Volleyball is a high paced sport you can play on the courts or out at the beach. Requiring teamwork and incredible synergy among team members, volleyball can bring out your full potential against other teams with the pressure you experience both on and off the courts. Players need to have a certain level of surprise to psyche out the opposing team and score points. In 'Haikyuu!!', we follow Shouyou Hinata's journey through the world of volleyball as he looks for his 'wings' to soar above the volleyball courts.
Inspired by a high school volleyball Nationals match, Hinata wanted to become a star like the "Little Giant" of Karasuno High. Unfortunately for him, his first exposure to a real volleyball match came as a crushing defeat in the junior championships by an ace player, Tobio Kageyama. Determined to beat Kageyama in high school, Hinata attends Karasuno High, just like his inspiration in hopes of following in their footsteps. To his surprise, Kageyama is also a Karasuno student trying out for the volleyball team! How will Hinata get his chance to defeat Kageyama now, instead they have to work together as a team!?
Haikyuu began its run in Weekly Shonen Jump in February in 2012 and since then has released 39 volumes! There have been three anime seasons since 2014, with their fourth season set to start in January 2020! Hinata and Karasuno’s volleyball team have faced numerous obstacles since many of the team’s star players graduated the year before. They’ve met the towering players that form the iron wall of Date Tech High, the explosive power of Shiratorizawa Academy, and Aobajohsai High, the school where any player is capable of being called the ace of their team. Karasuno hasn’t won every tournament, but with every game, they play the team grows a little more, and Hinata’s wings grow stronger for the moment he can soar on the courts.
Haikyuu does a lot of things right when it comes to volleyball if you’ve never played the sport before. The information and the various skills that each player provides in the series are somewhat accurate to the actual game if you don’t know the rules in volleyball, what better way to learn than by watching an anime about it! You can get a small taste of the excitement of the players on the court and the cheers of the spectators all around the court.
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Haikyuu is about overcoming obstacles, and internal growth as characters hone their skills in volleyball to win the nationals tournament. Will you follow Karasuno High along their journey to be number one in Japan, or will you start your journey to fly above the courts?
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