Yū Nishinoya

Yū Nishinoya is a second year student at Karasuno High School. He serves as the libero for his school's volleyball team, and is regarded by his teammates as "Karasuno's Guardian Deity". Nishinoya is the shortest member on the team, standing at 159.3 cm (now at 160.5 cm as of chapter 207). Despite his small stature, he has a fairly muscular build. He regularly styles his wild 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 phrase printed on either its front or back, such as "One-Man Army" or "Three-Point Headstand". 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 in order 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, Noya 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 show officially introduces Noya in the eighth episode, he energetically approaches Kiyoko, which results in an off-screen slap. Noya returns with a red cheek and a smile. Noya can be extremely impatient, excitable and impulsive. As Tanaka puts it, "he simply gets too fired up for his own 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: 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. 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 somersault. 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 in order 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.  After Karasuno's second match against Aobajōsai, Nishinoya came to the conclusion that he had to learn skills other than receives if he truly wanted to be of better use to his team, and began practicing throws (also known as "overhand tosses") with Sugawara. He is shown to be having difficulty with them, but nevertheless refuses to give up. As a result of the Summer Camp Training, he is now capable of jumping from behind the attack line and performing a libero toss, which he performed against Aobajōsai in the third match together, setting up Asahi for a spike.