haikyu!! reflections
Mar. 17th, 2024 10:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
arundelsCan you believe that at the start of the year I didn't realise Haikyu!! was about volleyball? I started reading the manga in the first week of Feb and now here we are, in the middle of March, I've finished the series and am forever changed by it. I have so many thoughts and feelings about the story and all of the characters, and as a longtime fandom hag my first instinct is of course to dive straight into the fandom - and what an abundance of creativity, love, and joy has clearly been poured into the fan community! But this series already feels incredibly special to me and I have a gut feeling that I will want to look back and remember how it all started, so here are my initial reflections on the story and the characters.
For obvious reasons, spoilers for all of Haikyu!! abound.
how it all began
I am not new to the world of manga/anime but I would say that I have never been deep into it. I started reading manga in my tweens, with Fruits Basket (in Mandarin, for reasons beyond me). I really loved furuba but I never loved it enough - or wasn't aware enough of the fan community out there - to get into fandom for it. This despite owning all the volumes! I then read Ouran High via volumes passed around with my classmates - I never quite remember who owned them, but we had a little group of nerds who passed each volume down the line and all read it together. It was a wonderful and sweet experience to share with friends, but again - it never crossed into fandom territory for me. Some of those same friends were intensely into various animanga fandoms though, FMA being the one that stands out the most in my memory, but I think one of them was also really into Naruto.
I then had various forays into other series in recent years - BNHA, JJK, Trigun... None of them really captured my attention or love. I enjoyed the stories and the characters, but in the way of a more casual fan. So when I decided to pick up a manga series (now that having an ereader makes borrowing manga volumes so easy) I wasn't really expecting it to take over my life. I asked Harini for a few recommendations, but a lot of them were sadly not available at my library. Then I remembered a few years ago thirsting over a fanart of a character I didn't recognise and someone telling me it was a character from Haikyu!! - I sadly can no longer find the fan art or remember the character, but they did have dark flat hair and I suspect it was Kageyama. I also remember there being huge excitement in fandom last year(?) when some official art was released of some of the characters with their hair down.
All this to say, my journey into the world of Haikyu!! was in many ways fortuitous. There are so many different directions I could have gone and so many worlds in which the Ally of March 2024 does not know who these wonderful characters are... I shudder at the thought. But within the first few volumes or maybe even the first few chapters, I was sucked into the story and I could feel that something really special was building.
what I love about hq
I am clearly not alone in my love of Haikyu!! so an examination of what I, personally, love about it might be a little self-indulgent. But what is a blog for if not self-indulgence? I am also really interested in why I am captured by the stories that I am, and why it is that Haikyu!! has hooked me in a way that no other animanga series I've encountered has managed.
The first thing that stands out to me is the ensemble cast. Rather than stories that have tight focus on the main characters, I have always loved getting to know a wide variety of characters, who all interact with each other in different ways and have different sorts of motivations and dynamics. Looking back at my past fandoms, from [redacted fandom] to Game of Thrones/ASOIAF to MDZS, what these stories have in common is precisely this huge and deep cast of characters. It's probably that same instinct that drives my love for kpop rpf. Having so much variety gives my brain so many jumping off points and therefore holds my interest.
The second thing is that I am fundamentally a sports lover. There is something very powerful in the narratives that sports allows us to build - the mix of competition and rivalry, versus teamwork, trust, loyalty... Plus the dedication to the craft, the interplay between strategy and tactics, and what that says about you as a person. The hard work and resilience. And the hunger to prove yourself, to always be better, to leave a legacy, to win. You get a glimpse of all of this in real life sports, so a fictional story that really hones in the focus on all of these ideas and makes them larger than life - that was always bound to get me.
