chickenandwafflesandtv

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Haikyuu Season 3

Let's finish this the same way we started: with Haikyuu!

Welcome to my final blog post. I didn't intend for this to happen, but the final show I watched ended up being the same show, but a different season of the show I firsted started this blog with

HAIKYUU SEASON 3

Obviously, Haikyuu means a lot to me. I'm wearing a Haikyuu shirt as I'm writing this (also didn't mean for this to happen but I guess its fate). Honestly, I'm feeling a little emotional writing this. I don't know why, to be perfectly clear, but watching and writing about media is something I truly enjoy, and writing about a show that I'm extremely passionate about feels really good. This show has a lot of good messages in it and quotes that really stick with you. In the words of the motto of my favorite team, Fukurodani, "we are the protagonists of the world".

BACKGROUND

As a recap of the background from the previous time I posted about Haikyuu, the show follows high schooler Hinata Shoyo and his team's journey to win nationals. This is season 3, so it takes place before the season I posted about last time. This season is shorter than usual, but the entire season focuses on one single game: the regional finals to see who gets to go to nationals. The game is between Hinata's team, Karasuno, who just beat powerhouse school Aoba Johsai in a huge upset, and Shiratorizawa, the school that usually gets the ticket to nationals and features wing spiker Ushijima Wakatoshi, one of the top 3 aces in the country.

REVIEW

I love this show, I love this season, and of course I'm going to praise it in just a moment, but I gotta complain real quick. An entire season (granted, it's only 10 episodes long) that depicts one single volleyball game? It's kind of unnecessary. But honestly, it was needed to show the importance of this game. One of the most important thing to note as a difference to Season 4 is the animation style. Like I said before, the animation changed and frankly wasn't as good. This is the last season before the animation style changed and it was really nice to see the classic style back in action. I also have to mention that one of the reasons that I love this season so much is because a large chunk of it focuses on my favorite character, Tsukishima. Tsukki is a middle blocker, most often directly up against Ushijima. No one has ever stopped one of Ushijima's spikes before, but Tsukki works hard and accomplishes the challenge. Fun fact, its his birthday as I'm writing this (September 27).

SIGN OFF

This show is phenomenal. It really does go above and beyond and is everything one needs to have a successful sports anime.

So this is my last blog post. I'm sad to see it go, but I may just continue it in my own time. I love writing and I love writing about what I'm watching. Thank you for a great few weeks.

Signing off, Abigail

9/29/22 10:13am

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Death Parade Season 1

At first I had no interest in watching this show, but after hearing a little more about it, my interest was piqued!

I'm back! And no more rewatching shows! We're here this week with 2 shows that I've never seen before, but have both been on my watch list because one of my favorite voice actors, Ian Sinclair, is in both of them.

DEATH PARADE SEASON 1

I had heard of the existence of this show in passing but I didn't know anything about it. The first actual thing I learned was that it had a banging opening theme song. As someone who has a playlist over over 120 songs where I put all my favorite anime themes, I knew I had to look into it. It does go pretty hard. I also heard it had a cool plot, which intrigued me even more. Who doesn't love a cool plot?

BACKGROUND

When two people die at the exact same moment, they aren't sent straight to Heaven or Hell. They're sent to a bar in which the two souls must play a randomly selected game to determine their fate: rebirth or the void. Of course, they don't know this. They don't even know that they're dead. They appear in the bar with no memories of how they got there or what happened before. As they play the game, they slowly regain their memories while their bartenders, in the focus of the show it's a man named Decan and a girl referred to as the "black-haired woman", look through the memories and current behaviors in the bar to determines if they were "good" or "evil". Theres also a secondary plot about the black-haired woman, how she got to the bar, and why she's different.

REVIEW

This show went above and beyond. I thought the initial plot was super interesting, but I got nervous when it started to go a little deeper in the plot, I thought I would start to get disconnected from it, but this show did a great job with combining the two and keeping anything from dragging on too long. With each episode pretty much focusing on a different pair of people playing a different game, there was no chance for monotony or repetition, everything felt very eye-catching. The different ways the characters died, their reactions to it, their stories: all of these pieces melded together to create some delicious entertainment. All of the episodes were filled with awesome plot twists, which I greatly enjoyed.

