Haikyuu!! #1-9

Haikyuu!! #1-9

Originally released in 2012

Written by Haruchi Furudate

Art by Haruchi Furudate

From what I know, a big cornerstone of the Shonen Jump magazine aside from action manga is sports manga.  However, my experience with sports manga (and sports in general, to be honest) is extremely limited.  When it comes to sports manga, the only one that I've read is Eyeshield 21, a series about football with the same artist as One-Punch Man.

I was considering Slam Dunk, since I'd heard that was considered a good series, but it wasn't on the Shonen Jump app.  There were several sports manga on there, but the only ones that I recognized the names of were Haikyuu!! and The Prince of Tennis.  From what I've read, the main protagonist of the Prince of Tennis sounds difficult to like, so I went with Haikyuu!!.

Haikyuu!! (which translates into "volleyball" - I'm assuming they kept the Japanese name in the English title to help it stand out) is about a boy named Hinata Shoyo (I'm not sure of which to order it, which is probably why it's so inconsistent on this blog - normally in Japanese, the family name comes first, like in Monkey D. Luffy where his family name is "Monkey", but I refer to characters like Naruto as Naruto Uzumaki instead of Uzumaki Naruto) who is extremely passionate about volleyball after seeing a game on TV about a player who was nicknamed "The Little Giant."

Hinata's junior high school doesn't have much of an interest in volleyball, and his situation is made worse by the fact that he's short and keen to participate in a sport where height means everything.  However, he manages to scrounge up enough players in his third year of junior high to put a full team together and compete in a tournament.

They go up against the favourites to win in the first round and lose horribly.  Undeterred, Hinata sets out to surpass the opposing team's star player, Kageyama Tobio, who is also known as "the King of the Court."  This sets up the sort of rivalry that could last throughout a series, where Kageyama sees Hinata's progress and trains to stay ahead of him, with the two of them competing and pushing each other further.

Or at least it would, if Kageyama didn't wind up going to the same high school that Hinata did.  Kageyama is extremely talented at volleyball, but volleyball is a team sport, and his self-centered nature and determination to have everyone follow his lead no matter what turned the rest of his team against him in junior high.  He seems to be repeating the same mistakes in high school, but Hinata's unwavering optimism and desire to prove himself seem to help him in the right direction.

Unlike football, volleyball is a sport that seemingly only requires one body type - tall and slender.  This makes sense, as all of the players seem to fill similar roles (unlike football, where players are often specialized), but it leads to a lot of the character designs feeling samey and blending into each other.  Out of the veteran volleyball players in Karasuno High School, the school that Hinata and Kageyama attend, the punk-like Tanaka sticks out the most, but the other two faded into the background for me.

The art is good, with the moments where Hinata displays his speed and jumping prowess sticking out as it leads to a greater amount of detail.  The early chapters of the series didn't really hook me, but once the practice game actually started and Hinata and Kageyama started working together, I was more interested in what was going on.

I thought the series was all right, though I'm not really sure if sports manga is a genre for me.  Hinata was a fun lead character, but I'm not sure if he can carry my interest in a series on his own, and I don't know if any of the other characters will be as engaging.  I'll continue it when I find the time, though, and maybe my opinion will change as I get further into it.