2.43: Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu

Genius setter Kimichika Haijima moves back to Fukui from Tokyo after an incident within his school's volleyball team forces him out. There, he is reunited with his childhood friend, Yuni Kuroba, a member of the Monshiro Middle School Boys' Volleyball Team, who is unaware of his own talents. Haijima notices Kuroba's abilities and is determined to form a new volleyball team with Kuroba as the team's ace. At the prefectural tournament, Kuroba crumbles under the pressure, which causes the Monshiro team to fall apart after losing. The loss also creates a rift between Haijima and Kuroba, leading the former to quit the team.

Now, as students at Seiin High School, Haijima and Kuroba find themselves on the same volleyball team once again. Having learned from his past mistakes, Haijima helps Kuroba overcome his performance anxiety to become the ace and carry the team to the prefectural championship. With support from team captain Shinichirou Oda and vice captain Misao Aoki, Seiin aim to win the prefecturals and become Fukui's representatives at the Spring Tournament. To do this, they will need to beat Fukuho Technical High School, the reigning champions of Fukui. Will Haijima's team defeat the odds, or are they doomed to repeat his history of losing?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Haijima, Kimichika Main

Ono, Kensho Japanese

Kuroba, Yuni Main

Enoki, Junya Japanese

Mimura, Subaru Supporting

Ishikawa, Kaito Japanese

Aoki, Misao Supporting

Umehara, Yuuichirou Japanese

Ochi, Mitsuomi Supporting

Amasaki, Kouhei Japanese

Kanno, Akito Supporting

Aoi, Shouta Japanese

Oda, Shinichirou Supporting

Itou, Kent Japanese

Uchimura, Naoyasu Supporting

Kajiwara, Gakuto Japanese

Ookuma, Yuusuke Supporting

Kimura, Subaru Japanese

Jinno, Ryuudai Supporting

Eguchi, Takuya Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Otokawa, Masashi Producer

Inoue, Megumi Producer

Herek, Samantha Assistant Producer

Reviews

Mar 25, 2021

Miyushiki

Recommended

To begin, I want to say before watching Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu, I was not a very big fan of sports anime at all. I love sports in real life but have not found myself very interested in sports animated. HOWEVER, I fell in love this this show very quickly. I feel like it focuses a lot on the characters, instead of simply the sport. The show really got even better with every new episode. So, if you are not content with the first couple of episodes, I promise it gets better if you keep watching, and I will tell you why you should below.


It ... does start a little slow, and the main characters seemed a bit aggravating at first, but it really paid off later with the development the characters showed. I found myself very impressed with how some of the characters changed over the course of the season. Everything just felt very realistic, it shows the immature and selfish side of a high schooler, and how sometimes being on a team and working together can change you for the better.


The art and animation are of course very nice, David Pro back at it again. Obviously, there is no need for crazy animation or sound, but it all looked very clean. The sound effects and the animation during the volleyball matches were amazing and consistent throughout the season.


Oh boy the opening, what an amazing song. The beat and vocals by Yama on the Opening song are what honestly got me hooked on the show first. I found myself excited for the new episode just to hear the song. The ending song by Soushi Sakayama is also a very nice song that I like a lot. As far as OSTs go, they were very fitting. They do not necessarily need to stand out if they are nice and fit the theme, which they did.


I think the characters and how they progressed was my favorite part of the whole show. Towards the later part of the season, I found myself being torn between who to cheer for because I loved both teams and did not want to see either lose. Kuroba and Haijima are both wonderful characters. They start of as very immature and selfish boys, but through volleyball they learn to deal with past discrepancies and do what is best for the team and each other.


At first, I thought Subaru would step in and be a bland villain type character who the Seiin boys would have to overcome, but that was dead wrong. Subaru really made the show so much better. Though dealing with his own past and very uncertain future, he put all that behind him for the time being so he could take his team all the way. He had lots of pressure on him as the best player on the best team, but he took not only his own dreams and aspirations, but those of this teammates, fans, and best friend with him as far as he could. Subaru had me cheering my heart out for Fukuhou even though I loved the Seiin team as well. What a wonderful cast.


