Haikyuu!! Riku vs. Kuu

Imagine your first review on MAL being about Haikyuu can't get better than this.

Anyway these OVA's were in my opinion pretty enjoyable to watch, even though it was pretty short it just worked. And like its Haikyuu so it was bound to be good.

Plot;

These are basically the events that happened, before the 4th season of Haikyuu. So I guess you could say it is important to watch.
We follow Kenma and his team play a match against Fukurodani. And well that was pretty entertaining to see I sure laughed a lot. Especially because of one of my favorite characters (Bokuto).

I won't really spoil ... what teams went through so I would really recommend watching it yourself.

Art;

The art style was pretty good, I felt there were some times it was a little worse than normal. Not saying that it was bad just a little different then let's say Season 3. But still very good. Some moments were truly beautiful.

Characters;

I also liked the characters a lot, I really liked what they did with a "certain" player to show that he should not be underestimated. And in my opinion, what makes Haikyuu in general so great is the characters most of them are all unique and so likable. So yeah can't complain.

The sound was pretty good just like always, Haikyuu never disappoints in this factor.

So in conclusion, I would say watch this before you start with Season 4, so you can get hyped up for upcoming matches. It does not take very long so its really worth it.

For anyone who's planning on watching season four of Haikyuu!!, I would suggest (and recommend) watching this two-episode OVA special to get back into the groove of Haikyuu!!, and to get hyped up for 'Haikyuu!!: To the Top' as it's been over 3 years now since season 3 last aired.

There wasn't much added to the story since there are only 2 episodes and that this focused on the two games in the qualifiers. There weren't many key moments (mainly being a certain person's injury, not naming names, and who qualified for the tournament). You could probably mistake this for a filler episode(s) if you think ... too much on it.

The animation for this was quite good, as there were some scenes where the art and animation quality were at a higher standard than usual, however, don't get your hopes up on expecting any groundbreaking, internet-breaking sakuga, since this was an OVA, not a 1/2-cour series (where most of the attention and production is currently). It's what you would expect of Haikyuu!!, which is still good.

The soundtrack was very good, we get to hear some of season 4's OST, which will hopefully turn out great and will be put to good use. Haikyuu!!'s soundtrack is always great, so there's no complaints in the sound department.

Since this is a special focusing on two games with three different teams, we get to see the interactions between the characters in focus. We get introduced to a bunch of new characters with new/similar personalities and different playing styles. There were some good comedic moments alongside some flashbacks and internal monologue scenes which helped further a few characters' development - the usual stuff you'd see in sports anime.

Overall, I quite enjoyed this OVA, as it's done its job of hyping me up for the new season of Haikyuu!! There are some things you need to take away from watching this, mainly the new characters and the two teams that qualified as the representatives for the tournament. If you're a fan of Haikyuu!! and you want some more content to watch, or to get ready for the upcoming season, I would recommend watching this.

Overall score: 8/10

To clarify right at the start, I find real life sports boring and I think watching real life sports is one of the least entertaining things people do for entertainment. However, anime has ways to convert this boredom and to hype it up to the levels that make your blood boil with excitement. Sadly, not every attempt at this is succesfull.

Watching this Haikyuu OVA felt like watching a regular sports match. Though I get that it's not that easy to make valleyball exciting, as it's already not interesting even for sports standards. Sure, some might find the realistic feel attractive, but when the original lacks ... points of interests, emulating this lack of interestingness may not be the best idea.

Haikyuu fans will very likely enjoy this side story, but for me it felt like wandering into a gym by accident and being forced to watch a match between people I don't care about with stakes that I am completely indifferent towards to. The ill-timed attempts at humor that start off with a poo joke aren't exactly helping the case too. The exception was the last 5 or so minutes of the 2nd episode that had some actually interesting-ish interraction between the characters. Overal, the few scenes with the sisters were unironically the most entertaining part. And the animation is, of course, still well above the average.

Unless you're a fan of Haikyuu or real life sports of just a completionits, you might as well just skip this OVA. You won't be missing much except for the opportunity to waste 40 minutes of your life.