Haikyuu Characters: 10 Main Characters (Ranked)

At first glance, Haikyuu is a sports anime surrounding a volleyball competition and it doesn’t seem like a particularly interesting premise for an anime but surprisingly it makes for quite a bingable story. This is mostly due to the fact that it focuses on the characters most of the time. Although this is a list of the 10 best main characters in Haikyuu, we won’t try to answer the question of which character is the best. We can still look into one interesting question though, which Haikyuu character is the best player in the show?

If this is something you wondered about keep reading this article since it ranks the 10 best volleyball players in Haikyuu.

Haikyuu Main Characters (Ranked)

10. Kenma Kozume

We start our list of Haikyuu main characters with Kenma Kozume. Kenma Kozume was a second-year undergraduate at Nekoma High School. He was the volleyball team’s setter, and his teammates referred to him as the “heart” and “brain” of the group. 

Kenma has a calm and analytical demeanor. He rarely loses his composure, and he rarely gets nervous or enthused about something. He is quiet and polite, and he rarely expresses his views because he is fearful of what people will think of him, and he despises being heard in any way.

Kenma is recognized as Nekoma’s “brain” because of his keen strategic mind and remarkable abilities to devise elaborate tactics to counter his enemies. He is instinctively perceptive to others’ behavior as a result of his preoccupation with what others think of him.  

This allows him to pick up on the tiniest things of his enemies, such as their attitudes and personalities, and exploit them. Kenma would assess his rivals’ abilities before devising a detailed strategy for his teammates to execute. 

Most of his schemes go unnoticed at first, but as time goes by, they become more successful. As a result, his competitors are always unaware that they have stumbled into his trap.

Kenma is good at strategizing, but he is unathletic and has little stamina which puts him at the bottom of our list of Haikyuu volleyball characters. Coach Ukai claims that as a setter, he is backed up by the whole team’s receiving force. In other words, Kenma can make the most of his abilities thanks to the receivers’ ability to return the ball to him cleanly. 

He has recently become more aggressive, seeking out offensive chances rather than focusing purely on his teammates’ flawless receptions. Like the rest of his unit, is adaptable and skilled at receiving and digging the ball.

His style of play normally causes Nekoma to get off to a late start in games as they adjust to the players and their styles. Nekoma goes on the attack in the final stretch, easily regaining whatever points they could have missed when they play and respond to the other team’s strengths and weaknesses.

9. Tetsuro Kuroo

Tetsuro Kuroo previously attended Nekoma High School as a third-year undergraduate. He was the captain and middle blocker for the Boys’ Volleyball Club, and was regarded as the “Scheming Captain.” He joined the Japan Volleyball Association’s sports marketing division in November 2018.

Tetsuro Kuroo Kuroo has a laid-back but cunning attitude, and many refer to him as a provocation specialist.  He would purposefully offend some and is unyielding with his snide remarks. This is shown by the way he enraged Tsukishima during the summer training camp when the first-year blocker maintained a casual approach to volleyball.

Tetsuro Kuroo Kuroo is kinder and more honest than his outward appearance suggests. Kuroo seeks out and apologizes to Daichi for the insult after discovering he has crossed a line. Later, he demonstrates that, despite his status as a provocation specialist, sportsmanship is still vital to him.

Kuroo is widely regarded as a blocking specialist who excels at putting pressure on opponents. He is known to be Tsukishima’s blocking instructor and possesses fine-tuned techniques. But due to his lack of experience, he found himself near the bottom of our Haikyuu’s best volleyball players.

His blocking skill stems primarily from his thorough understanding of the finer points, such as correct balance, pacing, and leaps. Kuroo will avoid and jump straight up instead of sideways while blocking. Around the same time, he attempts to time his blocking with the downward spike of the ball. Kuroo will now block spikers that are bigger or heavier than him.

Tetsuro Kuroo is a versatile player who helps Nekoma on both offense and defense. Kuroo, like the rest of his squad, is adaptable and effective when it comes to receiving. 

About the fact that a middle blocker is normally rotated out with the libero, Kuroo has proven that he can play back-row while Yaku is injured. He’s still the only newcomer with a decent jump serve at the moment.

8. Korai Hoshiumi

Number 8 on our list of Haikyuu main characters is Krai Hoshiumi. Krai Hoshiumi was a second-year student at Kamomedai High School and the team’s ace volleyball player. He was invited to the All-Japan Youth Intensive Training Camp as a highly talented athlete. 

He is currently a member of the Schweiden Adlers, a professional volleyball team in Japan’s V.League Division 1. He also plays volleyball for the Japan National Team.

Krai Hoshiumi is very small in stature, but he has a solid frame. He has a bird-like appearance. His huge, wide eyes mimic that of a seagull, and his spiky, rough, light-colored hair resembles that of a bird’s plumage. 