SIGN OFF

Fortunately for me, they announced there's going to be a second season! Unfortunately, they announced it 6 years ago and there have been no updates since then. Will it actually be produced? Or will it end up lost in the drafts like Yuri!!! on Ice's Ice Adolescence. Who knows!

See you in a few days!

9/27/22 6:37pm

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Sk8 the Infinity Season 1

I cannot skateboard for the life of me, but this show really makes me wish I could.

Welcome back! Today we're focusing on another anime that I've seen countless times, but just as I think I'm finally over it, it comes back and hits me tenfold.

SK8 THE INFINITY SEASON 1

My friend introduced this to me after she watched the first episode with her then boyfriend. I tried to watch but only got about 20 seconds into it before I called it quits. I'm very indecisive when it comes to settling on a show to watch if you couldn't tell. About a month later, I finally gave it a real try. I think I finished the whole show in a night. I fell in love.

BACKGROUND

Langa Hasegawa. Ex-snowboarder. Just moved to Japan after the death of his father. Has no friends. Meet: Reki Kyan. Skateboard fanatic. Designs and makes his own boards. Love skating, but isn't exactly the best. After meeting in front of the skateboard shop that Reki works at, Langa decides he wants to learn how to skate. Spontaneously defending Reki's honor in an underground competition, it turns out he's quite the skater, and gains the attention of an array of people: teenage prodigy Miya, Italian chef Joe, calligrapher and tech-wizard Cherry Blossom, and founder of the underground skate competition and all-around bad guy, Adam. Langa and Reki try to navigate friends, fights, trips, and skating, all while preparing for Langa's final skate battle against Adam.

REVIEW

No matter how many times I watch it, this show just doesn't disappoint. Much like Yuri!!! on Ice, it has a lot of movement which could have been animated less eloquently using 3D modeling, but instead they were with classic animation, which made the show so much more beautiful. One of my favorite things about this show is the character designs. Each character is craftly to have a look that I think truly encompasses them. Everybody is filled with color and it's almost easy to guess their personality just entirely on their individual appearances. The plot for this show is also extremely well done. Episodes focused on the struggles of learning a new skill, of friendship and how it can be hard to maintain them, there's a subplot about political corruption, and of course a beach episode, which I think can really make or break an anime. The story and relationships here are really complex and inadvertently deal with tougher conversations such as depression, injury, and worthlessness. Once again, this truly is a really well done show that I'll always recommend to anyone who asks.

SIGN OFF

Great news! This show was recently announced to have a second season AND a special episode! I follow most of the voice actors on twitter and everyone was so happy (me included)! This show is just super cool and a really fun watch! I hope everyone can enjoy it as much as I did!

Thank you for reading! I haven't decided what to watch next week, but I'm sure I'll pick something good!

9/22/22 4:59pm

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Yuri!!! on Ice Season 1

I think I watched this show 6 times within the span of about 4 months, so PLEASE don't tell my friends I'm watching it again or they'll have to stage another intervention.

Welcome back! This show is flawless, amazing, wonderful, the all around best. I love it. And let me tell you why.

YURI!!! ON ICE SEASON 1

I first watched this show as it was airing in 2016. It was one of the only animes I had ever seen and it was getting major hype, here on Tumblr, so I thought I'd check it out. It's just such a wonderful show. I bought a subscription to the Peacock streaming service in January so I could watch Figure Skating at the Winter Olympics because Yuri! on Ice had festered such a love for skating in me.

BACKGROUND

Yuuri Katsuki decided to retire from Figure Skating after a spectacular failure at his Grand Prix Final performance. He returns home to Japan, where after his friend's children post a video of him skating to a routine made by his idol, he goes viral. Before he knows it, the idol in question Viktor Nikiforov, has appeared at Yuuri's door and decided to coach Yuuri back to success. Many people, including Viktor's feisty 15-year old rinkmate, Yuri Plisetsky, are immediately fueled with hatred towards Yuuri for stealing Viktor (but only partially, since Yuuri is Yuri's own secret idol) and the two Yuris, as well as other professional skaters in their circle, work towards finishing this season's competitions on an unforgettable note.

