Shoyo Hinata

**Shōyō Hinata** is the main protagonist of the *Haikyū!!* series. Hinata was motivated to begin playing volleyball when he witnessed a Karasuno High volleyball player nicknamed the Little Giant scoring points against opponents far bigger than him. After losing his first and only official volleyball match in middle school against Tobio Kageyama, the "King of the Court", Hinata enrolled at Karasuno High, only to find that Kageyama had also chosen to come to Karasuno. For the majority of the series, Hinata was a first-year student at Karasuno and one of the volleyball team's middle blockers, as well as their "**Greatest Decoy**".

## Statistics

* **Name**: Shoyo Hinata, The Strongest/Ultimate Decoy, Shorty, Short stuff, Carrot top
* **Origin**: Haikyū!!
* **Gender**: Male
* **Age**: 16
* **Birthday**: June 21, 1996
* **Classification**: Human, Karasuno High School First-Year Student, Karasuno Volleyball Club Middle Blocker and Decoy
* **Blood Type**: B
* **Height**: 162.8 cm (5'4.1")
* **Weight**: 51.9 kg (114 lbs)
* **Skin Color**: Light
* **Eye Color**: Brown
* **Hair Color**: Orange
* **Relatives**: Unnamed Mother, Natsu Hinata (Younger sister)
* **Alignment**: Good
* **Status**: Active
* **Class**: **S-Class**
* **Powers and Abilities**: Ninjutsu Master, Volleyball Skills
* **Standard Equipment**: Ninjatō
* **Weaknesses**:
* **Notable Attacks/Techniques**:
* **Voice Actor**: Ayumu Murase

### Power Stats

* **Attack Potency**:
* **Speed**:
* **Lifting Strength**:
* **Striking Strength**:
* **Durability**:
* **Stamina**:
* **Range**:
* **Intelligence**:
* **Key**:

## Appearance

Upon entering the first year of high school, Hinata stood at 162.8 cm. He is the second shortest person on his team, next to Nishinoya (although this height is fairly average for a male Japanese High School student). 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.

During matches, Hinata wears his volleyball uniform—a black 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 causes 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 Kenma from 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. 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 short-circuited. 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 the pressure. Although still faint-hearted, Hinata has a considerably less severe reaction and can 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.

## Main Skills and Equipment

**Volleyball Skills**: 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. Also, 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.
* **Stamina and Speed**: Hinata is known as the fastest player on his team and has incredible reflexes 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 can cause him to crash into the net or another player.
* **Jumping**: Hinata has incredible jumping power to compensate for his lack of physical height. He has a vertical jump of 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.
* **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. Kuroo has stated that the reason Hinata is seen as a great threat is due to his unpredictability. 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.
* **Rebound**: A move that Hinata learned from having watched Bokuto during the summer training camp in which a spiker can give their team another chance to attack by purposely hitting the block to have the ball brought back. Hinata is shown very capable of performing the rebound during matches, such as the matches against Wakutani and Shiratorizawa.
* **Feint**: Fukurodani 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 Aoba Johsai 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 Aoba Johsai High, he can perfectly execute the attack during the match against Shiratorizawa. Sugawara eventually dubbed this attack as "Back Minus".
* **Receives**: Originally, Hinata was known as a weak receiver and usually was seen making a poor receive or using his body to get the ball up. He often receives guidance from Nishinoya or Sugawara about how to best make a receive but still struggled with the execution. He has mastered flying receives during the Tokyo Expedition, giving him the coordination to make a save and quickly runs back for a counter.
* **Serves**: Originally using regular serves, Hinata at times struggled with power and accuracy; even once hitting Kageyama with a serve when under immense pressure. Over time, Hinata began to have better control of his serves although they were still fairly easy for opponents to receive.
* **Blocking**: Despite his height, Hinata plays as a middle blocker on the Karasuno team. While his shorter stature does not always allow him to get stuff blocks, his jumping height and reflexes allow him to be in place in time to get a deflection which allows the Karasuno team to use that as a chance to counter attack. Because of his shorter height, Hinata is usually beaten in a joust at the net against taller players. When Hinata is given the proper guidance and information, he is able to time his blocks to get occasional kill blocks.

**Ninjutsu Master**:

**Master Martial Artist**:

## Relationships

* Tobio Kageyama
* Kei Tsukishima
* Tadashi Yamaguchi
* Hitoka Yachi
* Ryunosuke Tanaka
* Yu Nishinoya
* Chikara Ennoshita
* Daichi Sawamura
* Koshi Sugawara
* Asahi Azumane
* Kiyoko Shimizu
* Keishin Ukai
* Natsu Hinata
* Hinata's Mother
* Yukitaka Izumi and Koji Sekimukai
* Ikkei Ukai
* Kenma Kozume
* So Inuoka
* Lev Haiba
* Tetsuro Kuroo
* Takanobu Aone
* Toru Oikawa and Hajime Iwaizumi
* Wakatoshi Ushijima
* Kotaro Bokuto
* Pegasus Kouga
* Natsu Dragneel
* Happy
* Ruby Rose
* Gray Fullbuster

## In Other Media

### Music

* Sings Big Bang STAR alongside Kouga, Natsu, Happy, Ruby, Yuna, Eden and Souma

## Quotes

* *There are dreams we also want to achieve. No one's getting in the way of that.* - Hinata, to inspire the Alliance to fight