2.43: Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu

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.

This is not a terrible anime, it is an average one, a mediocre average one at that I think. The best thing coming from this is probably the OP, its pretty cool I think.

It feels bland to me, I never feel anything for the characters, I do not care for what happens to them. The story feels very bland-ish too. The main character is annoying, his personality is inconsistent.

I've never seen haikyuu, but my sister, who is watching this with me, has. She has mentioned me a bit of things she sees similar to Haikyuu, but blander.

The story, I feel, tries to be ... sentimental or impactful, but it feels cheesy and bland, cant make me sad if I do not care for the characters involved.
It's a good anime to pass time, but its nothing new or good. There are probably some better sports anime out there I hope

i, like most people, started this because of haikyuu which is one of my top three anime. before i say anything else i will say that its nothing like haikyuu, but i might compare some aspects of it as haikyuu is what i would consider a flawless sports anime. also there may be slight spoilers here.

the first episode was actually pretty good, it set up the show immediately to be a lot darker than haikyuu with themes of suicide. there was significantly more drama in the early episodes of the show. however these themes are quite quickly dropped or phased out or just forgotten about. ... the way that the show later handles the suicide attempt from episode one doesnt sit right with me and it very much takes away from the impact it had previously caused.

in terms of the actually volleyball games, theyre often very brief and only show the first set if that.

we know nothing about any of the characters except the main character haijima, and even then i dont care for him that much. the newly introduced team seems to have two reasonably developed characters and i honestly prefer then to seiin. i feel like the characters are the weakest part of this show whilst, in haikyuu (sorry to compare the two) characters are the strongest part of the show. however i will say that i am reasonably invested in the friendship between the two main characters, i cant say i care for the others.

it has a pretty good op

art style is decent i guess?

(This is my first time writing a review.)

This anime was always going to be compared to Haikyuu and it should. It's only natural to compare shows of the same genre. Of course that's not to say that it can't differ in stories and emotional beats, in that sense it's very different from Haikyuu but unfortunately it's not very good.

Characters - 1
The biggest con is without a doubt the characters. They are all incredibly boring and awkward. How are we halfway through this anime at the time of writing and still only know like three or four characters on the Seiin team? Kuroba is annoying and ... overdramatic. His reasoning for falling out with Haijima in middle school makes no sense and feels like it was only done for the sake of drama. Speaking of Haijima he might be the only character in the show I kinda like but that's because he's a Kageyama clone and anyone who disagrees with that is kidding themselves.

Story - 3
The story is simple, a small volleyball club wants to go to nationals and thanks to their new first year duo finally have the means to do so. It's literally the exact same plot as Haikyuu but it's fine. When making an anime about high school volleyball there's not exactly many directions the story can go. So far the story has been more about the characters and their relationships with each other and volleyball than actually playing volleyball which is a shame as the character's suck so much. It's more dramatic and gayer than Haikyuu so if you're into that then you'll probably like this anime.

Sound - 7
The soundtrack is nothing to write home about but the opening is stupidly good. Like it should be illegal for an anime like this to have this good of an opening.

Art - 8
The animation is really good. I wish there was more volleyball scenes as those are the most enjoyable parts of the show. The ball moves so fast and every spike has an impact. This is probably the only area of the anime that is superior to Haikyuu.

Enjoyment - 5
The story is really mediocre, the characters suck but it looks so damn good and the opening is amazing so it's not a complete waste of time. If you are bored and have nothing else to do just watch this anime and skip the non-volleyball stuff.

Overall - 5

Where do i even start.
I feel bad for any volleyball anime after Haikyu, since the bar has already been set so high. So i had expectations. Probaby shoudlve gone in with none.

For one, i do love Haikyu very much, but im gonna make this as unbiased as i can. Also ill try not to compare the two very much, because they are very different.

This show is more angsty and has a little more of a seinen twist than Haikyu does, so ill leave it there.
Story: 5

The story isnt anything special or anything we havent seen before, theres two mcs, and they tran together ... to go farther in the sport. Its solid.
Its not unique however, i didnt feel drawn in by this at all. Its like watching the same cliches and story pieces we saw in Haikyu, which isnt great for a show meaning to contend with it.
Also any story this had was butchered by the lightning speed pacing.
Art: 8

The art and animation were quite fluid and i liked them a lot. There wasnt much wrong with either from what i could see.

