English Dub Season Review: 2.43: Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Team Season One

Based on the ongoing Japanese sports-themed light novel series written by Yukako Kabei and illustrated by Aiji Yamakawa. The story begins with Genius Volleyball setter Kimichika Haijima moving back to Fukui from Tokyo after an incident within his school’s volleyball team forces him out. There, he is reunited with his childhood friend, Yuni Kuroba, a member of the Monshiro Middle School Boys’ Volleyball Team, who is unaware of his own talents. Haijima notices Kuroba’s abilities and is determined to form a new volleyball team with Kuroba as the team’s ace. At the prefecture tournament, Kuroba crumbles under the pressure, which causes the Monshiro team to fall apart after losing. The loss also creates a rift between Haijima and Kuroba, leading the former to quit the team.

Now, as students at Seiin High School, Haijima and Kuroba find themselves on the same volleyball team once again. Having learned from past mistakes, Haijima helps Kuroba overcome his performance anxiety to become the ace and carry the team to the prefecture championship. With support from team captain Shinichirou Oda and vice-captain Misao Aoki, Seiin aims to win the prefecture and become Fukui’s representative at the Spring Tournament. To do this, they will need to beat Fukuho Technical High School, the reigning champions of Fukui. Will Haijima’s team defeat the odds, or are they doomed to repeat his history of losing?..

On the technical side, the animation is average with the opening being one of the standouts of this series. But considering the studio behind it, David Production of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure fame, it’s one of the few things it has going for it. The animation is really good in places. But it misses the point of being a volleyball anime when it lacks showing more volleyball action when it’s supposed to and we get scenes where the ball moves so fast and every spike has an impact. The soundtrack is nothing to write home about but the opening is catchy and serviceable for what it’s going for. At least the English Dub has a few decent standout performances such as Zach Aguilar of Jojo and One Punch Man fame being part of it.

The story is you’re simple by the numbers sports drama when making an anime about high school volleyball there are not exactly many directions the story can go. So far the story has been more about the characters and their relationships with each other and than actually playing volleyball which is a shame as the characters fail to be dramatically interesting. Nearly all the characters are non-existent. Basically, anyone other than the two main characters and the two rival characters, aren’t developed to make their rivalry feel like it matters.

Overall, it is not a perfect series but knows what it wanted to be. The animation and music seem to be its stronger points, but lacks a compelling narrative like the previous Jojo-related anime projects of David Production. If it found the right balance of character drama and sports moments It probably could’ve been sentimental or impactful, but it feels cheesy and bland in places and it’s hard to feel sad or care for the characters involved if they don’t do anything to set themselves apart in a sports drama. It’s a good anime to watch on a rainy day but needs to step its game up if season two becomes a thing…