Second Round Pandora Hearts vs. Haikyu!!

Marmalade · Jul 19, 2020


Pandora Hearts Mochizuki Jun		Haikyu!! Haruichi Furudate

revo · Jul 20, 2020

Part I:
Introduction

«Regardless if we win or lose,
no one really dies, or respawns.
The dark side never prospers, nor does the world end.
We don't travel across a grand world, all we do is stand within the four corners of a mere 9 x 18 metre rectangle,
and give everything we've got to prevent a ball from hitting the floor.
But thank you, for getting me into volleyball» (Chap. 324)

Haikyuu!! goes about a boy, Hinata Shouyo, who wants to play volleyball after he was amazed by an athlete performance on TV who's not particularly tall to perform so well, and then he wants to be just like him.

The story follows his development, joining a team in high school, "Karasuno", that gained a bad reputation despite being famous in the past.

The series slowly opens the focus more from Hinata, and becomes a shonen that explores different kind of experiences, ideologies and motivations of the different teams and people.

Despite the story being about Hinata progressing as a person and as a player, the series explores the ways of develpoment/efforts of various different kinds of people and characters. Not everything is about the main character, we don't only learn about him, there's a variation of characters and different types of relationships; based on the world-building where it focuses on volleyball teams of various different schools . Haikyuu!! is a realistic shonen about efforts.

The author shows focus continously in the amount of different teams and the individuals of them, the different kind of minds to let the reader know and learn about more than just the MC point of view of sports and life in general.

It's a bittersweet series because it's realistic, story telling is far from idealistic shonen mangas where the protagonist overcomes everything in the last minute. It's still heartwarming overall though, from the realism of losing and winning, to the right amount of comedy/goofy comedy in the middle of the moments.

What makes Haikyuu great is that you don't really need to play volleyball or sports in general to feel identified and care about the characters and their journeys; as their personality, interactions and minds are far different from each other, and how each one of them had their own hard experiences.

It utilizes flaws and strengths, relationships and conflicts, goals and dreams, so that the readers have no choice but to relate and remember all the characters no matter the kind of role or relationship with the protagonists.

Haikyuu's exploration of ideology is so refreshingly realistic and introspective.
Its not deep, philosophical or pretentious. Its just solid introspection and characterisation,

Not every character in this manga is crazily gifted or anything.
They are ordinary people: people you can look at and understand, characters that are believable.

Yes, Haikyuu!! is a simple manga about volleyball.
However, it reaches beyond the sport itself, it shows the true meaning of teamwork and relationships.
It establishes itself with its realistic plot line and believable characters. There isn't a single team in Haikyuu!! that feels extra or unnecessary. Every relationship is carefully crafted with personality dynamics considered.

Haikyuu!! is character driven, just as much as it is action driven.
At first glance it may seem like an average sport manga, but it is in fact the opposite: it deals with insecurity, relationships, and goals.

In conclusion, please give Haikyuu a chance, I promise it's worth it! :zomg