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.
Remember:
Every review always contains spoilers.
I think it’s kind of funny that the second anime I decide to make a review of is another sports anime. I think there is something about this genre that is fun to analyze. Especially when the shows are more grounded and reflect things I’ve seen/experienced in high school sports. That being said this is also my first review of a seasonal anime, which I normally try to avoid but I was pretty excited for Seiin as I’ve become quite the volleyball fan this past year. But first I’d like to address the big orange and black elephant in the room. This show will probably always be compared to Haikyuu, and I personally found myself making these comparisons as I watched it. I do think there’s enough differences between the two, and I will try to refrain from making comparisons, but I do believe it’ll inevitably happen. Also, if you are looking for a show to hold you over between seasons of Haikyuu I do think this is a good choice. __ Story (Some Spoilers ahead)__ I think the story is about as run of the mill as you can get with 12-episode sports animes now. That’s not to say this is a bad thing though. But the format is generally a school gets a gifted set of new players, which makes them and interesting team to others in the prefecture. This interest general allows for them to get a practice match with a higher/highest ranked school in the prefecture and it develops a sort of rivalry that is settled by the end of the show. This structure while common is still engaging to the audience if built upon correctly. Which I think Seiin does a fantastic job at making this dynamic work. The rival school’s motives are delved into way more in this show, and the sense of rivalry goes past just Seiin being a good school suddenly. And it delves more into the concept of geniuses of a sport. It brings out more of the rival schools characters roots and aspirations of wanting to play on the center stage of nationals. Which happens to be the same goal as Seiin, but the reasons are more character driven for Fukuho. There are some more important plot points that get resolved earlier on, but I feel like they go more towards character development, so I’ll touch on it here and elaborate more later possibly. The show is tonally very different at the start compared to the ending. The start has a more Stars Align approach of having mystery surrounding the background of our main character Haijima. This being that he drove a fellow student to attempting suicide, and this leads Haijima to move back his hometown, Fukui, where he reunites with Yuni Kuroba. This beginning portion of the show is paced insanely fast too because they try to blitz through middle school but also set up drama between Haijima and Kuroba going into high school. This drama stems from Haijima being a gifted setter, and Kuroba being too affected by nerves and emotions when playing the game. This throws a wrench in their chemistry during their first tournament, and it follows to high school leading Haijima to not wanting to play as he feels like a detriment to teams. We as the viewer know Haijima isn’t the entire issue as he is a genius setter, but he must overcome his stubbornness of wanting to do everything. While Kuroba needed to learn to be more confident in himself and become the ace Seiin needed the most. And this is the big arc the two of them go through learning that they need each other to make this work out. __ Characters__ I think the best way to speak of the characters is to just break them down almost one by one as it’s a bit necessary to show what I meant in the story section. Along with the show being more character driven than story driven. Kimichika Haijima: He’s a genius setter that has a passion for the game that extends to winning at all costs. This put a huge burden on himself in the past when teammates didn’t want to be under his rigorous rule. Does this sound kind of familiar? Well if you’ve watched Haikyuu he’s very similar to Tobio Kageyama. But not to a fault really since he holds more of a burden than not getting into the high school, he wanted to be in. Haijima goes through the trauma of feeling responsible for almost causing a friend of him to kill himself. This burden holds him back when he realizes his new middle school team isn’t good enough to win unless he did all the work. And would eventually continue to hold him back once on Seiin since some people left the team due to his arrival. ~!This causes Haijima to visit the Tokyo high school he was originally supposed to go to with Kuroba. Only for them to find out that the “attempted suicide” was fake. And the goal of this suicide was something his teammates went in on to hopefully bring Haijima down to earth and hurt his ego. Along with finding out that the person who was used as the scapegoat wanted to quit volleyball but couldn’t outright quit. !