Haikyu!! Volumes 3 and 4 by Haruichi Furudate

I have great difficulty reading Haikyu!! because my kids keep stealing my volumes and rereading them before I have a chance to get to them, but I recently managed to find volumes 3 and 4 and stash them away so I finally got a chance get caught up. I’m very much enjoying the pacing of the story in Haikyu!! and also the accelerated release schedule that Viz has been setting for these volumes, so I don’t have to wait too long for the next one. The first couple volumes firmly established the new rookies on the volleyball team, Kageyama the perfectionist and Hinata the enthusiastic but short volleyball savant, but two rookies can’t make up a whole team. There are still some essential players missing, and these two volumes did a good job at filling in the gaps of the Karasuno High Volleyball team.

The third volume introduces Karusuno’s libero, a player who specializes in defence. Yu Nishinoya is even shorter than Hinata, and he’s fiercely dedicated to his specialist position. When he shows up to practice, he’s disappointed that Karasuno’s ace Asahi isn’t participating. He refuses to play without Asahi, but is won over by Hinata’s enthusiasm and desire to learn. The spector of the missing Asahi hovers over practice, and when the reader is introduced to him, he looks at first like a mild giant, his fighting spirit knocked out of him by a horrible volleyball loss the last time he played.

Another missing piece is a coach, Keishin Ukai, the grandson of the legendary coach who was responsible for Karasuno’s winning era. Ukai promptly sets up a new challenge for the high school kids – they have to play the local municipal team of adults. Along the way, Yu actually mangest to get Asahi involved in the game again. Bolstered by additional players and a coach, the team is starting to pull together.

The fourth volume shows the team take on a new challenge – a practice game with their traditional rivals, Nekoma High. One of the things I enjoyed most about this volume was seeing the personalities and playing habits of Karasuno pitted against another high school team. Karasuno still has a long way to go, but they have flashes of brilliance here and there which hint at success in future volumes. Sometimes sheer determination and repetition forces Hinata to take his game to the next level. The trust developing between all the teammates is also key to their improved performance.

Haikyu!! is just delightful to read, and while I might be inadvertently learning more about volleyball strategy than I ever expected, seeing all the subplots develop as each member of the team has individual struggles to reach their full potential is what makes this series so entertaining. Widening the focus of the story to include other team members like Asahi and Nishinoya keeps everything fresh, as the rookies have to adjust to the changing team dynamics.

QQ Sweeper, Volume 3 by Kyousuke Motomi

I hadn’t realized that this series was so short, followed by a rebooted sequel series. So this concluding volume isn’t so much of an ending as it is wrapping up one stage of the series and signaling a new one. Still, with Motomi behind things, QQ Sweeper still manages to be a pretty satisfying non-concluding three volume series, and I hope Queen’s Quality also gets licensed.

As the volume opens, Kyutaro knows that Fumi is his long-lost childhood friend, but her peculiar amnesia prevents her from remembering any elements of her previous life. He’s content to be near her, even if she doesn’t regain her memories. While there is a little bit of school drama, most of the conflict in this volume comes from Fumi being signaled out by a new enemy, Ataru, pretending to be a boy with fortunetelling skills. Ataru shows up for group karaoke dates but then manipulates everyone around him by intoning dark prophecies. One of Fumi’s friends is particularly susceptible to this type of plotting, and Fumi soon finds herself gossiped about as being cursed yet again. Fortunately some of her closest friends don’t fall into this trap, and QQ Sweeper shows that there’s plenty of possibility for redemption in humanity after all.

All along in Fumi’s efforts to become a sweeper and clean up bad supernatural messes, there have been hints of a larger destiny for her. As Fumi and Kyutaro confront Ataru, he references Fumi’s potential to become a Queen, and she exhibits a greater degree of confidence and control in bring back her friend’s lost soul. Motomi series always have an endearing quirkiness about them, that when combined with the themes of friendship and found family result in manga with a unique feel. QQ Sweeper‘s juxtaposition of random domestic cleaning with violent supernatural confrontation with some humor here and there made me wish that this wasn’t the last volume. I hope to see these characters again in Queen’s Quality if Viz decides to bring out that series too!