Haikyū!! To the Top Season 4 Part 1 Anime Review

Major Spoilers are included in this season review. Please read with caution.

On October 1, 2020, I started watching Haikyū!! To the Top Season 4’s first 13 episodes and finished on October 2, 2020—at 2am. I stayed past my bedtime to make it—To the Top—for the newest episodes to come out—Season 4 Part 2 Hype! As an avid reader of the manga, I was quite excited to hit the “Tokyo Nationals Arc” of the series—especially with the manga having concluded earlier this year.

Season 4 Part 1 didn’t include Nekoma’s preliminary matches—it was supposed to follow after season 3 chronologically, having been turned into an OVA instead—but it did give Hinata Shoyo a solid arc that reminded the audience he’s our main protagonist. He goes through many struggles—particularly in the first 4 episodes as a ball boy—that ultimately make him more aware as a volleyball player and person.

Hinata’s character growth was quite earned—the same for Kageyama who had gone to an elite youth training camp for five days, having briefly reverted to his “King of the Court” behavior due practicing with higher-tier players in a different environment.

I did like how the Karasuno team realistically approached Kageyama’s reverted behavior, with Hinata “crowning” him as the new “King of the Court”—believing he changed for the better. Also, Hinata said he’ll just ignore anything he doesn’t like from Kageyama—the equivalent to rejecting feedback that ultimately doesn’t suit you.

The first nine episodes was dedicated to character growth, with Daichi and the other third-years—including Kiyoko—getting much-needed screen time hanging out together before Nationals kicked off. Kiyoko was given a great background and amazing payoff to her hurdler past, which allowed her to officially pass the manager torch—in the form of Hinata’s forgotten tennis shoes—to Hitoka Yachi.

Crying at 2am was a much-needed thing with everything happening in the United States, and then hearing about Trump testing positive for COVID-19 made me cry some more. I’ll leave it at that to avoid straying from the review, so y’all can interpret that however you like. By the way, some volleyball players were wearing facemasks during this season because it turned winter during the fourth season. Remember to wear facemasks in public spaces.

Moving ahead into the review, the animation was not at its peak during this season. I enjoyed the animation from the first three seasons more, but I understand since the manga art style changed so the animation studio complied to compensate for this. However, this doesn’t mean the animation was completely terrible. There were still many great moments like Kageyama’s three-dimensional grid to figure out where to hit the ball and Kiyoko jumping over the hurdle to get Hinata’s shoes before Nationals started—the stakes were high because you can’t play volleyball without your shoes!

New characters were introduced in this season too—like the other “Tiny Giant” candidate Hoshiumi. I’m excited to see his story play out alongside Hinata’s in Season 4 Part 2. Fun fact: Hoshiumi shares the same voice actor as Tanjiro from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba!

I’ll save my thoughts on the other new characters for Season 4 Part 2, since Part 1 ended with Karasuno playing against Inarizaki High. The Miya Brothers—the Atsumu and Osamu Twins—are amazing characters, and what they’ll bring to the table in Season 4 Part 2 is going to blow our minds. Trust me on this, fellow Haikyuu!! fans.

Overall, I had a fun time binge-watching Haikyū!! during the last week of September going into October. The animation wasn’t 100% perfect this time around, but the manga art style changed and the characters were still super relatable and portrayed realistic—I could see some part of myself in all of them. As long as the characters stay true to themselves, the series will be okay.

Also, I needed therapeutic “binge-watching” healing after that awful presidential debate and now the latest Trump had tested positive for COVID-19—which will sadly be last week’s potentially fake news at time of this publication.

Thanks for reading this review, everyone! I didn’t mean to get “political”, but the timing was sadly there. I’ll see you all when Season 4 Part 2 finishes it out. I don’t plan on doing weekly episode reviews, but I am watching Season 4 Part 2 episodes weekly! That was the goal!

FLY HIGH!