Another thing worth mentioning is the art. At first glance the art of Haikyu!! is perhaps nothing special - it looks a lot like most other manga. But I think Furudate is a master of visual storytelling - the way in which he chooses to frame scenes, the way he assembles those scenes together on the page, and the way he really uses full potential of the medium he has in order to stir some very intense emotions in his readers... I started watching the anime alongside reading the manga, and while the anime is very good I think there is something so powerful about the manga that that anime doesn't capture as well (though I will reserve judgment for now - I'm only 12 episodes in so frankly I'm not at the big emotional moments yet).
But all of that would mean nothing if not for the incredible characters and storytelling! The way that the technical / competitive aspects of volleyball are woven into the character development is nothing short of masterful, and it is exactly the kind of storytelling that I love and aspire to in my own writing - where neither the plot nor the characters take centre stage, but something more like a blend of the two. Furudate also crafts these deep, varied characters and backstories - each character that appears on page is a fully realised person, and Furudate is a master at using very few words/pages to show you who they are and what really matters to them. There are no antagonists in Haikyu!! but that is not to say that there is no conflict - there is plenty of conflict but all of it between characters whose motivations make sense, and whose losses you can feel gutted by even as you celebrate the victory of others.
into the story itself
The actual plot of Haikyu!! is broken into arcs, but to me it really feels like a story in two parts - the first 40 volumes (roughly) documenting the main characters' first year at Karasuno, and the final 5 using liberal time skips to depict what in many ways feels like an epilogue to the story, bringing the characters to their early 20s. But in so many ways the time skip era also feels like the main 'story', and the first 40 volumes a prequel that sets up the characters so that you can follow them through the rest of their lives.
As a sports lover I deeply enjoyed the amount of detail of all the volleyball matches. Every one feels like its own story, and every loss and triumph can and does feel like it encompasses the whole world. Without those chapters that show you just how much every single point matters - not just to us as readers but to the characters - you wouldn't really get the depth of feeling and understanding of the characters you need to make the final arc work.
At the same time, I do think a story that focused only on the intricacies of high school volleyball would have lost so much of what makes Haikyu!! so special and unforgettable. It's getting to know these characters so deeply, then being launched into a whirlwind of watching time pass, watching them grow up, watching them grow apart but also stay together, watching their dreams change or in some cases not change, watching them achieve everything they've ever wanted, watching them grow into the fullest versions of themselves... To me that's where the beauty and power of Haikyu!! really lies.
I'm crying typing this out. If Haikyu!! had just been its first 40 volumes, it would have been an excellent series. But the final arc takes Haikyu!! from excellent to, frankly, life-changing. I think it was incredibly brave and insightful for Furudate to realise that he has created the perfect backdrop against which he can take us through years and years of development without anything feeling superficial or rushed, and in fact that it's this sort of 'zoom out' that is exactly what was needed to elevate Haikyu!! to legendary status. It's like an epilogue, except the epilogue isn't an afterthought that just dumps characters into random static states - it's one that shows continued growth and movement and a vibrancy to the world that makes you feel like the characters are still living and breathing and continuing their journeys even as the series that documents their lives has come to an end.
the characters and dynamics
I have to confess, when I started writing this post I was thinking it would be fun to make a list of my favourite characters and ships, to look back on someday. Instead I'm sitting here sobbing thinking about how much this series already means to me and how truly special it feels. I could write an essay on most of the characters / ships, probably, but for now - here's a rapidfire summary of my more fannish thoughts!
favourite characters // This list could basically be just "all the characters I've ever met" but if we're forcing me to pick a top 5:
favourite ships // This list is so fluid, and it will depend I suspect on their fanon interpretations, but at the moment:
Edited to add: I am also extremely compelled by the Kageyama/Shoyou/Atsumu triangulation. The jealousy potential between Kageyama and Atsumu is great, of course - both setters that can give Shoyou the quick set he deserves!! But in that jealousy and competition I think the two of them have a compelling dynamic of their own. Anyway watch out for OT3 potential here.
Okay that's it for now. I'm going to go sit on the sofa and process my emotions for a bit (a lot). Please tell me your Haikyu!! thoughts and talk to me about them because I think my brain might explode otherwise.
