Haikyuu!! To the Top

I am a huge fan of the series so far and I can say happily that while I don't think this season in particular is the best of the best so far, I think it's carrying on well.

The show picks up where the third season left off with the result of the Karasuno VS. Shiratorizawa and a pretty major announcement for two of Karasuno's players.

This season kind of starts much like the beginning of the second season and as a result may seem a little boring to some in comparison to what we come to expect but let me tell you that its not all ... that bad. Also if they plan to repeat the same thing as season two then it means the second half of season four is going to be absolutely bonkers

This season though for the most part is hyper focused on Hinata again after he did what he does and while he might be fumbling around to start things off he certainly picks himself up as well as a lot of little quirks from just being observant. Who would have thought that it was possible to pick up so much new information from being the eyes off the court huh?

On a much less hyper scale we get to see a little of another point of view which in its own way has its method of inserting a few of the power players from the upcoming tournament

Anyways after most of the seasons build up to the tournament we finally start it and after one match and a few points we get the net taken down... Now as disappointing as that may sound fret not as it is well into 2020 at the time of this reviews writing and we can just continue onward without a hitch.

Admittedly I did this on purpose after watching like 10 episodes back then because I hate waiting weekly as it is and much less so for an Anime I can say I really really enjoy.

In closing while this season doesn't have the most stellar looking animation quality and action packed rallies or stress inducing set/match points there is still good substance for me. They certainly didn't forget to include the character traits that we came to know and love for the ones that did get the screen time as well as a decent bit of humor sprinkled in for me.

That does it for this half. Apologizes but I felt I had to be very vague at the start to not spoil anything... See you all on the other side!

Another training arc! I actually really like training arcs because character growth is my favorite! My heart was a little broken seeing Hinata confused and struggling. When we think he has grown so much, Haikyuu teaches us that there will always be something we can improve on. People like Hinata who have that hunger in them will always be tested and it’s about what we can do in these situations to better ourselves. Not just Hinata, but Karasuno individually too! I love it! I got to say though, I got the biggest second hand embarrassment in the first episode, but we still gotta love Hinata ... hahaha!

The music was amazing as always!! I love the opening!

They decided to change the artwork to fit the manga style. I got used to it quickly so it didn’t bother me. I know a lot of people didn’t like it, including the animation. I personally don’t pay attention to animation closely when I watch, so it didn’t bother me. There were some parts that were not up to par due to outsourcing, but there were also some great moments with the animation. The whole feeling of characters, flow, and story were not affected (at least in my viewing experience). So sad that people at the time refused to watch S4 for these reasons.

Haikyuu!!: To the Top was honestly not as good as the Haikyuu!! series. I really liked the story

and how motivated the characters were in the anime but the thing that bugged me the most

was the art form style. It drastically changed and the characters just didn't look and have the

same feeling anymore. Also, I didn't like how I couldn't watch it in English because I watched

the Haikyuu!! series in English and it was a little off when the characters had different voices.

...

Overall, I give this anime a 7 (Good) because I still love the characters

and the anime overall! :D

Okay I just love Haikyuu!! Period. Season 4 part 1 starts with Kageyama and Tsukishima getting invited to training camps. Kageyama gets invited to an all Japan one, Tsukishima gets invited to one for the Miyagi prefecture at Shiratorizwawa. However, Hinata decides to crash the Shiratorizawa camp and give me second-hand embarrassment. I really hate the new art style though, it smacked me and called me an ugly girl. We do get a few new characters and as expected from Haikyuu, they're really cute. I do have to say though, I really hate the cheering section for Inarizaki, they know nothing about good sportsmanship. I ... can't stress this enough, please go watch Haikyuu, you won't regret it.

Haikyuu é um dos melhores animes de esporte que já vi, ele consegue desenvolver muito bem os personagens e seus respectivos estilos de jogo, essa temporada conseguiu trazer muito bem a emoção e tensão nos jogos junto com cada jogada impressionante. Elogio a direção por conseguir fazer utilizar muito bem a trilha sonora, e as tomadas das cenas como também elogio a animação espetacular. Gostaria de falar da história que eu realmente achei muito boa, mas nada que eu não esperasse, mas mesmo assim ela é muito, como melhor dupla dessa temporada pra mim seria os irmão miya. Gostaria de ressaltar o desenvolvimento do Bokuto ... como personagem e como sua personalidade funciona ele é um personagem muito engraçado e carismático.

I had to rewatch this show for the 20th time to finally decide to make this review, and even that i barely know what to say.

