Haikyu!! Volume 2 Review

I’ve recently had the chance to catch up with the second season of the Haikyu!! anime on Crunchyroll and due to this I’ve been in the mood to sample even more of the series. Enter Volume 2 of the manga. It’s time to find out if this volume continues the excitement I felt reading Volume 1 or if it drops the ball.

The second volume of Haikyu!! continues the volleyball game from the end of the previous book, with Hinata and Kageyama playing a 3-on-3 match with the other first years new to Karasuno’s volleyball club. The match is to determine if the Hinata and Kageyama should be allowed to join the club. After displaying some impressive teamwork and winning the match they gain the approval of captain Daichi. The worry of acceptance to the club may be over but now Karasuno have a practice match with the powerful team Aoba Jousai! While rough around the edges, will Hinata and Kageyama’s newfound ability to work together allow them to prevail against their opponents?

The majority of this volume is taken up with the first years’ volleyball game and the match against Aoba Jousai. It’s great reading about Karasuno playing in their first official game and it’s just the right length to prevent the match from becoming boring. That said, I’m relieved to find that it also leaves plenty of time for some character development.

This volume doesn’t introduce any new characters to the Karasuno team until the end of the book (except for the club adviser, but more on him in a moment), so instead the focus has been split neatly between the rest of the team. A lot of time is still spent with Hinata and Kageyama, which is great but not as necessary considering that Volume 1 did nothing but develop the two. Thankfully Tsukishima and Yamaguchi also had a good deal of the spotlight, so I got to know the two fairly well. It made me feel satisfied that we won’t just be getting volume after volume of Hinata and Kageyama scenes. I love them both dearly, but I think we’d have a fairly uninteresting manga on our hands if the series ignored everyone else on the team!

As mentioned earlier, this volume introduces the club adviser to the scene: Ittetsu Takeda, who proclaims to know nothing about volleyball but obviously has a real passion for watching over the team. We don’t see as much of him as in the anime, where he acts as the audience surrogate for having information explained to him about how the game works, but there is still plenty to establish him as a likable member of the cast.

My only complaints regarding characters is that we still haven’t seen much of the third year members, Daichi and Sugawara, which is a real shame as I’m fond of both of them in the anime. Sugawara does turn up to offer words of comfort to Hinata, who is in a tizzy ahead of their game against Aoba Jousai, but we don’t get to see him partake in the match due to Kageyama taking his position as setter. Daichi on the other hand is around but more often than not is seen but not heard. Having watched the anime I’m sure that later volumes of the manga should solve my problems here.

Overall the layout and artwork for Haikyu!! continues to be well put together by mangaka Haruichi Furudate. Panels flow nicely and it’s always easy to see where the cast are on the court (helped along by some useful charts displaying starting positions and how the rotation works throughout the game), and there are some gorgeous two/full-page spreads presented to really grab your attention. The artwork is generally a little rougher and not as well done for the comedy moments or the panels of less importance, but this actually adds to the charm of the whole thing. You can always count on Furudate to supply some extremely detailed scenes when required and, for what runs as a weekly series in Japan, the most important panels really stand out and tend to be memorable.

Due to this volume including the first official match for Karasuno there are many volleyball terms and team positions discussed that might go over your head if you don’t know much about the sport. Thanks to the anime I’m now well versed in how the game works, but I wanted to quickly point out for newcomers how well Haikyu!!’s manga manages to explain information. Usually there are small notes below panels to explain simple terms, while more complex information is drawn out on a chart. It’s presented in a way that is easy to grasp but also equally painless to skim over if you already understand the game. I wish more mangaka understood how to easily present information like this rather than giving large scale information dumps that will never stick in my mind.

I’ve come away from Volume 2 of Haikyu!! just as eager to read the next volume as I was when I finished the first volume. Haikyu!! continues to be a well presented, thought out, and overall just a great example of the shonen genre. I’m having so much fun that I’m just bouncing up and down on my chair awaiting the next edition!

Score: 8/10

Manga Quick Information
Title: Haikyu!!
Original vintage: 2012
Mangaka: Haruichi Furudate
Published by: Viz Media
Genre: Comedy, Drama, School, Shonen
Age rating: Teen
Material length: 200