REVIEW

This show really is a different breed. The animation is absolutely beautiful. I've mentioned it before, but often times in sports-related animes, they'll rely on 3D rendering in order to animate the more movement-heavy scenes. With this show surrounding ice skating, you'd expect them to do the same, but no! Each graceful skate is hand-drawn and was actually choreographed by ice skater Kenji Miyamoto, who in the past had choreographed for 2x Olympic gold medalist Yuzuru Hanyu and Olympic silver medalist Shoma Uno. The animation in this show is incredibly smooth and detailed, painting each character in their own unique way, making me one of my favorite animations in a show ever. The plot is insanely captivating as well. With Yuuri's past as well as his performance anxiety, it's hard to guess how he's going to perform and place in each competition. It has great comedic moments but is still guaranteed to have some heavy drama when necessary. And like usual, this show has an absolutely amazing cast, featuring almost all of my favorite voice actors (shout out to Howard Wang, Jerry Jewell, Ian Sinclair, and Josh Grelle). This seriously is probably one of the best animes, if not shows in general, that I have ever watched. I sincerely recommend this to everyone who wants to get started in the anime world.

SIGN OFF

I could talk about Yuri!!! on Ice for literal hours, but it's about time to wrap up that conversation here. A movie, titled Ice Adolescence, was announced to be made for the series, but after an extremely short teaser trailer was released, fans haven't heard any updates in about 5 years, besides a set of photos released earlier this year in celebration of the Olympics. The show is produced by what is arguably the most prolific anime production company (MAPPA) so it makes sense that things may be pushed back, but with the ending of MAPPA's famous show Attack on Titan nearing, fans (including me) remain ever hopeful for some good news.

Thank you for reading!

9/20/22 9:43am

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The Millionaire Detective Balance: Unlimited Season 1

Crazy stuff is happening today... not sports, not slice-of-life... action.

Welcome back! Today I watched a show that was on my radar, then I took it off, and now I've put it back on. And I'm glad I finally settled on it.

THE MILLIONAIRE DETECTIVE BALANCE: UNLIMITED

I first saw a clip of this on TikTok (where I get all of my show recommendations these days). It was giving me Sherlock (my all-time favorite show) vibes and it seemed to be a fun case of the classic hero versus his arch-nemesis. Once I got into the show, I saw that's definitely not what it is but it still has a super fun concept!

BACKGROUND

After an incident which renders him with a mental block preventing him from shooting a gun, Detective Haru Kato is demoted to a lower level detective. Soon, a wealthy man, Daisuke Kambe, joins up and seems to solve every problem by throwing money at people. This goes strongly against Kato's morals, but somehow he finds himself constantly entangled with Daisuke's own problems. Crimes and mysteries keep appearing, not to mention a cold case surrounding Daisuke's own family is brought back into light, and the two must reluctantly work together to get to the bottom of things.

REVIEW

I'm normally not really an action kind-of anime watcher, but this one had me hooked within the first five minutes. The main characters were both super funny; Kato is driven by his morals but still manages to be a bit goofy, and Daisuke is just so painfully out of touch with reality that it makes for an extremely entertaining pair. Unfortunately, while the first few episodes were super interesting, once the show got into the really plot-driven aspect, it kind of lost touch with me. The actual plot was a bit hard to follow at times and by the time I finished the show, I wasn't entirely sure who did what and what it all amounted to. I did really enjoy how the last episode ended with a callback to a scene in the first episode, where Kato is hanging off a bridge and Daisuke leaves him to fall into the river below (coincidentally, this was the first clip of the show I ever saw and what got me interested).

