Haikyuu’s core theme is the team. It’s about learning to trust each other when you’re in a team, it’s about winning and losing as a team, it’s about overcoming obstacles as a team. For being that team-focused, Haikyuu really spends lots of its time for the viewer to get to know the team, and handles its characters with great care, even though the plot is by no means unique. It has great animation, a fitting sound and a wonderful voice cast. If you are debating whether or not to watch this, then don’t hesitate and start Haikyuu. You won’t regret it.
Story: B-
The overall story is fairly generic for a sports anime, and doesn’t really deviate at all from the Common Sports Anime Plot. The first half of the show is spent gathering up all of the team members, who weren’t playing for one reason or another but were extremely skilled. Then they had to go and get a former player to be they’re coach, who refuses initially but after watching them play caves in for the chance to coach this special team. It follows Kuroko’s same basic storyline (and be extension, Eyeshield 21’s plot) almost to a T, with there being two major tournaments left before the third-years/Seniors graduate. The Fall Tournament is built up to be the big one, their last chance, and they manage to have an impressive showing, but as they should, they end up losing in the semi-finals to a more cohesive team that they aren’t able to overcome yet. However, after losing and having their confidence shaken a little, the team rallies and prepares for one last run at Nationals in the Spring Tournament.
The biggest divergent from the stereotypical Sports Anime plot, is that the first episode actually ends with the Goofy and Energetic Underdog finding out he’s actually going to be on the same team as the Serious, Short-Tempered Genius Rival character. And that was a brilliant subversion of Sports Anime tropes that set up the amazing character interactions and development that made this anime great and worth watching.
The comedy was pure gold in this series, and since at least half the cast had that sort of goofy, light-hearted attitude and tone to them, it made the story flow nicer and really made the entire situation seem a little more realistic. These guys weren’t just solely obsessed with being the best at volleyball, they also were just out to have a good time. With this sort of light-hearted tone to the entire series, it made the entire thing a bundle of laughs and one of the funnier anime I’ve watched in 2014. Everyone gets in on the jokes as well, which was great to see and made almost every member of the team extremely likable.
Another point about the story that I really liked was that unlike a lot of other sports anime, there were no “Superpower” elements in it, which was awesome! Everything was extremely realistic in how they portrayed everyone’s abilities (unlike in something like Kuroko, where there are players who can make every shot from anywhere on the court and ridiculous stuff like that). It made the show more believable, and actually helped you relate to the characters more because there was no disconnect of you thinking, “There’s no way someone could actually do that,” which was really cool to see.
Characters: A-
The greatest strength of Haikyuu!! is its extremely relatable, realistic, and lovable cast. This is where Haikyuu!! thrives, since the main team, Karasuno, has some of the best cast chemistry and interactions that I’ve seen in a long time. It really made this show stand out from other sports anime because of just how likable almost every single member of the team was, and it made it highly entertaining to just sit and watch the team member’s interact with each other.
There are seriously about 9 members of the main team that get serious development and screen-time, that helps endear them to the audience and causes you to become attached to the team and really makes you root for them. This is in stark contrast to some of the other major sports anime, like Kuroko’s where on your main team there are only about 2-3 players that really get fleshed out well, and then the best characters are the antagonist, or on the other teams that our Protagonist are playing against. It was cool to see that the majority of the focus was on the team we’ll be with the most.
They did a good job of not info-dumping all of the team members on you at once. Each major player on the team was given one or two episodes for you to get to know them before moving on to introducing the next character, which helped give everyone they’re moments to shine and for you to fall in love with them. There’s not much more you can ask from an anime in terms of number of likable characters, character development, and character relationships, so this gets an extremely high grade.
It doesn't get perfect marks though, because while there were many likable and the entire cast was written extremely well, I'm not sure if there's an All-Time great character in the cast of Haikyuu!! The cast as a whole is able to stand tall with other great casts in anime, but there's no individual member of the cast that ever stands out and is instantly makes the audience gravitate towards them. The closest character to reaching this pinnacle in my opinion is Tanaka, who is one of the best comic relief characters I've seen in a while, but I'm not sure if he quite reaches the ranks of "Best Ever". This could be a testament to the fact that every character in the story is given equal attention by the author, and I'd love to see more authors take this more ensemble cast approach, but for me, there has to be at least one All-Timer in the show to get bumped up to a perfect score in the Character department.
Animation: A
The animation was excellent throughout this show. Production I.G. did a great job with this show, proving once again that they are currently the masters of Sports Anime. The scenes look crisp and the characters' movements always appear fluid.The animation does a great job of ratcheting up the intensity in certain scenes and they do a great job of showcasing the sport. Some of my favorite shots in the series are when players are hitting the ball, and it switches to a 1st PoV. Those are really cool to look at. This anime is a visual feast and absolutely phenomenal to look at.
I take off a point from the grade because the character designs are a little odd at first and take some getting used to and because of this weird thing were they have character’s faces being visible through the nets and the net’s line disappear during these shots. Making it awkward to look at whenever this occurs.
Sound: B-
The soundtrack fit the mood of what was happening on screen which is great, but I never felt the urge to go look up any particular track. That's a must for me to push the Sound of an anime to above anything but "good" is that the soundtrack can't just compliment what's happening onscreen, but it also has to add an element that would otherwise not be there if that track weren't playing then. For me, Haikyuu's OST never made me think that once. The two openings were very catchy and got you in the mood for the episodes, but I felt like both endings were kind of "bleh".
The voice acting was superb, and it was cool to hear some new voices and relatively new VA’s in this series in major roles . Particular shout-out to Hisoka, for doing a great job with Oikawa!
Personal Enjoyment: B+
I had a ton of fun with this show. It made me laugh several times just about every episode and I was completely engaged with pretty much every match the played in. This anime was just a blast to watch and kept me thoroughly entertained throughout all 25 episodes, never seeming a beat during my marathon of the series. I’ll definitely be waiting in anticipation for a Season 2, which can’t come soon enough.
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