Haikyuu!!

I just want to start this by saying i have never seen a sports anime before, this is my first step into the genre, and i've heard this show has a lot going for it, it isn't reliant on fan service like others, it has a rich story and unique characters, and it has a killer art style. Sadly i would say only 2 of those things are true, the killer art style and it not being reliant on fan service.

No Spoilers.I gave the story a 3/10
It's nothing special at all, nothing surprising happens, and its very predictable. The story begins with Hinata watching ... a clip of "The Little Giant" his inspiration playing a game of volleyball. And thus the ball gets rolling for the team to begin forming.

Art: I gave the art an 8/10 its actually pretty damn good, some of the scenes were amazing and full of energy. It also had a good mix of styles, swapping fluidly from hyper detailed, to simple and charming.

Sound: 7/10 Good sound design, and okay openings and endings. From every shoe squeak on the shiny wooden floor to the cheers from the crowd.

Character: 3/10, nothing special at all, the characters are generic, they don't go anywhere new or shocking. They fit their mould PERFECTLY, and never overstep their marks. If you have even dipped your toe into anime, you have seen these characters before, in some other anime show or movie. They just have different names here.

Enjoyment: 5/10 Mediocre. It was fine ... i guess, which sucks because some episodes are actually very good, with interesting with new characters showing up. Like team Nekoma with Kenma. Who arguably has more character and growth than the main characters and team.

Overall: Haikyuu!! is a 5/10 its Mediocre. And it sucks to say it. It had some genuine moments and episodes i thoroughly enjoyed, but for every episode i liked there was one that dragged and delivered bland character after bland character. And forced predictable outcomes that any anime watcher can spot from a mile away. Its even more sad that i found myself saying "why can't that team be the team we are following instead of Karasuno, they are so much more interesting and dynamic". (Karasuno being the main team)

I think you will know if you will like the show from episode 1. Which is good, if episode 1 doesn't click, i say drop it and move on. If it does, stick it through, you will probably enjoy it a lot.

Haikyuu is a good choice for you if you're looking for a sportsy shounen but a terrible one if you're expecting the shounenisms to be milder than in other shounens.

I'd like to start by noting that I've once dropped Haikyuu because at the time, I didn't want to watch a series about really determined kids wanting to win fights, but I eventually got in the mood for the exact thing I have dropped it for and Haikyuu sprung to mind, because I have had dropped it at the time, I could've acknowledged it was right for its target audience and I even respected the amount ... of character focus I have had noticed since very early and how it explained where the characters are at and why they are determined, which is a good thing to see, especially in a shounen, which the drive to move forward is frequently blinding ambition, of the fact that there's no reason for it to be there.

However while early it has a lot of character focus it has one thing that kills most shounens for me, a thing that is known in my circles as a slow start. By this we mean that a shounen will focus on building up the future events of a story to give you incentive to care later on and for the story to have depth, but in the process the main focus you're probably watching the series for, frequently the action, is never really at full strength. Haikyuu has a particularly dense slow start, where almost all the volleyball matches are almost exclusively predictable and lacking tension because of the way you know and expect and are exactly right to expect the characters to go in their character arcs. Which also killed a lot of my immersion of the series. And while the character focus is there and is definitely intense, sometimes it's so intense that the series feels melodramatic to the point it forgets that this is highschool volleyball and the characters feeling like they have overlydramatic reactions to the things happening, which could simply be solved if all the characters were only a bit more reserved.

Arguably based on your standards for the action to character focus ratio, the slow start ends after 3 to 4 hours into the series, when the inner and outer conflicts are solved, Haikyuu starts putting more focus into the game itself.

I don't want you to misunderstand me, despite the fact that the series will occasionally get ridiculously melodramatic, it still does a good job with presenting each character's mentality and inner struggle, juggling between multiple characters, even if like all characters get like two personallity traits and some sort of personal conflict, which might not seem like much, but I appreciate it since there's plenty of characters in the story and it's hard to make them overly complex when you have to ping pong between them. And while the volleyball doesn't really get any shine early due to the way the story and the character focus has been done, it always has good visuals and after the setup is done it finally focuses on giving immersive matches and interesting facets of the sport, through the strong foundation it has had layed out.

I'm gonna get a bit deeper into both.

