Yu Nishinoya

**Yū Nishinoya** is a second-year student at Karasuno High School. He served as the libero for the school's volleyball team and was referred to by his teammates as "Karasuno's Guardian Deity" for his remarkable skill.

## Statistics

* **Name**: Yu Nishinoya, Karasuno's Guardian Deity/God
* **Origin**: Haikyū!!
* **Gender**: Male
* **Age**: 17
* **Birthday**: October 10, 1995
* **Classification**: Human, Karasuno High Second-Year Student, Karasuno Volleyball Club Libero
* **Blood Type**: AB
* **Height**: 159.3 cm (5'2.7")
* **Weight**: 51.1 kg (112.7 lbs)
* **Skin Color**: Light
* **Eye Color**: Brown
* **Hair Color**: Black/Blond
* **Relatives**: Mineo Nishinoya (Grandfather), Three Unnamed Older Sisters
* **Alignment**: Good
* **Status**: Active
* **Class**: **A-Class**
* **Powers and Abilities**:
* **Standard Equipment**:
* **Weaknesses**:
* **Notable Attacks/Techniques**:
* **Voice Actor**: Nobuhiko Okamoto

### Power Stats

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

## Appearance

Nishinoya is the shortest member of the team, standing at 159.3 cm (almost up to 5 feet and 3 inches). Despite his shorter stature, he has a fairly muscular build. He regularly styles his wild black hair by ruffling most of it upwards, adding 10 cm to his height; the tiny tuft of hair that falls over his forehead appears to be bleached a dirty blond. His eyes are brown and slanted.

He tends to wear brightly colored shirts that typically have a random four-character idiom printed on either its front or back, such as "*One-Man Army*" or "*Three-Point Headstand*". In games, he wears an elbow pad on his right arm in addition to his uniform, unlike the rest of the team.

## Personality

Nishinoya is a very energetic and temperamental person. His boisterous nature and crazy shenanigans can attract unwanted attention quite easily, which often goes badly for him. Although he hardly ever worries about the consequences of his actions (and may even revert to violence to vent out his anger on certain occasions), he is surprisingly considerate of his friends' feelings and insecurities.

He has a quirky habit of spontaneously coming up with ridiculous names for the moves he executes while practicing receives. He is also unexpectedly shy when it comes to talking to girls he hasn't met before.

Like Tanaka, Nishinoya has a large interest in Kiyoko Shimizu. Together, they try to approach her but are ultimately ignored. They cause a bit of a ruckus when this happens and are usually scolded by somebody, usually Daichi. When the series officially introduces Noya, he energetically approaches Kiyoko, which results in an off-screen slap. Nishinoya returns with a red cheek and a smile. Tanaka and Nishinoya both like being called "Senpai", and dislike boys with a lot of attention from girls.

Nishinoya can be extremely impatient, excitable and impulsive. As Tanaka puts it, "he simply gets too fired up for his good." He doesn't bother to filter his words and is therefore prone to blurting out whatever he's thinking in a loud and tactless manner. In-game, however, his attitude changes drastically as he becomes incredibly focused and serious, remaining calm and doing everything in his power to provide the support his team needs until the very end. For this reason, everyone in the volleyball club respects him greatly. He is shown to be incredibly hard-working, once even continuously practicing more than 200 spike-block receives to the point that his legs stopped moving.

## Main Skills and Equipment

**Volleyball Skills**: Nishinoya's skills in defense are said to be unparalleled. The level of proficiency he demonstrates in his position as a libero has caused his captain to refer to him as a "guardian deity", and his skills were also acknowledged by Nekoma's libero, Yaku. He has supremely fast reflexes, swift feet, and flexible arms. He can receive volleys that most teams would usually deem impossible, and keep the ball in play and connected. One of his techniques, "Rolling Thunder", is based on him performing a dive-and-roll receive.

Nishinoya is good at acting on the spur of the moment, adapting to the flow of the game as it is required. This turned out to be a vital asset to Karasuno in their revenge game against the famed "Iron Wall", wherein Noya made the split-second decision of using his foot to prevent the ball from hitting the ground since he knew he could not reach it with his hands in time. That move alone earned him the immediate astonishment and heartfelt praise of the entire stadium, including several volleyball veterans, a number of players from rival teams, and even his normally critical coach.
* **Digs/Receives**: Nishinoya and Daichi are the strongest receivers on the team although Nishinoya is commonly known as the team's guardian due to his incredible defense and at times making seemingly impossible saves. He is seen to make receives of serves and spikes from powerful opponents like Oikawa and Ushijima once he was able to adjust to the different power and spin. Nishinoya is also able to use his feet to save a ball if he is aware that he will not be able to get his hands into place, like did during Karasuno's rematch against Date Tech in the Summer InterHigh.
* **Libero Toss**: Nishinoya distinguishes himself from other liberos with his participation in the offense. Despite struggling with it initially, he is now capable of jumping behind the attack line and performing a libero toss either to Asahi or his other teammates in a synchronized attack. This is especially helpful under the circumstances where Kageyama or Sugawara are forced to make the first touch. However, the move is not without drawbacks: given that it is effectively an all-out synchronized attack, there won't be anyone to defend again if it was blocked.
* **Overhand Receives**: Nishinoya originally has an obvious weakness in overhand receives and is particularly weak at receiving jump floaters. Since Karasuno won the Spring Tournament Qualifiers, he began working on his overhand receives and is making progress to better handle jump float serves.
* **Rolling Thunder**: "Rolling Thunder" really just a rolling receive (you receive then do a roll.) but Nishinoya likes calling it Rolling thunder. He has done it multiple times where he does the move and shouts "Rolling Thunder!". Usually people get weirded out by it: Tsukishima, Yamaguchi, and Tanaka always laugh when he shouts the name. Hinata is the only one who is interested in the move and wants to know how to do it.

## Relationships

* Mieno Nishinoya
* Asahi Azumane
* Ryunosuke Tanaka
* Chikara Ennoshita
* Hisashi Kinoshita
* Kazuhito Narita
* Koshi Sugawara
* Daichi Sawamura
* Kiyoko Shimizu
* Shoyo Hinata
* Tobio Kageyama, Kei Tsukishima and Tadashi Yamaguchi
* Morisuke Yaku
* Taketora Yamamoto