SIGN OFF

Much like the last show, I'm not sure if I'd actively watch a second season if one was to be released. I'm definitely more likely to watch this than Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun, but the verdict is still up in the air. Next week, I plan to throw it back to two shows that I've already seen, but are two of the best animes I've ever watched.

See you soon!

9/15/22 2:18pm

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Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun Season 1

Back with another week of anime! The two shows I'm watching this week couldn't be more different, but both look super interesting!

Welcome back to my blog! Let's get right into it!

MONTHLY GIRLS' NOZAKI-KUN SEASON 1

This show has been on my "to-watch" list since I first started watching anime. It was one of the first ones I heard about and it features a lot of the cast from my favorite anime, so I had high hopes. It seems like a cute premise and I had high hopes for it.

BACKGROUND

When Chiyo Sakura attempts to confess to her crush Umetarou Nozaki, he mistakes her for a fan and she finds out that he's actually the author of a famous romance manga! In order to get closer to him, she agrees to become his assistant. Through the season, she meets the other members of his team like the class womanizer who secretly draws the flowers, an aggressive theatre kid who draws all the backgrounds, and a basketball player who helps shade the pictures. All of the characters are intertwined and dealing with their own problems, which Chiyo often has to figure out for them.

REVIEW

The most entertaining part of his show was when I realized I was almost finished with it. It was an okay show but it just couldn't keep me captivated. The best part about it was the characters. They were all super unique and their quirks weren't things that I normally see in shows like this, so it was super refreshing and it made the show a lot more enjoyable. One of my favorite narratives in movies or television are told from the perspectives of multiple characters who all end up somehow being connected, which is probably why my favorite movie of all time is Love Actually, but this show did a really cool job of connecting them. The characters and their nuances were probably the only redeemable part of this show. The rest was just kind of meh. If there's a season 2, it would be very debatable as to whether or not I would watch it.

SIGN OFF

It's interesting to think about how this show is probably based a lot on reality. The show was originally a manga series, which is what the show itself is about. The mangaka (this is what you call the author of a manga) most likely based a lot of the scenes on situations from their own life and experiences creating manga. It's kind of meta, but it does make me like the show just a touch more.

Thank you for reading, all see you later this week with a show that I ended up enjoying WAY more than I thought I would!

9/13/22 8:12am

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Free! Iwatobi Swim Club Season 1

Okay, so I planned for this to be k-drama week, but I went to go watch Extraordinary Attorney Woo and found out it was 16 episodes that were each 50-85 minutes long and I just couldn't do it.

So instead we're back to our regularly scheduled programming: sports anime!

FREE! IWATOBI SWIM CLUB

This is technically my first full rewatch of this show, I watched it for the first time last year and I've rewatched a few episodes here and there but never the full thing again. Ah, I love this show. Amazing cast, perfectly quirky and funny, and a unique plot. As an ex-competitive swimmer, this show is a joy to watch.

BACKGROUND

Haru, Makoto, Rin, and Nagisa all swam together on a team as children. Each specializes in a certain stroke, but Haru is adamant that he will only ever swim freestyle. Swimming is changed for him when Rin convinces him to swim free in a relay with the other boys. Rin soon moves to Australia to train, but not without saying something to Haru that makes him never want to swim competitively again. When they're second years in high school, Nagisa convinces Makoto and Haru to restart the swim club with him, and imagine their surprise when they find that Rin is back and town and competing against them. This first season deals with the relationship between the Iwatobi Swim Club and Rin, as well as their journey to the district tournament. There are more seasons and they each deal with a different topic.

REVIEW

This was one of the first animes I watched and its still one of my favorites. Obviously, one of the reasons is the cast, which features 4 of my top 5 voice actors, so there's a little bias here. The animation style truly is beautiful and you can see why a driving force of these characters is because they can see how beautiful swimming is. There's also so many little jokes in this show, and it adds somewhat of a break to the drama of the show. This season is probably one of the funnier seasons of both this show and of sports animes in general. Its not my favorite season of Free! but it is a great introduction into the show. I'm definitely going to keep rewatching and go through the rest of the seasons, but I'm not sure if I'll right a review for each one. In case you were wondering, my favorite season is probably Free! Dive to the Future!

