Anime Reviews

Haikyū!!

Title: Haikyū!!

Owner: Haruichi Furudate

Genre: Sports, comedy, drama

Rating: 7/10

Summary:

After watching a professional volleyball championship game, junior high student Shōyō Hinata is intrigued by the game and is determined to excel despite his short height. He starts a club with minimal members and routinely practices to become better.

After being challenged and defeated by the championship team that happens to include the acclaimed "King of the Court" Tobio Kageyama, Hinata swears he will become better than Kageyama and make it to the nationals. Little does he know, that when he starts high school, Kageyama will be attending the same school and also plans on joining the volleyball team.

Opinion:

So this is the first sports anime I've ever watched. You guys voting for this was the only reason I actually watched it--that and one other reason...

Volleyball is my favourite sport.

Ever.

There is honestly so much I can relate to with this series--and for that, I loved it. When I say "things I can relate to," I mean it. This is what I mean:

I absolutely love volleyball. Even more than hockey. I'm super short, so I know how Hinata and Nishinoya feel, and I have tried to get onto a team before. I didn't make it, but that's not the point. I understand the struggle with being small and participating in sports, being underestimated, and trying your hardest to get people to think, "Wow, they're amazing."

Maybe some of you can relate to this too; I'm sure many of you can. I'm only 5'2", and haven't grown in a year. I've never once had a growth spurt, and while I won't tell you my age, I can say that I am pretty short and never growing again.

That's not all though--I go wild for volleyball. And I'm talking batshit-crazy-wild. The weird thing is that I never actually watch sports, per se; the only time that I ever do watch sports is during the Olympics. Man, the Olympics are my shit.

In the 2010 Olympics, the torch runner ran right past me. Ever since then, the Olympics have been my only reason to watch sports. I actually get so into sports (volleyball especially) that I end up screaming whether I'm at live matches or not. Seriously, I'm constantly being loud with my friends and yelling at the players to get their asses in gear and hit it. It's awesome.

Once I actually went to this volleyball camp a few years ago, and I will never forget what I did there. Because I am short I've always struggled with spiking, this camp is where I learned to spike. We learned spiking and receiving halfway through the week and I will never forget That Day.

On That Day, humanity received a grim reminder...

Sorry. So, I was about twelve at the time. Just prepare yourselves, you'll love this story.

The net was lowered for me because I was like 4'8", and all the other kids too because we were all small. Anyways, we played a game and I finally was in the correct position to spike, so I went for it. The setter passed it to me, I jumped, and slammed the ball with part of my soul. Even to this day I am proud of that spike.

What I am not proud of, however, is that the receiver that positioned herself directly below me got smashed in the face by the ball and hit the ground. It actually hit that perfect spot on the bridge of her nose by some miracle and ended up breaking it with a snap, and at the same time knocked her out temporarily because it hit that perfect spot.

All I saw is this girl get blasted in the face, blood spray from her nose, she falls back, and hits the ground partially conscious. I felt so bad, but now when I look back on it I laugh because I smoked some girl in the face with a ball. No matter how you look at that--it's a little pitiful, and I do feel sorry, but at the same time...it's a little funny.

Oh, I am so going to hell.

Haikyū!! was so adorable and I loved it so much. I thought I'd like it a little more to be honest, but it wasn't half bad. If there was one character I hated, it was Oikawa of Aobajōsai High. God, that ignorant little piece of shi--

I'm not going to go there. Even after Kageyama learns what it's like to have a team, Oikawa is still an ass about it and calls him King to piss him off. Even when Kageyama was an adorable little seventh grader Oikawa tried hitting him just out of paranoia of not being the best. Grow a backbone.

If any of you remember when I posted that link on my message board with the heading, "I JUST SLICED MY WHOLE FREAKING ANKLE OPEN DAMMIT," then you remember my profusely bleeding ankle. Now who wants to know how I actually sliced it open?

My god, this is embarrassing. If you haven't seen the picture, I suggest that you quickly go to my message bored and scroll down about ten messages, then click on the link or copy-paste it into the URL bar.

Okay, so basically I got so hyped about Karasuno winning the second match in nationals against Aobajōsai that I went from sitting in my desk to jumping straight up, knocked my chair back which hit my bed that sits right behind me. I went from HELL YEAH to ah, shit in two seconds flat. I fell back into the legs on my chair (which hurt like a bitch) and my foot went flying up into the air and down onto the corner of my desk--henceforth splitting my ankle open. It bled for about seventeen hours, and I still don't know why. I'm sure I'm not a hemophiliac.

This is what happens to people who fangirl. To prevent injury, avoid becoming emotionally attached to any show or character in any anime.

So that's about the end of this chapter. If you did the quiz last chapter, here's the answers:

1c. Sam watches ecchis and comedies.

2d. Dani watches yaoi and fantasies.

3b. Mason watches shojo and dramas.

4a. Alex watches shounen and ecchis.

For warnings, there is a little bit of language, very minimal blood, and a teensy bit of sexuality. Sorry that I couldn't find a trailer with English subtitles.

Vote if you cried at the after-credits scene in episode twenty-four. Oh, how I cried.