«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)
I. Introduction
II. The writting of characters
~Interlude~
III. The matches and symbolisms
IV. What the series has to say
Part V:
Why it's a good shonen
Haikyuu is a true manga about efforts, about a journey and character development. It doesn't need tragedies or epic battles about saving the world to be a manga of epicness and emotional ride. The character don't need to be tragic, villian-like or heroes, like I said in previous campaign, the cast is extense but full of realistic people that still have their own fun and original personalities; the most important aspect of HQ! are the dynamic of relationship and the matches.
Yes, it has clichés, and it has flaws, like any other manga/anime of course has, but what many mangas do, Haikyuu does it
right; it doesn't need to be an epic, fantastic tale to be as awesome as it is.
So why is it a good shonen series? It stays in some of the clichés there are always around, but the Furudate manages to use them and the common world-building right; the matches feel like a true battle, the characters manage to transmit feelings to you in their winning and loses in a series where tragedy or death doesn't exist; the art is incredible and the dynamic between the cast variates in various forms.
The cast is incredible extense, but you get to look at all the characters: their motives, their abilities, their qualities, their defining strengths and weaknesses, and how they interact with other members of the team.
HQ! is a series that does the realtionships well, it doesn't get into your typical MC that shines alone all the time, a journey for him alone.
It's not perfect, but it transmits exactly what Furudate wants in their work: it transmits what a team is like, what it represents and
as it should be, not only limited to sport but even more transcending to life.
The teammate of the protagonists is represented by
crows; the crows perfectly symbolize what a garbage-based team is in the
sense of variety of people and even scraps of the same sport and competition: self-centered and selfish people, stars
low confidence, leading older players but also targets of criticism, bad reputation in front of the rest of the people, lack of confidence, all points
negative against the rest of rivals that are the opposite of them strong in their path of success that crush, defeat and humiliate players of national stature and even pick, fast, weird, normal, strong, and even dominant playstyles are the accurate way to describe your competition.
I have been talking about everything: from the writting, to the characters and even the art style. In the end, even with all flaws Haikyuu! has (like any series), it still manages to be one of the best written shonen that has recently finished.
The magic of the series doesn't consist of its plot, but more from the very simple fact some teenagers or young adult athletes who fight for various reasons or aspirations, whether to improve, because their club, for personal or mysterious reasons, because it is their last chance to win something or for the simple wanting of winning.
Overall, Haikyuu is a emotional ride of tears, laughter, and frustration that you can feel from the characters, whether main characters, secondaries or even the extra-minor characters.
A series where you can learn a lot and reflect a lot about your life, but that also sitll keeps you entretained and gives you a good read; Furudate is an author who is faithful to it's own characters and plot, never betraying or making plot holes, it stays true to their way and style of writing.
You don't need to be into sports to get into the plot, and even to get a connection with the real-life events happening in the growing of the series.
Haikyuu isn't an epic fantasy battle, or has a great original world-building, or power levels, but it's still a masterpiece in it's own way.
Please, even if you don't vote for it, give it a try someday; I promise it's an epic reading and will give you the feelings that any other battle-shonen/manga in general can give you. You will get into characters, the art and even the matches; as someone who doesn't really care for sports in general, this manga has given a great impression.
Hope you read it someday!