I think it is safe to say I really enjoyed this show. What started out as me being interested simply because of David Productions, turned into me loving the opening song, and eventually turned into one of, if not my favorite seasonal this winter. Such an incredibly consistent show that got better each week. If you are a fan of sports anime, or even if you are not, you should give this show a chance because it is so much more than that. Thank you, David Productions, and everyone involved for making 2.43 Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu such a good experience. It has really opened my eyes towards sports anime. I really hope David Pro does a second season so we can see these boys grow even further as athletes and men.

Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu gets 10 spike serves out of 10 from me.


Thank you for reading. <3

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Mar 25, 2021

blueleo

Mixed Feelings

This review is spoiler free :D

2.43: Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu is quite standard. It doesn’t make you feel much watching it. The direction is...okay? The animation is pretty bad, except for the insane spikes that David Production will occasionally pour the whole budget into. The show just lacks substance. It lacks that “oomph” that propels it over being ordinary. It feels flat. It doesn’t come to life on your screen like a good anime should.

That’s not to say the show itself is bad. There are some good plot points, some likeable characters, and some interesting dynamics. I enjoyed the dual perspective of the ... two main teams, Seiin and Fukuho, as I constantly flip-flopped on who I was rooting for. Like I mentioned earlier, there are times where the animation IS great, feeling more like David Production’s other amazingly animated shows. There are times where the rivalry feels real, and there are times where I care about what happens to the characters. The thing that brings Seiin down though is that all of these times where I actually feel something are short lived. They feel like glances to a better show. It feels like the show is struggling to wedge itself out of the hole of mediocrity, but is only able to peak its head out. It feels frustrating going from that back to the usual bad animation and poor writing. Seeing the glimmers of satisfaction in a show is not very satisfying when they simmer out.

This show is ambitious in the fact that it has a background narrative behind the volleyball. At least, at the beginning it does. I couldn’t even tell you what it was now. Maybe that’s another reason this show feels half-baked. Somewhere along the line, it transferred from being a show about flawed characters who happen to play volleyball, to just volleyball. Don’t get me wrong, I like watching dudes hit balls as much as the next guy, but the show can’t expect to make that switch when the volleyball isn’t even that good. The narratives of the first few episodes are what drew me and many others to this show, and it just feels like a huge disappointment to somewhat abandon it.

If you asked me if you should watch this show, I’d say “how much free time do you have?” There are definitely better anime out there, better sports anime, and obviously better volleyball anime. But at the end of the day, I don’t regret watching this one. At its higher points, it was good. At its lower points, it wasn’t necessarily unwatchable. So, if you have some free time and are just yearning to watch a sports anime, sure, this one’s alright.

Overall, I think this show is the epitome of average. It's not good, but I wouldn’t say it's bad either. There are times where you laugh about how shitty the writing in that episode was, but there are times where that Demon Bazooka is just so damn cool. Give it a watch if you want. I probably wouldn’t redo it again, but I don’t regret watching it either.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Mar 25, 2021

ren0080

Not Recommended

I had high hopes for this ever since the first episode, but that quickly diminished as the series goes on.
The story became a pile of rubbish, ruined by rushed pacing. The story itself is decent, but paired with bad pacing, then it'd be much much worst than it actually is.

The characters are non-existent. Basically, anyone other than the two main characters and the two rival characters, aren't developed to make them "characters". There are the captain and the other guy (forgot his name cause that's all they are, forgettable) that got little development. But all their interaction and development are so stiff and unnatural that ... when it comes to their friendship, it doesn't feel like friendship but as bromance.

Animation is average. But considering the studio behind it, David Production, I expected too much. Same thing happened with Hataraku Saibou season 2, but it doesn't seem like they are focusing on either anime since they don't have any fantastic animation.

Music is the only saving grace of this anime. And even then, it's just the opening and ending that are exceptional. The OST is average, and the timing is decent. The opening and ending are some of the best in this winter season.

Overall, it's a disappointing mess of a series that with a longer run, could have fix a lot of problems that I have.
(4.4/10)

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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