~ This side plot would further help Haijima towards becoming a better team player along with the help of the rest of the seiin team. Learning that he has a reliable team and that he can make them prosper is a big part of his arc. Things like sacrificing being the setter in games to have better defense, learning to use all his attacking options, and lastly learning to trust his teammates are all factors that make Haijima a better teammate and player. Yuni Kuroba: It’s hard to directly describe Kuroba as he’s a bit of a coward for most of the show, but he is a capable player that learns to trust Haijima and himself. A lot of Kuroba’s arc ties into Haijima’s arc as the show presses this duo and their growth together a lot of the time. And it mostly starts to flourish and take form after their practice match with Fukuho. Where Kuroba see’s how impactful Subaru is. This sets Kuroba’s goal to becoming more like Subaru into motion to become a better ace for Seiin. And this goal is pushed onto Haijima as well since the ace can’t flourish without their setter. It is hard to talk about Kuroba without also talking about Haijima as the show gives these two the most spotlight for the Seiin side of things. And I think this duo works well as they are both flawed players at first. They have things that hold them back from being star players in the first half like Kuroba’s fear of being useless, and Haijima’s fear of bringing people to no longer wanting to play volleyball. These two struggle and flourish together, which makes for the pay off in their matches so much better as you see the two develop. The next two I want to talk about are the antithesis to our main characters in Subaru Mimura and Mitsuomi Ochi. These two are both apart of Fukuho Technical High School, which is a school that has never missed the spring national tournament. So, you are aware this school is capable and a tough opponent, but their motivations revolve around these two characters the most. Subaru Mimura is a powerhouse of an ace and a fellow genius. And his goal is to bring Ochi to the center stage of nationals this year as they’re both 3rd years. Subaru also has some issue in that he had surgery on both of his knees in the past, and later in the show it is revealed he’ll probably need to have more surgery done. This to me hit right at home as I’m also someone who has had surgery due to playing a sport, and it prevented me from continuing to play this sport afterwards. So, the frustration and fear Subaru feel at times in this show felt even more impactful to me. As losing something you love to do (especially something you’re good at) hurts so much even if its only temporarily. Ochi is a character that is a simple but ties more into Subaru kind of like how Kuroba ties to Haijima. But this dynamic is different from the Fukuho boys in that Ochi doesn’t actual play the game and is instead their manager. He is the moral support to the team, and the driving factor of Subaru’s goals for nationals. Since Ochi isn’t as strong of a player as Subaru or most of the other boys at Fukuho he was only given the manager position. But he constantly is there to give the team that morale boost in simple ways like getting water, towels, and even coming up with strategies for the team. He is like Haijima in that his game knowledge is strong, and he is like Kuroba in that he is there to strengthen and support the pillar of their respected teams. I like how the dynamic of these characters and their rivalry almost mirror aspects of each other, and they are fleshed out and shown enough to really impact that final match between the two teams. While there are other characters in this show that impact and help our main characters, I felt highlighting these 4 were the most important. __Pacing __ This show has insane pacing which can be a good and bad thing. For me I normally hate when animes do time skips and fast-forwarding as it can remove significant development or take away from what I was watching. This show not only has that but also focusses more on speeding up matches and other parts of the show to move it along. Which isn’t a bad thing as the only match that matters are the finals match between Seiin and Fukuho. And I know why most of the matches/games are skipped around and almost sped through. For one this show is more focused on its characters rather than the storylines behind the whole show. And secondly, it’s because Volleyball is a rally sport meaning it can be a back and forth brawl, but you don’t always need to show every point like Haikyuu does. As you can keep the game close and show the highlights or changes in the tide on break points and other points of that nature. Still for me I think how fast the show is at the start can be hard to watch as they’re trying to set up characters but also rush to high school. So it is hard to ignore how fastly paced this show can be as they try to cram all of its story in 12 episodes. __Animation/Design__ I think like most 12-episode animes there are ups and downs in the animation process. Some episodes have this crisp and impactful animation behind what is happening in the matches, and in other episodes we get less of this and more still images and displaying what the score is. We get moments of pure genius in the impact of a serve like in Haikyuu and Ping Pong the Animation, but then will get crappy still images/frames that people would call Dragon Ball Superesc. But I don’t think this is something exclusive to this show and is more of an issue with seasonal animes in general. Hell, even Haikyuu ran into this issue in its past season where a couple episodes looked bad the whole run time. So, it is hard to nickpick and be too angry about these moments and it is better to watch for the explosive and kinetic moments this show gives us. Character design is something I’ll loosely touch on because I do like the art style of these characters. They are distinct from each other and I think the show uses the different heights and body types that were designed to their advantages in the games. __Closing Thoughts__ 2.43 Seiin High School was a bit of an emotional