I rate Haikyu!! 4/5 stars.

Haikyu!! is a Manga about Shoto Hinata, and his goal to become the best volleyball player in the league.

A Manga is a graphic novel made in Japan that is often printed backwards, so instead of reading from the front like in most other places in the world, the reader begins at the back.

This review is about the second half of book one; spoilers will be ahead if you have not previously read the first part.

Hinata and Kageyama’s, both on the same team, are now competitive rivals. Their relationship is still in its growth stages. The last chapter finished with the two having to settle their differences and work together so they can be able to practice and join the team.

Neither player likes working with the other. The two settle their differences and work together to be able to be on the team and practice with the other teammates.

Coach Daichi Sawamura wants them to prove they can work together so he sets up a 3-on-3 match against other first year players to prove that they can all work together. Coach makes sure to tell Kageyama that he cannot be a setter for the match-up even though that’s what his main position is. Sawamura gets Ryunosuke Tanaka, a second year wing spiker, to be the third player on Hinata’s team and to help the two with practicing.

After the conversation with coach regarding the 3-on-3 match, Kageyama complains to Hinata about how lame it is if he wasn’t a setter because he loves being the leader and being able to touch the ball more often than most other players. Hinata, Kageyama, and Tanaka, start to practice together  til the match that weekend. Hinata makes sure to practice being a better receiver, while Kageyama tries to become a better teammate towards Hinata.

Hinata then meets up with Koshi Sugawara, the vice-captain of the volleyball team, and Hinata ends up telling him the reason he’s playing because he wants to become a better player than Kageyama and be able to beat him, for which Sugawara then tells him since Kageyama was Hinata’s greatest enemy now means he is his greatest teammate. After that Hinata and Kageyama continue to practice together for the rest of book one each continuing to get better at their positions and slowly becoming better teammates.

Their relationship is strong and compelling; t he reader wants to continue  so he can see how much of a better team the two can be when they work together.

And the supporting cast of characters and teammates is strong as well, each with their own personalities and goals as a player, which is good because the Manga doesn’t get boring when any supporting character is brought up, if anything it gets more interesting. Overall I think this Manga is compelling and very interesting, this is definitely something i’d recommend to someone if their looking for a Manga series to read that is simple yet fun to read.