Shouyou Hinata

Shouyou Hinata is the main protagonist of the ''Haikyū!! ''anime and manga.

Shouyou is a first-year student at Karasuno High and is one of the volleyball team's middle blockers. Hinata's dream is to become strong enough to spike past tall blockers, just like his idol, the Small Giant, once did. However, since he lacks height to play middle blocker effectively, he specializes in jumping to compensate.

Appearance
Hinata is 164.2 cm, making him the second shortest person on his team, next to Nishinoya (although this height is typically average for a male Japanese High School student and is also seen in grown men). He has unruly, orange hair and brown eyes. His relatively thin build and short stature often lead him to be mistaken for a junior high (or in some cases even grade school) student. Hinata typically dresses in his Karasuno school uniform with a black jacket and black pants. Beneath his jacket is a beige or tan sweatshirt. In the first episode, he wore the green volleyball uniform from his junior high.

During matches, Hinata wears his volleyball uniform—a navy blue jersey and corresponding shorts with white and orange stripes on the sides. On the back of his jersey is his position number 10 (coincidentally, the same number that was worn by the Small Giant) and his school's name written in kanji. On the court, he wears kneepads and white volleyball shoes with red stripes.

Personality
Hinata has a cheerful and energetic personality. He is easily excited and can be quite loud, a trait second only to Nishinoya and Tanaka. For the most part, Hinata is very simple-minded which sometimes cause him to make rash decisions. However, he is also shown to be quite observant. He is capable of reading social cues and be incredibly empathetic toward others' struggles. As such, he often says just what others need to hear to push themselves in the right direction. He is also noted to be a natural schmoozer, a quality that his teammates occasionally use to win someone over (Nishinoya, for example). His friendly and straightforward personality allows him to befriend even the quietest of people effortlessly, such as Kenmafrom Nekoma High and Aone from Date Tech High.

However, despite his generally bubbly exterior, Hinata is also shown to have a serious attitude, particularly when it comes to volleyball. His intense love for the sport is demonstrated through his impressive display of tenacity stemming from his constant desire to improve his abilities. As stated by Sugawara, Hinata plays with great fortitude in the face of adversity and thus doesn't give up easily during a match.[1]  Hinata can also exhibit a very intimidating expression when people underestimate him. Still, Hinata gets scared easily, especially by larger and stronger opponents. This prompts him to develop the habit of hiding behind his nearest teammate. However, he recovers quickly before confidently challenging their opponents.

In the beginning, Hinata is easily agitated before a match due to his lack of experience. He becomes so nervous that he would have an upset stomach or need to go to the toilet constantly. He also becomes clumsy as he would mess up his spikes or receives. Before Karasuno's first practice match against Aobajohsai High, Hinata is so affected that he mistook Daichi and Kiyoko's attempt to comfort him as more pressure and shortcircuited. He only recovers after royally messing up and driving a serve into the back of Kageyama's head. Over time, Hinata becomes more apt at handling pressure. Although still faint-hearted, Hinata has a considerably less severe reaction and is able to perform well during matches regardless.

Hinata, like Kageyama, does poorly in school since he, too, is preoccupied with volleyball. He once told Sugawara that ever since he'd entered high school, he had never scored in the double digits on any of his tests.

Abilities
Hinata is often described as clumsy, yet incredibly athletic. When he first entered Karasuno, he didn't know much about volleyball and focused only on spiking. However, with the help of his new teammates, he soon learned the fundamentals and basic techniques. Despite his inexperience, Hinata constantly tries to figure out what he can do to help out during a match. He is not afraid of experimenting with new things and can easily improvise when things don't go according to plan. He is an incredibly fast learner who can improve his skills merely by watching others to copy their movements (although most of the time he fails on the first try). Hinata is also one of the few players with the ability to see the entire width of the court when he reaches the apex of his jump. He has said that when he's jumping to spike, he can see the movements his opponents make and even the individual expressions on their faces.

Since the Tokyo Expedition Arc, Hinata’s overall skills have improved greatly. His coordination and mobility have increased with his mastery of flying receives, allowing him to make some near-impossible saves. In addition, Hinata can now fight in mid-air battle using block outs and feints.

Hinata isn't known as a powerful player, but rather as one who utilizes speed and stamina to his advantage. Above all else, Hinata’s main assets are his fortitude and determination to win.

Height and reach, as of mid-November:
 * Fingertip Height: 210 cm
 * Jumping Reach : 333 cm (spike) / 310 cm (no run up block)

Skills

 * Stamina and Speed: Hinata is known as the fastest player on his team and has incredible reflex and mobility. He also has seemingly unlimited stamina, which he builds up by riding his bike thirty minutes through the mountains to commute to school. Hinata can easily go from the left to the right side of the court before his opponents can even react. However, his speed can be a problem if he goes overboard since too much momentum cause him to crash into the net.


 * Jumping: Hinata has incredible jumping power to compensate for his lack of physical height. He has a vertical jump of almost 1.23m, or almost 50 inches (48.4). Combined with his mobility, he is capable of jumping diagonally to dodge blockers. He can also add a run-up to increase his blocking height. Because of his impressive jumps, his movements are often described as flying according to bystanders. With advice from Kageyama after the Training Camp Arc, and seeing the new "Little Giant" - Kōrai Hoshiumi; Hinata has now learned a new jumping technique. By focusing the momentum of his run-up into the balls of his feet, he makes a much high jump with an increased mid-air stability. It is notably called the "BAM" jump due to it making an audible sound when he takes off from the ground.