Sound: 7

The soundtrack for this show is also quite good, i enjoyed the OP and ED. But, music doesnt carry a show. The voice acting is also exceptional.

Character: 5

these characters are just boring and cliche. I thought i was hearing a spin off of Kageyamas story when Haijimas development began. I can barely remember the characters names.

Also, not saying theres anything bad about this but, the two mcs seem to blush a lot at each other, BL? or no BL???

enjoyment: 5
I came into this with good expectations for this show. Im disappointed. It was good in the beginning, but then it went straight to cliches. Also the pacing is crazy, its meant to be a 12 ep show yes, but they way they were adapting i could barely keep up with what was happening! I had to rewatch a couple eps!

Overall: 5
This is me being generous. Mediocre is the best i could say about this show.

was pretty excited abt this anime just by seeing the trailer but my excitement isnt the same as when im watching this so im honestly kinda dissapointed.

story 6/10: "old childhood friend who moved away, now they're not as close stuff but ! why exactly did he move back?" basic, but its still interesting in a way. the story is pretty okay itself, nothing too complicated, but the pacing is pretty slow. the relationship of the characters is the main problem for me though. its a bit confusing and all over the place. theres of course still 6 episodes so i hope it gets better

art 7/10: ... not something id expect for a sports anime but it works! its clean and nice to watch.

sound 7/10: i lovee the op and the ed is also nice. the sound effects match their movements, and the ost's matches the scenes too. nothing too special but nothing off either.

character 4/10: as i mentioned before, the relationship of the characters are confusing and unclear. idk if they're friends or not, if they like this guy or not, or who even some of the characters are. we never got a clear relationship establishment on the main team. we got one(1) episode on the rival team and i understand them better than the main team that we got 5 episodes on! its just so confusing

enjoyment 5/10: the show is pretty enjoyable, its light hearted and stuff but again the characters are so confusing that i usually spend half of an episode just trying to figure out the characters so i end up not really enjoying the show as much

I would not recommend watching this. I came into it with high hopes, and a motivation to not compare it to other sports/volleyball animes. I really tried my best to not compare, but some of the backgrounds of characters made it extremely hard not to look to one other anime in particular.

Overall, the plotline is just kind of messy. It's hard for me to follow, especially when it headed into episode 5. I don't know if it's just me, but the way it jumps around without a clear motive of where the story is heading is irritating.

The timeline is SUPER rushed. One of the ... first episodes (I think the second one?), it took me almost half way through the episode to understand the time had skipped a year forward. Extremely annoying.

The OP is really good! I do enjoy that as well as the animation.

Again, as I started this review, this anime is simply not worth wasting your time on.

To be clear, just because I've watched Haikyū doesn't mean I'm disliking this series. In fact, I'm giving an average score mainly because I'm unable to connect with the characters and their journey to winning or losing in a tournament.

Actually, I was expecting an emotional, psychological theme as almost described by Mother's Basement host. I thought I'm gonna feel all sorts of emotion when the serious stuff happens. Unfortunately, the dialogue becomes heavier with long exposition dumps that many of the flashbacks I've witnessed are entirely made up of exposition dumps.

I picked this up as my seasonal watch thinking I should give a try and ... I love how any emotion can play a part of character development, especially in sports anime series. That backfired for I always feel like it's a chore for me watching this underwhelming series weekly.

I know the overall tone of 2.43 is mature and somewhat serious atmosphere as compared to Haikyū's cheerful & child-like atmosphere, but the reason 2.43 feel underwhelming for me is the storytelling is made up of so much heavy dialogue that at most times it feels monotonous.

All the characters seem two-dimensional to me that whatever sentence they've said, I try to connect, but to no avail, with most of the dialogue being exposition dumps and barely any flashbacks involving body language (no dialogue needed), 2.43 might come across a misrepresented adaptation for I see the last few episodes being in nationals; given this is a one-cour, 12-ep series, I can't help, but feel the story's first few LN volumes have been compressed to fit into a limited amount of time.