ride. The characters are some of the better ones I’ve seen in sports animes in that they drive the story forward and keep the stakes high until the end. The progression and arc these characters go through are not only relatable/things we have seen, but they still stand out and can be developed on further. I like how the show is not afraid of giving us darker scenes and concepts as most sports animes are happy fun times for most of their airtime. And I would love to see this show get a second season especially since I think national tournament arcs can have the most impact. But at the time of writing this the Manga/light novel has been on hiatus for a while, and obviously there’s been no announcement of a second season yet. So, I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed in hopes of this show getting a second season. But even without a second season I think this show serves its purpose and is a fantastic watch. Like I said earlier if you need a show for that volleyball fix while the next season of Haikyuu is in development this is the show for you. And I hope I convinced just a couple more people to give this show a watch as it has a lot of good going for it that I couldn’t fully touch on here
2.43: Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Team Review
~~~img(https://starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/2.43-Seiin-Koukou-Danshi-Volley-Bu.png)~~~ I normally try to start these reviews with some kind of cutesy lead in. Maybe a play on the sports anime genre and how it needs more drama focused series. Or a riff on volleyball anime now that the recent season of *[Haikyu](https://anilist.co/anime/113538/HAIKYU-TO-THE-TOP-Part-2/)* is over and the manga complete. Something about how the fans are looking for their next fix of Cute Boys Play Sports. Sadly *2.43 Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-Bu*, henceforth referred to as *Volley-Bu*, simply isn't worth it. Looking for a decently animated sports series for your action fix? Denied. Perhaps a well crafted coming of age drama that tackles social pressures and suicide with grace? Denied with prejudice. The sad fact of the matter is that *Volley-Bu*, produced by [David Productions](https://anilist.co/studio/287/David-Production) and directed by [Yasuhiro Kimura](https://anilist.co/staff/119866/Yasuhiro-Kimura) of *[JoJo's Part 5](https://anilist.co/anime/102883/JoJos-Bizarre-Adventure-Golden-Wind/)* fame, is terrible. And I'm here to explain why. So without further ado, lets jump in. ~~~img(https://i0.wp.com/starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Volley-Bu-4.7.jpg)~~~ # __~~~Visuals~~~__ Starting off lets talk about the Art and Animation, led by Art Directors -Yoshiki Matsumura- and -Kentarou Akiyama-. This is a mixed bag and leaves a lot to be desired. Sometimes we get moments of expressive faces and reactions. Others the volleyball bounces around with all the impact of wet paper bag. More often than either though are the fades. Oh god the fades. Every single time someone hits a ball, jumps or does anything with any amount of meaningful movement on the court it gets blurred and dimmed to the point of being unrecognizable. It takes the few good volleyball scenes *Volley-Bu* has and throws them in bin. It's a crying shame what has happened in post-production. As you can see from the screenshots, *Volley-Bu* doesn't look *terrible*. Maybe a little bland, lacking an identity, but not terrible. Once it starts moving though it loses what appeal it had. And as for the backgrounds? Well those are actually nice, *Volley-Bu* does a great job depicting the mountainous landscape of Hokkaido. Whether it be the fields of white snow in the winter or the rolling countryside in spring and summer, the backgrounds are easily the best part of *Volley-Bu*. Even this however isn't very consistent. A large amount of the shows runtime takes place in doors or in gyms. Robbing the show of its northern landscape. And these are not very well made gyms either! So much so, and with such similarities between them that without the outside establishing shots you would have no idea *which* gym we were even in. *Volley-Bu* takes its greatest strength and fails to capitalize on it in any meaningful way. And the worst part? This is probably the nicest I'm going to be about *Volley-Bu* in this review, so strap in. ~~~img(https://i0.wp.com/starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Volley-Bu-2.7.jpg)~~~ #~~~__Narrative__~~~ This brings me to the narrative and oh boy do I hate this narrative. Spoilers for *Volley-Bu* below because I'm about to rip into it. If you don't want to be spoiled then here is a quick one sentence explanation: Insultingly bad suicide plot gives way for boring Nationals plot. Good? Great. Click here if you're ready for some spoilers. ~!Now in the effort to be fair: *Volley-Bu* didn't start terribly. The series knew it couldn't compete with the powerhouse that is *Haikyu* in action so it would focus more on the drama. A smart plan, a good way to differentiate itself and become more than "that *Haikyu* clone". In fact I thought it was a rather engaging hook, a more serious take on Kageyama with more dramatic societal and personal consequences. This idea of demanding perfection from your team, of hounding them until one of them breaks. It was a compelling look at the other side of these bullying plots we see so often in anime. The way Haijima handled and reacted to the whole thing was great to, he was really effected by it. But then *Volley-Bu* took this compelling hook, this thing that set it apart... and shit all over it, throwing it to the side. What was once about Haijima figuring out his feelings towards Volleyball and how to forgive himself instead made him a victim. This idea that a kid who was to much of a coward to practice or quit the team would fake his suicide, and that everyone would go along with it, was ridiculous and insulting. It retroactively ruins what growth Hajima had, effectively saying he did nothing wrong and that *he* was the victim in the situation. Simultaneously introducing a load of plot holes such as how he never found out or how no one told him, etc. Faking suicide isn't something that goes unreported, surely he would have heard from somewhere or some one. But for it to take years and him revisiting the school only to learn from a passing comment? Terrible. And the worst part is yet to come. The way *Volley-Bu* treats the subject of suicide is, to put it simply, insulting and concerning. It plays the whole thing off as a joke, a mean prank on *Haijima*. It makes the bully, the character who started the whole thing and who should have learned to grow, into the victim and downplays the seriousness of the subject. I'm not asking for some kind of harsh and in your face depiction of these subjects ala *Wonder Egg Priority* that aired this season. However a modicum of tact and respect doesn't feel like to much to ask from a show ostensibly rooted in character drama. Sadly though after this reveal the character drama largely disappears from *Volley-Bu*. Where once it sought to differentiate itself from *Haikyu* it instead winds up competing directly with titan. The whole show becomes a "Lets go to nationals" plot shoved into a single season with a single relevant competing team. Fukuho Tech, the reigning champions of the region, are introduced soon after the suicide plot is kicked to the curb. And honest to god? These guys are more compelling than our leads! Their drama regarding injuries and "Ill get you to center court" is ham-fisted but at least *Volley-Bu* sticks with it to the end. Sadly however because these are the rivals they are destined to lose. And not even for a good reason, they lose because they aren't the MC's.!~ Long story short, *Volley-Bu's* narrative is a proper mess. There *was* a brilliant idea here. It *had* a compelling plot and character story. But it threw it all away to focus on nationals and in doing so abandoned what little identity it had. ~~~img(https://i1.wp.com/starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Volley-Bu-4.1.jpg)~~~ #~~~__Characters__~~~ This brings us to the characters whom I have already railed against a bit. Most of my major issues here have to do with how *Volley-Bu* completely and utterly botches the drama portion of it's story. With how involved the characters are in that, it reflects on them to. But that isn't to say there wasn't a lot of other issues to be had. Take the Seiin team for example: As a whole unit you have maybe... 4 and a half characters across 8 "people". I say it like that because outside of Yuni, Haijima, and the Aoki/Oda duo none of them really matter. Maybe Okuma for a scene or two but that's the big issue here isn't it? This is an 8 man team where only the MCs have defined personalities and everyone else gets 1-off scenes whenever they interact with them. The only exceptions in Seiin really are Oda and Aoki, the captain and vice captain of the team. These two have personalities, they have scene's, they just aren't good ones. Mostly. Oda's character is probably the best and is centered primarily around his height, the short captain of team. He involves himself a bit with Yuni helping him get over his cowardice and basically pulling everyone else along with him. The old "If I can do it as short as I am, you can to" approach. Aoki meanwhile is whatever the plot needs him to be. Early on he conflicts with Haijima because of his attitude and treatment of players worse than him. He is fiercely protective of his team. But as the story goes on and the drama gives way to Nationals he largely gives way and disappears. Only ever existing when the plot needs his brand of conflict. This leaves us with the MC's Haijima and Yuni. I already railed against Haijima in the narrative section so lets talk about Yuni: The most rushed character in the cast. Once again, almost like a pattern, *Volley-Bu* started with something interesting here and squandered it. His feelings of inferiority, his cowardice in the face of conflict and his fear of being blocked and letting people down are all good beats! His stuff in the first 3 episodes and how he slowly comes to resent Haijima was legitimately investing! But All of this gets resolved by around episode 6. His entire character arc is complete in every way that matters beyond "Going to nationals". It's as if *Volley-Bu* either gave up or only involved the drama long enough to convince people it was different from *Haikyu*. Instead what it got was half-baked arcs that taste of disappointment. Finally we have Fukuho who are, in my opinion, better than the Seiin team in every conceivable way. In a single episode this team has more camaraderie and personality than our leads. Not as individuals of course, most of them don't even have names. But as a team they have a clear identity, they joke, they shoot the shit, they have a goal and a history, etc. Where Seiin feels like a ragtag band of misfits brought together, which they are, Fukuho is a group that