• Anime Title: Haikyu!!
• Episodes: Season 1 – 26 episodes; Season 2 – 25 episodes; Season 3 – 10 episodes; Season 4 – 25 episodes; 2 movies; 2 Land vs Air episodes; 3 OAD episodes
• Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
• Publisher: Toho

I am not a sports anime fan. All these years, I’ve only watched one sports anime, and that was Slam Dunk from back in the day. I watched it when I was still in the Philippines, and the reason why I watched this was because basketball was or still is big in my home country. Anyway, we’re not talking about that. I am just saying that I would normally not watch a sports anime. Haikyu!! was highly recommended to me by Chris. I just never got around to watching it until recently.

And oh boy, I was glad I finally watched this. This anime was that good even if you don’t normally gravitate to something like this. Not going to lie, this anime made me care about a sport. I am not a sports person. Period. But it did! I wanted to keep on watching and watching just to see where these characters would go, how much each player would improve in each episode, and how much the team would grow as a group.

Every episode in this anime was exciting. There was no downtime. Even what you would consider downtime was exciting. Every single episode has something going on in it. Just because in every episode, there was some kind of internal realization, some kind of character development, some kind of struggle. And it was a treat.

It was nice watching Hinata Shoyo improve every single time. It was nice watching Kageyama Tobio not just improve as a setter but actually be a team player. The anime could’ve stopped there and focused on these two characters alone. But no, they extended the character development to the whole Karasuno team. Sure, there might be a couple of characters that barely got any screen time, however, they were shown improving as volleyball players as well as actually integrating themselves into the team. It was actually great seeing them turn from individuals to a cohesive Karasuno team.

Again, the anime could’ve stopped there and just focused on the Karasuno team. But no. The anime showed the other teams. Sure others got more highlights compared to the others, but it was great seeing each team adapt to pressure. Especially the ones that went against Karasuno. As Karasuno was improving on the spot, so did the team they were up against. And it was exciting seeing each team one-up the other. Some members of the opposing team got their own character development in the series as well, which was great. It made me root for other players that were not from Karasuno.

This anime adaptation did so much and did it really well. The story was great. The character development was top-notch. The animation during the games was chef’s kiss. The soundtrack was good too. My boyfriend and I were pumped the whole time we were watching this. And that was all we could ask for a sports anime. And we cannot wait for the conclusion of this series.

The normal benchmark, if I liked an anime, is if I would ever watch it again. And I would definitely rewatch this anime again. I might do just that before the conclusion movies come out. This anime became one of my favorites hands down.