• Studios: David Production
• Source: Novel
• Genres: Sports, School
• Synopsis: “High school student Kimichika Haijima moves back to his hometown, Fukui, after causing trouble in the Tokyo Junior High School volleyball club. There, he is reunited with his childhood friend, Yunii Kuroba, who possesses outstanding physical abilities, but is vulnerable under pressure. Haijima, with his overwhelming passion and talent for volleyball, forms an ace combination with Kuroba. The two enroll at Seiin High School, where they join the volleyball club. Awaiting them are the 163 cm hot-blooded captain Shinichirou Oda, the talented and sharp-tongued vice-captain Misao Aoki and his third-year pair, and second-year students, including Akito Kanno, who is always wearing long sleeves due to his allergy to sunlight. The newborn team breaks its former shell of weakness and becomes Fukui’s rising star. This is a certain team’s journey to victory, with a series of fascinating rivals standing in their way.”

-MAL News

First Impression:

Coming off of that Haikyuu high, of course there’s an urge to see even more volleyball anime. And thankfully there’s a new one just in time! Though what I’ve seen from the PV and the synopsis, the story will focus more on drama than the volleyball, which isn’t to say that it’ll be a bad thing but it will be a different experience from the intensity of Haikyuu. Let’s dive in!

Right off the bat (spike?), the volleyball aesthetic is there, it’s easy to see that there is A LOT of Haikyuu influence here from the familiar camera positioning, which is a good sign! I love the little details like the air particles that appear around the hand after it blocks the spike, which give the animation and scene a little more of a punch!

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I’d like to take a minute and do what I like to call “ANIMATION CHECK”. Just how detailed is the animation and how much effort was put into 1-2 seconds of actual airing time. This scene comes from the opening which shows Yuni spiking the ball in the air. The blur of his hand before contact with the ball, then the deformation of the ball from the force of the hit are super weird to see in a single frame but when all strung together it creates this flashy and eye catching animation that grabs everyone’s attention! This .5 seconds within the opening may be insignificant in the grand scheme of things but the fact that this small part took 13 fully colored images (maybe even more if you think about the inbetweens!) is something to note! I hope that this level of detail and quality will be brought into the matches that we’ll soon see!

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You can’t start off the highschool drama without the reunion of childhood friends…going wrong! As I mentioned before, the story will focus more on the characters and their interactions with volleyball being a sort of connecting factor that ties them all together. I get the feeling that technique will be an afterthought, while team work and the context surround a match with play more dominant role throughout the show.

Kuroba Yuni

Kanno Akito

Oda Shinichirou

Aoki Misao

Uchimura Naoyasu

Hokao Kazuma

Ookuma Yuusuke

Haijima Kimichika

This is interesting to see because as of the end of this first episode, we only know Kuroba Yuni and Haijima Kimichika, The others haven’t been shown other than the opening and ending themes. It’ll be interesting to see where they stand within the story and if their entrances will create more conflict or being the story together. It’s UP IN THE AIR for me, but I think I’ll enjoy this more than I think. One thing to note is that I LOVE THE ACCENTS, Yuni (and most of the characters) has a strong accent, though I couldn’t tell you from which region, whereas Kimichika sounds like he came from Tokyo (well that’s because he came straight from Tokyo lol).

Recommendation:

YES

If you love angst teenage boys playing volleyball then do I have the anime for you! For some this may be a more whiney version of haikyuu and for other this may be their next favorite show that involves volleyball. Either way I think it’s a worth while watch from an art and animation standpoint as David Productions will be working on the show. I’ll be honest I’m not a huge fan of the characters and story but I’ll give it a go (for anime science!).

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