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The most important thing in a team sports is, without a doubt, the team. This holds especially true for volleyball. Having six talented players is all fine, but as long as they aren’t a team and don’t show team spirit, that talent is surely in vain. But what if it’s the other way round; is it a surefire way to win when you have one team where not everyone is talented?

Not really. But the chances are higher when there’s one team, rather than six players.

Haikyuu!!, or High Jump in English, is about Hinata and Kageyama, two players who originally stand at the opposite side of ... the volleyball net – plus are personality-wise polar opposites too - and are, due to the fact that they attend the same high school, forced to work together. During that process, they learn the importance of a team and that you don’t lose or win alone. The show eventually does focus on the entire Karasuno volleyball team (and on other teams too), but it’s still obvious who the main characters are.
As with most sports anime, the plot starts with Hinata and Kageyama meeting (and fighting), then joining the Karasuno volleyball team, and the team battling others all the way to the Inter-Highs. The volleyball aspects are well explained though and nicely weaved into dialogues. We learn about the libero when the libero appears. We learn about Quick As when Kageyama and Hinata perform a Quick A. There is no huge info dump in that manner; the viewer is pretty much spoonfed with information, one term explained at a time. The plot isn’t very original and average at best, but to be fair, Haikyuu is an anime where it’s more about the characters than the story.

What I liked about Haikyuu was the fact that the show doesn’t rely on superpowers, even though it was somewhat unbelievable at some points. There is the fact that Kageyama can exactly pin-point where to toss the ball, for example, or Hinata jumping a felt hundred metres high. But except that, there are no laser beams emerging from the player’s eyes, there is no “super saiyan”-mode, nothing like that. And the best part is: Even the supporting cast thinks it’s weird. They think it’s weird when Kageyama perfectly tosses the ball to Hinata, who jumps a felt hundred metres high. They laugh when a character names his moves. I simply loved that because most sports anime tend to take those things for granted, which isn’t realistic at all.

As previously mentioned, Haikyuu lives off its characters. The first eleven episodes are about the main team, Karasuno, which helps the viewer to learn and love the boys one by one, as most are characterized well, have good interactions with each other and their motivations are shown too. Then the opposing teams and characters kick in. There is the ”fated rival” Nekoma, who appears in three episodes and then vanishes into thin air with the promise to meet again in the Inter-Highs. There is Tokonami, the loser team, and Dateko, the team that caused the ace Asahi to have a volleyball trauma. But the only opposing team truly worth mentioning is Aoba Johsai which we get a lot to know of, as many of the players were once teammates or upperclassmen of Kageyama, but especially so Oikawa, who can be seen as the antagonist of Haikyuu. He gets such strong characterization and his motivations are laid out so well that it makes him easily one of the best characters in the series. Other characters who develop really well are Karasuno’s Tanaka – who gets introduced as one of the comic relief characters in the beginning and gets fleshed out properly later on – as well as Nishinoya, who is introduced as a hot-blooded, loud character, but quickly turns to one of the pillars of the protagonist team.

I wish I could say the same about Hinata, but sadly, that isn’t true. While his motivations do get shown early in the series – as he is the main character – he still acts most of the time like a “volleyball Naruto”; hotblooded, highly friends-focused and especially annoying in matches, when he screams “Bring it on!” for the tenth time (even if it does get revealed that it has a reason why he screams that way). As for the other main character Kageyama, he certainly develops from the mean, oppressing attitude which brought him the nickname “King of the court” (no, that’s definitely not praise), to a person who learns to depend on others and to listen to them for once. I really like Haikyuu’s cast, save one or two characters, and they make the show very good.

The animation, as the studio behind the series is Production I.G, certainly does not disappoint. The scenes look crisp, the matches look fluid, and what I loved especially was, in some parts of the show, when the characters smash the ball – that was when the animation became a lot like a sketch and that was very impressive in my eyes. There is also a scene which was reminiscent to the Monogatari Series to me in Episode 21; when the vice-captain Sugawara wants to tell Kageyama to “do his best”, but stops in the middle of the sentence and the plain text “Let’s win” gets shown for two seconds. Sometimes the characters look off-model (especially the ones watching the game), and sometimes scenes are reused over and over again, but overall, it’s certainly a visual feast.

As for the sound, it always fits to the mood, and varies from electronic to straight up swing over rock; this applies to the opening and ending themes as well. A special mention belongs to the voice cast; there were many familiar and unfamiliar names, and all of them did a great job. All of them suit to their respective characters, but the one that shined the most was Oikawa’s voice actor and my favourite, Namikawa Daisuke, who made Oikawa to the great antagonist that he is.

