The hit Weekly Shonen Jump manga series anime adaptation Haikyuu!! will soon return to the screens of many. The fourth season of the series, after a rather hefty wait, is just around the corner premiering on January 10th. The last time the series had a season premiere on television was back on October 7th of 2016.

Now with the newest season promising to debut a slew of new characters, it is time to first reflect on the characters we have already seen in the first three seasons of the series. There have been plenty of important characters in Haikyuu!! that have left a big impact, but here are 10 characters who have been underrated so far.

Tetsurou Kuroo

First up is the captain and middle blocker of Nekoma High School volleyball team, Tetsurou Kuroo. Now, while Kuroo’s importance may seem obvious for a few reasons, like the fact that he is the experienced third-year captain of Karasuno High School’s biggest rivals, he is not fully appreciated in these early parts of the narrative and we do not get to see too much of him, at least in these first three seasons of the anime.

He is a captain of Nekoma’s volleyball team, demonstrating that he is not only talented, but has the experience necessary for the role and is a skilled middle blocker, showing this against Karasuno and in the practice sets in Tokyo. Kuroo also serves as a mentor for Tsukishima during that arc.

Daichi Sawamura

This particular character definitely gets some love by the story, particularly during the big matches in the second season of the Haikyuu!! anime, but nonetheless, Daichi Sawamura’s importance cannot go understated. He is the captain of the main protagonist team of the series, Karasuno High School, being a third-year student (as expected from the fact that a lot of captains are third-year students) and a wing spiker.

His presence to the team is absolutely crucial to their success, as not only are his skills valuable, but his leadership carries the team forward. One particular area of strength of Daichi is his ability to receive the ball from the opposition.

Kenma Kozume

It is of no surprise that this character generally goes under the radar (after his teammate highlights his importance to the team and demonstrating it in the season one practice match against Karasuno) because that is much like his character. Kenma Kozume is an extremely talented second-year setter and student of Nekoma High School along with his oldest and closest friend, Tetsurou Kuroo.

Sure, as mentioned, the first season touches on how important he is to his team, but goes fairly under the radar after that season. He has been regarded as the “brain,” backbone, and “heart” of the Nekoma team. His talents are so great, that it even caught the close attention of Kageyama in the their first practice match. Thankfully, along with Kuroo, he will get more time in the spotlight in the upcoming Haikyuu!! OVA titled Land vs Sky.

Hajime Iwaizumi

Aobajohsai High school has been regarded as a very strong team from the get-go of the first season of Haikyuu!!. Karasuno High School’s volleyball team had their first practice match of the series against them and essentially served as arguably their biggest rivals, even before Nekoma at the time, having played each other twice competitively. Since Hajime Iwaizumi is more of a side character, he does not get much screen time, but it does not do justice to his importance.

He is the vice-captain, (second to Oikawa) wing spiker, and “ace” of Aobajohsai. If it wasn’t for his presence, the team would be without their top-scoring player and Oikawa would have lesser players to serve tosses to and be a bit less threatening. In their second match with Karasuno, he was partially responsible for thwarting Yamaguchi’s pinch serves and converting them into points.

Koshi Sugawara

He has been somewhat underplayed despite being a third-year student and vice captain for Karasuno High School’s volleyball team because of the fact that Tobio Kageyama has taken over as the team’s starting setter despite being a first-year student at Karasuno. However, this does not mean that he is a weak player to the team. Sugawara definitely has the experience and skills necessary to be pivotal for the team in key moments.

At least a couple of times during the series’ first three seasons he comes on in important times to supplement the team. This is especially so in Karasuno’s first competitive match against Aobajohsai where he comes on for Kageyama to help change the flow of the team’s offensive play, particularly with Shoyo since Oikawa and co. were reading Kageyama and Shoyo’s plays too well.

Takeru Nakashima

Fans of the series can surely be forgiven for overlooking this specific character in the series. After all, he only makes a significant appearance during the Spring High Preliminary arc as one of the lesser-known schools and teams coming up against Karasuno High School in the lead up toward the second season’s main event match against Aobajohsai (and of course the third season match against Shiratorizawa Academy).

However, once present against Karasuno’s team, he could not be overlooked. He’s a third-year student and captain for Wakutani. According to the young coach Ukai, his play style most resembles the former “Little Giant” and can do impressive feats like changing the angle of his spike and ricocheting the ball off blocker’s hands to make it difficult to receive.

Takanobu Aone

Another formidable character and overall player that Karasuno High School’s volleyball team has to overcome is Takanobu Aone. While made to be a significant player in the first season, it still does not quite highlight how important he is to his respective team (Date Tech High).

Even when Karasuno came along, they were known to have a strong defense in their blocking power. Aone was absolutely a part of their “iron wall.” He is a second-year student and middle blocker for the team and it shows, especially in the first season match against Karasuno. He is of staggering height and possesses strong defensive prowess.

Keiji Akaashi

Yet another character in the series that is easy to overlook and fully appreciate but that is crucial to his team. Keiji Akaashi is a vital cog in the machine that is the Fukurodani Academy volleyball team. Fukurodani Academy is known in Japan as an absolute powerhouse school in terms of volleyball.

As a starting setter he has a big part to play in the team’s offensive play, which determines how well Bokuto (the ace of the team) can play. If it weren’t for Akaashi, Bokuto wouldn’t receive as many good tosses and score the amount of points that he does.

Ittetsu Takeda

Now we reach the point on the list where we get to the non-player characters. Nonetheless, Takeda is a crucial point of moral and logistical support for the entire Karasuno High School boy’s volleyball team.

He is a passionate man and is partially responsible for providing said emotional and moral support for the team. On top of that, he works hard to get Keishin Ukai to coach the team and get exclusive and important practice matches for Karasuno against the surrounding powerhouse schools.

Keishin Ukai

Finally, we have the relative to the legendary senior coach Ukai at Karasuno High School, the young coach Ukai or Keishin Ukai. It took the faculty adviser, Ittetsu Takeda, plenty of time and effort to recruit Keishin Ukai since he was initially resistant to the idea of being the successor to the senior coach Ukai.

However, he finally stays on as the regular coach and is another important key factor in the team’s successes. He helped to take a team that was teetering around mediocrity and turned them into real challengers.

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