SIGN OFF

This show is literally *chefs kiss*. Before I posted this, I actually ended up finishing the rest of the series, including the best season, Dive to the Future. It's just as good as I remember! The finale film for this came out in April, but it's unfortunately not available in the United States yet. I am anxiously awaiting the day that it finally reaches us over here.

Thank you for reading! See you next week, where for once, I haven't already picked out what I'm going to watch!

9/8/22 7:54pm

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Cherry Blossoms After Winter Season 1

Introducing a week of switching things up! Not anime today, but rather a k-drama!

Welcome back to another show review! Today, I watched my first ever k-drama (also known as Korean Drama)!

CHERRY BLOSSOMS AFTER WINTER SEASON 1

This show is actually based on a Manhwa (Korean manga) of the same name. I read it earlier this year/late last year and really enjoyed it; it was probably one of the first manga/manhwa I ever read. The story was really enjoyable and I love seeing book to screen adaptations and how they change, it's a big passion of mine!

BACKGROUND

Orphaned as a young child, Haebom is taken in by the mother of his friend Taesong. The two were best friends as children, but as they grew up, a misunderstanding led the two to grow apart. Their final year of highschool, they are placed in the same class. Finally bearing witness to the bullying that Haebom faces everyday, Taesong works to become a friend and ally to Haebom once again. They grow closer and feelings arise. Issues both within the family and at school make their relationship difficult, but will they be able to stay together?

REVIEW

It was okay. That's it. Not amazing, not awful, just average. Let me put my Film and Media Studies major to good use real quick. I think this show just had a lower production value than what I was expecting. Being adapted from a manhwa as well as focusing on LGBT+ topics (which isn't as widely accepted in Korea and is often censored to some extent), it makes sense that the budget wasn't very high, which just caused some scenes to feel a little off. Many scenes felt empty, with not enough extras, and some of the shots seemed a bit lackluster. The acting was very well done though, and the actors portrayed the characters very well in my opinion. From what I remember from the manhwa, everything seemed to have been adapted fairly well, but its been a while since I read it so I don't remember every detail. It was a good show. Just good.

SIGN OFF

Not to shabby for my first k-drama! Watching TV in different languages can be a bit hard for me sometimes, as I love to play sudoku on my phone while I watch, but this show was easy to follow and I was entertained enough to where I would put my phone down and focus my full attention onto the show. Well done!

Well, I'm off to go reread the manhwa! See you next time!

9/6/22 10:01pm

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Tsurune Season 1

Back to my roots with another sports anime, who would've guessed?

Welcome to another post! I decided I needed to take a break from crying seeing as right as I finished Orange, I watched a movie that made the tears come pouring right out! Sports won't do that to me, right?

Tsurune Season 1

I think archery is a super interesting sport. It reminds me of my old summer camp, and how Tuesday was always designated archery day. I wasn't too shabby and I really enjoyed doing it. I'd love to find somewhere I can go and do it again for fun, but for now it seems I'll just settle on watching it through the wonders of sports animes.

Background

Tsurune is named after the sound the string on a bow makes after an arrow is released. After attending a kyudo (archery) match and hearing the tsurune, Minato Narumiya wants to master the art of kyudo. After losing his mom and injuring himself in an accident, he's faced with target panic, and is unable to properly fire his bow. When he starts high school, his friends work to convince him to join the school's brand new kyudo club. The only thing able to convince him, however, is meeting a mysterious stranger one night who guides him to try to get over his target panic. He joins the team, seeing new, old, and a few surprising faces, and they work towards winning the kyudo competition.

Review

Wow. Just wow. We already know I'm a big fan of sports animes and tend to favor them, but this truly was a really good show. The animation style was beautiful and I really loved the idea of practicing kyudo because the sound resonates so deeply within you. The story was really well done as well, lots of little surprises popping up here and there to really drive the plot along. I also really enjoyed the relationships between the characters. A lot of times in sports animes you get a lot of the same characters/archetypes, and although this show had the classic character who doesn't want to do the sport anymore but is somehow convinced to, it also had characters that were a little more unique and nuanced. Again, I always seem to connect a little differently to shows that I have some connection to, but something about this show was different than others.

