Haikyuu!! Information Collection

All spoilers clearly marked!

Maintained by u/chavrilfreak.

HOW MANY MORE SEASONS/EPISODES WILL THERE BE?

Well, I quite literally did the math. If you're not a fan of numbers, just skip to the conclusion in the bottom half of the image. There are no other spoilers included except for the number of chapters left to be animated (orange square), but I assume you're okay with knowing that since you clicked on the link to find out how much material we have left.

Want the exact same image with full manga spoilers in the conclusion? Here you go!

ANIME WATCH ORDER - NOTES & MAL LINKS

Comprehensive list coming soon ...

SHOULD YOU READ THE MANGA?

It depends on your personal preference. If the main appeal of the anime for you are the plot developments, like who wins or what the backstory of a certain character is, then reading the manga will probably impact your enjoyment of the anime quite a bit.

But for a lot of people, myself included, the anime and manga are two different things. I read the manga for the plot, the little background shots and lines that don't make it into the anime, Furudate's amazing art and panel flow. I watch the anime for the animation, the voice acting and the soundtracks. So in the end, both the manga and the anime complement each other in a way. It just depends if that works for your preferences or not.

The same applies to hype too: if it's mostly about the plot for you, then yes, knowing what happens in a match can diminish the hype a lot. But you might be surprised (at least I know I was) at the amount of hype that can still be present even if you know the outcome! It's like seeing a blueprint come to life, kinda. I've even heard people say that they momentarily forgot the result of a particular play because the anime just took them along for the hype ride, even though they already read the manga.

WHAT IF YOU'VE NEVER READ MANGA BEFORE?

I think Haikyuu is actually a great manga to start with. It was the first one I ever read, and I feel like I got very spoiled with how easy it was to follow - both because the adaptation is (mostly) very faithful to the anime, and also because Furudate is great at making the order of panels feel intuitive as you read. Lots of manga don't give their readers either of those luxuries!

WHICH CHAPTER SHOULD YOU START WITH?

I really do recommend reading the manga from the start! If it's your first time reading a manga, you'll have an easier time getting used to the medium if you already know the story you're reading, but even if you're already a seasoned manga veteran, it might interest you to see how Furudate's art style gradually changed over time!

Though if you just want to get the most accurate version of the story, you don't really need to read from chapter 1. The first 3 seasons of the anime adapted the manga pretty well, and the minor scenes they skipped were then added to the recap movies anyway.

The Tokyo OVAs after season 3, however, were a disaster on that front. Super rushed and poorly adapted. That's chapters 191 to 206, well worth the read!

Season 4 part 1 adapted decently, but not as well as the first 3 seasons. They changed some things and left out some others. Season 4 part 2 is kinda meh on that front as well.

So if you want the most accurate adaptation but don't wanna read the whole manga, you should start at chapter 189 aka the end of season 3.

But if you just wanna dive right into the story after season 4, chapter 292 is your place to be.

IS IT HAIKYUU OR HAIKYU?

Explanation by u/OneLittleMoment: Haikyuu in Japanese is written as ハイキュー, with the dash-looking symbol marking the long vowel "u".

In English and other romanizations, there are two ways of transcribing that long vowel. One is to add another u, which as you've noticed, is what most unofficial channels do. The other option is to write the u with a macron, ū, which I personally despise because it's next to impossible to type on most conventional keyboards.

But with Haikyuu, the official channels decided not to transcribe the long vowel at all, for whatever reason, so officially it is known as Haikyu with just one u.

I have a couple of theories why they elected to do so. One is that they thought one u is more aesthetically pleasing than two (which I kind of understand). The other one is that it may have been an honest mistake, because the full title of Haikyuu includes exclamation marks (ハイキュー!!) and someone who was transliterating the title mistook the long vowel mark for an enthusiasm marker, just like the exclamation marks, and decided to just keep the exclamation points, while dropping the long vowel. These are just my theories.