Haikyuu!! Episode 1 Review

Haikyuu Episode 1 review

Episode Summary

The first episode of Haikyuu!! Briefly told the audience how young Hinata Shoyo got his motivation to become a volleyball spiker.

While cycling to visit the court, Hinata watched a glimpse of the national Volleyball competition displayed in the Television. Mesmerized by the short spiker of Karasuno High School nicknamed “the little Giant” ability to jump higher than his taller build opponent, he took the image to the core of his heart and then eventually motivated himself to become a volleyball player. In contrast to his motivation to join volleyball club, his Junior High School, Yukigaoka did not have an official volleyball club so that he ended up became the only member of it.

With the help of his friend, who he asked to join despite that they came from different club, he managed to enter the preliminary of the year volleyball championship. Unfortunately, The first match pits his barely qualified team with the favorite candidate Kitagawa Daiichi.

Woops I was standing in the wrong tribune

Not only that they lack in experience, their smaller build added with the lack of team member makes the first match look like a battle between Daud and Goliath.

                    You got 6 small build players againts 14 tall playyers

While going to the Toilet Hinata overheard some of the Kitagawa players judging his team and he ended up arguing with them.

Enter Tobio Kageyama, the setter of the Kitagawa Daiichi. He told his junior that they were just a bench warmer and should not underestimating the other team since they were actually have less experience as well.

Both Hinata and Kageyama argue that neither of them is going to lose and let the chance of participating in the upcoming competition

                                                                me too

                                                            

                                                   Yes the rivalry started

The first match was losing battle for Hinata's team and Kitagawa Daiichi quickly rack up the scores.

Regardless of the condition, Hinata still try his best to cheer his team member. Meanwhile, the self-centered setter (Kageyama) made his team member angry since not only that he was too uptight, he never tried to synch his pass with the team member making the pass extremely difficult to spike.

In the second match, Hinata managed to score and it infuriated Kageyama since his peer did not try their best to catch the spike, which later on created more rifts between him and his peers. In the Kitagawa Daiichi winning point, Hinata surprised them with his high reflexes and capability to take a very difficult pass.

                          This is the how to make jumping look awesome

Even though the ball was inaccurately passed, using his fast reflex and determination, Hinata succeed to spike the ball. Yet the ball was counted out and the team lost it first official preliminary match

Unable to face the loss, the tears filled Hinata confront Kageyama and told him that one day he will defeat the setter thus after the match, Hinata trained himself promising that one day he will defeat Kageyama in the volleyball match. After finishing his middle school, he entered the Karasuno High School and took no time to enter the Volleyball club.

It just did not cross in his mind that the first person he seen while entering the Volleyball court was Kageyama Tobio

                           How to lose a rival in one episode Haikyuu edition

EpisodeReview

The first episode managed to impress me greatly. The story was simple but it was warm hearted. Taking a slice of life genre, the anime no nonsense attitude toward the audience gives me understanding that sometimes being less is better. There are no huge explosions, nor magical ability, nor that it has fan services.

Hinata’s determination was the strong selling point from Haikyuu!! in the first episode we have seen that even though the ball was out of his reach he still desperately tried to touch the ball. The first episode also establishes the first meeting between the two protagonists and their conflicting thought makes the character interactions feel alive.

The pacing is good and the background stories really add up useful information to the main storyline and I though the scenes of the first episode were handled very well

In the bright side I admit that the producer of the show manages to make volleyball as an interesting theme for an anime and best of all, the strength of haikyuu!! Is not just about the game.

It tells a story about an ordinary man who takes life head on. In his journey tears filled, difficulties abound, and fear induced. However, none shall sever his passion and no enemies are greater than admitting defeat.