by Recently, the volleyball-themed manga and anime “Haikyu!!” has become a global hit. But did you know that there was a Japanese women’s volleyball series that was once a national favorite, especially in Europe? Legends and current players from Italy, the volleyball powerhouse, unanimously describe this Japanese anime as “the very essence of youth.”? A journalist with 25 years of experience living in Italy uncovered the mystery.
The fierce battle is currently unfolding at the World Volleyball Championship. The favorite to win the women’s title is Italy, the reigning champions, who won the gold medal at last year’s Paris Olympics and won their second consecutive title in this summer’s Nations League.
The prosperity of Italy, the kingdom of volleyball, is the result of the passion and dedication of players and coaches over the years. Still, if you trace its source, you will find it all in one Japanese player with an unfamiliar name: Mila Hazuki. Gianluca Pasini, a leading Italian volleyball journalist, asserts, “There is probably not a single player in Serie A right now who hasn’t supported Mila.”
The hugely popular “Attacker YOU!”
Mira Hazuki is the name of the main character in the Japanese volleyball anime “Attacker YOU!”, known locally as “Mira e Shiro.” “Attacker YOU!” is a monumental anime that helped popularize volleyball across Italy and Europe from the mid-1980s onward, and continues to garner overwhelming support from the world’s top players. Many of Italy’s greatest players, including Francesca Piccinini, the beautiful face of the Italian women’s national team since the 1990s, 2002 World Championship MVP Elisa Togut, and legendary playmaker Eleonora Lo Bianco, have all said they “watched it glued to the TV.”
Paris Olympics MVP Paola Egonu, who said, “My parents both worked, so TV was my only friend as a child,” is also a big fan of “Mira e Shiro.” Not only the women’s team, but the two aces of the Italian men’s national team, who defeated Japan in the quarterfinals of the Paris Olympics, Alessandro Michieletto and Daniele Lavia, even gleefully performed a parody of “Mira e Shiro” on a variety show on the national broadcaster RAI. Why was “Mira e Shiro” (Attacker YOU!) such a big hit overseas? “Attacker YOU!” is a sports anime based on a true story by Shizuo Koizumi, the former head of Ito-Yokado, and aired on the TV Tokyo network from the spring of 1984. Around the same time, it was also serialized in the girls’ manga magazine “Nakayoshi” (Kodansha, illustrated by Jun Makimura).
The story follows the protagonist, Yu Hazuki, a naturally sporty girl from the countryside who transfers to the prestigious Hikawa Junior High School volleyball team. She competes with her friends and rivals in the national tournament, aiming to make the All-Japan team. Although the series is filled with scenes of power harassment and sexual harassment typical of the Showa era, it also depicts the struggles of youth with love and parent-child relationships, and a total of 58 episodes were broadcast.
