Thoughts on finally watching Season 1 of the anime 'Haikyu!!'

Viewing period: 8/13/2022 - 8/21/2022

I believe I read the original manga up to about volume 20. The Shiratorizawa match was over, and I think it was right before the Tokyo representative playoffs, but I don't remember clearly. In terms of the anime, that would be quite far ahead, like season 4 or so. (So, I watched this first season with the assumption that I already knew all the stories depicted in the manga.)
I knew the 'Haikyu!!' anime would definitely be interesting, so I had vaguely thought for a while that I needed to watch it soon, but I finally felt like starting it. And as expected, I couldn't stop.

Below are my notes on my thoughts so far.

・Episodes 1 to 5 (up to the end of the 3-on-3, finally successfully joining the club).
It's a great 'anime adaptation'... The slightly rough lines of the original manga have been cleaned up for the anime, but in exchange, it has a 'grounded' feel overall, with spatial depth and breadth not found in the manga, and the appeal of color. At the same time, the quality of the visual and sound direction to create impact and a sense of presence is impeccable, allowing it to 'soar' high as well.
Every episode from the very beginning is good, but episode 3 was a god-tier episode. It's the episode where Hinata gets his first toss from Kageyama.

It's also good as a rural anime. The countryside of Miyagi Prefecture. The scenery filled with mountains on Hinata's route to school, the school on the hill, and so on.

The opening song is also good~. I had heard it before, as expected. This is definitely the song that will play in the final episode of the anime and make me cry...

It's a proper, classic sports anime, the exact opposite of the anime 'Battery' that I'm watching in parallel. It's classic, but never stale. The detailed developments and settings are so well done~. The skill in narrowing down the number of characters in the beginning while gradually showing the characters of the upperclassmen other than the main two, and the way the balance is struck where all the upperclassmen are good people while the classmate (Tsukishima) is a jerk. The upperclassmen other than the captain, Suga, and Tanaka are still basically mobs, but they are gradually inserting depictions, like teasing Tanaka who takes his clothes off immediately during the 3-on-3.
Come to think of it, there's almost no depiction of Hinata or Kageyama's families at home yet. Hinata's sister appeared for a moment, though.

Could the two exclamation marks in 'Haikyu!!' be a reference to the poles that support the volleyball net? The angle where the setter and spiker overlap when looking at the net from the side. I had only thought of it as two because there are two of them, Hinata and Kageyama.

・Up to episode 10 (end of vs. Neighborhood Association, Karasuno regulars officially assembled)
Episode 9, where Ace Asahi returns ('Call for a toss again, Ace!' 'Suga! One more!!'), was a god-tier episode and I cried normally, but as expected, the scene of Asahi's inner conflict before the spike was so long that I thought, 'Hasn't the ball dropped by now?' In manga, the insertion of a momentary flashback doesn't feel that strange, but in an anime, which is a time-based art, that kind of direction is difficult... That said, basically, this anime is well-crafted in terms of that sense of tempo and pacing, so it's very good. That's why it's rare for me to have concerns, and it bothers me.

・Episodes 11-13, end of Nekoma practice match arc
So that was exactly one cour. The first Nekoma match is so good~~. The character design for the rival school is too good. Like Tanaka and that mohawk kid, they place characters that are explicitly counterparts in terms of position, but the protagonist Shoyo has a deep relationship not only with his rival as a first-year middle blocker, Inuoka, but also with the second-year setter, Kenma. Usually, you'd put a rival character like Kenma as a first-year MB, but by intentionally shifting it, they show that not only Shoyo but also the teams Karasuno and Nekoma are contrasting rivals.
I like the drawing of Kenma being downer and standing around with a 'cat-like' hunch even during the match, but I realized that Kenma can stand there and be a setter because the other members have high receiving skills, and Kenma's 'hunch' symbolizes the strength of the Nekoma team itself, which made me like Kenma and Nekoma even more.

Also, I know that captain Tetsuro Kuroo is incredibly popular in fan fiction among women. It is a law of the world that, like Kasamatsu-senpai from Kuroko's Basketball, the hardworking captain character of a rival school will receive tremendous support from a certain segment.
It seems everyone from Nekoma (including the manager and coach) came from Tokyo to Miyagi on the Tohoku Shinkansen, but I wonder if Nekoma paid for those travel expenses. Or, since Takeda-sensei desperately invited them, did Karasuno pay...? That probably isn't the case. But since the issue of club activity funding is almost never dealt with in these kinds of sports anime, I end up being curious about it. (I've reached the age (=adult) where I end up being curious about such things...)

・Episodes 14-16: The night before the Interhigh prefectural qualifiers to the 1st round (vs. Tokonami)
While there are other episodes that are more intense or where the story moves forward significantly, Episode 16, 'Winners and Losers,' is likely the episode that most clearly symbolizes the work that is 'Haikyu!!'. It is easy to see why Haikyu is so beloved.
It is a classic sports story, a hymn to 'volleyball,' a hymn to 'sports,' and also a hymn to 'club activities.' It is a masterpiece episode that manages to depict in just one episode the light and shadow of the young people who bet their youth on this culture, which has taken root in Japan despite being (strange, distorted, and harmful).