For obvious reasons, spoilers for all of Haikyu!! abound.
how it all began
I am not new to the world of manga/anime but I would say that I have never been deep into it. I started reading manga in my tweens, with Fruits Basket (in Mandarin, for reasons beyond me). I really loved furuba but I never loved it enough - or wasn't aware enough of the fan community out there - to get into fandom for it. This despite owning all the volumes! I then read Ouran High via volumes passed around with my classmates - I never quite remember who owned them, but we had a little group of nerds who passed each volume down the line and all read it together. It was a wonderful and sweet experience to share with friends, but again - it never crossed into fandom territory for me. Some of those same friends were intensely into various animanga fandoms though, FMA being the one that stands out the most in my memory, but I think one of them was also really into Naruto.
I then had various forays into other series in recent years - BNHA, JJK, Trigun... None of them really captured my attention or love. I enjoyed the stories and the characters, but in the way of a more casual fan. So when I decided to pick up a manga series (now that having an ereader makes borrowing manga volumes so easy) I wasn't really expecting it to take over my life. I asked Harini for a few recommendations, but a lot of them were sadly not available at my library. Then I remembered a few years ago thirsting over a fanart of a character I didn't recognise and someone telling me it was a character from Haikyu!! - I sadly can no longer find the fan art or remember the character, but they did have dark flat hair and I suspect it was Kageyama. I also remember there being huge excitement in fandom last year(?) when some official art was released of some of the characters with their hair down.
All this to say, my journey into the world of Haikyu!! was in many ways fortuitous. There are so many different directions I could have gone and so many worlds in which the Ally of March 2024 does not know who these wonderful characters are... I shudder at the thought. But within the first few volumes or maybe even the first few chapters, I was sucked into the story and I could feel that something really special was building.
what I love about hq
I am clearly not alone in my love of Haikyu!! so an examination of what I, personally, love about it might be a little self-indulgent. But what is a blog for if not self-indulgence? I am also really interested in why I am captured by the stories that I am, and why it is that Haikyu!! has hooked me in a way that no other animanga series I've encountered has managed.
The first thing that stands out to me is the ensemble cast. Rather than stories that have tight focus on the main characters, I have always loved getting to know a wide variety of characters, who all interact with each other in different ways and have different sorts of motivations and dynamics. Looking back at my past fandoms, from [redacted fandom] to Game of Thrones/ASOIAF to MDZS, what these stories have in common is precisely this huge and deep cast of characters. It's probably that same instinct that drives my love for kpop rpf. Having so much variety gives my brain so many jumping off points and therefore holds my interest.
The second thing is that I am fundamentally a sports lover. There is something very powerful in the narratives that sports allows us to build - the mix of competition and rivalry, versus teamwork, trust, loyalty... Plus the dedication to the craft, the interplay between strategy and tactics, and what that says about you as a person. The hard work and resilience. And the hunger to prove yourself, to always be better, to leave a legacy, to win. You get a glimpse of all of this in real life sports, so a fictional story that really hones in the focus on all of these ideas and makes them larger than life - that was always bound to get me.
Another thing worth mentioning is the art. At first glance the art of Haikyu!! is perhaps nothing special - it looks a lot like most other manga. But I think Furudate is a master of visual storytelling - the way in which he chooses to frame scenes, the way he assembles those scenes together on the page, and the way he really uses full potential of the medium he has in order to stir some very intense emotions in his readers... I started watching the anime alongside reading the manga, and while the anime is very good I think there is something so powerful about the manga that that anime doesn't capture as well (though I will reserve judgment for now - I'm only 12 episodes in so frankly I'm not at the big emotional moments yet).