Sign Off

I've seen my fair share of spots animes, and I do have to say this was definitely one of the better ones. I think a large amount of joy did come from the voice cast (so many of my favorites in one place, I love it!), but it really did go beyond that. Imagine my joy when I found out that a movie sequel came out less than 2 weeks ago (it sadly hasn't released in the US yet) AND they announced a season 2 will be coming out in January! This one is surely going on my list of favorite sports animes.

Thank you and I'll see you next week, where I'll be switching it up a bit!

9/1/22 10:44am

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Orange Show+Movie

Hi! Welcome back to my blog! This time, we're in for a doozy.

Hold up. I'm not watching a sport anime? What alternate reality have we entered?

ORANGE SEASON 1

Just kidding. If there's one thing I love to watch as much as sports animes, it's animes that are guaranteed to make you cry. And boy did this one deliver.

BACKGROUND

The morning her second year of high school begins, Naho Takamiya receives a letter addressed to herself from 10 years in the future. The letter states that the events that will occur over the next few months will leave her with insurmountable regrets. It also includes a list of monumental moments that Future-Naho wishes to change. Finally, the letter states the most important thing that Present-Naho should be is be kind and take care of new student Kakeru Naruse, because 10 years into the future, Kakeru is dead. The letter ends with Future-Naho saying that her biggest regret is the fact that she and her friends could have saved him. The show follows Naho as she tries her best to change Kakeru's fate, all while slowly falling in love with him.

REVIEW

I cry semi-often when I watch anime, but it's usually at random times. I can say will full honestly that this is the most I have ever cried over a TV show in my life. I cried in literally Every. Single. Episode. The art style for this show was perfect, even if they made Naho's eyes weirdly large at some points. The plot and storyline were phenomenal. I'm a huge advocate when it comes to mental health/illness and media that surrounds that topic always ends up hitting me really hard. This show was no exception. I really enjoyed how about halfway through the show, it was revealed that the rest of Naho and Kakeru's friend group also received letters from their future selves, telling them what actions to take to save his life. Knowing how the characters' future ends up and seeing if they can change it meant that I couldn't bring myself to look away from the screen for one second. Seeing each choice they characters had to make and the different consequences each action had led to a gripping story that had me audibly gasping and yelling a TV that can't hear me. My roommates had to come into my room multiple times to check up on me because I was having full-on breakdowns over this show. This truly was a masterpiece.

BONUS: MOVIE

Imagine my joy when I finally finish drying my eyes and find that there's a movie sequel from the point of view of Hiroto Suwa, one of Naho and Kakeru's friends who ended up marrying Naho in the original future (a fact that everyone but Naho and Kakeru knew through the events of the original series). The movie is essentially just a retelling of the show from Suwa's perspective, but it does include a few new scenes from both the original future and the future that exists after they saved Kakeru. This one wasn't as sad, but it still packed an emotional punch; dealing with lost love, selflessness, and putting others' happiness before your own. I will admit that I also cried to this one.

SIGN OFF

When I started this blog, I thought it would be enjoying the shows that interest me. This show had gone above and beyond, it may have just changed my life. I had tried to watch this show sometime last year but after about 2 minutes, I just couldn't stay interested. All I remember is I liked the theme song and downloaded it. Finally watching the show now, I will probably never stop thinking about it. It's the kind of show where every so often, I'll think of a scene from it and be overwhelmed with emotion while I'm putting away groceries or answering a question in class. It's more than I ever could have imagined.

8/30/22 3:02pm

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Run With the Wind Season 1

Despite my general aversion to sports, I find myself drawn over and over again to watching sports animes.

Welcome back to my blog! Although I plan to keep the theme of this just tv shows, it'll probably end up focusing more on anime shows, as thats whats been catching my attention recently!

