Forum - View topicAnswerman - Are There Sports Anime With A Female Protagonist?
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unready
 Posts: 400 Location: Illinois, USA |
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The poetry is sort of ancient (approximately 1000 years). In western terms, "ancient" usually means before the fall of the (western) Roman empire, which was in 476. The Ogura Hyakunin Isshu (Ogura 100 poets) date to around 1200. Is that ancient? Europe was well into the Middle Ages by then. Karuta, a general card game, existed for a while using various decks (for example, see the card game the kids play at the toy store in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni), but didn't get associated with the Ogura 100 poets until the late Edo period (i.e., 1800 or so). Is that ancient? Even so, the Edo period began (and ended) with the Tokugawas, who founded Edo in the 1600s, at about the same time that Jamestown was founded in Virginia. Is that ancient? The rules that we see in the TV series were essentially formulated in the 1930s. Is that ancient? I love the TV series. I also really like the style of the poems. The elegant simplicity of a grammatically correct sentence or two is an aesthetic only recently embraced in the west within the last 50 years or so. Even translations of the Ogura 100 poets from 1900 or so are painful to read, because the translators tried to force the English translation to rhyme, usually in couplets, which is what English audiences of the time expected. But, back to the point, karuta isn't ancient. Also, on a slightly different topic, the main one of the article, I would be remiss if I didn't point out, as some others have, that Senshadou was left off the list of sports in a series with female protagonists. |
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MrTerrorist
Posts: 1348 |
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There's a basketball manga with a teenage female lead called B-Ball Goddess by Keyaki Utiuti which is available to read in english on Manga Box.
I feel B-Ball Goddess is the female spiritual successor to Slam Dunk rather than Ro-Kyu-Bu! since the latter feels like cute girls doing cute things and the loli pandering. PS: For some reason in the english translation, one of female characters in B-Ball Goddess speaks with a thick Scottish accent. I suspect it has to do with the character being a Kansai speaker. |
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vanfanel
 Posts: 1247 |
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As a sports show, or as a show with a female protagonist? Gets complicated either way 
Cranking the Obscuro-meter up to eleven, I believe Yakyuu-kyou no Uta (野球狂の詩: something like "The Song of Baseball Mania") was about a female pitcher on an otherwise male team. That one was animated for television back in the mid-80s, based on a 70s manga. There's also an old OVA or movie called Shouri Toushu (勝利投手/"Winning Pitcher") that had a similar concept. IIRC, it wasn't very good, though. |
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lys
 Posts: 1011 Location: mitten-state |
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If we get into manga recs (since I've seen a couple for Cross Manage), am I the only one here who read Crimson Hero??? I guess that's why Shojo Beat didn't finish it, but we got 14 volumes published in English, and I loved its drama-filled volleyball world (similar to old school sports shoujo, but with a modern art style, if the galaxy-eyes are a turn-off). I recommend it! (RightStuf still has most of the volumes available.)
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 9878 Location: Virginia |
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unready wrote:
You are over thinking things. Karuta has been around since before I was born. That makes it ancient. |
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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I was surprised Justin said this as well given how well-informed he usually is. I'm a fan of women's professional golf and wondered if there was ever an anime about that sport. As an individual sport, it has much in common with Go or Shougi. They all pit single players against large fields in high-stakes tournament play. Young Japanese golfers have renowned role models like Okamoto Ayako and Miyazato Ai, who reached the top of the world rankings in 2010. Watching a young female player ascend the ranks of Japanese golf fits well into the "top wo nerae" aspect of sports anime. I see other features of modern women's golf that might appeal to the anime-watching audience. South Korean women have dominated the professional Tours for years. A story about a strong Japanese competitor with a Korean rival like Chun In-gee could have some of the nationalist edge that we see in the Chinese episodes of Hikaru no Go. And, of course, a story about over a hundred young women traveling together week-in and week-out provides no end of opportunities to draw cute girls and engage yuri shippers. I looked around for manga about female golfers and didn't find anything worthwhile. The closest was an ecchi story about a young golfer who accepted a promoter's offer to cover her costs if she wore scandalously revealing outfits on the golf course. Nowadays they all wear "skorts" so nothing is revealed even with skirts that barely cover their butts. So, basically, something like Chihayafuru or Shion no Ou about a young female golfer trying to advance on tour. I'd like to see an anime about that. |
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4478 |
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My general lack of interest in sports anime is less about the fact that I can just watch real sports, and more the fact that, as Justin mentioned, it traditionally falls under the shonen-tournament category. Winning the national championship or throwing an amazing pitch always came off as quite mundane to me when compared to things like saving the planet from destruction or shooting energy blasts. |
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WashuTakahashi
 Posts: 415 Location: Chicago, IL |
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The thing is, sports anime nowadays aren't really ABOUT the sports. They're more about the journey. The character interactions and relationships outside of the games tend to be more important than the games themselves. That's the directions sport's anime are headed in, and I think that's why they now appeal more to women than men. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Sounds like someone hasn't gotten into the really weird stuff. Do you think this is mundane? I would wager that the creators are big fans of Macross. At any rate, I watch anime for the story and characters, not necessarily for crazy action sequences. Some of the best shows and movies I've seen are about normal people and their normal lives. One of my favourite sports shows is Baby Steps, because it is intelligently written and has likeable characters who I can really support. |
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13581 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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The upcoming 8th anniversary of the Suzuka manga finale is coming up on the 21st.
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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There's currently a manga in Weekly Shonen Jump called Straighten Up! (the title is really long and I forgot how it went, but that's the most familiar title for English-speakers), which has a male protagonist and a female co-protagonist that focuses on competitive dancing. It's even brought up in the very first chapter that competitive dancing usually requires one male and one female. Whether the girl is considered a protagonist is up for interpretation, but it certainly is not male-dominated.
There's also Kill la Kill's second episode, which was about tennis. It was the weird twisted spin making it blood-tennis, but still. |
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Badge304
Posts: 20 |
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From a few years ago, the one about an all girl's baseball team placed in the late Taisho era, (circa 1926) Taisho Yakuu Masume, (Taisho Baseball Girls.)
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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Maybe just the animators. But the creator IS supposedly a big fan of Happy Feet from what I've heard One anime that I think should be included is Knight in the Area. The MAIN protagonist is male (and it is PRIMARILY about the boys soccer team he plays on) but his best/childhood friend (who is a secondary protagonist) is female and she's actually BETTER at soccer than he is. The main character aspires to play for the Japanese national team (don't they all, in Japan), but the secondary plot of the show is about HER playing for the women's national team (Nadesico Japan) and her rivalry with another girl. |
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vanfanel
Posts: 1247 |
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The good ones have always been like that, going back to stuff like Ashita no Joe and Touch. When Joe stepped into the ring, or when Tatsuya took to the mound, there was so much more on the line than just who'd win. |
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Crisha
Moderator
 Posts: 4290 |
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Since Naoki Urasawa's Yawara manga (and anime) was mentioned, I'll also throw out there his lesser known Happy!, which never received an anime adaptation. Miyuki is the main character of the story who embarks on a career as a professional tennis player to repay an enormous debt incurred by her brother to Yakuza loan sharks.
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