When I watched Haikyuu on a weekly basis, I was looking forward to every next week, and loved every single episode. When I rewatched it once the show was over, I didn’t enjoy it that much. I thought the events before the Inter-High (which starts in Episode 15) to be average at best. But after the Inter-High started, that was when my enjoyment had a peak, especially so in the last match, Karasuno vs Aoba Johsai. To me, that’s when the series really evolves from the average sports anime to a great one.


Haikyuu’s core theme is the team. It’s about learning to trust each other when you’re in a team, it’s about winning and losing as a team, it’s about overcoming obstacles as a team. For being that team-focused, Haikyuu really spends lots of its time for the viewer to get to know the team, and handles its characters with great care, even though the plot is by no means unique. It has great animation, a fitting sound and a wonderful voice cast. If you are debating whether or not to watch this, then don’t hesitate and start Haikyuu. You won’t regret it.

Ah, the puberty. A time in which we obsess over teen idols, or get angry about nothing, but above all, a time where we want to be acknowledged. So how does one get acknowledged? The best way, of course, is to prove anyone to be the best in something. After all, victors write history.

But it’s losers like Shinozaki Mikoto who are history.

Over Drive follows the protagonist and his journey on the bike, alongside the other members of the Sakura Bicycle Club. Their big dream is to participate in the Tour de France. But of course, it’s a long way until then – first, there ... are 11 episodes about Shinozaki learning to ride a bike and swooning over his crush Fukuzawa Yuki, introducing Yamato as well as the captain and Yuki’s brother Yousuke. Needless to say, it’s too long, and in my opinion a chore to watch. Once we get to the race – which is pretty much the rest of the show – the pace picks up, very slightly so though, because not only that the race is dragged on, there are also flashbacks which make the race even longer. There’s even a meaningless filler which takes the entire second half of one episode, and that goes too far for me.

The race itself was pretty unrealistic in my eyes, especially when I take Shinozaki into regard. In the first two episodes, he wasn’t able to ride a bike, and twenty episodes later, he is suddenly able to win a checkpoint. What’s even worse is that it is mentioned in a flashback that Shinozaki used to ride a bike as child. That makes the whole beginning part illogical. And how was he able to evolve into such a good rider in such a short amount of time? There is only one thing I consider to be kind of realistic, and that is the way the race ends for him – but that’d be a spoiler.

The other racers are very generic character for a sports anime. We have Yousuke, who’s an arrogant captain who thinks he doesn’t need a team, and of course he changes his ways over time. There’s Shinozaki’s friendly rival Yamato, who’s the usual cool and aloof character with, of course, the corresponding flashback. There’s the inconsistently written crush Yuki as well as the antagonist Hyoudou, who’s also pretty generic. And then there’s Yousuke’s assistant Terao, who gets fleshed out and developed only in the very last part of the show, and it’s truly a shame because by the time he does get fleshed out, we see that he isn’t really a generic assistant. The whole cast and their interactions feel awkward, and by the time the cast is likeable, the show is over. At this point I can’t even determine what the worst part about Over Drive is, but the cast plays a big role in my low enjoyment.

The soundtrack is not very good either, mostly because no tracks quite fit to the mood, save the fiery guitar riffs that weren’t often played, sadly. The soundtrack sounds like it came straight from the 90s. 90s sound is generally not a bad thing, but if it’s a background music to something what’s supposed to be a fiery battle, then it is a bad choice. The opening is very good, the endings were alright as well, but what’s truly worth mentioning is something else. In Yamato’s flashback, he is supposed to be in France and have language problems. In France, people speak French, right? Not in Over Drive, because they were all talking Japanese. So it made it look like Yamato has trouble processing what he hears or him simply being deaf. Needless to say, it was ridiculous, very much so. The other aspect that had poor budget was the animation. It was from 2007 and the animation is aged, yes, but the CG still looks awkward and bad.

My enjoyment level was, as previously mentioned, not the highest. The first eleven epiosdes were plain boring to me. The race was a tad more enjoyable and I genuinely enjoyed the flashbacks between Yousuke and Terao. The theme of being the strongest and the desire to be acknowledged by friends and elders is not the most unique, not even to sports anime. The way it was presented was good at times, but not very much for the most part.

Overall, Over Drive is a sports anime that sounds average in theory and sub par in practice. The characters are generic and average at best for the most part, some developments simply unrealistic, and the sound not very fitting. Its themes are nothing new and the CG animation bad. There are very little redeeming values to this show, such as a tad more enjoyment in the race and some character development for one character only as well as a nice opening. Should you watch Over Drive? No. There are better anime out there, and certainly better shows in this genre. Because sadly, even though losers are history, there’s a reason why they’re forgotten.

