You are welcome to look at the talkback but please consider that this article is over 4 months old before posting.
Forum - View topicGoing for the Gold! Our Favorite Sports Anime
|
Goto page 1, 2 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | ||
|---|---|---|---|
tintor2
 Posts: 2689 |
|
||
|
I definitely can't resist Slam Dunk but it's not the protagonist that caught my attention but Mitsui who was portrayed as one most pathetic sidecharacters in his early appearances like Yamcha. But rather than making his case even more ridiculous when Akagi shows up to beat him up, we instead learn about his passion for the sport and how he sees his coach as some sort of wise idol. After the backstory, Mitsui breaks out and confesses he wants to play again.
While in the manga, Mitsui gets away from his delinquent life easily, Toei added some fillers where delinquents try to ruin him until Sakuragi's friends decide to help him. This really enhnaced his character arc. |
|||
|
|||
|
Lord Geo
Posts: 2995 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
|
||
|
Many very good picks from the lot, though I imagine Erica meant to say that Birdie Wing was the descendant of Yosuke Kuroda's works, not the ancestor.
Anyway, while I have a few sports anime I could go with as a favorite, right now I feel like shouting out a show that I know immensely few have ever watched, and that's Monkey Turn. It's a show from 2004 across two seasons (the ran one after the other, so it was effectively a year-long run) that focuses on kyotei racing, or Japan's take on mini-hydroboat racing that's probably better known by its official (& generic) name of "BOAT RACE". However, while to the general public it's a rather simple sport (the tracks are all literally just straight, 180 turn, straight, 180 turn; rinse & repeat for a few laps), & is one of the few sports in Japan were gambling is actually allowed, the anime (& I imagine the Shonen Sunday manga it's adapting) do an excellent job as showing how the sports works from the racer's perspective. The story itself is also just excellent, with the first season focusing on main character Kenji Hatano's rise up the ranks from utter newbie to championship contender, while the second season gets to focus on life as a racer after reaching the top, including dealing with a potentially career-ending injury, as well as giving some of the other racers some focus, both professionally & personally. The anime also manages to make the races look super engaging & dramatic, despite the courses being so simple & repetitive, which is great. Unfortunately, the only English translation for Monkey Turn is for the first season via old Hong Kong bootleg DVDs, which naturally mangle the names to all hell, while the second season has never been translated in any way. The show is also stuck in a bit of a licensing hurdle, as Monkey Turn was one of the shows that ShoPro USA was handling international licensing for, and when they got merged with Viz the master rights accordingly moved over to Viz. I actually asked Viz about Monkey Turn a few years ago, and instead of stating that they don't have the license for it I instead got a response that essentially indicated that they still have the rights to it... so, naturally, there's no chance that it'll ever a complete (& official) English translation, since no one's ever going to contact Viz about licensing a 20+ year old anime about kyotei racing that they inherited from another company via an old merger & clearly have no interest in doing anything with themselves. |
|||
|
|||
enurtsol
 Posts: 15200 |
|
||
|
What, no love for the greatest sports around - Keijo!!!
|
|||
|
|||
|
FilthyCasual
Posts: 2712 |
|
||
|
100 Meters's entry has no author.
For sports anime, there's Keijo!!!!!!!!. For manga, though it also has an anime adaptation, there's Baby Steps. Reading Ei-chan's journey from total novice to genuine pro is incredibly enthralling. I love seeing the technical breakdown of all aspects of tennis, whether it's shots, mentalities, or even grips through an equally technical and intelligent protagonist. Ei-chan isn't the tallest or strongest protagonist and he's not in it for revenge or out of a debt. He just picked up a sport for some exercise and grew to love it, and hard work carries him to incredible heights. It's an incredibly inspiring story. Over 450 chapters just isn't enough. |
|||
|
|||
Lactobacillus yogurti
 Posts: 916 Location: Latin America |
|
||
|
Unsurprisingly, ANN leaves out the actual most influential sports series around the world simply because it's a sport the USA doesn't really excel at - Captain Tsubasa. You don't hear of many other manga/anime series inspiring kids to be pro athletes, but several pro footballers past and present started playing the sport seriously because they wanted to be like Tsubasa, Hyuga, etc.
And as long as the series still exists in the minds of its fans, it'll continue to influence kids into trying to win the World Cup, FIFA BS notwithstanding. Where are your Eyeshield 21-inspired players, USA? |
|||
|
|||
|
tintor2
Posts: 2689 |
|
||
Sadly, the manga ended as the author retired. Nowadays, Takahashi is doing only storyboards he publishes online for free |
|||
|
|||
Oggers
 Posts: 467 Location: Ontario, Canada |
|
||
|
Yuri on Ice will always be special to me; it reignited my love for the sport of figure skating, and it started airing at a time when I really needed its positive messages. As the article says, the cancellation of Ice Adolescence was a huge loss, though lately Medalist has helped to fill the figure skating anime-shaped hole in my heart.
