On the surface, sportsanimemight seem like a known quantity. Typically, eventhe best sports animewill involve a handful of common features: an emphasis on teamwork, character development, and—generally speaking—a cast mostly made up of men. Despite a bevy of wonderful modern sports anime likeHaikyuu!!carrying the torch of beloved legacy series likeCaptain Tsubasa,the most common representatives of the genre don’t exactly do much to break that mold.
Nonetheless, there’s a sports anime for everyone—even someone who claims not to like sports. From anime that subvert sports anime tropes to ones that actually (for once) feature a largely female cast, these selections unlock the potential of the sports genre, revealing the heart at their core which attracts so many devoted fans.
To kick off with a classic:One Outsfollows Tokuchi Toua, both a highly skilled pitcher and gambler. “One Outs”—one-on-one games played between a pitcher and a batter—provide the foundation for the series. The gist is that Tokuchi proposes a “One Outs” contract where he gets 5,000,000 yen for every batter he outs,but gives up 50,000,000 for every run he hands out. It might seem straightforward, but the core ofOne Outsrests in the dense mind games that occur as a result. Tokuchi is simply a ton of fun to watch—an overpowered, next-level protagonist whose meticulous plays are as inspiring as they are unexpected.
One Outsholds a singular position among sports anime. Despite its baseball foundation, this is noAce of DiamondorMajor. In fact, for those who aren’t familiar with baseball,the series practically hands viewers all the information they need to understand what’s happening. Underneath it all,One Outsis a suspenseful psychological anime oftenrecommended to fans ofKaiji, If one likes the gambling thrill rides ofKaijiorKakegurui, thenOne Outsis a natural contender. It effortlessly mimics the same cycle of tension and release that makes every good gambling anime tick.
Blue Lockis one of the best sports anime around right now, butit’s a far cry from fan expectations for the genre. Following Yoichi Isagi, a middling striker who uncovers a profound ability for soccer’s metagame,Blue Lockis a gripping, hype-filled watch. Soccer genius Ego Jinpachi is tasked with fulfilling his wild plan for raising Japanese soccer to a world-class standard: a huge multi-stage competition called Blue Lock, where elimination means the death of one’s soccer dreams altogether. From game to game, the way the series establishes its stakes makes every last match a nail-biter.
Blue Lockis unique precisely becauseit subverts shōnen anime’s most persistent tropes: the power of friendship and the primacy of teamwork. Instead focusing on a genius’s attempt to send Japan to the top internationally by producing a profoundly capable striker,Blue Lockemphasizes the role of individual prowess and egoism.Blue Lockis a bit on the nose, but not so on the nose it becomes preachy. It simply revels in its individuality as a series—fitting, givenBlue Lock’s perspective.
For better or worse,Ping Pong The AnimationtakesBlue Lock’s lessons to their logical extreme by transplanting them from the team-based game of soccer tothe individual (or duo-based) glory of ping pong. The series is based around the twin journeys of two boys, Peco and Smile. While Peco is feckless and competitive, Smile is dedicated yet saddled with a people-pleasing personality all too eager to yield; while Peco has is unmotivated yet has a deep-down passion for the sport of ping pong, Smile has an uncanny natural talent recognized and brought out by Coach Jou.
Many people find themselves averse toPing Pong The Animationfor its artstyle,but its meditations are singular and unmatched.Ping Pong The Animationgoes where few other series do, predicating its discussion on the assumption of a natural talent that puts up certain impassable barriers between people. Whether or not one agrees with its central message,Ping PongThe Animationis a must-watch, with a deeply affecting (and relatable) theme at its core, one-of-a-kind art direction threading the line between psychedelia and psychosis, and a voice few other anime—sports or not—have come even close to imitating.
On the other end of the spectrum sitsFree!. Nominally, the series is built around the prodigal swimmer Haruka Nanase, who has a deep affection for and connection to water. As the series unfolds, though, and Haruka becomes the center of a newly established swim team at his high school, partly founded alongside other members of his childhood swim team,a dramatic tangle of formative experiences and life-changing moments starts to unravel. It doesn’t take long for a viewer to feel as connected to the core cast ofFree!as its characters do with one another.