At one point or another, one faces a metaphorical wall, and no matter how much effort one puts into breaking it, it is futile. What does one do, then? Give up? Wait? Have the willpower to try again and again?

This, essentially, is what Yowamushi Pedal is about.

Yowamushi Pedal, Weak Pedals in English and Yowapeda for short, follows Onoda Sakamichi and his journey to have fun with friends he never had, as well as his struggles in the world of road racing he gets dragged into. It’s, of course, not a unique concept by any means – after all, many sports shows follow the scheme of ... a rookie exploring the sport in question. But instead of giving the viewer what they want – Onoda, and the bicycle team he’s in – Sohoku – to be at the top after hard work, Yowamushi Pedal rather makes the members suffer through one obstacle to the other.

But let’s start from the beginning.

Onoda’s biggest wish when entering high school is to join the anime club and to gain some friends with similar interests, since he was mostly alone in middle school. But this is going to change in high school, he tells himself, and it does indeed, as he doesn’t join the anime club as intended, but the bicycle club instead, after meeting the tall, serious Imaizumi and the flashy, short Naruko, to test his own potential. And Onoda does show lots of potential, especially at climbing hills (true to his name, which means “hill” in Japanese), and at catching up to opponents, eventually determined to help the Sohoku bicycle club in any way possible to gain overall victory.

While the story per se is not particularly good – especially paired with pacing problems in the second half of the show, unnecessary time extensions as well as the ending – its themes are very heartwarming and realistic. For one can’t say that they can’t identify with the theme of failing, and the constant struggle of overcoming obstacles, and Yowapeda has it in all facets and angles. Every character looks for ways to overcome their struggles, and for ways to motivate themselves. And in the middle of all that, there are comedical slice-of-life moments that strengthen the interactions between the characters after every ending song. The world of road racing is explained well, as the viewer has just as much of an idea of it as Onoda does, bit by bit so that it doesn’t come off as a boring info-dump, especially with every piece of information almost directly demonstrated in the scene.

The cast is certainly an odd mix. It never really fits any archetype, though it is close to, but that doesn’t exactly mean they’re very unique, either. Onoda fits in the otaku archetype, but is more presented as a timid, shy person who tries to give his best. Imaizumi fits in the serious, arrogant boy archetype, but there are moments where he is simply very awkward, and the list continues. The Sohoku team, save the green-haired third-year Makishima, who is an “irregularity” as he refers to himself and grows to be a distinct personality in the team, is very conventional with nothing new. But Makishima is by far not the only one who develops over the course of 38 episodes; the previously mentioned Imaizumi and third-year Kinjou are some examples as well. Of course, Yowapeda doesn’t only focus on Sohoku only (even though the first half does invest on the team); the rival team and champions Hakone is worth mentioning as well. They’re a lot odder than Sohoku – there’s the aggressive Arakita, the eccentric Toudou, laid-back Shinkai, muscle-freak Izumida and Onoda’s rival Manami. And despite being such an odd bunch, they get their flashbacks and development as well, even their stone-faced captain Fukutomi. The rivalry between Sohoku and Hakone feels real, too. Last but not least, there’s the antagonist Midousuji with his team Kyoto Fushimi. He’s the oddest of the cast, disturbingly so, and most of the time Kyoto Fushimi serves as a shock factor to Sohoku and Hakone. While not everyone’s past is revealed and not everyone is developed, a lot of them are, and they help making the characters seem very human with their faults and motivations. Indeed, the characters are Yowamushi Pedal’s strongest point.

The animation is average, sometimes even cringeworthy, but at least consistent. The CGI is not very annoying nor very remarkable. As for the sound, it certainly never feels out of place, always suiting the current mood. The problem is though that it is very repetitive, as certain tracks for racing or dramatic moments are used over and over again. The opening and ending themes deserve a special mention as well – almost all of the song fit the mood to the corresponding arc, the best of them being the second opening (Dirty Old Men’s “Yowamushi na Honoo”) and the best ending the third, “Glory Road”, sung by the voice actors of the Hakone members. Speaking of voice acting, it is certainly well-done. Many of them are B-list voice actors, and still pulled off the character they’re voicing without effort, especially the performances for Onoda and Toudou.

So in conclusion, Yowamushi Pedal is not the most unique, but a very touching tale about friendship and overcoming obstacles. Even though it has pacing issues at times as well as a non-existent end, it makes up for it with loveable characters and intense matches, as well as the great opening and ending themes. It does not rely on “pseudo-homo” moments, nor on magically winning because it’s the main character, but rather on the strength of willpower and how actually motivating friendship is. Should you watch Yowamushi Pedal? Yes.