have been together for awhile. We can see this in their interactions and their motivations. It's all rather one-note, but ill take solid and average over mediocrity. Sadly *Volley-Bu* once again squanders this by bringing them down to Seiin's level through ridiculous circumstances and plot armor. It takes what was built up as a compelling goal and, without resolving it meaningfully, throws them away. Across the board the best way to describe *Volley-Bu's* characters are "Wasted potential". Every single one of them could have been more, could have mattered, if only they had more time in which to do so. ~~~img(https://i1.wp.com/starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Volley-Bu-2.2.jpg)~~~ #~~~__OST/Sound Design__~~~ Lastly we have the OST and this is going to be particularly hard to write. Not because I'm the farthest thing from a musician or because I lack an arts education, though both of those are true. Rather because *Volley-Bu's* OST is just... forgetful. It has everything from generic rock to soft strings and even the occasional weird piece for when things get heavy on screen. But not a single track caught my imagination, managed to suck me into the scene that way great OST's can. Along similar lines though, I was never sucked *out* of the show by the music the way terrible OSTs do. It's as if the music was there, and I was aware it was there, but I didn't mind it. Think elevator music but for anime. Whatever track was playing fit the scene well enough. That's just all it did. And maybe that's ok. ~~~img(https://i0.wp.com/starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Volley-Bu-3.3.jpg)~~~ #~~~__Where it went wrong__~~~ Now we come to the personal section of the review. This has absolutely no bearing on the score, this is just me taking to you about my personal experience. If all you care about is score then feel free to skip. Otherwise if you want to try and connect, to really understand where this review is coming from, then please read on. Let me share a bit of myself with you. To me, *Volley-Bu* feels artificial. It like something made for the market to appeal to a broad audience first and foremost. As if someone saw the success of *Haikyu* and wanted to the same but knew they had to differentiate it somehow. And the way they chose to do so was "Make it a character drama". That wouldn't be so bad if that was all it was. I enjoy plenty of media that exist for that and that alone. From the Marvel movies to last years *Akudama Drive* to weird stuff like *Thunderbolt Fantasy*. None of these are pretentious "works of art" but they are all still good entertainment. And the reason I think they work where *Volley-Bu* fails is this: They know what they are. They might touch on something deeper at a surface level, but ultimately they stay true to their core start to finish. *Volley-Bu* doesn't. It starts with this serious and upfront story of suicide, pain and consequences. Yet it ends in a stereotypical match about going to Nationals. There's no ideological conflict there, winning doesn't prove anything or represent the characters overcoming something. They already overcame everything halfway through the season! Rather it feels included to get the sports shounen audience. It hooks those looking for something deeper and tries to appease them in the first half before trying to do the same with the action crowd in the second. In doing this *Volley-Bu* loses it's identity and succeeds at neither. The terrible thing here is that it was completely avoidable as well. The rival team Fukuho, nationals, the actual competition aspect, none of these are important for the initial story. Instead it should have focused on Haijima, Yuni and their growth as individuals rather than as athletes. There are so many things that *Volley-Bu* could have done to save itself from this fate. It could have cut Fukuho and focused entirely on our Seiin team. It could have lingered longer in middle school and really shown us the fallout of what happened. Most of all though, *Volley-Bu* could have committed itself to the suicide. But in not doing any of these, in trying to please everyone, it ended up pleasing no one. Or at least it didn't please me and I'm the one writing this review... so yeah. ~~~img(https://i1.wp.com/starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Volley-Bu-6.5.jpg)~~~ #~~~__Conclusion__~~~ All in all when I think of *Volley-Bu* only one word comes to mind: Disappointment. I have compared *Volley-Bu* to the standout hit that is *Haikyu* a lot in this review. Something many of you probably find off-putting as *Volley-Bu* is clearly not *Haikyu* and is clearly trying to do something different. But here's the rub: In it's quest to do in one cour what *Haikyu* did in five *Volley-Bu* abandoned everything that made it stand out. The compelling and down to earth character drama was left behind for "Let's get to nationals". The quiet moments in the mountains, the snow, walking home from school, were all cut for more volleyball matches in the second half. *Volley-Bu* tried to appeal to both crowds, to peel off some of *Haikyu's* fans while still appearing different and in doing so fulfilled neither. I don't rip into *Volley-Bu* because its fun, I don't enjoy insulting this show. I was hyped, I was invested in it after episode one. But then it let me down. And I don't want you to deal with the same. So be forewarned: You will not get what you want from this show. Whether it be action or drama, it will fail you. As it has failed me.
