I started watching and fell in love with Haikyu

Haikyuu!! (Or Haikyu!!, I’m still not certain on the spelling) is a sports manga created by Haruichi Furudate in 2012 and received its anime adaptation in 2014, both still going on to this day. The series follows Shoyo Hinata, a first year student at Karasano High School who has an infatuation with volleyball, despite his natural disadvantage with his height, but refuses to let that stop him as he practises and strives to improve himself every opportunity it gets. Joining his High School Volleyball team the series follows this ensemble of teenagers and all the trials and obstacles they face as they seek to better themselves, win matches and make their way to Nationals.

If you’re anything like me, you probably don’t have the slightest interest in volleyball, heck, you probably don’t even know the rules of the sport, and yet that will somehow not matter in the slightest in getting you invested in this series and they know that. Pacing wise the show is glacial at introducing the rules and tactics of the sport, simplifying it down to the necessities at first simply so you as the audience can follow a game. As the series goes along they will nurse you with more complicated matters but never so much to overwhelm you or disrupt the momentum of the plot with monologues of exposition filled with gibberish and jargon. None if this will actually affect your enjoyment however, because through the course of watching this show you will come to care about volleyball, because these characters care about volleyball.

The YouTube channel SuperEyePatchWolf once made a video discussing what he referred to as ‘non-battle battle anime’. In which he presented a multitude of shows that weren’t focused around action but used the conventions of the genre to advance their own story and character arcs. Haikyuu!! Being a perfect example of this, during each volleyball match and practise you will see characters overcome their own personal demons and insecurities to better themselves both as players and as people, the excitement coursing through your veins as you see the manoeuvres they’ve practised all season being executed perfectly in the middle of a match, understanding the importance of each win, the power of each spike and the bone breaking amount of effort these people put into each of their matches.

Take the two protagonists of the series, Hinata and Kagayama, two individuals who went to opposing middle schools, come from different backgrounds and have two wildly different personalities. Initially the two are established as your typical Shonen rivals, but once they realise they’re attending the same high school and will be playing on the same team, the two quickly come to learn that their differences make them a perfect pairing on pitch, with Kagayama’s precision and thought out strategies combined with Hinata’s raw natural athleticism making them a perfect pair. Furthermore as the two continue to play together they also help each other in their personal struggles, not intentionally of course but simply through the process of playing volleyball. Hinata is naturally talented but lacks refinement, while Kagayama’s anti-social tendencies and perfectionism make him a difficult teammate. The one thing the two inarguably have in common is their passion for volleyball and determination to be better than they already are. Every member of the cast face similar challenges throughout the series, whether it be the Ace player Asahi suffering from anxiety, the cool and calculating Tsukishima letting his barriers down or captain Daichi struggling with the pressure of leading the team during his final year playing for them. Even the bench-warmers like Ennoshita and Tadashi acknowledging their lack of importance in the team or show and using that as motivation to prove their worth.

This is not just limited to the main team either. Every single match Karasano has gone up against, their opponents will be filled with strong characterization to make each opposing team unique with individual identities, stand out players and personal goals that they also seek to achieve. No team is ever just a blank obstacle to overcome, instead they’re swimming with personality and interpersonal relationships amongst their own teammates as well as our core cast. Because of this the matches become more intense as it’s not simply a matter of which team wants it more or who believes in themselves the most much as most Shonen series use as the main resource behind a protagonists win, because we the audience understand that both teams want it just as much, and if one of them has an advantage then we’ll see how the other team adapts and strengthens themselves to overcome that advantage.

As I’m writing this I have just finished season three, a season consisting of 10 episodes and are entirely focused around one single match, while the prior seasons would establish an important match by taking up 3-4 episodes, this one had a whole season to emphasise the weight of this one. I can safely say it has been a very long time since I was this heavily invested in a plot line, getting ecstatic over every point earnt, nervous when the opposing team took a lead, dreaded seeing the exhaustion and pain begin to take over our team. But most of all seeing how far these characters had come as individuals and as a team, their skills refined, their insecurities crumpled and their trust in their teammates be unbreakable. Acknowledging and building on every victory and defeat before them to build up to a climactic showdown that I am still riding on the adrenaline of.

Haikyuu!! Is empathetic storytelling done to an excellent degree, the effortlessly woven in character progression mixed in with great music, animation and voice acting has made it one of the best shows I’ve seen in a while, and its main appeal can come down to what I said earlier. You will come to care about volleyball, because these characters care about volleyball.

-Danny