Anime Review!

Haikyuu!! Season 1

Haikyuu is a well-known anime with a massive fanbase. If you watch the show, it's not hard to see why. The characters, the story, and the setting are all very well-written. As a major fan of the show, I have a lot to say, so let's jump right on in.

My rating: 10 out of 10.
Crunchyroll rating: 4.9 out of 5.

Rating breakdown:
Overall: 10 out of 10
Plot Potential: 10 out of 10
Plot Development: 10 out of 10
Characters: 10 out of 10
Animation Quality: 10 out of 10

Please note: There will be spoilers! Also, I am only talking about season one here. I will discuss each season individually. Each review will, of course, vary in length and details, but if there's something you would like me to talk about in detail, please let me know and I'd be happy to write a chapter discussing a single episode or character. I will not talk about any ships in my reviews. While I do think some are probably cannon, I will only focus on the story written by Furudate Haruichi and not fan theories, fiction, or artwork because I really respect his creation and want to give it due respect. I can review fanfiction at a later time or discuss theories, ships, or art in DMs. I'm very open to those conversations!

The story is centered on the sport of volleyball and focuses on the growth of Hinata Shoyo in this sport. As the show goes on, the focus is expanded to include many main characters, including Kageyama Tobio who is also called 'King of the Court' because of both his skills and his self-centered attitude. They both play for Karasuno High School with the rest of the team that are also some of the main characters of the show (except for three second-years, but we don't talk about them).

Hinata is ever-evolving in his play and while he doesn't see much growth in the start of season one as far as his skills are concerned, he definitely pulls Kageyama out of the safety zone he'd set for himself after his teammates traumatized him during his last middle school game and together they manage to figure out an S-tier move.

With this new move, Karasuno seems to explode onto the scene at their practice match with Aoba Josai (Seijoh). Everyone is shocked at this incredible move and Karasuno takes the first set. Near the end of the second set, Oikawa Tooru comes out and joins his team as the pinch hitter/setter. After just a few serves, Seijoh catches up. Even though Karasuno ultimately wins, they realize that they still have a long ways to go in order to be a team that can hold its own against strong teams.

After this, their advisor manages to snag a coach – the grandson of Coach Ukai. How? By getting Nekoma to agree to a practice match.

When the teams meet, they don't like each other at first, but there's a lot of similarities between  the two teams, so they quickly start to like each other. In fact, by the end of the day, they're pretty much friends. More or less.

Before they know it, it's tournament time. They breeze through their first match against Tokonami - which is an overall weak team and has one of Daichi's friends from middle school - and then they're up against Date Tech. Asahi is put to the test by this match because this is the team that completely shut him down the year before. He's put to the test but finally, finally gets a spike through the Iron Wall of Date Tech. 

If I had to pick a moment where he truly and completely rekindles his love of volleyball, this would be it.

After this spike, they ultimately win the match. This means they move on to the best 16 and their third match. This match is against Seijoh and the rivalry between Oikawa and Kageyama is heated up. 

Sadly, even though many amazing plays are made by our boys, Karasuno loses to Seijoh 2-1. This loss hit where it hurt, too: the losing play was Kageyama and Hinata's special toss. 

There's a lot I could say about that match or about the season in general, but I'm going to try to keep it to a minimum and try to not gush too much.

First of all, I'm going to rip the band-aid off and say my unpopular opinion about this show: the first three episodes (and several through the season) are very cringe. I just need to have a couple of moments of real-talk, so I apologize and ask that you please don't come for me. There's parts that aren't, but there are parts that even me, a major fan that often squeals my way through episodes because I have to let the excitement out somehow, dislikes. Honestly, the first time I ever watched the show, I saw the first episode and had to force myself to watch episode 2 then somewhere during 3 I fell in love. 

That brings me to my second topic. I love these characters. I can't express enough how much I love these characters and how much I've fallen in love with them 4 seasons and 45 volumes later. Furudate-senpai, please tell me your secret behind creating these characters. They're all so amazing and have captured the hearts of millions of fans. This story, I feel, will stay one of the biggest anime shows of all time simply because of your characters. If you add the story to that, I'm not quite sure how it hasn't caught up completely to Naruto (which I haven't watched, so gomen-ne if I have sorely underestimated the show). 

Thirdly, can we just talk about character design for a moment? The art style is so good, and the animation is too. I fell in love with it starting with episode one. 

Like I said up in the note, if there's anything you'd like to see me talk about specifically, drop a message or DM and I'll hop on it! 

As always, arrigato for reading and hanging out. Mata ne!