I want to preface this review with the fact that I _wanted to like 2.43_. I went into this anime with the hope that it wasn't going to be a Haikyuu!! clone, but left it unfortunately quite bored and disappointed. From the lackluster art style, to the janky story pacing, and to majority of cast of characters who I forgot the names of halfway through... much of 2.43 was unmemorable and, frankly, didn't leave me impressed. __(Spoilers ahead)__ The concept behind 2.43 seems a bit standard: underdog team forms together under someone who seems to have their shit together in regards to the sport, and aims to be #1 at the yearly competition. Kuroba and Haijima are Seiin's two main characters, with Haijima being the star setter and brains behind Kuroba's killer spikes. (Sounds familiar, right?) In the beginning, I genuinely liked them, and was very interested in seeing how the anime would pan out. However, as the show dragged on, I started caring less and less about them as it felt like the majority of what made them interesting was dealt with pretty early on. Unfortunately, they were two of five characters I could ever remember the names of or cared about. Kuroba, Haijima, Oda, Ochi, and Subaru Mimura. The other characters did not feel fleshed out, and for the case of the other Seiin players, I forgot their names literal minutes after meeting them as they were almost all introduced in the same episode. And because of this, I couldn't help but constantly compare the characters I _did_ know to Haikyuu!! characters. Subaru is the most blatant comparison to Oikawa, with his knee injuries and set role of being a big challenge to Seiin's team. Haijima, as many have said, seems much like a Tsukishima and Kageyama love child. Finally, Kuroba has the drive to be Seiin's ace, much like Hinata, both of which growing in talent at remarkable speed. Then there's the issue of pacing. Each episode felt, quite frankly, rushed together and yet they dragged on at a snail's pace. And then we add onto the fact that they would add incredibly important info that was rarely touched on in the following episode after the credits rolled (it took me about 5 episodes to realize I wasn't getting the whole story). One moment that annoys me was episode 9, where they end right before the credits with the idea of "we're going to go do 2 more games!", and proceeded to sum those games up in about a minute and a half max. Like, what? Finally, the anime didn't know how to make the volleyball games _interesting_. By the end, I was watching through them at 1.25x speed because they just didn't know how to portray them. It was truly a let down; if they wanted to focus on the character relationships, I wish they had spent more time on them, and the opposite is also true. This anime felt like a let down. Honestly, the only truly memorable thing about this anime is the opening, which I found to be incredibly enjoyable. I wanted to like this anime, but I felt that they did the novels an injustice in this adaptation. I didn't want to compare this anime to Haikyuu!!, but it's hard not to when out of the two, Haikyuu!! is just the superior choice in regards to memorable art style, story, and characters. I hope to read the novels myself one day just to see if the story is better than what the anime portrayed it as, as I believe that 2.43 had promise, but fell short on delivering what the original writer had in mind.