First off, the character focus starts on two characters, which are basically the main protagonists and focuses on them for a really long time early on. Spoilers for the first episode in this paragraph, skip it if you'd rather not know the type of character arcs the characters will go through. These protagonists are Hinata, who is a determined kid who plays to win and has no real team to back him up & the other is Kageyama, who is a determined kid who plays to win and has no real team to back him up. Although the backgrounds are similar, they are polar opposites in circumstances and personality. Hinata grew up and developed a passion for volleyball but never had someone who would play with him or a volleyball club in his elementary school, so he is forced to play and train with whoever he can find. Eventually he manages to scrounge up a team of people who he had befriended and some first years who probably didn't know any better. While Kageyama is a person who plays at a school that has always performed well in volleyball and has really high skill acknowledged by everyone else in his team, but due to his overbearing attitude towards them and his oblivious arrogance, his team doesn't follow him. What drives Hinata is being acknowledged as a player despite his shortcomings and being in the spotlight, while Kageyama is selfdriven by his desire to win solely for personal satisfaction without particularly looking for acknowledgement. Eventually these two characters end up together in a team, where they learn the errors of their ways and develop both as a person and as a player, which I can't go more in depth because spoilers. Eventually the story takes time to focus and introduce other characters, but they're basically the two characters with the most depth since they had the most focus and most of the others are developed in a similar way with significantly less time put into them than the two mains.

Eventually after every character gets through their hurdles and personal conflicts the sports bit finally starts getting exciting and immersive, since now there's tension in the matches since there's no immediate conflict that the characters will have to and will obviously get over. The character progression doesn't dissapear, but it goes past the presentation stage and the series finally puts effort into putting up exciting matchups and situations. It will finally start displaying the exciting facets of the sport and use the already built relationships and characters to give us an understanding of how, why and what they can do in the match. It does often feel realistic although it obviously has the overlytalented bunch of players to keep things exciting, but it's nothing that would spring into your eyes as absolutely unrealistic. If you're interested in sports anime, you have to go through a shounen slow start to get where you want to get, so know that your reward for getting through this is sports in anime, so I advice you to be aware of what you enjoy from sports anime beforehand.

And let me not completely forget to mention what exactly is melodramatic about this show. The overlyinvolved attitude of most people. The series needs to realize that it is displaying highschool volleyball, of people playing it as a hobby and not planning to pursue the sport probably in the future. Yet it has these really overlyemotional moments or overlydramatic where characters scream, cry or fall into deep states of depression over it, to the point where the series made sure to point out that every single team that lost, is not a protagonist, but yet, they all suffer the same when they lose. No, that's wrong. Nobody suffers the same. There's different levels of involvement. But then again, it's a shounen. You expect the series to have each of its moment become dramatic or humorous by the end of the day. Sometimes it overplays how realistically people would be involved into this hobby and it gets ridiculous.

This is pretty much all I have to say about the events in the series. Visually the series is a bit too colorful for my liking but it does put a lot of effort into its visuals and I appreciate the fact that not every character has "yo look at my hair it's fancy so tha means I'm important" hair in it. They're still there but, they're not prevalent and there are characters that are not as distinguishable, which makes it feel more realistic. As I've said, it puts plenty of detail into its animation, which is a good thing to see, with some interesting shots which aren't taking the easy route. Sound wise it isn't as impressive, not having a whole lot that is noteworthy, but I've enjoyed the detail put into how the supporters in the stands cheer on for the players and how they react at certain things. That's pretty much the only thing noteworthy there. Didn't see anything that should bother anyone in this department.

So, before you decide, keep in mind, run this again through your mind: This is a shounen with a slow start that has overlydramatic moments, but overall does decently focus on each character and it has a slow start that rewards with some interesting volleyball matches. If you strive for a sports shounen, it's good. If you don't know what to expect from such an anime, I've explained above, but otherwise it's exactly what you'd generallyexpect besides the intense character focus. If what I said about the series doesn't interest you, I advice deciding against watching this.

For better and for worse, this is the quintessential sports anime. It takes everything that’s compelling and interesting, and also cliché and cheesy, of the genre and puts it on full display. Haikyuu‼ is a series a very much enjoyed, and I can recommend it because I bet that anyone who likes the genre would enjoy it as well. But despite my enjoyment of the series, I can recognize this is nothing special and is plagued by banal tropes and incredibly lackluster writing.

