What Does “Haikyū” Mean in English? Series Name Explained!
Haikyū!! is a manga written and drawn by Haruichi Furudate. It was published from February 2012 to July 2020 and was compiled into a total of forty-five volumes. An anime television series adaptation produced by Production I.G studio aired between April and September 2014, followed by a second season between October 2015 and March 2016 and a third season between October and December 2016. A fourth season aired between January 2020 and December 2020. While fans expected a fifth season, something entirely different happened when it was announced that the series would end with a two-part movie. In this article, we are going to tell you what the title of the series, the word “haikyū,” means.
“Haikyū” is actually a Japanese word that is spelled like 排球. The first Kanji means repudiate, refuse, or reject, while the second means globe, sphere, or ball. Literally, the word “haikyū” actually means “to reject a ball,” which is in line with the sports presented in the series. “Haikyū” is actually the Japanese word for volleyball since the Japanese did not want to use the original English word.
The rest of this article is going to be divided into two separate sections. The first one is going to explain the meaning of the title, and the whole etymology, while the latter is going to give you an overview of the series’ plot, which you will be able to use to see whether the title fits the plot and the atmosphere of the series. Some mild spoilers might be present.
What does “haikyū” mean in English?
The term “haikyū” is, intriguingly enough, used in all languages and is not directly translated, as is the case with some manga and anime. This is why we have to consider the original Japanese meaning in order to fully understand what it means. So, first of all, we must state that the phrase is, in Japanese, written as 排球. It is comprised of two individual kanji that mean the following:
- 排 – this kanji means to reject, dispute, reflect, deflect, and the likes
- 球 – this kanji ball, or an orb, sphere, or some other similar object
Now, this makes sense when you add it up, because all of these two kanji are connected to the story of Haikyū!!, which is focused on characters that play a sport that consists of “rejecting a ball”; the sport in question is, of course, volleyball. Knowing how volleyball is played, the title makes perfect sense. It makes even more sense if you know that “haikyū” is actually the Japanese term for volleyball, and it literary means what we have said it means. The Japanese, as it seems, did not want to use the original English word for the sport (as they do with many other Western sports), so they decided to use “haikyū” instead.
What is Haikyū!! about?
Middle school student Shōyō Hinata has become passionate about volleyball ever since he watched the broadcast of the national championship. Even a small athlete like himself played along, who was still superior to the others. With him as a role model, Hinata joins his school’s club, but he is the only boy in it and has to train alone or with the girls.
Nevertheless, he shows a lot of talent and commitment. He can finally find teammates for the district youth championship, but they lose the first game. He swears to the opposing team’s captain, the well-known Tobio Kageyama, that he will one day defeat him. When Hinata enters high school, he chooses Karasuno High, which is known for its volleyball team and where his role model went.
But there, he meets Kageyama, who also changes to this school. Now both are on the same team and have to pull themselves together at the behest of the captain. After the two manage to respect each other in joint training, there is a dispute with other newcomers to the club. After many training sessions, friendlies, and smaller tournaments, the Karasuno volleyball team is growing together more and more. Hinata and Kageyama, in particular, are now playing better and better together, despite initial arguments, and manage surprisingly quick attacks.
The captain sees great potential in the team and harbors hopes that Karasuno will eventually return to the National Volleyball Championships. The team must beat other strong high school teams in tournaments to achieve this goal. As the game progresses, new rivalries keep forming, but old rivals, such as the Nekoma High School team, also become opponents again.
If you want to watch the series, the only place where you can currently watch Haikyu!!, aside from Japanese television, is Crunchyroll. No major streaming service has the series at this moment, but that will probably change at some time in the future, although we’re not sure it’s going to happen globally.