As the first match of the Karasuno High School Interhigh prefectural qualifiers, it depicts the vivid resurrection of the 'fallen powerhouse, the flightless crows,' daringly from the perspective of the weak school they are playing against. It is structured as an ensemble drama by layering the story of the Karasuno girls' volleyball team's first-round match, which is taking place at a different venue at the same time, from the perspective of Michimiya Yui (CV: Asami Seto), a 'captain friend' of Daichi-senpai. It collages the final spark of the 'mobs'—the Karasuno girls' volleyball team and the Tokonami boys' volleyball team—in terms of play units: toss, spike, and receive, and projects them as animation.

The school and the opposing school, the powerhouse and the weak school, the starters and the substitutes, the players and the supporters, the students and the adults, the boys' volleyball team and the girls' volleyball team, the winners and the losers. It pushes the duality of the sport of 'volleyball' (this side of the court and that side of the court) to its limit and extends it, loudly proclaiming that everyone involved in 'high school volleyball' and club activities is 'here' and 'I played volleyball.'

The contrast here is very good: Michimiya, who acts composed in front of everyone as captain and then cries her heart out after being left alone, and Ikejiri, who, even after losing in the first round, does not shed tears but is immersed in a pleasant emptiness where various emotions are mixed together. Michimiya's wailing is, in a sense, fictional (in the sense that viewers can witness it, easily empathize with it, and cry comfortably), but as if to balance that, there is the depiction of the stunned Ikejiri. The tears shed by the losers of the 'weak school,' who feel guilty that they weren't serious or satisfied with their entire club life, are of course precious, but it depicts that shedding tears is not the only correct way for a loser to be, and that there is a way to accept 'losing' that is different from tears.

And what is wonderful about this episode is that it is not just an eccentric episode that focuses on mobs who are defeated in obscurity; the fate (thesis = theme) of the loser, 'if you lose, you can no longer stand on the court,' is the starting point of the 'protagonist' of this story, Hinata Shoyo, and the origin of this work itself. The greatest ethic of this sports story is not 'winning' but 'not losing,' or more precisely, 'standing on the court for as long as possible,' and winning, losing, and matches are all secondary to that.
The story, which set Karasuno as a 'crazy strong opposing school' and once handed over the perspective to the mobs of the weak school, returns to the Karasuno High School boys' volleyball team again with the handshake between the winner and the loser, with the theme remaining consistent.

After the screen becomes a circular lens shape and shows the figures of the nameless losers who ended their 'summer' in early June all over Japan in a slideshow, and after the screen returns to its normal shape, those eyes of Shoyo watching the back of Ikejiri of Tokonami High School leaving—that gaze that looks at his former self and his future self—is the foundation of the persuasiveness of the work 'Haikyu!!'. Furthermore, it is not his short stature, his natural physical ability, his innocent personality, or his bright hair color, but the fact that he has these 'eyes' that is likely the reason why Hinata Shoyo is the protagonist of 'Haikyu!!'.

By the way, in the original manga, it was not a circular lens effect, but a double-page spread that depicted the mobs as an ensemble using countless small panels, which is a technique unique to manga. Since the anime cannot use the format of 'small panels' or 'double-page spreads,' it seems they decided to express what is expressed in the original work within the grammar of anime using the circular lens effect.

・Episodes 17-24: Date Tech match & Aoba Johsai match
The Date Tech match is also super intense... The character of Aone, the powerful second-year lead blocker, is also good. It is the author's standard tactic to dare to give a friendly charm to a 'formidable enemy' character who has a big build, is stubborn, and is scary during a match. Azumane-san is also like that.

However, the fun of the Aoba Johsai match is in a class of its own. The part with Suga-san is too good. It is moving that Suga-san's substitution and participation in the match also leads to Kageyama's growth. The part with pinch server Tadashi Yamaguchi is seriously nerve-wracking even when watching it in the anime and knowing the result. This is also a development that symbolizes Haikyu~.

And above all, Oikawa-san's sense of being an absolute powerhouse and a rival is the best. I think they do the 'Is it Oikawa's serve again here...!!' part 4 or 5 times out of the 3 sets, but every time I go, 'Whoa, here it is... seriously...'

After all, volleyball looks great in anime. The significance of depicting a sport that 'connects the ball' in an anime that connects cuts. (By the way, there was an article on Nerima-san's blog that discussed the manga format of reading by connecting the 'panels' of the original work and the competitive format of volleyball. This is a rip-off of that.)

Unlike manga, anime is a time art, so the intense speed of spike to receive and the direction of impact are worth watching. In manga, no matter how powerful a serve or spike is, if we don't move our eyes to the next panel/page, the ball will never move or fall to the court. Because anime can express the irreversibility of time as it is, the weight of the last ball is conveyed so well.
(Of course, this anime is not better than the original manga. I am a manga supremacist, and I think the original Haikyu is supreme. Even so, the anime is just as super interesting, and I think the real thrill of an anime with an original work is to watch it with attention to whether there is any charm newly born by going to the trouble of making it into an anime.)

