I guess since this anime is nothing special, my review will be nothing special either and I won’t go beyond the format of just reviewing the aspects of this anime one by one. Let’s start with the areas where this series is simultaneously strong and lackluster: the art direction. The animation itself is fluid, interesting, and adequate. The character designs in particular are very strong. There are moments where character designs are slipshod or where background sets are given undue detail, but it gets the job done.
It’s the directing decisions that were far more mixed in quality. There were moments where the art direction were so damn provocative, misdirecting the audience’s attention to some detail to just play up the surprise of a play that did not go as expected, or subtlety hinting at some detail to change the mood of a scene to help the audience anticipate. This way the direction subtly plays with the audience’s expectations at key, action-packed moments of the matches was definitely the strongest feature of this anime, both leading to what made it enjoyable and as an artistic achievement in its own right.
Yet there are other art direction decisions of this series that were just, bad. Just plain, medicore cliché-shounen-garbage bad. Scenes that drag out for way too long with unsubtle motifs reintroduced at pivotal moments for dramatic effect that just come off as cheesy and overdramatic. Comedic sequences that are played up far too dramatically to the point that they lose their effect, over dramatic power scenes of hits, replaying impactful moments one too many times, and too many damn unsubtle flashbacks. All the tropes of bad directing that make sports anime, and mediocre shounen more generally, feel cringy and over-the-top are on display here, mixed in about evenly with moments that play with your expectations in more interesting ways.
Similar things could be said for the plot overall. Overall, it is definitely a bit predictable at the high-level, for example you usually knew who would win a match and how characters would change and develop—even if the details can be surprising at times. It’s the standard sports anime trope of protagonists who fail in various ways throughout middle school and need to face their demons/settle old scores/find inspiration from each other through high school. It’s got the clichés of an underdog-upstart program facing much tougher opponents, trying and failing at various points, training camp montages, facing down old rivals, a recalcitrant, slightly-washed up coach who decides to join out of pure passion, the whole nine yards of sports anime—and sports media generally—clichés in terms of plot.
But these clichés are clichés for a reason, they work, and that’s no different here. While this series will get no points for the originality of its plot, it does get some points for executing it and pacing it quite well. There are moments where they drag on dramatic matches far too long near the end, but overall it was quite well paced. Even when you could predict exactly what would happen, it would some how execute it in a more or less interesting way. I also really like that the first season ended on a relatively somber note as well, to build up anticipation for what’s to come and make it feel more realistic.
I would say the same about all the characters: unoriginal, yet effective. I’ll spare you going through all of them, but you’ve got your MC who is an exuberant prodigy with natural ability but lacks the stereotypical features of someone who’s good at the sport yet overcomes that talent through pure hard work, over-the-top exuberance, and determination. The secondary MC who has nothing but pure talent, but is a hot head and needs to learn to respect his teammates. The aforementioned slightly washed-up coach. The natural leader upperclassman who lacks talent but makes up for it with good strategy. The overly talented and obnoxiously popular antagonist who serves as pretty much a perfect foil for one of the secondary characters. The comedic relief character who is middling in talent, super “bro-y,” and keeps making jokes about how he wants a girlfriend. I could go on and on, you’ve seen all these characters before. I saw another reviewer describe the cast as "Naruto, but with volleyball," and that is accurate. One unusually weak area for this anime, though, were female characters who were mostly filler who were just there for boys to cringily swoon over.
However, just like the plot, it works. The characters are cliché, but the solid design and adequate voice acting still makes them compelling. They are also dynamic and fleshed-out with all their back stories. It is commendable that a series with this many characters developed them all so well without running into pacing issues like other sports anime (ahem, Yuri on Ice) run into. They suffer from predictability in how they develop, but at least they do develop and there is still that sense of satisfaction from watching them change and grow as they get to know each other.
As for the sound, it’s fine, but forgettable. There are moments where the voice acting gets extremely over-the-top, but that is as much the fault of the writer as the sound direction and actors. The voice acting, overall is adequate, the soundtrack is completely forgettable and kind of stale. The first OP was quite good, but all the other OP and EDs were completely forgettable. The best I can say for the soundtrack and acting is it did nothing to detract from the series, but it did not do much to enhance it either.
Then there's the writing of dialogue which is, and I won't sugarcoat it, laughably terrible sometimes. Reintroducing a couple really stale, cheesy, on-the-nose cliche truisms about the importance of teamwork and frienship whenever anyone is feeling uncertain. Horrid "I will beat you" cliche chest-beating anytime they want to build up a rivalry. Very cringy weeb humor about awkward guys falling over girls, or recurring gags about characters being too angry/clumsy/awkward. Emotional moments that are just bland repetitions of themes explored before. Often times, thought dialogue that carries on for far too long pointing out the obvious. Honestly, the dialogue of this series was painful to listen to sometimes with how cliche, unsubtle, and downright stupid it was even by shounen/sports anime standards.
Even though it does not sound like it from the ambivalent tone and relatively low score of this review, I really did enjoy Haikyuu‼ What it lacks in originality and artistic merit, it makes up for in actually being a compelling, if not realistic, portrayal of the sport of volleyball itself. The execution of some of the actual volleyball scenes was quite provocative, and I found myself—as embarrassing as it is to say—getting into it almost like I was watching a real volleyball match.
I guess that is what made this series as successful as it was, it succeeded as a *sports* anime more so than an anime generally. It integrated strategy well into the plot, even though the dialogue sometimes ruined it by overexplaining things. While the characters were kind of bland on their own, it was almost more interesting watching them play to each other’s relative strengths and weaknesses in terms of strategy in a volleyball match than to get to know them personally. It was more like watching a sporting event in real life; you do not really know or care who the players are, but you pay attention because you care about how they play the sport. And I suppose it deserves credit for that. Among many weaker sports anime, the sport itself feels kind of like a lame after-thought, a kind of weak proxy for telling the story at best (as in Ahiru no Sora) or filler-style distraction from the more interesting plot or characters at worst (as in Free!). At least this series was actually a good, compelling, though slightly overexplained, portrayal of the drama and intrigue of the sport itself. Which, as I’m watching this during a coronavirus pandemic when all my favorite sports (let’s face it, mostly hockey) have been canceled, I guess is exactly what I needed at this point.
Sometimes, a series does not need to have the best characters or plot on the face of the earth to be enjoyable. Sometimes, a good sports anime can just be a good portrayal of sports while failing to be much of a good story outright. That is all Haiyukku‼ was. While at times it feels like it took itself too seriously while trying to be more and it won’t exactly earn itself status as a total classic or favorite in my eyes, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Story: 5/10
Art: 5/10
Sound: 5/10
Character: 6/10
Enjoyment: 7/10
Overall: 5/10