Other sports anime I've enjoyed include SK8 the Infinity, Run with the Wind, and Free, and I only started watching Ping Pong the Animation fairly recently but that's also a great sports series. |
|||
|
|||
|
fausti
Posts: 71 |
|
||
|
So many great sports anime left out. I'll throw my hat into the ring and recommend what is my favorite baseball anime/manga: Mitsuri Adachi's CROSS GAME. Of course, every Adachi work is pretty great, but Cross Game is my favorite. Sadly, you have to sail the 7 seas as it's not currently avaialble legally for streaming.
|
|||
|
|||
|
Puchu
Posts: 59 |
|
||
|
Yay, Baby Steps mention! I have such a fondness for that manga/anime.
Yuri! On Ice is something of a sore spot for me, because I absolutely love... the first half. Then as the show went on I guess they realised they were running out of episodes, because it starts feeling incredibly rushed as it goes on, and the disappointment broke my heart so much I actually haven't been able to watch it since it first aired. Anyway, I normally hate sports (well, "hate" indicates a level of passion, it's closer to a disdainful indifference), but I absolutely love sports anime/manga, and will give just about anything in the genre a go. Probably because it's more about the human aspect and the emotions than the sport, really. The sport is just the vehicle. My favourite sport series might actually be Hikaru no Go, though. Classifying Go as a sport might controversial, but HikaGo really does check all the boxes for a sports anime/manga. Heck, I'd even classify Kono Oto Tomare (Sounds of Life) or Mashiro no Oto (Those Snow White Notes) as a sports anime/manga, despite them being about playing an instrument. |
|||
|
|||
Top Gun
 Posts: 5289 |
|
||
|
I'm not super-interested in sports anime, which I think is mostly because I'm an avid fan of multiple real-life sports. If I'm going to spend time watching something related to them, I'd much rather it be the real thing, especially when many anime takes on sports exaggerate details to an absurd level that doesn't click with me. (Case in point: I played tennis in high school, and the stretch of Prince of Tennis I saw had me facepalming so hard that I left a mark.) That being said, I've seen and enjoyed a couple of things on this list. Ping Pong was a master class in kinetic form-breaking animation, as you'd expect from Yuasa, coupled with some heavy relationship drama. And Sk8 the Infinity was just pure cheesy shonen ridiculous. Shout-out to the single best dub line I've ever heard: "Hey bitches and bros and non-binary hoes!"
Yeah, Cross Game should absolutely make the short list of best sports anime ever. It's a bona fide masterpiece with enough emotional punches to leave you a quivering mass on the floor. And despite what I said earlier about preferring to watch real-life sports, it captured the spirit of baseball so strongly that I couldn't help but fall in love with it. Still an absolute crime that it was never licensed. |
|||
|
|||
|
ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 3266 Location: Email for assistance only |
|
||
|
Is the title of the feature "a comprehensive list of the best sports anime/manga ever" or "our favorite" ?
Are you not familiar with the U.S. women's national soccer team, or do they not count? |
|||
|
|||
|
MangaNeko
Posts: 171 |
|
||
|
I too missed no listing of an Adachi titles or other classics like Captain Tsubasa , AIM for the Ace or Ashita no Joe.
My personal favorites are Princess Nine, Chihayafuru, Free, but also racing types IGPX and Future GPX. |
|||
|
|||
|
all-tsun-and-no-dere
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 719 |
|
||
|
Series that I would have included if I had unlimited choices:
Aim for the Ace Chihayafuru Free Gymnastics Samurai Backflip Hikaru no Go Overtake Unfortunately, if a series is every single person's second-favorite, it gets left off the list. I agree there are some glaring omissions! And it's fine to be bummed if your favorite was left off. It's a list of favorites, not nests.
Yeah. It couldn't possibly be because the series is older than most of the staff and has had extremely limited distribution in English. It's because we're mad our men's soccer team isn't great, as opposed to soft tennis and ping pong. |
|||
|
|||
|
JustMonika
Posts: 1566 |
|
||
|
Uma Musume, Chihayafuru, Medalist and PuraOre for me
|
|||
|
|||
LiteralGrill
 Posts: 22 |
|
||
|
So many of these are so new! I know it's not my list, but anyone digging into the comments here, I implore you to check out Attack No. 1. The first shojo sports anime of all time has so much of the sauce used to season sports shows of today. Seriously, it's amazing how much you'll catch being used in shows throughout the ages that started in an anime this old that still holds up today!
Plus, the Haikyu boys could NEVER survive the training those girls go through! |
|||
|
|||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group