I guess that's the reason why I keep on seeing/listening so many exposition dumps. The animation quality is not that great, but it doesn't mean it's bad. It's an okay type of animation quality where the character designs are consistent & barely have misplaced drawings. David Production is one of the most capable anime studios given the great stuff they did on Fire Force's adaptation. To say they animate 2.43 badly is an offense and a false claim.

In brief, there are other sports anime that are worth your attention with exposition dumps covering a few percentage of an entire series.

2.43 has passable animation quality, but likewise, with all the characters being monotonous, I don't recommend this series to anyone expecting it to be emotional and emphasizing the nature of the seriousness needed in the world of volleyball. Instead, you'll get an average storytelling that adds to nothing that has any emotional impact. On the plus side, at least 2.43 won't make you frustrated and angry like a blundered serkes. I recommend this to those wanting to see BL-like interactions between the male characters and nothing more than that.

its very similar to haikyuu not bacause its a volleyball anime but because it has similar humour i dont know why i like the characters and alot off them remind me off kuroko basket and haikyuu (the characters) overall its pretty good i like playing volleyball and i mostly learn from animes on how too play ik its pretty dumb but i got no one else to teach me.

but i feel the story is allover the place the pacing is confusing one day they are camping one day they are in tokyo its really confusing to keep up the characters are good but the story ... is the problem i get that you dont have to make 1 anime based on only 1 thing but its too confusing to keep up the captain is not even his just there character development is not even that good.

the music and the intro is really good but if season 2 comes out please fix it

I love sport, it’s a huge part of my life. So obviously, any anime that talks about sports interests me.

Volleyball is a really interesting sport, very fun to watch. Alas, 2.43 is not necessarily. It's not bad.. Just not very interesting. The pace is not inspiring and the relationship between the characters leaves something to be desired.

The matches aren't very intriguing, even if they're still quite fun. The “rivalries” are fairly well run, but everything goes way too fast, which is a shame.

I wouldn't go so far as to say it's bad, but it's forgettable. There was potential, like all sports anime, but it seems ... like they wanted to move too fast, I wonder why.

took ages to finally finish ep 12 it was ore alright nice slice of life anime but wouldn't really re watch as i found it a bit boring at times.

liked the darker themes they explored near the start also enjoyed seeing osaka ben accents haha

art was alright but most of all omg the ed and op SLAPPED like i really liked the op outta the 2.

mainly started this anime and continued it cos seeing clips of the first half of the show looked pre good but ye towards the end ig i did get quite bored but it was still a wholesome finish and glad ... most of the drama was sorted out and what not

You like Haikyuu? You a teen or a youn gadult? You like edgy teenagers trying to talk to other edgy teenagers. Well you are in luck, this anime is just that. Seiin 2.43 is a volleyball anime which follows two main characters, one is a setter, and one is an attacker. If you have watched Haikyuu this will be easier to explain. Basically the setter is kageyama who is perfect in every way shape and form. Now in Haikyuu this is good everyone loves that kageyama can do everything, but in Seiin 2.43 everyone hates this. The opening and ending were total bops, could listen ... to it for hours on end, especially the opening. The use of the soundtrack was extraordinary as well. The characters were very cliché. One of the characters is short and in volleyball that is not good, but because this is anime, he doesn't let this stop him from being a really good player. Overall I would say this anime isn't bad, but it isn't really good either. I would only recommend it to someone who either enjoys playing the actual sport volleyball, watched haikyuu and liked it, or both.

I made an account to review this.
At first watching it I was hopeful that it would be somewhat decent, but as the series progressed it felt like a chore to watch. At times it picked up the pace and was enjoyable, and then it was quickly dashed. The pacing was rushed in my opinion, at times I couldn't keep up with what was happening.

The characters are forgettable, except the two main characters and the 'rival'. The first subplot introduced is Haijima's conflict with his middle school team, and its focused on for the first few episodes. This might be one of the ways it ... tries to differentiate itself from the other volleyball anime by setting up a darker theme, but then it gets pushed and focuses on the actual plot.

There's an enjoyable friendship between the team, but it's like it holds no merit. There aren't any major bonding scenes that ties them all together, and it seems more like a group of people on good terms with each other.

The art style is decent, at times its cringy, but other times, its excellent. The character designs are kinda plain, but a good change of pace. What really ties it together is the soundtrack. The opening is amazing and the ending isn't that far behind.