He used to have shorter hair that he kept down as a child. Krai Hoshiumi cut his hair and went back to the hairstyle he had when he was younger during his second year in high school.

Hoshiumi appears cool and composed in games, but he is a passionate, outspoken, and proud individual who believes that his talents have always astounded others due to his height. 

He gets annoyed easily, particularly when people don’t give him an impressed look or make comments about his short stature. 1st Since the third grade, Hoshiumi has been aware of his disability and the physical difficulties that come with being small. 

Despite crying about the unfairness of his height at first, he finally embraced it after his mother’s suggestion and began honing different skills to become a stronger player regardless of height.

Krai Hoshiumi is a fantastic all-around player who can serve, receive, set, block, and spike. He uses a peculiar running technique to leap up to get over blockers that are much higher than him; he bends and turns his legs inwards, resulting in a high vertical jump that allows him to do a spectacular end-line shot. 

He also has a vast arsenal of attacks, including feints, wipes, straights, and crosses, according to the evidence. Hoshiumi can also serve a jump serve with a lot of strength and precision.

During the All-Japan Youth Intensive Training Camp, Eikichi Chigaya remarked that Hoshiumi has a “Small Giant” vibe due to his height and leaping ability; a commentator at Hoshiumi’s first game at the Spring High tournament also nicknamed him the Small Giant.

7. Kiyoomi Sakusa

Itachiyama Institute’s ace spiker, Kiyoomi Sakusa, was a strong favorite to win the nationals. Along with Kiry and Ushijima, he was one of the country’s top three aces, and the only second-year among them. 

After high school, he played in a college volleyball league and was named MVP. He finally joined the MSBY Black Jackals, a V-League Division 1 club, as an outside hitter. During the 2021 Olympics, he was named to Japan’s national team.

Kiyoomi Sakusa seems to be cool and composed, but he is still competitive and proud. And when he scores the game’s final goal, he doesn’t show any emotion, but when he spots an opponent that he perceives as a threat to himself, he focuses heavily on the player. He was also annoyed when Kageyama said that, considering his popularity, he seemed ordinary. 

He is characterized as a prudent player who analyzes a toss before spiking, and this characteristic is reflected in his everyday habits. He appears to be a realist, which describes his proclivity for asking a lot of questions in order to determine scenarios.

Kiyoomi Sakusa is a tremendously talented player who was regarded as one of Japan’s Top 3 Aces as early as his second year and later as the college league’s MVP. He is a complete player who excels on both offense and defense which puts him somewhere in the middle of this list of best Haikyuu Volleyball players. He has previously defeated top 5 ace Bokuto and was often seen dueling with Ushijima, with whom he had a rivalry. 

He was seen hitting through a triple block and sending the ball going out of bounds with a wipe while playing against Fukurodani. Sakusa uses unorthodox spikes and serves to overpower enemies, despite lacking the immense strength of Ushijima and Kiry. 

He is a fearsome player because of his technique, discipline, precision, and special shots.

Sakusa is not only a great spiker, but he is also a solid defender. Since grappling with Ushijima’s south paw hits in junior high, he began working on his receives. Since then, he’s made significant progress and is always entrusted with defending the court against power servers. 

Sakusa was welcomed to the All Youth Japan camp as an acknowledgment of his abilities. Kageyama was fascinated with the spiker from the moment he saw him and was eager to observe him up close at the camp, but he later claimed that the spiker seemed to be more ordinary than his reputation suggested. 

He is seen making accurate shots between the end line and sideline during the camp. Sakusa has virtually no flaws, according to his teammate Motoya Komori, a participant in another youth camp.

6. Koutarou Bokuto

Ktar Bokuto, a third-year student at Fukurdani Academy, was the ace and captain of the volleyball team. He was regarded as one of the country’s top five aces, only missing out on the top three. 

He became an outside hitter for the MSBY Black Jackals, a Division 1 team in Japan’s V-League, after graduating from high school. He also plays volleyball for the Japan National Team.

His staff describes him as having “mood swings,” where even the smallest thing will shift his mood, affecting his performance.   Yukie, the team’s third-year boss, referred to him as “simple-minded” as a result of this. 

Ktar Bokuto has a playful, friendly, bombastic, and child-like attitude. Nonetheless, for his impressive talent and morale-boosting demeanor, he is respected by both his teammates and rivals.

When Ktar Bokuto comes back from a slump, he proudly displays his ace status and claims he is the strongest among his teammates and rivals. 

Bokuto is a vivacious character who cracks jokes about everything and acts out his plays creatively in order to gain praise or approval from his teammates. His nature is so adaptable that he gets along with just about everyone.

Bokuto is one of Japan’s top five aces, and it’s been said that when he’s serious, he’s as good as a top-three ace. He excels in all aspects of volleyball, including attack, safety, and setting. 

