You watch Hinata get destroyed, utterly humiliated, and then you watch him decide that means he has to get better, not angrier, better. The show understands that volleyball is just the frame for something messier: what happens when someone smaller, slower, less talented than everyone else refuses to accept that as final. Every match builds because you care about these specific people, not because the animation goes hard, though it does. By the finale you're not rooting for Karasuno to win, you're rooting for Hinata to prove that desperation and loyalty can move mountains.

Shoyo Hinata is short for a volleyball player, but after seeing an ace called the "Little Giant" play, he falls hard for the sport. He pulls together a middle school team that finally reaches a tournament, only to be crushed in its first match by Tobio Kageyama, the prodigy known as the King of the Court. Vowing to beat him, Hinata enrolls at Karasuno High, the Little Giant's old school, and discovers that Kageyama is now his teammate. Hinata struggles to find his role despite his remarkable jumping ability, while Kageyama has problems of his own that only Hinata can help with. The two rivals have to learn to cooperate if Karasuno is going to climb toward the top of Japanese high school volleyball. The show mixes tense matches with comedy and drama.