Overall, it was an ok show. Though it's more like a one time thing where you say 'yeah I watched it'. I don't regret watching it, but it's not my favorite.

Fair to say this anime is pretty mid. Felt like the drama surrounding the characters as well as the development of the plot line was pretty weak. I know alot of people compare this to Haikyuu but I think a better comparison would be Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru in the sense that the director tried to take the drama-related path of a sports anime. Although much longer (which why my score may change for season 2, if there is one) I think if they could make the pacing more steady as well as improving the character development this could be a good show(6-7) but for ... now I say it's a 4.5-5/10.

Animation was crisp but the volleyball sounds were quite off imo

I know people say not to compare it to Haikyuu but it's hard not to haha.. Haijima is made so achingly similar to Kageyama, being a genius hardworking setter who excels on ball control and aggressive attack strategies, but suck at communication and working with team mates.

The one thing this anime is good at, though, is making more realistic characters and scenarios. Kuroba's struggles in the beginning, with performance anxiety, succumbing to peer pressure etc - feel quite human. And the captain not getting Hinata-esque miracles... even the communication problems Haijime has just straight up playing out in front of our eyes; they all feel ... more realistic than the ones in Haikyuu because a lot of characters in Haikyuu are established to be volleyball-obsessed and may not act like normal high-schoolers.

I thought the show in the beginning will be more about human problems, just using volleyball as the chosen stage, and I'm okay with that. But then they started focusing more on volleyball, but didn't have as much time as Haikyuu to delve into the strategies (back attack, A-quick, B-quick, C-quick, straight and cross spike, etc) or to make Seiin's victory against Fukuho (the Aoba Jousai combined with Shiratorizawa of the show) more believable. Mimura basically has the explosive power of Ushijima and the charming personality of Oikawa - funnier still because Mimura is voiced by Kageyama's seiyuu - but anyway, I digress. I think 2.43 performs better as an anime of human problems with a side dash of volleyball, rather than a straight-up anime about volleyball.

The show seems like it has 2 MCs, but really, Haijima steals the show most of the time? It wasn't quite clear how Kuroba managed to solve his issues. His biggest development seems to be deciding to devote himself to volleyball. Haijima struggled with his problems seemingly by himself in the beginning... must have been quite a blow to a prideful guy like him, what he had to do in the beginning when he transferred middle-school and had to raise a team from the ground up.

Some scenes left an impression. The one I remember most is strangely in one of the early episodes, Haijima sets to one of the mob character who hates Haijima and the mob spiked successfully and scored, but the mob character just pumped his fist and grinned as though it was through his own effort only, and Haijima just turned his back to that character and wiped his sweat. I was struck with the impression of 'wow, Haijima has such a thankless job'.

The art feels unexceptional and the soundtrack didn't stand out, either in a good or bad way. Overall I still enjoyed the show like I do any sports anime...

If asked would I recommend it? Only if you have extra free time... and like watching anime because of the seiyuu. I like how Kenshou Ono used his 'classic' voice here... similar to the voice he used for his earlier anime like Kuroko and Magi. Not the tone, but the voice quality... I like that I can just hear Haijima voice 1 line and can recognise that it's Kenshou Ono's voice. Recently Kenshou Ono had varied his voice so much that sometimes it wasn't recognisably 'Kenshou Ono's voice'... if you understand what I mean. I also enjoy the Fukui accent.

**Possible Spoilers**

I was quite excited for this sports anime, and to see the direction they took with Haijima and his relationship with his old friends and teammates to with Kuroba and his new team. I also like how they explored the topic of long term injuries that are derived from the sports that they play with Subaru, as a person who has had sports related injuries and how your own body can be your biggest enemy it was a really nice aspect to the anime. This anime really is no frills and over exaggeration and overplayed episode filler tropes like other sports anime which is ... refreshing to see that they get straight to the point.

However i'm not going to lie the pacing of this anime really brings a lot of points down for me. We don't really get to see the team and a lot of the characters grow and become stronger together, I feel like due to the very straight to the point nature of the anime, it made the story fall flat and not engaging. I didn't feel particularly attached to any character by the end of the anime or the story, it felt too rushed led me feeling empty in way that I don't really care about any character deeply enough to hope that I can see their story grow.