Bokuto, according to Kageyama, has the capacity to interpret and assess a situation in real-time, as well as the physical ability to respond quickly.

When Bokuto trained, he would often go beyond and above, remaining hours longer than anyone after practice ended and practicing harder at scheduled sessions. This irritated his teammates to the point that they tried to stop him and make reasons not to work out because no one could match his stamina or abilities.

As one would expect given his height and strength, Bokuto is often seen blasting past one and two-person blocks with strength alone. Bokuto’s most remarkable skill, though, is his technique and accuracy; he is often seen hitting razor-sharp lines and cut shots that go through even the tiniest distance or in between blockers with enough power to get through. 

Even if one can get under the bump, the force of the impact makes digging difficult. Bokuto is also a master of wipes and block-outs, as shown by the many wipes and block-outs he scores on Nekoma against their impressive defense. Bokuto also has the ability to reposition the ball for a better setup by bounces.

5. Toru Oikawa

Gracing the middle of our Haikyuu Main characters list is Tru Oikawa, also known as Toru Oikawa in English translation. Toru Oikawa is an Argentine Volleyball Federation professional setter for Club Atlético San Juan. He was a third-year student at Aoba Johsai High School for the bulk of the series, acting as captain and setter for the school’s volleyball team. 

As of the Final Arc, he had acquired Argentinian citizenship and will be the starting setter for the Argentina national team.  In the Interhigh and Spring High Preliminary Arcs, he is the primary adversary.

Despite his childishness and flirtatious disposition, Oikawa is an outstanding, well-rounded player who takes volleyball very seriously. Because of his smug and outwardly flippant demeanor, he’s considered to have a “disgusting personality” among both rivals and teammates. 

Oikawa is also known for making upbeat comments that are followed by critical or threatening afterthoughts. He is highly intelligent and cunning, and he can quickly work out the shortcomings of both his teammates and rivals.

Oikawa, on the other hand, has shown himself to be very attentive and loving for others on many occasions, but this is often shown towards his teammates or people like Hinata.

Oikawa is ambitious and single-minded, but it is revealed that he harbors feelings of inferiority against others he considers to be inherently superior to him, such as Ushijima and Kageyama. 

To balance his ambition, Oikawa works exceedingly intensely and often endures strenuous solo sessions in addition to his team workouts. Furthermore, Oikawa spends time at home monitoring previous games of his opponents, anticipating their moves, and strategizing ways to beat them.

Toru Oikawa is well known for his strong and precise jump serve, which he has honed and mastered since he was a child. Regardless of how tense a match is, he should keep a relaxed and cool demeanor. 

Oikawa is a stunning player and one of the finest all-around players in the prefecture, despite not being called a genius.

Unlike Kageyama’s brilliant setting technique, Oikawa’s talent is based on his innate physical skills, his ability to make good use of his teammates, his ability to identify flaws in opposition teams, sharp targets, and effective serves. He was able to figure out Tsukishima and Hinata’s obtaining weaknesses in a brief period of time on the court, and he was able to smash Kageyama and Hinata’s god-like quickness. 

This, however, would not come without years of preparation and commitment. Even Shiratorizawa Academy’s Ushijima acknowledges Oikawa’s talent, stating that Oikawa’s strength resides in his willingness to bring out the full potential of each squad.

4. Atsumu Miya

Atsumu Miya was a second-year undergraduate at Inarizaki High School and the volleyball team’s starting setter. He was invited to the All-Japan Youth Intensive Training Camp after being named Japan’s best high school setter and server. 

He is a member of MSBY Black Jackal, a professional volleyball team in Japan’s V.League Division 1 as of 2018. He is now a member of the Japan National Volleyball Team and competed in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Atsumu tends to be a carefree, confident individual who wears a lazy grin on his face much of the time, though he loves provoking people and offering offhanded compliments. 

Atsumu Miya has a tendency to be arrogant and self-centered at times. He is characterized by Osamu as someone who does not listen to others, does not return borrowed items, and lies frequently.

Atsumu Miya also happens to be a perfectionist who holds himself and his spikers to absurdly high expectations. He wants to give his spikers the best toss possible, but he still wants them to compete at a high level. If the spikers struggle to live up to his expectations, Atsumu is not afraid to confront them and even refer to them as rubbish, including his own twin brother. 

Atsumu is the finest high school setter in Japan right now. His tosses are said to be very quick to catch, never swaying or going off, giving the impression that the spikers have changed.

Except in tough situations where an underarm toss is a rule, Atsumu is still willing to go the extra mile to give his spikers the best toss possible. 

Atsumu Miya, like Kageyama and Hinata, is capable of executing the God-Like Fast in complete coordination with his twin brother Osamu. However, since he executed the attack without previous preparation, his toss is not as precise as Kageyama’s. He not only excelled as a setter, but he also earned the Best Server title at both the middle school and the Interh.