RUN WITH THE WIND SEASON 1

I really, really dislike sports. I don't like watching them on tv, I don't like watching dramas that focus on a sports team. I'm just not interested. Somehow, though, I find great enjoyment in animes relating to sports. All of my favorites (and the ones I prioritize on my 'watch next' life) are ones that focus on sports. I've been rewatching my favorite ones multiple times lately, so I decided it's time to start a new one.

BACKGROUND

Run with the Wind is a show about a college track/cross-country team. The team, made of a group of roommates, are training to compete in the Hakone Ekiden Marathon, an extremely difficult and high-level competition for college athletes. The catch? 7 of the boys are complete novices, 1 (like me) is borderline 'allergic' to running, the captain has an aggravated leg injury, and the final member is an ex-famous high school track competitor who vowed never to compete again.

REVIEW

Its a solid show. There's not much more I can say about it. I struggled a bit to get hooked onto it at the beginning and I felt like I was watching just to watch it and not for enjoyment. The only time I truly, really enjoyed it, was during the few episodes that dealt with the final race. At that point, I put off doing my homework for 4 hours in order to finish the show. The animation style was one I enjoyed (unlike my last post about Haikyuu season 4). The only issue I had with it was at certain times during running animation. Often times in animes during periods of intense movement, the animation will switch from the drawing style to a 3D rendering, which helps the fluidity of the animation. I think it ends up looking clunky and distracts from the what the art of anime actually is. I did, however, enjoy how unique all the characters were. It's not uncommon in shows to have each character in the ensemble exhibit some defining characteristic, but I think this show did a good job with not making them run-of-the-mill, stereotypical characteristics, but rather ones that helped the characters grow throughout the episodes.

SIGN OFF

It was obvious from the start that there was no way this team could win first place. But thats okay. The team understood that and ran to be the best that they could, which I think is the most important part. So many sports shows are focused on being the best of the best, while this one is focused on being the best that you can be. It's such an important message that is often overlooked. Although this show wasn't close to being one of my favorites, it's one I believe more people should watch for the message behind it.

I wonder what show I'll start next! See you next week!

8/25/22 4:05pm

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Haikyuu Season 4 Part 2

Hello, I'm Abigail Billings and this is my blog! I'm going to be using this to log and review the tv shows I'm currently watching and rewatching! Even though this is the first post I'm going to go ahead and jump right into it!

HAIKYUU TO THE TOP EPISODES 13-25

Haikyuu season 4 (also known as To The Top) is a season that I've seen about twice before. Despite this, my third watch continues to surprise and excite me!

BACKGROUND

Haikyuu is an anime that first began airing in 2014 and is based on a manga of the same name. It follows highschooler Hinata Shoyo and his volleyball team as they compete to win Nationals. This half of the season focuses on Hinata's team (Karasuno) playing Inarizaki in the quarter-finals.

REVIEW

Even though this season completely changed the animation style from past seasons due to time constraints, it still remains a highly entertaining show. I do believe the quality of animation diminished and I much prefer the old style, but this half of the season continues to be one of my favorite arcs/games the show has to offer. This season introduces many new characters that I have grown to love like Atsumu and Osamu Miya, Sakusa Kiyoomi, and Suna Rintaro. I'm a huge fan of following voice actors and can easily recognize them from old shows, so it's amazing that the new cast members are ones that I know and love from other shows! I also think the volleyball game they play in this season is one of the best ones in the whole show (second only the season 3's game against Shiratorizawa). Hinata is known for having terrible receives but show-stopping spikes, but this season also focused on Hinata's growth as a player as he saves the game twice in moments of unbelievable receives that warm my heart.

SIGN OFF

This show is one of my favorites, and I have to admit that I go back and rewatch my favorite episodes every few weeks. The love that the characters have for the game is something that really hits home for me, as an ex-volleyball player. The production company recently announced that the show will be ending with a 2-part movie spectacular in August of next year. I can't wait to see what other amazing things this show has to offer.

Thank you for reading and I'll see you next time :)

8/25/22 1:02am