I guess since this anime is nothing special, my review will be nothing special either and I won’t ... go beyond the format of just reviewing the aspects of this anime one by one. Let’s start with the areas where this series is simultaneously strong and lackluster: the art direction. The animation itself is fluid, interesting, and adequate. The character designs in particular are very strong. There are moments where character designs are slipshod or where background sets are given undue detail, but it gets the job done.

It’s the directing decisions that were far more mixed in quality. There were moments where the art direction were so damn provocative, misdirecting the audience’s attention to some detail to just play up the surprise of a play that did not go as expected, or subtlety hinting at some detail to change the mood of a scene to help the audience anticipate. This way the direction subtly plays with the audience’s expectations at key, action-packed moments of the matches was definitely the strongest feature of this anime, both leading to what made it enjoyable and as an artistic achievement in its own right.

Yet there are other art direction decisions of this series that were just, bad. Just plain, medicore cliché-shounen-garbage bad. Scenes that drag out for way too long with unsubtle motifs reintroduced at pivotal moments for dramatic effect that just come off as cheesy and overdramatic. Comedic sequences that are played up far too dramatically to the point that they lose their effect, over dramatic power scenes of hits, replaying impactful moments one too many times, and too many damn unsubtle flashbacks. All the tropes of bad directing that make sports anime, and mediocre shounen more generally, feel cringy and over-the-top are on display here, mixed in about evenly with moments that play with your expectations in more interesting ways.

Similar things could be said for the plot overall. Overall, it is definitely a bit predictable at the high-level, for example you usually knew who would win a match and how characters would change and develop—even if the details can be surprising at times. It’s the standard sports anime trope of protagonists who fail in various ways throughout middle school and need to face their demons/settle old scores/find inspiration from each other through high school. It’s got the clichés of an underdog-upstart program facing much tougher opponents, trying and failing at various points, training camp montages, facing down old rivals, a recalcitrant, slightly-washed up coach who decides to join out of pure passion, the whole nine yards of sports anime—and sports media generally—clichés in terms of plot.
But these clichés are clichés for a reason, they work, and that’s no different here. While this series will get no points for the originality of its plot, it does get some points for executing it and pacing it quite well. There are moments where they drag on dramatic matches far too long near the end, but overall it was quite well paced. Even when you could predict exactly what would happen, it would some how execute it in a more or less interesting way. I also really like that the first season ended on a relatively somber note as well, to build up anticipation for what’s to come and make it feel more realistic.

I would say the same about all the characters: unoriginal, yet effective. I’ll spare you going through all of them, but you’ve got your MC who is an exuberant prodigy with natural ability but lacks the stereotypical features of someone who’s good at the sport yet overcomes that talent through pure hard work, over-the-top exuberance, and determination. The secondary MC who has nothing but pure talent, but is a hot head and needs to learn to respect his teammates. The aforementioned slightly washed-up coach. The natural leader upperclassman who lacks talent but makes up for it with good strategy. The overly talented and obnoxiously popular antagonist who serves as pretty much a perfect foil for one of the secondary characters. The comedic relief character who is middling in talent, super “bro-y,” and keeps making jokes about how he wants a girlfriend. I could go on and on, you’ve seen all these characters before. I saw another reviewer describe the cast as "Naruto, but with volleyball," and that is accurate. One unusually weak area for this anime, though, were female characters who were mostly filler who were just there for boys to cringily swoon over.

However, just like the plot, it works. The characters are cliché, but the solid design and adequate voice acting still makes them compelling. They are also dynamic and fleshed-out with all their back stories. It is commendable that a series with this many characters developed them all so well without running into pacing issues like other sports anime (ahem, Yuri on Ice) run into. They suffer from predictability in how they develop, but at least they do develop and there is still that sense of satisfaction from watching them change and grow as they get to know each other.

As for the sound, it’s fine, but forgettable. There are moments where the voice acting gets extremely over-the-top, but that is as much the fault of the writer as the sound direction and actors. The voice acting, overall is adequate, the soundtrack is completely forgettable and kind of stale. The first OP was quite good, but all the other OP and EDs were completely forgettable. The best I can say for the soundtrack and acting is it did nothing to detract from the series, but it did not do much to enhance it either.

