So, I finshed Haikyuu. And you know what? it's probably my favorite shonen series. To put it bluntly, the show is just pure excitement and hype, and it's really freakin' good. But how does it manage to do this? I'll admit, at the time of writing this. it's been almost a month since I finished it, so this won't be super detailed, but more just talking aboout the show in more general terms.
Haikyuu is basically just a battle shonen but with volleyball, but it does this really well. By having realistic and grounded, down to earth characters, the show manages to be much more relatable than other stuff in the same genre. These people aren't professionals, and while some of them certainly have the potential to be, it's made pretty clear that most of them are just above average players with maybe one or two distinguishing traits
It also manages to hype you up really well, and while it's extremely basic in how it does this, it manages to do it so freaking well. By showing an upcoming opponent early in the show and making it very clear that the opponent is super strong and the main characters basically have no chance of winning. Now you might think "don't most shows do that as well?" Well yeah, as I said it's a very basic way of doing it, but it works and since Haikyuu has managed to become very succesfull, it's pretty clear that it works as welll.
The character designs are also phenomanal, and while that exact aspect can only really be attributed to the mangaka and not so much the production for the anime adaptation, it's still a strength the show has. It really does spit in the face of all the bland same-face background characters that so often show up, and the sheer variety is amazing. Even in the matches with schools that are only going to show up once, the teams still have at least three or four memorable designs and one "special trait".
Yeah, that special trait is what basically just makes this just like all the other battle shonens that run in Jump, but this time with volleyball. Dateko has "the iron wall", Karasuno themselves have the "freak quick attack"(although they gain a lot more through the course of the show, just like power updgrades and transformations in a battle shonen), Aoba Josai has Oikawa and his "unstoppable serve", and Nekoma has Kenma who manages to pick up enemy team strategies really quickly and can easily figure out how to counter them.
The chemistry between the characters is also really good, especially between the two main characters, Hinata and Kageyama. Having them start out as rivals and then having them empower each other in a way no one else can, having them complete the parts of each other that they themselves are misisng... Is this show secretly a yaoi? Jokes aside, I really like how every character on the Karasuno team has a story to tell, and it makes them feel so much more tightly knit as a group. Every character has some backstory and it really helps with the believabilty and reality of the show.
To summarize my point: Haikyuu is just a really good battle shonen except with volleyball and cute managers. Also, Hitoka is legit adorable. She's defintely Moe as fuck.