top of page
A Highly Recommended Anime: Haikyu!!
Posted by Yu Tung, 12.26.2021
I want to recommend a fascinating anime, Haikyu!!, which I have watched recently. This anime is about volleyball, and its story is around two main characters: Shoyo Hinata and Tobio Kageyama. After seeing “Little Giant” in a volleyball match, Hinata really admires this player and becomes a volleyball lover. Thus, he joins his middle school volleyball club and participates in the middle school tournament when he was ninth grade. However, they meet a formidable opponent with the "King of the Upper Court," Tobio Kageyama. Although his team lost, Hinata is still determined to become the best player and revenge on Kageyama. Surprisingly, Hinata and Kageyama are in the same high school, Karasuno High School, and become teammates.
The plots sound predictable, but Haikyu!! Is among the best in sports anime. From my perspective, the following three reasons can explain its success.
(Kageyama and Hinata in the middle school tournament)
1. Not include any super-power
Most well-known sports anime includes elements of super-power. For example, each soccer player in Inazuma Eleven has their own unique super-power skills. Therefore, we may see a flaming soccer, a frozen soccer field, or a teleportation player in it. However, some people consider that those kinds of plots are overstepping because nobody can do the same stuff in the reality. In Haikyu!!, we can learn the basic skills and rules of volleyball, and those techniques can be available in the reality. Take one character, Wakatoshi Ushijima, for an example. His prototype is a Japanese volleyball player, Yūji Nishida. Both of them are left handed and can make a mighty spike. If you know nothing about volleyball, after watching Haikyu!!, you will learn a lot.
(Japanese volleyball player,Yūji Nishida.)
2. With other teams, they are opponents, but they also learn from each other.
On the volleyball courts, no one wants to lose. In addition to Karasuno High School, in the tournament also has many formidable teams and excellent players. Everyone aims to the top in those really competitive games. Although only one team can get the first prize, the players from different schools encourage and share their volleyball techniques with each other after competitions. As a saying goes, “ Like knows like.” We can see a true friendship between those characters who have the same goal.
(Friendship between different teams )
3. Everyone has their own stories.
Though this anime has the main characters, the plots don’t always focus on them. Instead, it shows journey of self-exploration of a player or a team who they meets in each episode. It includes bench players’ desire towards to volleyball courts, how hard each team and player train their skills, and the connections between their growth and volleyball. Only one team can be at the top in the tournament, but every character has their own values on the volleyball courts. I consider that this is the best part in Haikyu!! because the author give each character a full character setting, and it will make the story have more variety.
He isn't the main character, but he is my favorite character due to his determination.
To sum up, we can see the real volleyball skills, true friendship between different teams, and each characters’ journey of self-exploration in Haikyu!!. As a result, I highly recommend you to watch this great anime.
My official & personal instagram:
bottom of page