https://starcrossedanime.com/wpcontent/uploads/2021/04/2.43SeiinKoukouDanshiVolleyBu.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 Haikyuhttps://anilist.co/anime/113538/HAIKYUTOTHETOPPart2/ 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 VolleyBu henceforth referred to as VolleyBu simply isnt 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 VolleyBu produced by David Productionshttps://anilist.co/studio/287/DavidProduction and directed by Yasuhiro Kimurahttps://anilist.co/staff/119866/YasuhiroKimura of JoJos Part 5https://anilist.co/anime/102883/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind/fame is terrible. And Im here to explain why. So without further ado lets jump in. https://i0.wp.com/starcrossedanime.com/wpcontent/uploads/2021/01/VolleyBu4.7.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 VolleyBu has and throws them in bin. Its a crying shame what has happened in postproduction. As you can see from the screenshots VolleyBu doesnt 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 VolleyBu 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 VolleyBu. Even this however isnt 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. VolleyBu takes its greatest strength and fails to capitalize on it in any meaningful way. And the worst part? This is probably the nicest Im going to be about VolleyBu in this review so strap in. https://i0.wp.com/starcrossedanime.com/wpcontent/uploads/2021/01/VolleyBu2.7.jpg Narrative This brings me to the narrative and oh boy do I hate this narrative. Spoilers for VolleyBu below because Im about to rip into it. If you dont 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 youre ready for some spoilers. Long story short VolleyBus 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. https://i1.wp.com/starcrossedanime.com/wpcontent/uploads/2021/01/VolleyBu4.1.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 VolleyBu completely and utterly botches the drama portion of its story. With how involved the characters are in that it reflects on them to. But that isnt to say there wasnt 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 thats the big issue here isnt it? This is an 8 man team where only the MCs have defined personalities and everyone else gets 1off 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 scenes they just arent good ones. Mostly. Odas 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 MCs 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 VolleyBu 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. Its as if VolleyBu either gave up or only involved the drama long enough to convince people it was different from Haikyu. Instead what it got was halfbaked 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 dont 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. Its all rather onenote but ill take solid and average over mediocrity. Sadly VolleyBu once again squanders this by bringing them down to Seiins 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 VolleyBus 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. https://i1.wp.com/starcrossedanime.com/wpcontent/uploads/2021/01/VolleyBu2.2.jpg OST/Sound Design Lastly we have the OST and this is going to be particularly hard to write. Not because Im the farthest thing from a musician or because I lack an arts education though both of those are true. Rather because VolleyBus 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 OSTs can. Along similar lines though I was never sucked out of the show by the music the way terrible OSTs do. Its as if the music was there and I was aware it was there but I didnt mind it. Think elevator music but for anime. Whatever track was playing fit the scene well enough. Thats just all it did. And maybe thats ok. https://i0.wp.com/starcrossedanime.com/wpcontent/uploads/2021/01/VolleyBu3.3.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 VolleyBu 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 wouldnt 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 VolleyBu 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. VolleyBu doesnt. It starts with this serious and upfront story of suicide pain and consequences. Yet it ends in a stereotypical match about going to Nationals. Theres no ideological conflict there winning doesnt 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 VolleyBu loses its 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 VolleyBu 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 VolleyBu 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 didnt please me and Im the one writing this review... so yeah. https://i1.wp.com/starcrossedanime.com/wpcontent/uploads/2021/02/VolleyBu6.5.jpg Conclusion All in all when I think of VolleyBu only one word comes to mind: Disappointment. I have compared VolleyBu to the standout hit that is Haikyu a lot in this review. Something many of you probably find offputting as VolleyBu is clearly not Haikyu and is clearly trying to do something different. But heres the rub: In its quest to do in one cour what Haikyu did in five VolleyBu abandoned everything that made it stand out. The compelling and down to earth character drama was left behind for Lets 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. VolleyBu tried to appeal to both crowds to peel off some of Haikyus fans while still appearing different and in doing so fulfilled neither. I dont rip into VolleyBu because its fun I dont enjoy insulting this show. I was hyped I was invested in it after episode one. But then it let me down. And I dont 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.