Then there's the writing of dialogue which is, and I won't sugarcoat it, laughably terrible sometimes. Reintroducing a couple really stale, cheesy, on-the-nose cliche truisms about the importance of teamwork and frienship whenever anyone is feeling uncertain. Horrid "I will beat you" cliche chest-beating anytime they want to build up a rivalry. Very cringy weeb humor about awkward guys falling over girls, or recurring gags about characters being too angry/clumsy/awkward. Emotional moments that are just bland repetitions of themes explored before. Often times, thought dialogue that carries on for far too long pointing out the obvious. Honestly, the dialogue of this series was painful to listen to sometimes with how cliche, unsubtle, and downright stupid it was even by shounen/sports anime standards.

Even though it does not sound like it from the ambivalent tone and relatively low score of this review, I really did enjoy Haikyuu‼ What it lacks in originality and artistic merit, it makes up for in actually being a compelling, if not realistic, portrayal of the sport of volleyball itself. The execution of some of the actual volleyball scenes was quite provocative, and I found myself—as embarrassing as it is to say—getting into it almost like I was watching a real volleyball match.

I guess that is what made this series as successful as it was, it succeeded as a *sports* anime more so than an anime generally. It integrated strategy well into the plot, even though the dialogue sometimes ruined it by overexplaining things. While the characters were kind of bland on their own, it was almost more interesting watching them play to each other’s relative strengths and weaknesses in terms of strategy in a volleyball match than to get to know them personally. It was more like watching a sporting event in real life; you do not really know or care who the players are, but you pay attention because you care about how they play the sport. And I suppose it deserves credit for that. Among many weaker sports anime, the sport itself feels kind of like a lame after-thought, a kind of weak proxy for telling the story at best (as in Ahiru no Sora) or filler-style distraction from the more interesting plot or characters at worst (as in Free!). At least this series was actually a good, compelling, though slightly overexplained, portrayal of the drama and intrigue of the sport itself. Which, as I’m watching this during a coronavirus pandemic when all my favorite sports (let’s face it, mostly hockey) have been canceled, I guess is exactly what I needed at this point.

Sometimes, a series does not need to have the best characters or plot on the face of the earth to be enjoyable. Sometimes, a good sports anime can just be a good portrayal of sports while failing to be much of a good story outright. That is all Haiyukku‼ was. While at times it feels like it took itself too seriously while trying to be more and it won’t exactly earn itself status as a total classic or favorite in my eyes, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Story: 5/10
Art: 5/10
Sound: 5/10
Character: 6/10
Enjoyment: 7/10
Overall: 5/10

The first season of Haikyuu!! has one massive, glaring problem: exposition. I'd say exposition, mostly through dialogue, accounts for 70% of the running time. The other 30% makes for a fine show; a shame this flaw almost brings the whole thing crumbling down.

Now, ludicrous amounts of exposition are nothing new for shonen anime viewers, though we usually associate it with battle shonen, where a character will give a long speech before and after every attack or move he or his opponent do. Haikyuu, though, really goes overboard with it. It's especially glaring in the volleyball matches, where for every 10 second play we get a ... one minute, one minute and a half lecture on what the play consisted of, how the player pulled it, why he did it, what his opponents / spectators thought about it, what he had for lunch, how he feels about the new Batman movie. Repeat ad nauseum. This not only slows down the pace of the matches immensely, but by deflating the tension every 15 seconds it can never achieve a proper flow and give the viewer that euphoric feeling when a succession of long, contested plays builds to a boiling point and finally explodes in a stirring climax.

You might think all this exposition is necessary for the viewer to get a handle on the sport of volleyball, and I might agree if this problem didn't pervade every inch of the show outside even the matches. Every time a character is introduced we get a five minute lecture (almost always by other characters) on his backstory, his likes and dislikes, his strengths and weaknesses, his goals and dreams, and a summary of how his character arc will unfold, sometimes before he even opens his mouth! And then, when the character actually starts playing, we get another lecture on how those traits affect his playing style, what he needs to do to overcome his weaknesses etc, which is repeated every two matches and sometimes several times in the same match. It's infuriating.

