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Brain Diving - This Sporting Life


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bravetailor



Joined: 30 May 2009
Posts: 817
PostPosted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 5:59 pm Reply with quote
omoikane wrote:

I think it's a good reason but that's presuming that Japanese kids involved with organized athletics also watch sports anime or read sports manga. I'm sure many of them do, but it doesn't seem like it's even popular among that crowd. I wouldn't be surprised some Japanese kid thought the same thing as a stereotypical American high school jock.

A lot of this stuff is just mainstream content that is akin to a prime time TV show or what have you.


I think Japanese nerds, even those who are the least athletic, are generally more sports-familiar than American nerds, who wouldn't know the difference between a 3 second violation and a foul in basketball.


Most North American anime fans, probably about 90% of them, probably don't watch or follow any sports at all. I've come across several reviews online that don't exactly understand what it is that Ren does so well in Big Windup (confusing a 'control' pitcher with 'power' pitching, and think his 'slow' pitches are actually intentional possum-playing on his part)

Similarly, there are some critics who think Tajima is a power hitter when in fact he's more of a contact hitter like Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki. Suzuki doesn't belt homers, he's more of a contact hitter who gets hits consistently and gets on base. Although ironically, Tajima was in a serious hitting slump through most of the 2nd game in the series. Probably being a cleanup hitter confused some, too, as they are generally occupied by power hitters.

I'm not a hardcore baseball expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I do watch most of the pro sports and I'm somewhat familiar with even the ones I'm less hardcore about. And I think being sports-savvy DOES help you understand what's going on in these sports anime because they're pretty important to the stories as I explained above. A lot of non-sport-liking anime fans know this and simply just pass on these things. While there are some who will brave the show and enjoy them even while not caring for the sports, it generally does help if you know a bit about it.
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Brent Allison



Joined: 01 Jan 2011
Posts: 2444
Location: Athens-Clarke County, GA, USA
PostPosted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 10:56 pm Reply with quote
That's the great thing about Giant Killing - I don't have to make as much of a commitment to it as Whistle to get my once-in-a-blue-moon soccer fix.

Still, isn't it telling how an anime about a game like Go that is played much more rarely in North America gained more recognition in fandom than an anime about American football? I wonder if the fantasy element of Hikaru no Go is what made it more popular, or that it was a game that the average anime fan could see themselves playing more than they could football.
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