But all of that would mean nothing if not for the incredible characters and storytelling! The way that the technical / competitive aspects of volleyball are woven into the character development is nothing short of masterful, and it is exactly the kind of storytelling that I love and aspire to in my own writing - where neither the plot nor the characters take centre stage, but something more like a blend of the two. Furudate also crafts these deep, varied characters and backstories - each character that appears on page is a fully realised person, and Furudate is a master at using very few words/pages to show you who they are and what really matters to them. There are no antagonists in Haikyu!! but that is not to say that there is no conflict - there is plenty of conflict but all of it between characters whose motivations make sense, and whose losses you can feel gutted by even as you celebrate the victory of others.
into the story itself
The actual plot of Haikyu!! is broken into arcs, but to me it really feels like a story in two parts - the first 40 volumes (roughly) documenting the main characters' first year at Karasuno, and the final 5 using liberal time skips to depict what in many ways feels like an epilogue to the story, bringing the characters to their early 20s. But in so many ways the time skip era also feels like the main 'story', and the first 40 volumes a prequel that sets up the characters so that you can follow them through the rest of their lives.
As a sports lover I deeply enjoyed the amount of detail of all the volleyball matches. Every one feels like its own story, and every loss and triumph can and does feel like it encompasses the whole world. Without those chapters that show you just how much every single point matters - not just to us as readers but to the characters - you wouldn't really get the depth of feeling and understanding of the characters you need to make the final arc work.
At the same time, I do think a story that focused only on the intricacies of high school volleyball would have lost so much of what makes Haikyu!! so special and unforgettable. It's getting to know these characters so deeply, then being launched into a whirlwind of watching time pass, watching them grow up, watching them grow apart but also stay together, watching their dreams change or in some cases not change, watching them achieve everything they've ever wanted, watching them grow into the fullest versions of themselves... To me that's where the beauty and power of Haikyu!! really lies.
I'm crying typing this out. If Haikyu!! had just been its first 40 volumes, it would have been an excellent series. But the final arc takes Haikyu!! from excellent to, frankly, life-changing. I think it was incredibly brave and insightful for Furudate to realise that he has created the perfect backdrop against which he can take us through years and years of development without anything feeling superficial or rushed, and in fact that it's this sort of 'zoom out' that is exactly what was needed to elevate Haikyu!! to legendary status. It's like an epilogue, except the epilogue isn't an afterthought that just dumps characters into random static states - it's one that shows continued growth and movement and a vibrancy to the world that makes you feel like the characters are still living and breathing and continuing their journeys even as the series that documents their lives has come to an end.
the characters and dynamics
I have to confess, when I started writing this post I was thinking it would be fun to make a list of my favourite characters and ships, to look back on someday. Instead I'm sitting here sobbing thinking about how much this series already means to me and how truly special it feels. I could write an essay on most of the characters / ships, probably, but for now - here's a rapidfire summary of my more fannish thoughts!
favourite characters // This list could basically be just "all the characters I've ever met" but if we're forcing me to pick a top 5:
- Tsukishima Kei (Karasuno)
- Kageyama Tobio (Karasuno)
- Miya Atsumu (Inarizaki) & cheating by sneaking Miya Osamu in here too
- Oikawa Tooru (Aoba Johsai)
- Hinata Shoyou (Karsuno)
favourite ships // This list is so fluid, and it will depend I suspect on their fanon interpretations, but at the moment:
- Iwaizumi/Oikawa (thank god I have a popular ship thank god. I was surprised to see how popular they are given that they don't actually have that much focus but damn the moments where they are in focus are truly insane in the membrane type stuff)
- Kagehina/Hinata (how can you read Haikyu!! and not come away at least liking kagehina)
- Sugawara/Daichi (I'd always kinda liked them but the third year graduation scenes really killed me)
- Astumu/Hinata ("one day I'm gonna set for you" ok how about I just die)
- Tsukishima/Kageyama (the mutual respect + mutual hate we love to see it)
Edited to add: I am also extremely compelled by the Kageyama/Shoyou/Atsumu triangulation. The jealousy potential between Kageyama and Atsumu is great, of course - both setters that can give Shoyou the quick set he deserves!! But in that jealousy and competition I think the two of them have a compelling dynamic of their own. Anyway watch out for OT3 potential here.