Idk maybe if a season 2 comes out and I rewatch this in a few years I may enjoy it more, but as of right now its not an anime I will remember.

Just going to put it upfront that I am a huge Haikyuu! fan. I don't even know how many times I have rewatched it. I am also rather into sports anime in general.
With that said, I do know what I am getting into for this anime. Is tagged as Slice Of Life too, a genre that I also enjoy. From the visuals art, is pretty obvious is not going to be a shonen sports anime with lots of tension. I did not start this show with a sport bias.

Recommend: Do not watch this as a shonen sports anime, and don't have high hopes for its ... slice of life element. Just watch it light heartedly or as an in-between anime if you just ended something really good

Review:
The storyline itself is pretty decent overall, kind of standard which I don't mind, most stories are a variation of each other anyway. The pacing however is pretty bad. It jumps between a chill/delicate slice of life moment, and random time skip that will then be followed by some weak attempt in replicating a high tension sports scene. The story might be smoother if is read from a book, instead of the way the anime portrayed it. The directing is all over the place as though the anime has mood swings.
The dialogues of this anime stand out to me too. In a bad way... More often than not, I rely on the characters' actions and expressions to gather the gist of the scene than the dialogues. Not sure if is because I am unable to comprehend the culture behind the kansai accent or that the lines said by the characters are somewhat abrupt. Like it doesn't mesh into the mood, or the story. Is just words coming out to fill some void, no build up, no context.
Characters are also pretty boring. No one really stood out due to their character, they stood out due to the description of their persona. E.g A genius, an excellent coach, alethic etc. I don't actually see them portraying those characteristics. This would really be better being read as a book, than watched.
The animation is also quite inconsistent, they have some really good animation at certain sports scene, and then just cut off impactful momentous scenes with some background monologue or time skip.


The opening and ending kind of bumped up my score by 1 too. Enjoyed the songs that I added them to my playlist. Sound effects are pretty cool too. The team handling sound and music should at least be acknowledge here.

Overall, is a cute show with kids doing what they love with a pacing that doesn't allow the viewers to feel anything. No chance to build up feelings, and no chance to process any feelings.

Lastly, for any Haikyuu fans~ The main genius character is definitely a Tsukishima that wasn't betrayed by his older brother, kept his passion for volleyball obvious while having the same logical and crude attitude to people.

I'm gonna be completely honest here, since I've played volleyball for eight years and I obviously watched Haikyuu.

The concept of one of the main characters, Haijima, is really new for me. Someone that has transferred to another school and then getting into a new team reminds me of him. Sound is also really good since you can feel it at home, but that's about it.
It's a basic sports anime down the rest and to see less gameplay than Haikyuu I was quite disappointed. Of course that's impossible and I won't expect it anyway, but this feels like a cheap version of Haikyuu.

If you really like ... volleybal or any sports I would recommend it. It still lives up the sport vibe that evey other anime gives. It's just a basic anime compared to the rest.

Spoiler free review :)

The first two episodes of this show slap. From there on the show loses lots of its charm. It's not at all similar to Haikyuu (which isn't a bad thing), but I can't help but compare the shows.

I'm someone who isn't a fan of slow burn shows, but the plot moves so fast in this show I can barely comprehend what I missed. The lack of any pace makes it hard to follow, and ruins the show for me. It had potential for an interesting plot with well developed characters, but I think the show would have done much better ... with big plot points more spaced out, with time to explore the setting and characters first.

Felt like I was launched head first into a messy plot with no time to process or contextualize.

I think my main issue with this anime was its marketing. It was marketed as a sports anime, and yet there was little to no time at all spent on Volleyball. This wouldn't have been such a huge problem for me if the drama aspect of the anime was interesting enough for me to forget that I initially came because of the Volleyball. However, it wasn't. The plot felt messy and rushed. And the characters were not well developed...I can't even remember their names. They were not developed as either individuals or a team. Honestly, I didn't even care if they won or lost the ... 5s matches we saw. The anime didn't make me root for them at all.

After the first couple of episodes, I had high hopes that this anime would be a new take on sport's anime that combined heart wrenching drama with the excitement of the sport, but very soon it became tiring and boring. Plus, I hated how it handled some very serious topics like suicide.