3. Wakatoshi Ushiwaka

We’re slowly reaching our top three Haikyuu main characters. Wakatoshi Ushijima was the captain and ace of Shiratorizawa Academy’s boys’ volleyball team as a third-year student. He was Miyagi Prefecture’s number one ace and, along with Sakusa and Kiry, one of the country’s top three aces at the time. 

He joined the Schweiden Adlers, a professional team in Japan’s V-League Division 1, after graduating from high school. He has joined Japan’s National Team, competing in the World League in 2014 and the Olympics in 2021. 

Wakatoshi is currently a member of Orze Warszawa, a Polish professional team.

Ushijima is a player who is in great physical shape. He has the height, size, endurance, and jumping ability to be one of the most dangerous players on the court. Ushijima’s spikes are known for their sheer strength, as he is capable of smashing away opposing blocks and receiving only by force. 

Because of his height and leaping ability, he can strike from a high impact point, making it much more difficult for his rivals to defend. Ushijima will also prolong his hang time in mid-air to compensate for the blockers’ timing. 

Ushijima’s main weapon is his left-handedness, which is one of his many attributes. Since he is left-handed, he can put a different twist on his spikes, boosting his firepower to new heights. 

Since most teams are only used to right-handed players’ spikes, Ushijima’s spikes are difficult to contend with.

Overall, Ushijima’s playstyle is direct and largely dependent on physicality. Many of his tactics remain consistent in most tournaments, allowing his rivals to get used to them and devise countermeasures. 

Due to Wakatoshi Ushijima’s sheer strength and height, however, this is better said than achieved. As a result, in one game against Karasuno, Ushijima scored 40 points, accounting for nearly half of his team’s total points, that alone puts him near the top of our list of best Haikyuu Volleyball players.

2. Shoyo Hinata

Shoyo Hinata is the lead character in Haruichi Furudate’s Haikyuu!! series. Hinata was inspired to start playing volleyball after seeing a Karasuno High volleyball player known as the Little Giant score points over much larger rivals. 

He enrolled at Karasuno High after losing his first formal volleyball match in middle school to Tobio Kageyama, the “King of the Court,” only to discover that Kageyama had already wanted to come to Karasuno. 

Hinata was a first-year student at Karasuno and a middle blocker for the volleyball team for the majority of the series.

Shoyo Hinata went to Brazil for two years after graduation from high school to specialize in beach volleyball. He joined the MSBY Black Jackals, a Division 1 team in the V-League, after moving to Japan. 

During the 2021 Olympics, he was a member of Japan’s national team, and in 2022, he joined Asas S Paulo, a professional team in the Brazilian Super League.

Hinata is known for being sloppy but still being very athletic. He didn’t know much about volleyball when he first arrived at Karasuno and concentrated solely on spiking. He quickly mastered the basics and basic skills with the aid of his new teammates. 

Despite his lack of expertise, Hinata is still trying to work out how he can assist during a play. He isn’t afraid to do new ideas and can quickly improvise when things don’t go according to schedule. 

Shoyo Hinata is a lightning-fast learner who can develop his abilities simply by copying the motions of others. Hinata is also one of the few players who can see the whole court as he reaches for the ball.

Hinata isn’t known for his strength, but rather for his ability to use speed and endurance to his benefit. Hinata’s greatest strengths are his fortitude and will to succeed over all else.

1. Tobio Kageyama

The number one on our list of Haikyuu Characters is Tobio Kageyama, known as the “King of the Court”. Tobio Kageyama is one of Karasuno’s setters and was chosen to attend the All-Japan youth training camp. He is sometimes defined as a “genius” setter. 

Tobio Kageyama has exceptional analytical skills, being able to throw precision tosses after observing both angles and placements on the court in a fraction of a second.

For his excellent technique and game sense, Kageyama is recognized as the “King of the Court” and a volleyball genius so it’s no wonder he is the top pick on our list of best Haikyuu volleyball players. Kageyama’s overwhelming ability as a high-caliber setter has the potential to unite the team, but he initially struggles with good communication with his teammates. 

He’s learned to use his talents to put out the best of his spikers over time. Instead of asking his spikers to balance him all of the time, he now pays attention to their state and changes his toss accordingly.

Kageyama is a professional all-rounder with a tremendous grasp of both the basics and the complexities of volleyball. In addition to his astounding precision and technical abilities as a setter, he is a skilled all-rounder with a remarkable grasp of both the basics and the complexities of volleyball. 

Tobio Kageyama is capable of playing a variety of positions, including wing spiker, but he prefers to be the team’s control tower as a setter. Kageyama is also a fan of the improvised technique, and he was the first to propose that Hinata’s powerful appearance on the court could be used as a decoy. 

As a result of all of these considerations, Kageyama has been picked to attend the All-Japan Youth Intensive Training Camp.