Okay that's it for now. I'm going to go sit on the sofa and process my emotions for a bit (a lot). Please tell me your Haikyu!! thoughts and talk to me about them because I think my brain might explode otherwise.
no subject
Date: 2024-03-17 11:08 pm (UTC)i haven't reread the manga, so i'll have to do that one day. i can say for sure that a pro of the anime is watching some scenes come to life because that itself is its own unmatched experience. but i have a vivid memory of reading the finale at my kitchen table and trying not to make it obvious to whoever was at the table with me that i was crying lmao so both can do a number on you :')
with few exceptions, the only anime i have watched are sports anime for many of the reasons you list here. ensemble cast, excellent characters, the exploration of the human condition that is competitive team sports. haikyu!! was not my first sports animanga but it was the one that had the most profound effect on me. i only played volleyball for three years, but my third year saw me captaining my high school's JV team and working with a group of kids that included a couple fans of the series. they saw what volleyball could do for hinata, so they wanted to play. it was a rough season during a rough year for me personally, far more losses than wins, but it was a joy to spend time with that team. if nothing else, i hope more people of all ages have fallen in love with the sport and learned more about it, whether playing or watching (olympics are always a blast but stateside, we have ncaa college volleyball and the new women's pro league, which make me very happy).
moving on from the sap lol, tsukishima kei #1 iktr. idk if your top 5 is in order but he's been my ride or die from the beginning and i stand by the observational tweets that are like "your favorite hq characters are a better personality test than mbti" because... yeah... on my priv twt i assessed myself in terms of my favorite guys after the rewatch, and i do think there is rich material there. likely to change again after manga reread but it's a good record of where i am at the time!
my current top 10 (top 2 in order):
tsukishima kei
kita shinsuke
oikawa tooru (the real marker of my own personal growth is going from not being able to stand this guy to realizing why he was Like That during high school 🫱🏽🫲🏽 i understand you now grand king)
iwaizumi hajime
kuroo tetsurou
akaashi keiji
semi eita
suna rintarou
both miya twins
ships of choice
iwaizumi/oikawa (you get it)
kageyama/hinata (speaks for itself)
kenma/hinata (i like kuroken but something about unexpected sunshine hinata coming in and giving kenma another source of motivation to play and to win is simply elite)
kuroo/tsukishima (schemer central. i know who i am)
bokuto/akaashi (i would probably say bokuto is top 11 for me. these two are obsessed with each other in different but equally striking ways which. how could i object)
would love to hear your thoughts as you progress in the anime! lmk which of the openings and endings is your favorite, because the music and ost were as integral to my viewing experience as the show itself. (discovered a new favorite opening this time around! and could sing some of the lyrics of the first opening, despite not knowing any japanese lmao. also oikawa's ost cracks me tf up every time)
no subject
Date: 2024-03-18 02:59 pm (UTC)so cool that you played volleyball in school! I did it in one PE module for a few months and I was so bad at it... the ball hurt so much it was crazy. the only thing I could sort of do was setting and I wasn't good at it I was just at least able to touch the ball that way haha. I do like watching it at the olympics, though I never really "follow" it every day - but this year I def will and I'm excited to!!!
ok gonna attempt to like respond to some points in a vague semblance of organisation:
- TSUKKI!!!! the list is indeed sort of in order, and the only thing I know for sure is that tsukki is #1 in my heart. he was my absolute fave right from the start and his character arc is SOOOO COMPELLING
- also I have to say... kita....... I was keeping a running list of fave chars/ships as I read, and when I came across kita I just wrote 'kita......' across the bottom of the note cos I didn't know how to classify him but he makes me feel a lot of things I still haven't processed. when I saw he'd become a rice farmer I cried. anyway he's def making it onto that top 5 list in time, once I actually understand why he makes me feel the way I feel.
