Haikyuu!!

The first anime series I'd be talking about is Haikyuu!!. Since it's still fresh in my head because I inevitably finished it last night and am still feeling very attached and emotionally overwhelmed ( p′︵‵。) (FINGERS CROSSED FOR SEASON 2).

Haikyuu!! was, to me, AN EXCELLENT 9/10.
Besides the great animation, appropriate soundtracks albeit not very outstanding, and the in-depth development of characters, it was:

1. Overloaded with humour

I have a habit of screen-shooting funny parts while I laugh my ass off and gosh, I actually realised that I have 200 over screen-shots for this anime, and note I did not manage to capture every single hilarious moments, I SWEAR. Here below lie some of the most humourous parts:

These two melodramatic kids are Nishinoya (the one with yellow streaked hair) and Tanaka (aka baldy), who seem to be attracted towards club manager Shimizu. But the director meant for this as a source of humour and not anything else serious, so you wouldn't see anything more 'romantic' than this. And would you just look at their God-forsaken faces oh my goodness.

That ray of light though. The music was starting to get very glorious here. Hinata (orange-headed) and Kageyama (frowny guy) were anticipating an inspirational answer from their senpai... only to get turned down with such a ridiculous one. It's Nishinoya we're talking about, it's not surprising hahaha.

Hinata devouring their pork buns hahahaha 

There's so much more comedy packed within the 25 episodes, even during their matches, where it can get so intense and then there's a funny scene at the side to make sure we don't get exhausted from caving our eyebrows. I'd say it's very consistent throughout and the jokes are always funny, no dry humour! (｀・ω・´)”


2. Completely human

Yes, no weird magical techniques like ignite pass from Kuroko in Kuroko no Basket (oops) or superhuman endurance/speed/strength (there are characters here with quite an extraordinary level of physically abilities, but it is completely reasonable). Did I mention that absurd Boomerang Snake from Kaido in Prince of Tennis and how he goes into 'devil mode'...

And Kaido was literally evolving into a snake for real  -______-

Everything in this show is about sheer effort and talent, and you have members getting demoralised in between matches and you'll see their fight to stand on their own feet again. You can really feel the panic, frustrations, and the struggles, and be unknowingly compelled to sympathise.
They even had a scene where they showed random people from different teams after the first round, crying because they had lost the match to their opponents. It was so real you could almost feel the grief yourself (The heavy music that accompanied made it so much sadder). It shook me, and made me to remember that yes, losing despite effort made is a painful reality.

That was Haikyuu!! bringing about a gush of emotions, splendid. Of course, they had a little bit of 'power' added to spice up the show, such as the Dateko Iron Wall, or Oikawa's power serve. Formidable but completely possible for a determined individual to defeat.

And when I meant completely human... it also includes their hair colour (argh my pet peeve). Unlike Kuroko no Basket which displays a variety of hair colours like the visible spectrum, normal people have normal black hair. This excludes a minority like Hinata's orange hair or Tsukishima being a blonde, which are still not as viciously vibrant as some other animes.

Seriously, the spectrum covers all the hair colours available in Kuroko no Basket 

3. Actually about a team

Be it bench-warmers or regulars, each has a story to tell, which was what I liked most about this series. It was not entirely focused on the main characters and allowed even the insignificant members to be part of this show. Although there was still not much light shed upon the full-time back-up characters (three second-years specifically), the directors made it an effort for them to appear and speak periodically.

Such mercy to allow these three unknowns to talk about their story

Everything is about teamwork and the emphasis is there, individuals are motivating each other constantly and it was really moving. 

Nishinoya being the libero of the team encourages his team mates, way to go!

This is Karasuno High team staring intensely at two kids who had just mocked them

The anime correctly portrays how a team sports is supposed to be, and team spirit gives off a great feeling. いいですね？(^・ω・^ )

Now, what about my favourite character?

かっこいい！

That's right, NISHINOYA (´∇ﾉ｀*)ノ

The first character he reminded me of was...

Suguro from Ao no Exorcist, yes... it's the hair.

He's an extremely boisterous and loud character who gets really hyped up about the simplest things. 

And...

He's the shortest member hahahaha

Also, he was a character that gave a lot of life in this story. 

All in all it was an unexpectedly good anime: I was surprised at the amount of humour growing at every episode, found myself to be so engrossed in the intense fights that got me clenching my fists, and not to forget tearing at emotional scenes. 

I do hope they come up with a season 2, since there's almost enough chapters in the manga for another good 25 episodes and SPRING TOURNAMENT, IT MUST GO ON!