Haikyu!!: VS "Failing Marks"

On a good day, Kageyama and Hinata can hardly function as normal students, with their entire existence revolving around volleyball. So when they both fail an exam right before the team's Tokyo training camp, it's exactly the kind of disaster you'd expect from these two. The make-up test falls on the same day as the trip, and the vice principal isn't budging. Now the rest of the Karasuno team has to figure out how to get these two idiots to pass an academic test, which might honestly be harder than winning a five-set match. This OVA from 2016 is a single-episode side story set within the Haikyuu timeline, animated by Production I.G with the same quality you'd expect from the main series. There's no big game here: it's all about the team dynamic off the court, and that's where it shines. Watching Tsukishima try to tutor Hinata is its own kind of sport. The humor lands because you already know these characters and how they bounce off each other, and the whole thing captures that specific stress of being a student-athlete where your grades can bench you faster than any injury. If you liked the downtime episodes in Kuroko's Basketball or the team bonding moments in Yowamushi Pedal, this is that energy for a full episode. It's a small, fun addition to the Haikyuu world, best watched between seasons two and three for proper context.