Haikyuu!! is an anime show adapted from a manga that started in 2014. It tells the story of a pair of high schoolers, Shoyo Hinata and Tobio Kageyama, and their high school volleyball team. Karasuno, the high school, was known as a regional powerhouse back in the day but went through a period of decline. Now Hinata and Kageyama have joined a rebuilding team as the two centerpieces. The two have friction and rivalry but must come to understand one another in order to play together and achieve their dreams. It’s an extremely popular anime series, and here are 10 reasons why Haikyuu continues to reign as the best sports anime.
The Wide Roster of Characters
Haikyuu!! has a very large roster of characters. There’s the Karasuno team, which besides the main duo has multiple fun personalities like the aloof Kei “Tsuki” Tsukishima or the boisterous Tanaka. Then the series makes an effort to increase the size of the roster by also including other notable teams and the personalities on them, like the Karasuno rival Nekoma High. Each of these characters is delightfully fun to watch and unique in how they relate to Karasuno and how they play volleyball.
This can create very strong character dynamics and these relationships can often have a lot more nuance to them than other anime do. Take the relationship between Kageyama and the setter on a rival team, Tōru Oikawa, who were on the same Junior High team. Oikawa and Kageyama have a rivalry born from the fact that Kageyama wishes to exceed the older highschooler in volleyball skills and Oikawa had to deal with a fear that Kageyama would replace him on the team in Junior high, so Kageyama represents that insecurity of being overshadowed for Oikawa. Characters have reasons for disliking or liking one another that often go beyond the surface and have a lot to do with character psychology.
Attention Paid to Side Characters
You may be afraid that side characters might fall by the wayside in favor of developing the main duo of Kageyama and Hinata. It is, sadly, a reality that a lot of anime introduces intriguing side characters just to abandon them in favor of making the main character look cool. Haikyuu!! is not one of those shows. Not only does the Karasuno team get well-rounded development for each of its members, but it also does a lot to develop side characters on other teams.
One example of this depth is Oikawa, who gets a lot of fleshing out at the end of Season 1. However, the prime example of this care paid to side characters can be seen in Tsukishima. We understand Tsuki as a cold and somewhat aloof first year in the first season, but then in the second season, the show goes into explaining why he is that way. His personal experiences explain why he doesn’t bond with the team as well as the other teammates.
The Gorgeous Animation
Haikyuu!! is an extremely good-looking show. While this is largely due to the amazing art, much of the show’s visual oomph is in its use of movement and speed. Still frames don’t really do the show justice, because so much of the show’s aesthetic power comes down to key moments when the series plays with the speed of its characters.
Haikyuu!!, as an animated sports show, takes full advantage of its power to use camera angles and speed to show the skill and power of its athletes. Some moments will be slowed to a crawl, so much so that characters will almost float in mid-air. This contrasts sharply with the moments where if you blink, you’ll miss an exceptionally fast spike. All of this is done without making the characters feel superhuman or unrealistic, but rather what is happening on screen feels like a heightened reality, one which lets the viewer appreciate what’s happening on screen.