Sports anime are like a cointoss, you either get some good animes or bad animes, it really doesnt matter the core base of the sport, like kaiji did at times making a simple card game look like an intense cluster of mindblowing moments or diamond no ace made baseball look fun.

Haikyuu does the exact same with a really simple story, but this show is less of the story but more on the characters.

Everytime i rewatch haikyuu i remember "Run with ... the wind", a pretty similar type of anime where the characters are the whole focus of the show. If in season 1 we got a beginners and friendly character introduction, in season 2 you get bombed by new characters and evolutions of the same, that also goes for the rest of the season.

The really amazing concept that this anime keeps on bringing is that no character is there on the pitch, like every character is relatable or alive at the same point as the main protagonists, so you can simpatize with them as you like.

The music and hype moments where outstanding but the art was sometimes clunky and the animation was way more inferior to the previous departments

Overall is an amazing season filled with whole new worlds to explore and incredible moments.-

Please note, this review has some mild spoilers for episode one, but nothing in major detail.

I’m going to give this the benefit of the doubt when it comes to my transgressions with this show because the animation, story and majority of the characters are all definitely stand out. The entire show and the series are all stand out in their own way and hold out in many different forms - this is an anime for the ages, and will remain popular for quite a long time, even now, almost ten years after its anime debut. I will not deny that or the major amount of ... enjoyment that comes with this show.

However, my enjoyment of the show, is stunted for sure this season. The only factors in that are three of the characters - Hinata, Tanaka, and Nishinoya.

In the first few seasons, things were not as obvious, past the odd joke that felt weird or “comedic” scene that was just strange - namely, Nishinoya and Tanaka’s perviness. Their crush on Shimizu leads to them doing mildly gross things, such as purposely going out their way to make her say “spank” and similar, but some of the scenes in this season were downright stomach turning. There was no reason to include them at all, and if they had to be included, play them up for comedy. It was just mildly unnecessary - the show has countless comedic routes that work well, and it was not something that would ruin the show being cut out. It’s exhausting after watching so much content back to back that it has actively ruined my view of the show at this point.

In fact, I much prefer the OVAs that focus on entirely different teams, this far into the show.

Hinata’s behavior at the start of this season - sneaking into a training camp - also has just… made me devout of any emotion for him other than I cannot stand the dude. Sneaking into the camp went well (because, of course, it’s an anime, it would) but,he risked a lot for his team. He risked having Tsukishima removed from that rendition of the camp, having his team blacklisted from training camps for being a trouble risk, and many other things. He is a team player, but he is also a selfish, self-centered brat when things are not going the way he believes they should for himself.

And it is exhausting to sit through.

This series and show as a whole would honestly have been 30% better if they had Hinata as a secondary character, or any other main character. The rest of the characters are all amazing, enjoyable, and have amazing traits to them. There are other characters who are selfish and less of a team player, who do not risk their entire team’s reputation and chances. It is just… tiring to go through constantly when there are so many flawed characters that work better.

As for the animation, soundtrack, voice acting and everything else is all perfect. I loved it, and if it wasn’t for the handful of things above sucking so much enjoyment out of the show for me, I’d have gladly given this show a 8.7-10 rating. Instead, there was not enough to pull me back out of the “oh here we bloody go” slump for the rest of the show to bring me higher than a 6.5-7.2. It sucks, because I did really want to enjoy myself, after enjoying so much of the content and the series before but. Hey. You can’t win all of them, I suppose.

Overall rating: 6, further review below

I hate it. I hate it so much.

Someone explains to me why the best part, of the entire anime mind you, was actually the one with the training arc. Like holy shit, this just opened my eyes to the fact Haikyuu would have been an outstanding slice of life anime, but it just had to be an average sports shonen instead. Despite my disappointment at this realization, and the fact this cour is the lowest rated out of the main Haikyuu series, to me, this is the highest point of Haikyuu, and it probably will be regardless of how far ... the source material will stretch in the future. And yes, this is 100% my perspective as a SoL nut speaking.

As for what happened during the not SoL moment. You know? The thing this whole anime is supposed to be about? Yeah, it's cool. I mean, it's more of the same but at least now the music is good. Or maybe it was always good but now I'm this bored. At that point, it's just a constant of my life to notice new things because I got bored.

What I'm trying to say is, Haikyuu is a sports anime, about volley to be more accurate. Although, the best moments have very little to do with volley. Which I guess is true for this kind of sports anime, the ones without shiny dope powers. Yup, Haikyuu is a very slow trend upward, except this time, where the rise wsa sharp before calming down to business as usual.