Like I said, mind-numbing exposition is a problem in many-an anime, but the better ones do try to be subtle about it, or simply change up the ways it is delivered. We don't need to get the backstory of a character through his friends' monologues; maybe someone could discover it through newspaper reports, or through textbooks and articles, through the way it has affected his family's lives, or, and this is going to sound crazy, maybe the viewer could just infer it by watching what that character says and how he acts! But Haikyuu says screw all that. For example, in another show, if a character is, let's say, rash, maybe he'll shout a lot, or do dumb, impulsive things and suffer the consequences for it. In Haikyuu you better believe we're going to get a 5 minute speech about how he is, in fact, very rash as soon as he enters the frame. And then again every two matches about how that rashness affects his play, and what he must do to overcome it. It's very easy to track the character arcs in this show because the writers literally spell it out for us, and I just can't help thinking it might've been more satisfying to let the viewers get there by themselves.

I can see three potential reasons for why this is the case: 1) it's like this in the manga; 2) it's a substitute for filler. By slowing the pace of the anime with these constant interruptions, the producers ensure the show will never be in danger of catching up with the manga's story, thus making it necessary to put out filler episodes. To be honest, if this is the case, I'd prefer the filler. At least it'd be easier to skip those episodes than something that permeates every facet of the show. 3) the writers don’t have any trust on their viewers. They believe that everyone watching is either a child or mentally impaired, and needs lectures and charts to understand anything that happens in the show. Unfortunately I think it's the latter reason, and it irks me to be looked down upon by the writers of this teen show about volleyball.

If all of this doesn't sound like that big of a problem to you, then great! By all means do watch the show. Like I said, the other 30% makes for a great time. The art, animation and music are all good. That there are actually characters with traits, needs, wants and arcs automatically makes the writing better than your average anime. Maybe it's just for me that this exposition issue almost brings the whole show down, and other people have a completely different viewing experience. Which is fine. If you have any interest in Haikyuu I do suggest that you at least try it, as I don’t mean to presume that this problem will disturb everyone the same way it did me.

Ok, Before I get attacked, allow me to explain my reasoning. Before anyone gets mad I want to say I have ABSOLUTELY nothing against this show, in fact, I completely get as to why someone would like it. The characters are good and the matches are interesting. It just wasn't my thing.
I heavily dislike sports and volleyball is a sport that I hate. So, this is probably the only sports anime I will ever watch (besides gambling animes if that counts, I love mind games.) So, I can't really judge it based on that but now let's go through with the categories.

Story 6/10 I ... actually really liked how they lost more games than they won. It was nice to show that because it was realistic and gave room for the characters to grow. Also, showed that there wasn't much plot armor. I mean I really didn't care for the game volleyball but that's what the shows about so I can't fault it for that.

Art 4/10 I hated the color pallet. I really did. I mean the autonomy and everything was fine, I just don't really like warm colors.

Sound 4/10 I didn't really like it but it wasn't bad. Kinda blah.

Characters 7/10 Probably the only reason I finished the anime. They were actually really good and I really enjoyed them. They were very dramatic tho and did annoy me at points but that's why I gave this category a 7/10. I did wish that there could have been something more between Hinata and the king of the court guy. I think that would have made me enjoy the anime more but it's a sports anime, so no luck for me I guess.

enjoyment 6/10 The games could be fun to watch or drag on for too long. Some of the characters I didn't care for but I did enjoy most of them. I can really see how this good is an amazing anime for people who love sports anime, but I'm just not that person.

Overall 5/10 Just wasn't made for me. I will prob watch season two but I Want to watch some other stuff before i do.

Wouldn't really recommend. I mean it's alright and all but I wouldn't say it's the best sports anime (its hajime no ippo btw) I just don't think I'll rate the other seasons. I've watched them but they are all mediocre as well. Would not recommend it, but if I do you might enjoy it more than me.

Characters like daichi and tanaka were cool but other than that. Mid characters left right and centre. Hinata is the most generic of the lot but other than that he isn't that bad.

Story was alright honestly, nothing too bad at all. Art style was a little iffy at times ... and the only real strength was the animation whenever hinata hit the ball.

I didn't like it a lot but maybe someone else would. Hope I don't get judged for my tastes.