Nerima-san also wrote his thoughts after watching only the first season of the anime. 'An interesting manga has become an interesting anime, and I am very happy with that sincere craftsmanship.' Seriously, that is really true.

・Episode 24: Aoba Johsai match final episode
A parade of famous scenes. Oikawa-san's 'But that is not today' is my favorite scene that I remember most in the manga 'Haikyu!!' in terms of lines.

With this, Karasuno was defeated in the Interhigh prefectural qualifiers (the first setback for the Hinata and Kageyama pair), but it wasn't a simple story that they lost because they weren't strong enough to beat Aoba Johsai led by Toru Oikawa. The subtitle of this episode is 'The Removal of the Lonely King,' and it depicts with vivid direction how Kageyama clearly grew and awakened, and how Karasuno definitely shed its skin and became stronger as a team.

However, as far as the last point is concerned, it was precisely because Kageyama evolved from the lonely king and became able to trust everyone in Karasuno that they lost because the freak quick toss to Hinata was completely read by Oikawa. In other words, it is a 'positive loss' for Karasuno because they lost precisely because they became stronger. It's like growing pains, where you become temporarily fragile in the middle of evolution. Of course, for Hinata and the others who were defeated in an official match for the first time, they are probably doing their best to face and digest the 'loss' in front of them, but for us viewers who are watching it objectively through the screen, the fact that it is a positive loss implicitly amplifies the expectation for the 'continuation of the story,' so I can only say that it is a really skillful composition.

The cut where Takeda-sensei encourages Hinata and Kageyama, who are fighting outside and crawling on the ground, and then the two of them slowly stand up, was very moving and unique to the anime. While manga is a discontinuous visual narrative medium in panel units, anime truly demonstrates its value through continuous, and if anything, slow and sluggish movement direction. The same was true for the meal drawing in the super famous scene at the restaurant in the C-part after the ending. It is truly wonderful. It was said in the comments that it looked like Ghibli, and I thought that was true. Realistic drawing of everyday acting.

These two scenes are developments where the advisor and the coach, two adults, brilliantly care for the players/students who have finished the match, and the placement of the characters' highlights in these places is seriously god-like in Haikyu. The sense of the lines is also overwhelmingly good as always.

・Season 1, all 25 episodes, finished!!
Wow, that was a great anime... It was 2 cours, 25 episodes, and it ended right at the Inter-High prefectural qualifiers, leading into the second season where the new chapter for the Spring High Tournament begins. The pacing is just perfect... Did the author plan it this far ahead?? (It's probably the skill of the series composition and the director.)
In the second season, they'll probably start right off with the episode where the new manager joins. Because it's a club sports anime that adapts the manga perfectly in 2 cours, I can't help but compare it to 'Chihayafuru' while watching. Is Yachi-chan similar to Sumire Hanano??
The animation and art were consistently wonderful. Especially, as a personal fetish of mine, I really like the simplified character designs when they are shown from a distance.

As mentioned above, the landscape art was one of the charms of this as a 'good rural anime.' It wasn't just the natural scenery; during the Inter-High qualifiers, the court was shown almost the entire time, and the indoor art, including the depiction of the mob characters in the stands, was also good.

'The smell of Air Salonpas...!' Haikyu!! is a work that depicts not just the places and spaces, but also 'objects' (like the mop broken by Azumane and Nishinoya) as important elements. The shot of the entrance from the Karasuno High School corridor to the gymnasium, shown at the beginning of the first opening, is also reprised in the final episode. When depicting 'youth' and 'club activities' this carefully, the memories soaked into a place are incredibly important.

Also, I almost forgot to mention it, but a major factor that makes this anime a masterpiece is the music and soundtrack. The background music during the matches is especially wonderful. It wasn't music that sticks in your ear like what I can recall now, but the soundtrack played a role in quietly contributing to the excitement of the match without getting in the way. I think it's amazing that they didn't miss a beat. Oh, and of course, I love all four opening and ending songs. I was a bit surprised by Sukima Switch. The visuals for all of them are also great.

This hasn't changed since I read the original manga, but there aren't really any characters in Haikyu!! that I like in particular. That's because everyone is charming. Sure, Kiyoko-san is beautiful, cute, and I like her, and Toru Oikawa is a really great character and I like him, but there isn't a clear target I can call a 'favorite.' It's so interesting that it won't let me have a favorite. Since I'm a contrarian, I'm often drawn to characters who don't do much or don't seem popular, but in Haikyu!!, everyone is depicted in detail as a protagonist, so it really won't let me like anyone in particular.
(Having said that, there's a possibility I'll fall for the new manager once I start watching the second season.)

Off to the second season now!!!! Once the anime catches up to where I read in the original work, I want to read the manga to the final volume first.