Haikyuu!! season 1

 This is one anime series I always said I would watch, net never got round to.

But then MAL launched an Intrest Stack around sports for the Olympics, and I sat down and watched this volleyball anime as a result, because badges are always nice to get on your MAL profile.

And so we start the journey of Shouyou Hinata and his friends on their path to become the best in their sport in this first season counting 25 episodes.  Being not the tallest, he makes up for this by sheer drive and determination.  He runs into Tobio Kageyama, the top player in their school region, sparking a rivalry.

Graduating middle school, he goes to high school enlisting to the volleyball team... running into Kageyama there.  Eager to prove himself to his nely met teammates, this results in the vice-principals toupee being knocked off.  Shouyou qnd Kageyama need to learn to work together in order to be allowed in on the team though.  Together they will have to win a testgame, otherwise Kageyama won't be allowed the setter role.  Daichi, the team captain, sees the potential in them, but they need to work together to not drag the team down.

Shouyou tells Koushi, one of the new team members, he actually looks up to Kageyama.  They meet the players they will be facing in the match, causing them to train even harder.  During the test game, Shouyou learns why Kageyama is called the King, and that it is not for a flattering reason, but because his egocentric play attitude.  But Shouyou keeps is faith in him, asking for his special sets, as they slowly connect with each other's playstyle.

They show enough skill and are allowed back in the gym and on the team.  A match has been arranged with a top team, but they want Kageyama play as the setter the whole match as a condition.  But as the match comes closer, Shouyou gets more and more stressed out.  Totally overwhelmed during the match, he makes a mess of the first set.  But he gets himself together and learns to trust in his teammates, taking the second set.  But Kageyama's hunch proves correct, as he has a hunch their starting setter hadn't arrived for this game, and he does so for the final set.

 

This changes the game's flow again, as he reads the game perfectly and keeps targetting Tsukki as that is the weakest receiver on the team, but Shouyou saves a serve and finishes by smashing it past their top player in a flash, winning the game.   But their opponents already think of a playstyle in case they should meet in an official match.

During practice, a boy even shorter then Shouyou appears suddenly, receiving perfectly.  This guy, Noya, is a second year at the school, who joined the school... due to the look of the girl's uniforms.  With a legendary coach, Ukai, coming out of retirement to coach them, the team seems to be on the right track now.  But in order to return, he wants his friend Asahi also to come back to the court. 

 

But the coach they are after is actually the grandson of the legendary coach, who is rather reluctant of taking the job at first.   Suga tries to convince Asahi in the meantime to come back to play, while Take has arranged for another practice match to round out the Golden Week training camp.  But in the end, all three join up for the match against Nekoma.  But first their new coach want to see them play, and called in another team to this end, made up old students from the school.

This convinces Asahi and Noya to join up again, as preparations for their first official training match begins.  The coach is forced to make decisions about the starting line-up, the team understanding the issues.  Shouyou receives number 10, just as his idol that made him start playing volley ball, the "Little Giant".  But Kageyama sees their plan, to block Shouyou and so limit the blind sets he puts out.  

But the opponents also have a player that can read the game and intentions of players to the top level, countering a lot of their tactics.  Kageyama and Shouyou change their approach a little, as they adapt to the new play style in-game.  They loose by the closest of margins, but the opposing coach praises their potential.

Preparations for the march tournament begins, and they notice they been seeded with two very strong teams in their bracket.  But that is, if they first make it past the first round, against a team which has the captain's best friend in it.  They win this, and as such Shouyou's first ever, match, putting them in the next round against the highly rated Date Tech, famed for their blocking Iron Wall, but Noya boosts their morale using a special receive he dubbed Rolling Thunger Again.

 

But the Super-Fast Attack and the combination of their changing patters confuses Date, and manage to get past the Iron Wall block game.  They manage to take the first set as a result, but can they keep this going as the Date Iron Wall is starting to adapt to their plays.  Asahi steps up though, getting them to match point.  Noya saves the point, allowing Asahi to finish it and get past his demons and finally break open the Iron Wall in his mind.  

In their next match against Aoba Jousai, they are faced with a top player, Oikawa, who is also a great setter, and swore to defeat Kageyama in a setter on setter duel, and to add pressure to the game it is even being broadcasted on television.  Oikawa however has figured out when they use Shouyou as either a decoy or for the fast attack.  Kageyama is loosing it, making the team actually swap him out.  Never the less, Jousai takes the first set, but they realise Shouyou and his team are starting to think their moves through better.  

But they start to look through Suga's sets, and Kageyama is rotated back in now that he has calmed down from the pressure and observed Suga's style of play.  They take the set, bringing the score even again.  In the final set, the teams go to a deuce, before Aoba Jousai wins the match on the experience of Oikawa in a long game.  

And so after working their way through the feelings of defeat, the training starts again for the next tournament.  

The thing is, this is actually good.  You watch in tension as they try to score the points, hold your breath at the crunch moments and actually feel sad when they lose.  So that means, a well made series!