Watched season 1 with my fiancee after she begged me endlessly. It's just okay, not bad, but definitely not great, either. I'm not into sports anime(nor sports in general), so I'm probably not the right demographic for this show. However, I will say that the comedic moments in this anime are top notch. They were pretty much the only thing kept me watching. Characters like Tanaka literally had me dying of laughter.

Unfortunately, whenever the hijinks stopped and the focus shifted towards the volleyball game scenes, that's when my interest started to wane. I get that volleyball is the main point of this show and ... it's kind of a stupid thing to complain about, but I just couldn't bring myself to care. These games are really not exciting to watch if you're not into sports anime. I also couldn't bring myself to care about the story, either. The stakes just aren't high enough for me, it's to the point where anyone can spoil the ending for me and I wouldn't be mad at all. Overall, it's a decent show, I like the characters and the comedy, but those 2 things just weren't enough to keep me engaged.

Honestly the art style, sound, character is alright but, the plot was way to predictable like it was so predictable i predicted the whole anime halfway through it and it didn't really motivate me to watch more anime in the "sports" genre. I think it's wayyy too overhyped.

Sound:
like any other anime would sound i guess nothing out of the ordinary.

art:
I think the art style is good tbh but like someone else said "Their necks look too long- I'm talking about you Oikawa". You could really tell alot of scenes were reused so it didn't reall feel the same but didn't really affect anyone other than ... Oikawa i guess loll.



Character:
The mc has the basic outgoing happy all the time personality and it was hard to watch but some of the characters were bearable like Nishynoya and Tsukishima.
The random motivation all the characters got one after one was kinda unrealistic and wayyy to predictable like i said earlier thats why i rated character 6 kinda high i know alot of the scenes were funny.



Enjoyment:
I really wanted to stop halfway through but no way im just dropping it when i used all of my free time and like i've mentioned several times already shit was predictable asf so i didn't really feel excitment or enjoyment at all when something intresting happened



Overall i rate it mediocre i could prolly rate less but i watched all of it without giving up so someting was holding me back i guess.

Tem que gostar de vôlei pra entender o anime.

Eu realmente não consegui ver o peso das coisas que aconteciam, tudo era muito sem valor e os jogos não tinham um ar de embate realmente, é realista demais pra ser atraente, eu diria.

Um ponto bem interessante sobre haikyuu são os personagens bem característicos, nem sempre muito profundos, porém gostaveis, é legal ver como os times interagem entre si.

Em resumo, eu pessoalmente não aproveitei a experiencia e depois que terminei. Percebi que não sou fã de volei.

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... You have to like volleyball to understand the anime.

I really couldn't see the weight of the things that happened, everything was very worthless and the games didn't really have a clash feel, it's too realistic to be attractive I would say.

A very interesting point about haikyuu is the very characteristic characters, not always very deep, but nice, it's nice to see how the teams interact with each other.

In summary, I personally didn't enjoy the experience after I finished it. I realized that I'm not a volleyball fan.

I’m not into sports but something about this just intrigued me, the majority of this is really good. The quality drops halfway through when the tournament starts, I thought the first half with the friendly battles was much more intense. It was also a lot more character driven, the latter focusing more in the game, think they play it for about 4 episodes straight which dragged on. There was a really good episode in the latter half called “ Senpai's True Abilities” which changed it up making the story more character focused again. The latter half also build up so many competitors that you kind ... of knew how it was going to happen as well. Also for some bizarre reason they give Kageyama a flashback to establish his history with someone, that could have worked but given he met that person in episode 7 and they didn’t even greet each other, it just felt very forced and out of place.

What I really liked about this series, is the characters they’re all fleshed out and are a bunch of lovable losers, in their own right. I hope the next season is a lot more like the first half and focuses more on the people instead of the game.

Its okay. Everyone tells you to watch Haikyuu and its okay. Its not super good, its no t good, its just okay. Like I thought the story was okay, everything was okay nothing really stood out abt this anime. Its not bad, but its not that good. I feel like this anime is overrated as its just your typical dont underestimate the protaganist and put two completely opposite people on the same team. Its cliche, it got recommended to me so much. You just need to know the animes fun to watch, but it wont be anything special. I defitnetely enjoyed the anime but ... its not a unique one