Haikyu!! Review: The Greatest Sports Manga Ever Written?
A full review of Haikyu!! — the volleyball manga that makes non-sports readers care about a high-school team, and why it belongs near the top of the shonen canon.
By Web Admin
Here is a sentence we never expected to type: the best manga we have handed to people who openly dislike sports is a volleyball comic. Haikyu!!, written and drawn by Haruichi Furudate, ran in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump from 2012 to 2020 and finished at exactly 45 volumes. Viz Media publishes the English edition at roughly US$10 a book. It is a story about a short kid who wants to fly, and somehow it becomes one of the most emotionally overwhelming things in the whole medium. This is our full review of what it is, who it is for, and why it earns the hype.
We have re-read the ending three times now, and it lands harder each time. If you have been circling this series, this review is the push.
What is Haikyu!!?
Haikyu!! follows Shoyo Hinata, a high-schooler who fell in love with volleyball after watching a tiny ace nicknamed “the Little Giant” on television. The catch: Hinata is short, and volleyball is a game of tall people at the net. He joins Karasuno High School — a former powerhouse now nicknamed “the fallen champions” — and is forced to team up with Tobio Kageyama, a genius setter so demanding he was called “the King of the Court.” Their rivalry-turned-partnership is the engine of the whole series.
Across 45 volumes, Furudate follows Karasuno from a barely-functioning club to national contention, one grueling match at a time. It sounds simple. It is not. This is a story about the gap between where you are and where you want to be, and the daily, unglamorous work of closing it.
The story: why a volleyball manga makes you cry
The genius of Haikyu!! is that it treats every character on the court — including the opponents — as the protagonist of their own story. When Karasuno faces a rival school, you spend enough time inside that team’s fears and ambitions that you genuinely do not want either side to lose. Furudate builds matches like symphonies, with momentum swings that feel earned rather than scripted, and he is ruthless about consequences: sometimes the team you have grown to love simply is not good enough yet.
That honesty is what separates it from lesser sports stories. Hard work does not magically guarantee victory here. Talent is real, luck is real, and the people who lose are not lazy or bad — they just met someone better on the day. The series respects effort without pretending effort is a cheat code, and that maturity is why adults love it as much as teenagers do.
Furudate is also brilliant at the small stuff between matches: the awkward practice sessions, the training camps, the quiet bus rides home after a loss. Those low-key beats are where the team becomes a family, so that when the big rallies arrive you are not just watching a scoreboard — you are watching people you have grown to love reach for something they have wanted for years. It is a masterclass in earning your climaxes.
The characters: an all-timer ensemble
Few series juggle this many memorable people without dropping any of them.
- Shoyo Hinata — the undersized decoy whose jumping ability and relentless optimism reshape how his team plays.
- Tobio Kageyama — the prodigy setter learning that raw talent means nothing without teammates who trust him.
- Daichi, Suga, and Asahi — the third-years carrying the emotional weight of a last chance.
- Nishinoya and Tanaka — the loud, beating heart of the team’s defense and morale.
- Tsukishima Kei — the cynic whose slow thaw is one of the best arcs in the book.
And that is just Karasuno. Rivals like Oikawa, Ushijima, Bokuto, and Kenma are so well drawn that many readers pick a favorite opposing school. It is a genuinely rare achievement.
The art: motion you can feel
Furudate’s art starts merely solid and becomes spectacular. By the later arcs, his sense of speed, weight, and airborne timing is extraordinary — you can feel a spike leave the hand and a receive dig into the floor. He is a master of the quiet reaction panel, too: a single wide-eyed close-up after a crucial point often hits harder than any splash page. The paneling teaches you the rules of volleyball almost invisibly, so even total newcomers understand rotations and roles within a few chapters.
Is Haikyu!! good for beginners?
Yes — it is one of the best on-ramps to manga we know. There is no continuity homework, no complicated lore, and the emotional stakes are universal. If you are just starting out, it pairs naturally with our best manga for beginners guide, and it sits comfortably among the best shonen manga of its generation. New to the medium entirely? It works beautifully as a first-ever manga.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Makes non-sports fans care deeply, fast
- A huge cast with almost no weak links
- A complete story with a genuinely satisfying ending
- Art that sells speed and impact better than almost any rival
Cons
- 45 volumes is a real time and money commitment
- The early volumes are good, not yet great
- You will get emotionally invested in teams that lose
How Haikyu!! compares to other sports manga
If you are weighing which sports series to start, here is how the heavy hitters stack up.
| Series | Sport | Volumes | Status | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Haikyu!! | Volleyball | 45 | Complete | Everyone; the modern benchmark |
| Slam Dunk | Basketball | 31 | Complete | The classic that started it all |
| Ao Ashi | Soccer | Ongoing | Ongoing | Tactics-heavy readers |
| Blue Lock | Soccer | Ongoing | Ongoing | High-concept competition fans |
For the full field, see our best sports manga guide and our Slam Dunk review — the book most often named in the same breath.
Which edition should you buy?
There is no fancy deluxe omnibus for Haikyu!! in English, which actually keeps things simple. Here is how to think about the commitment.
| Format | Collects | Approx. price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Volume 1 paperback | The first arc | ~US$10 | Trying it out |
| Single volumes 1–45 | The whole series | ~US$10 each | Pacing your reading and spending |
| Digital volumes | Any volume | ~US$7 each | Bingeing without shelf space |
Our advice: buy volume 1 in print, and do not be surprised when you order the next five at once.
AmazonCheck price on AmazonThe verdict
Fifteen years of reading manga, and Haikyu!! is still the series we push on people who think they do not like sports stories. It is warm without being soft, thrilling without cheating, and it ends better than almost anything in its category. It is a permanent fixture near the top of our best completed manga list and a book we recommend without a single reservation. Clear a shelf.
Frequently asked questions
Is Haikyu!! finished?
Yes. The manga ran from 2012 to 2020 and concluded at 45 volumes with a complete, widely praised ending. You can read the whole story start to finish.
Do I need to like volleyball to enjoy Haikyu!!?
Not at all. Furudate teaches the rules so smoothly that newcomers rarely notice they are learning, and the emotional stakes are about people, not just points. It is one of the best sports manga for total beginners.
How many volumes of Haikyu!! are there?
There are 45 collected volumes, all available in English from Viz Media at roughly US$10 each in print and less digitally.
Is the Haikyu!! anime a good substitute for the manga?
The Production I.G anime is excellent, but it adapts only part of the story, with the finale continuing in films. The manga is the complete experience and, for the climactic matches, the more powerful one.
Want more like it? Try our best shonen manga guide, or cross the pond into anthropomorphic drama with our Beastars review.