 * Decoy: Hinata is dubbed as the "Ultimate Decoy" for his ability to attract opponents' attention to himself, thus allowing the other spikers to score much easier. Most recently, Hinata has added the blend-and-distract tactics to his repertoire. He can now adjust his tempo either to match the rest for an all-in synchronized attack or charge forward for a minus-tempo quick.


 * Minus-Tempo Quick Strike: This is Hinata and Kageyama's signature attack. It involves Kageyama sending a toss to the exact location of Hinata's spike point. Initially, Hinata spikes with his eyes closed due to his lack of skills. Since then, the quick has undergone plenty of changes and give rise to new attacks. Kageyama now uses a toss that stops near Hinata's spike point. Hinata, now spiking with his eyes open, gains control over mid-air battle, allowing him to avoid blockers either through feints or block outs. The duo also developed a vertical spike off of the quick strike, in which Kageyama provides a toss close to the net and Hinata spiking it straight down.


 * Block Out: In a mini-match against Lev, Tsukishima, and Kuroo, Hinata accidentally learned how to "block out" by himself when he spiked the ball off the tip of Lev’s fingers. Since then, he has attempted to use this technique to spike through two or three blockers. However, he occasionally still has trouble accurately targeting the blockers' hands.


 * Feint: Fukurōdani Academy's ace Bokuto also taught Hinata how to feint—a useful tactic for surprising blockers. He manages to utilize this against both Johzenji High and Aobajohsai High, something both teams didn't expect him to be able to do.


 * Back Attack: Hinata and Kageyama rarely use this attack except in crucial situations when they need the point. Although Hinata's first back attack failed during the match against Aobajohsai High, he is able to perfectly execute the attack during the match against Shiratorizawa. Sugawara eventually dubbed this attack as "Back Minus".


 * Receive: Hinata is initially weak at receives, but he has shown drastic improvements to the point of being complimented by other teams. He has mastered flying receives during the Tokyo Expedition, giving him the coordination to make a save and quickly runs back for a counter. During the Miyagi First-Year Intensive Training Camp, Hinata masters the split step and learns to predict the spiking course. He can now react and positions himself to perfectly receive a powerful spike. In addition, Hinata can use a close receive, a variation of a soft block located 2-4 feet behind the net.
 * Open Spike: With an improved jump, Hinata is more capable at hitting an open spike from a high toss. He almost misses the spike point on his first attempt, but his more recent attempts have proven to be quite formidable when he pulled off a block out against a three-man block.

Trivia

 * Favorite Food: Tamago Kake Gohan.
 * Current Concern: He can't catch a ball one-handed.
 * Like Kageyama, since he was born on the cusp his star-sign isn't clear; if he was born before 12 pm he is a Gemini, if he was born after, he is a Cancer.
 * Before the final exam in the Tokyo Expedition Arc, Hinata has stated that he has never had a double-digit score on any of his quizzes at school.
 * Hinata's worst subject is English. His voice actor Murase Ayumu, however, was born in America (Los Angeles) and is able to speak English fluently.
 * When Hinata feels scared or threatened, he instinctively hides behind the nearest person.
 * Hinata is the oldest first year on the team.
 * His birthday overlaps with the summer solstice (June 21st, the longest day and shortest night of the year) which contrasts Kageyama's birthday which occurs in the winter solstice (December 22nd, the longest night and shortest day of the year).
 * In the first popularity poll, Hinata was ranked 2nd, after Kageyama with 6,058 votes. In the second popularity poll, he was ranked 1st with 12,720.
 * In a poll conducted by Charapedia, a Japanese anime and manga character database that asked people which anime characters they would choose as the basis for their children's name, Hinata came in 8th with 104 votes among female respondents.
 * In Haikyū!!: One Shot, Hinata's jersey number was 7, instead of 10.
 * In Haikyū!!: One Shot, Hinata was not a first-year regular. Hinata and Kageyama had actually formed their "Oddball Combo" during a match against another school and not in a 3-on-3 against Tsukishima, Yamaguchi, and Daichi.
 * English media such as Crunchyroll (anime) and VIZ Media (manga) have his name written as 'Hinata Shoyo'.
 * Hinata's name has the character for "sun" and Tsukishima's name has the character for "moon". This is a reference to the fact that they are rivals despite being on the same team as well as the idea that Hinata is bright like the sun in both personality and publicity in contrast to Tsukishima's being aloof and low-profile.
 * Part of Hinata's first name and part of Kageyama's first name when combined will form the word "Hishō", which means "to soar" or "flight".
 * In regards to his name, Furudate wrote, "I gave him this name with the image of “sun” and “flying” in mind."
 * In regards to Hinata's character, Furudate states that they are proud of the way Hinata turned out and claimed he was designed to have no similarities whatsoever with his creator.
 * Hinata's most hated blocking type is Matsukawa Issei's.
 * He failed in the English exam because he wrote the answers in the wrong place on the answer sheet.
 * Nekomata calls him a demon's kanabo.