IfBlue LockandPing Pong The Animationset the standard for stories centering on the beauty of individual talent,Free!shows something just as valuable:the immeasurable impact of shared experience. The beauty ofFree!rests in the fact that notonlyare the characters dependent on one another—they wouldn’t be “themselves” without one another. Digging deep into the psychological murk of childhood bonds and unrealized expectations,Free!is a reminder that individual talent only gains any meaning atop a web of interpersonal connections.
Golf has a reputation as a boring sport, butBirdie Wing: Girls' Golf Storyshows how anime, as a medium, isable to turn unapproachable ideas into charming opportunities. The gist of the story is this: underground golfer (and avid fan of a good cheese strat) Eve crosses paths with Aoi, a golf prodigy with a fatal disease who dispenses with Eve easily. While Eve’s new goal becomes to defeat Aoi, Aoi falling for Eve’s outlook and determination. The core love tangle thuds along to the tense beat of background drama, with Eve’s intentions tossed up by the local mafia while Aoi’s are tossed up by parental pressure in pursuing her golf career.
The world of mainstream sports anime doesn’t have a lot to offer in terms of stories based around female characters, butBirdie Wingis one big counterattack that undermines the genre’s lack of female representation. The story is overwhelmingly sincere and manages to be a respectful depiction of young love that doesn’t fall into female sports anime’s favorite trap of mindless fan service. Golf is generally understood to be a boring, stuffy sport primarily meant for men;Birdie Wingcasts it in a much more amicable light with an endearing girls' love story that makes the sport genuinely fun to watch through its overarching plot and its absurd presentation.
Generally speaking, sports anime veer toward realism.Megaloboxis no such case. It centers around an underground fighter, Junk Dog, who lingers in the underworld of the lethal sport of “megaloboxing”, a technologically augmented variation of boxing. After a chance encounter brings him in proximity of a tournament usually gated to a certain class of society (the wealthy “licensed citizens”),Junk Dog gains the new goal of rising to the top of his craft and earning recognition as the supreme champion.
Megaloboxis an enamoring watch, all told.Its 2018 release is incongruent with its presentation, which carries the hallmarks of transgressive mid-2000s sci-fi anime likeElfen LiedorSerial Experiments Lain. Concerning itself as much with its central discussions of identity and social disparity as with its primary gimmick—here, the sports genre hook presented through megaloboxing—the series feels like a blast to the past for fans of the psychologically-weighty dystopic anime of yesteryear.
SK8 the Infinityis notable precisely because it doesn’t go out of its way to break any boundaries,but it manages to be a fantastic time nonetheless. The premise is simple: Langa is a transfer student who meets Reki, and the two of them share something crucial in common: they both love skateboarding. As the two gear up to take over the underground skateboarding world, they meet others and lay ground for a fertile friendship against the background of one of the most kick-ass extreme sports of all time.
SK8 the Infinityisa gift to a Tony Hawk generation who has grown up to see skateboarding fall out of the limelight. As far as sports anime go, it really isn’t anything special; it’s a power-of-friendship story centering on high school boys. At the end of the day,SK8is just a lot of fun from end to end. It’s also a good gateway to more traditional anime sports stories because it uses their tropes in a way that’s genuinely enjoyable to watch, with a premise that’s altogether easier to understand than the complicated scenarios and rules elsewhere.
Overtake!is an inventive approach to sports anime, taking a less-traveled road in the genre just likeSK8 the Infinityas itplaces its sights on the dynamic sport of F4 racing. There’s quite a lot to setOvertake!apart. Its deuteragonists are Haruka, a high school student racing under Kowaki Motors, and Madoka, a meandering freelance photographer. Together, the two forge purpose on the track.
Placing more emphasis on the behind-the-scenes aspects of racing,Overtake!isn’t anything like other racing anime.Overtake!veers more in the direction of drama and strategy than its surface might betray. It wouldn’t be appropriate to call it a lighthearted watch—it isn’t. However,Overtake!’s writing is a breathtaking exercise in realism, and its characterization and storytelling are remarkable among sports anime, a genre where relationships and rivalry seemingly take center stage.