- huge SAME on oikawa. at the start I was like eh I don't get the hype but now. NOW.... I GET IT. poor little tortured boy who TRIES. SO. HARD. FEELS SO MUCH BUT PRETENDS NOT TO. grand king of my heart
- iwaoi. i do get it. i so rarely am a fan of The Most Popular Ship but this ship is clearly popular for a reason. the more I think abt them the more insane I feel
- kenma/hinata!! the only reason they're not on my top ships list is cos I think I ship them as best friends more than romantically? but the scene where kenma goes to hinata after karasuno lose and gives him the tablet. and then kuroo is like oh it probably made him feel better just to see a friend. and the way they were unexpected but such good friends from the start. just PEAK!!!! PEAK!!!!!!
- my good friend ships kuroo/tsukki and I just don't rly get it tbh! I want to see it!! they had some fun interactions during the training camp and I guess kuroo is like tsukki's mentor? maybe it's not for me but I am so genuinely baffled by it that I wonder if I've just like...missed something lol
I will def be updating more as I continue on my hq journey! sadly my phone hates all the anime websites so I really only watch on my computer which means slow progress, but I'll make my way through it :)
no subject
Date: 2024-03-18 12:11 am (UTC)it's so interesting to read what you find so compelling about haikyuu because there are definite points of overlap between us (loving ensemble casts, absolutely, the INCREDIBLE art/page layouts, yes, the masterful storytelling, for sure) but the major point of departure is also interesting to me--namely, i am not a sports person At All. i care about like 3 sports every olympics and occasionally watch basketball with my family before i get bored and that's literally it. and yet haikyuu gripped me so powerfully all the same. i think that really speaks to furudate's incredible talent as a storyteller, to make even people who could not care less about most sports (me) so unbelievably invested in this story, in these characters and their growth.....like wow i'm getting emotional JUST THINKING ABOUT IT!!!!!!
i also think the overlap between our fave characters/ships is interesting because as we have discussed i am far and away (tsu)kagehinaist before anything else. but tsukki and kageyama are also my two favorite characters, altho for me the order is flipped--ch 387, as we have also discussed, made me genuinely and irrevocably unwell, and there's no way kageyama couldn't be my favorite after that
i totally agree with you about the transcendent, elevating greatness of the timeskip arc--i think it really carries the themes of haikyuu in so many ways....like, "today, you are defeated, but what will you become tomorrow?" AND WE GET TO SEE IT! there's always another match, always more chance for growth and change if we just reach out and take it. UGH!!!! I LOVE THIS SERIES SO MUCH!!! and i'm sooo eager for your (potential) hq fic writer era. and also so happy i get to share the experience of this series destroying and also healing me on every level with you <333
no subject
Date: 2024-03-18 03:05 pm (UTC)I was thinking about how you like tsukagehina and i like whatever the ship name for atsumu/kagehina is. and how that reflects the different ways in which we like 95z? I think you like them as a trio of equals, best friends, partners. whereas I like them as two people bound together by their shared love for one person (jeonghan / hinata), and forced to navigate their own relationship with each other? anw that has no bearing on anything it's just interesting
yes to everything abt the time skip arc! "today, you are defeated, but what will you become tomorrow?" im crying in the club (at my desk). and yeah the way it creates this feeling that THE STORY DOESN'T END HERE it's so beautiful. the hq fic writer era is frankly inevitable. it's only a question of when and what and how.
thank you truly for sharing this experience with me!!!!! it has been so fun (re)reading it together and shouting about it together and I'm excited to dive into fandom / fics together :)
no subject
Date: 2024-03-19 04:28 am (UTC)ok the 95z comparison is kind of blowing my mind because you're so right omg...both in how we view 95z v differently and also how that applies to our preferred kagehina triangulations...wow....there is jihancheol everywhere for those with the eyes to see....(/j but also /srs)