Well, pains me to say, but I’m gonna be the wiener who has to tell everyone the flaws of Haikyuu! again.
I’m going to preface this review by saying that because I actually play volleyball, lots of the issues I have with the show are specific to someone who has knowledge of high-level high school volleyball, so because the vast majority of this fanbase doesn’t know anything about volleyball outside of this show, you might not be as annoyed at certain things as I am. This is just one humble man’s opinion.
I want to make clear that Haikyuu is not a bad show by any means, and in fact, I think it’s better than the vast majority of sports anime. Unfortunately, I don’t like shounen, which Haikyuu makes itself painfully obvious that it is. There’s no subtlety, everything is tell, don’t show. They try to teach you the sport of volleyball as you watch and act like you’re 8 years old while doing so. They have to explain each and every little intricate rule, which ultimately makes the show less entertaining and harder to sit through, especially when you know everything they explain in the first place.
Obviously the animation for this show is fantastic, as expected. There is nothing to complain about from the art or sound departments, except for the fact that S2 had a better OP, but that’s subjective ;) Soundtrack can’t be expected to be incredible for a 10 episode series about literally one match, but the sound design and effects are spot-on as usual, so I don’t think it really matters at all.
One thing I can truly say is a virtue of the show (aside from the gay undertones, those are always of quality) is that the atmosphere of the matches in Haikyuu are great. There’s enough tension and stress without it causing the viewing experience to suffer, but it’s also realistic enough to not just turn into a joke or feel like there are no consequences. The rivalries are quite plausible and well-developed (if a bit cheesy at times) and I love the camaraderie between members of different teams, it warms my heart.
Another thing I like about Haikyuu is how nothing comes easy. You sometimes see in sports shows that if you just put training in, you can’t lose. That’s not the case at all, you have to have talent or your work means nothing. The players in Haikyuu all have to use their individual skillsets to better the team’s chances at winning, and while it’s not necessarily a revolutionary concept, it’s executed well beyond mediocrity.
There are many other things I like about this show, these are just the ones I’m best able to provide my unique opinion on rather than just the standard “i like haikyuu beucase haikyuu has good plot and characters and hype!”. If you want to know my opinion on anything, go ahead and ask me.
Now we have to get to the things I don’t enjoy about Haikyuu!
The main complaint I have is how stupidly overpowered Ushijima is. Even the players on the US youth national team aren’t as unstoppable as him. That kind of power to just blast through blocks does not exist, his inability to be stopped, and the fact that he only hits hard (no variety) just grinds my gears. They also pretend like he’s special for being left-handed as if no other players in Haikyuu! are lefties?
I feel like that this show has reached a point where they’ve run out of ways to make each match interesting and unique. In the last season there were so many matches played and there’s only so much variation that can exist before it all begins to blend together. Their way of mending this problem was to add massive ass-pulls to add extra flavor such as the “Guess Monster” bit, the whole Shiratorizawa underdog setter thing, Tsukishima for no reason at all just becoming a blocking lord, the forced backstory for the third-years in episode 6, all the little annoying conversations under the net, and various other little quirks that feel forced and unnatural.
Now on to the games. They’re too perfect and choreographed. Everything that happens is either pass, set kill, or bad pass, cover, free ball, other team passes, set, kill. There’s no chaos, which is what makes volleyball such a unique sport, the unpredictability and sheer magnitude of sensory overload and things you have to pay attention to all at the same time. Now I understand that they can’t animate all of this because that’s just unreasonable, but it still makes it feel like Haikyuu! is doing the sport of volleyball a disservice because of it. The games don’t feel smooth, they feel like a writer mapped them all out (which obviously still would’ve happened if they DID feel random, just don’t worry about it and hit that “Helpful” button below my review) and eliminated unpredictability. This could’ve been helped by all the actions and transitions being sped up, but I recognize that you gotta fit 5 sets into 10 episodes so whatever.
The final thing that made me want to poop my pants were some of the ridiculously basic things these players are just learning. I cannot believe in episode 2 they had to explain what the position “Opposite” was. Position names are quite literally the first thing you learn in volleyball and the opposite is just anyone who hits on the right side. Boggles my mind. Something else they mention is using the strategy of taking away angles to force them to hit to certain areas. That is also something you learn the very first time you learn how to block. Why does it take Tsukishima explaining every single move to his outside for them to just put up a competent block on their own? So frustrating how easy it should be, but Haikyuu! takes everything easy and makes it difficult. Yet again, I don’t get how these national-level high school athletes don’t understand this basic stuff.
I don’t really understand why everyone is so crazed with this season. Rank #6 overall is ridiculously high for a 10 episode show about a match of volleyball. In my opinion, it was worse than the previous 2 due to its lack of diversity and having to always take itself way too seriously. I’m also fearful of what’s to come. The ending was very predictable and with them going to nationals, it’s going to be potentially annoying to have to see the writers try (and possibly fail) to come up with unique, engaging ways to present challenges posed by foreign teams. Is it going to be basically just the same thing as the last 2 seasons except with different characters? Who knows?
Thank you for reading my review! I’m always open to feedback, so if you have some, feel free to hit up my profile.