This review is spoiler free :D 2.43: Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu is quite standard. It doesn’t make you feel much watching it. The direction is...okay? The animation is pretty bad, except for the insane spikes that David Production will occasionally pour the whole budget into. The show just lacks substance. It lacks that “oomph” that propels it over being ordinary. It feels flat. It doesn’t come to life on your screen like a good anime should. That’s not to say the show itself is bad. There are some good plot points, some likeable characters, and some interesting dynamics. I enjoyed the dual perspective of the two main teams, Seiin and Fukuho, as I constantly flip-flopped on who I was rooting for. Like I mentioned earlier, there are times where the animation IS great, feeling more like David Production’s other amazingly animated shows. There are times where the rivalry feels real, and there are times where I care about what happens to the characters. The thing that brings Seiin down though is that all of these times where I actually feel something are short lived. They feel like glances to a better show. It feels like the show is struggling to wedge itself out of the hole of mediocrity, but is only able to peak its head out. It feels frustrating going from that back to the usual bad animation and poor writing. Seeing the glimmers of satisfaction in a show is not very satisfying when they simmer out. This show is ambitious in the fact that it has a background narrative behind the volleyball. At least, at the beginning it does. I couldn’t even tell you what it was now. Maybe that’s another reason this show feels half-baked. Somewhere along the line, it transferred from being a show about flawed characters who happen to play volleyball, to just volleyball. Don’t get me wrong, I like watching dudes hit balls as much as the next guy, but the show can’t expect to make that switch when the volleyball isn’t even that good. The narratives of the first few episodes are what drew me and many others to this show, and it just feels like a huge disappointment to somewhat abandon it. If you asked me if you should watch this show, I’d say “how much free time do you have?” There are definitely better anime out there, better sports anime, and obviously better volleyball anime. But at the end of the day, I don’t regret watching this one. At its higher points, it was good. At its lower points, it wasn’t necessarily unwatchable. So, if you have some free time and are just yearning to watch a sports anime, sure, this one’s alright. Overall, I think this show is the epitome of average. It's not good, but I wouldn’t say it's bad either. There are times where you laugh about how shitty the writing in that episode was, but there are times where that Demon Bazooka is just so damn cool. Give it a watch if you want. I probably wouldn’t redo it again, but I don’t regret watching it either.
**SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 5 AHEAD** For context, I watched the show Dubbed. This anime is a fun and easy watch. It starts out strong showing the desires and passions of two young, at the time, middle (secondary) school boys, who want to play volleyball. Chika and Yuni were friends in kindergarten, but after the death of his mother, Chika moved away until secondary school. Now that he's back, he reunites with his old friend Yuni, and motivates him into playing volleyball. The volleyball scenes and explanations of things make it easy to follow, even for someone who knows nothing about volleyball. The animation is absolutely amazing, not to mention the music. It has fun characters, interesting matches, and has some great overall themes like friendship and perseverance. And there were a few times where I was holding my breath to see how things turned out. However, despite all of this, something feels... Lacking. With the exception of the two "main" characters, Chika and Yuni, it feels like every other character doesn't receive the same attention, despite the show wanting you to root for them. Most of the team for Seiin are ignored, and instead the show focuses on the rival school's team. In some episodes they don't even show Seiin at all. It almost feels like the show is trying to get you to root for the rival team so that no matter who "wins" in the end, you'll be happy about it. If you can get past the fact that the show likes to focus on the rival team even more than the titular team, then you also have to contend with one of the main characters, Chika, because a complete asshole the entire time. The show tries to frame it as him pushing his team to be better and get to Nationals, but it feels shallow, selfish and even dismissive. In fact, the main character's attitude is so bad that his previous volleyball team played a "prank" on him by saying that one of the team members that Chika used to be particularly harsh to tried to kill himself. It turns out that it was just a prank that the team used to try and get him to mellow out. The other main character, Yuni, is never really fleshed out. He has a few motivational scenes where he talks about wanting to do nothing more than play the game, but for the most part, he seems to be a prop to motivate Chika and to act as a personality foil for him. Yuni is passionate for the game because Chika is playing the game. And as long as they're out there playing together Yuni wants to continue. We never seen any passion for the game outside of his desire to be with his friend and doing something that his friend likes. The motivations of the characters always come down to one thing: They just want to play volleyball. With the exception of one character who joined the team because of his friend, there's no other explanation as to why the characters wanted to join the team, or why they continue to fight so hard. There is no romance in this anime except for a fleeting interaction at one of the training camps where Seiin is talking about their crushes. The show could be considered queer-baiting in a few places because it does show Yuni getting jealous of the fact that Chika might have a crush on a girl. Other than that, it does portray strong, athletic, and well-admired men in very loving and supportive friendships. All-in-all I gave this anime a 85/100. It's cute. It's fun to watch and just enjoy. But if looking for something with a stronger plot, one might look elsewhere.