Haikyuu!! is a series about volleyball. That means it's a sports anime. I'm not too fond of them, so this is one of the very few that I've actually watched to completion. Knowing that, here are the thoughts of somebody who doesn't know much about the genre. Some spoilers will follow.
The series is about a kid named Shoyo Hinata, who during his entire time in middle school only got to play one volleyball match (losing it horribly). He's also super short, but can jump real high. Being the shounen protagonist that he is, he doesn't let that get him down and enrolls into Karasuno high school (where his idol "The Little Giant" used to play). At the school he meets a guy named Tobio "Maximum Overangst" Kageyama, who apparently didn't know that volleyball is a team sport and is very mad about it now that he found out. The pair then meet the volleyball club of the school and after some hijinks and team building speeches and whatnot get accepted into the team (naturally, because they're the exact opposites of eachother personality wise, they get to complement one another perfectly during games).
The rest of the volleyball club consists of the following: Azumane Asahi - the gentle giant type character, who after losing a match was real depressed for a bit but gets better. Sawamura Daichi - the team captain who yells at people to inspire them and gives speeches. Takeda Ittetsu - a teacher, also the guy who explains stuff in case nobody there knows how to play volleyball (I don't, he also doesn't). Ukai Keishin - their coach, who totally doesn't want to coach them, it's just to settle a rivalry or something. Tsukishima Kei - asshole. Sugawara Koushi - some guy who's always there, but doesn't get to play all that much. Tanaka Ryuunosuke - overdosed on testosterone, rages a lot, hits the ball real hard. Nishinoya Yuu - another shorty, keeps the ball from touching the ground, super high energy. Yamaguchi Tadashi - another first year student, not even sure why he exists, poor guy got to hit the ball once and screwed everything up. Shimizu Kiyoko - the team manager, who is also the object of the guys affections, cause it's a sausage fest without her.
Now that the characters are introduced, we can talk about what actually happens during the show.
Karasuno high school used to be at the top of the volleyball game (or at least as high as teenagers can get), but now they kinda suck. After team notices the talents of our protagonists, they decide they need to shape up and aim for the nationals again (of course).
The first half of the series focuses on the team actually getting together, with not a whole lot of volleyballing going around. It's at this point that continuing watching was a bit hard, cause it got a little bit slow. After they form up though, the series gets better. The team then plays a couple of practice matches against other schools for a bit. It's at this point that something may become apparent to the viewer - it doesn't look like anybody in the team has played or studied much volleyball before. Teamwork is almost nonexistent even between the senior members of the team and the idea of tactical play is only faintly present in their heads. One would think these kids who are so into volleyball woud've studied up on this stuff, but the only tactical play they do at first is use a decoy (which stops working eventually, to their utter surprise). Nevertheless, over the course of the practice match and the subsequent matches in the prefectural tournament that they play in, the team learns how to play the game (with some helpful explanations from the club councilor).
Most of the character development happens over the course of the matches they play in. Usually it takes the form of introspections they all have when they're behind on points and need some extra motivation to keep going. Most of the guys have their own stories and they are told in the form of flashbacks (the prefered method in anime it seems).
I felt like the series was a pretty good introduction to the game of volleyball, considering it seemed fairly realistic in how it's played. The games were shown in a way that was easy to understand even for a novice and some things were explained (like the various player positions). Nobody has any seemingly inhuman abilities (like, for example, Kuroko's Basketball, which I couldn't finish), so I could get a decent grasp of what an actual game of volleyball would look like. I also liked that the protagonists couldn't always succeed on willpower alone, with multiple times where their inspirational speeches and the following ultimate attackes were shot down by the opponents, thus displaying their difference in skill.
The animation is superb, especially during the matches, with a little lower quality in the other parts. It's intense and conveys a sense of speed and power very well when it needs to with plenty of dramatic slowdowns and exagerated motions. Character designs aren't too special and pretty realistic (Hinata being the exception with his crazy hair).
Sountrack is pretty good, but I wouldn't say it's anything exceptional. The OP does a good job of hyping up the viewer for what's to come, while the ED makes you think (yeah, try hard guys!).
Overall this series surprised me enough that I might get around to watching the other seasons at some point and I think it's a pretty good start if you never really watched sports shows before.
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