Everything streams on Crunchyroll in most regions; count roughly 85 episodes plus the film to be ready for 2027.
Images: ©Haruichi Furudate / Shueisha, ©2027 "HAIKYU!!" Production Committee, Production I.G, TOHO animation.
