"Haikyuu!" (and a Little Rant about Fujoshis)

I've been reading Haikyuu! for almost three years, apparently. (And for anyone who wonders, "what the hell is 'Haikyuu!'??" please kindly check it here.)

Being a person who actually does not care so much about shounen manga in particular because my reading pattern is more sporadic―I read whatever picks my interest and curiosity regardless the genre―I was introduced to his precious piece or sports manga by someone else. And this tweet was what landed me onto the ground of Haikyuu!'s court:

(Source: here.)

So to speak, "Haikyuu!" is a manga about a school sports club. Boys volleyball club, to be exact. In Japanese they call it 'danshi bare' (男子バレー）, and that's pretty much the main ground to lay all the stories Furudate Haruichi has in mind.

I won't talk about the main plot. Hell, I just gave a link to its Wiki page so why bother? But I would like to rant a bit about what made me hooked to "Haikyuu!" and what keeps me checking up every new chapter. Online of course, because here in my country the legal version hasn't been released yet. I hope they would be, though.

For a sport manga, "Haikyuu!" sure has a pretty, effective paneling. Furudate Haruichi surely knows where to put lines, how to dissect every page, and what to draw in every panel. And it results in a one, beautiful composition. In my opinion, not even hugely-cheered "Kuroko no Basuke" (Fujimaki Tadatoshi) can compare. *hides from KuroBasu's die-hard fans*

Let's look at these pictures. I took a page (actually it consists of two portraits pages) each from "Kuroko no Basuke" and "Haikyuu!" that has a pretty much the same scene.

The first one is "Kuroko no Basuke", chapter 84: "We're Finally Here". And the picture attached below is "Haikyuu!", taken from chapter 62: "The Full Width of the Court."

Can you see how beautiful "Haikyuu!" is? Furudate Haruichi carefully depicts an important scene that happens on the court with so much attention to details. I personally really like how he used tones to 'blur' some lines to emphasize the movement (take a peek at Hinata's shoe sole!).

And what makes me keep following "Haikyuu!"?

Well... for one, its pacing its pretty fast. It 'only' reaches near 200 chapters so far and yet there are so many development in the storyline and characters. Almost everything that happens in "Haikyuu!" is essential to the story, not merely filler. Each character―especially Karasuno team member―also gets their chance to shine, including those guys who's mostly sitting on the bench in matches. Not every sports manga can do this without making the series painstakingly long.

Now let's talk about fangirls.

Sports manga is known as a genre that can 'create' many fangirls, and if we're discussing "Haikyuu!" then I must admit that I'm a fangirl myself. I love the characters to the point where I needed to stop reading and cried when Sawamura Daichi, Karasuno's volleyball team captain, got hurt in an important match.

"Haikyuu!" chapter 117 - "Midway Through the Battle of the Small Giants."

But the problem arises when we shift the focus to fujoshis. (The pretty much definition of the term can be found here, because I'm that lazy to explain.)

Look, I don't mind if they like yaoi stories. Boys-love or whatsoever, it's their own preference. But I think it's very frustrating (and annoying) when they twist anything―again: ANYTHING―that builds on close friendship into boys romance. Like, whut? Is it THAT impossible to you fujoshi otakus, to see something which is pure friendship? That same sense of closeness and bonds without making all of them gay?

I'm no homophopic. But the regrettable thing is, most fujoshi fangirls that I know does not exactly care about the character development. Even storyline. They basically read a manga (or watch an anime), then find some made-up-couples they think are so cute together, and in a blink of an eye they start making bunches of fanarts or fanfictions to please their fantasies. At some points, these activities are understandable. However, I think it's now too much.

Good grief.
They seem like horny teenagers.

*P.S: For a bonus, I will put one of my favorite lines from "Haikyuu!" here.
no need to thank me.