Sports anime is a genre of Japanese manga and anime that focuses on stories involving sports and other athletic and competitive pursuits.
It is a part of the larger genres of manga and anime and is similar to the North American genre of comic books.
Many people are under the impression that anime sports was started by the manga called Touch is, written by Mitsuru Adachi.
But the genre has been around for a long time before this. This article will look at the best sports anime titles of all time.
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What anime should I watch in sports?
While sports anime are all over the place, a few stand out. Tennis no Oujisama (The Prince of Tennis) is a classic with a decent number of episodes and is easy to find online.
If you want something a little more free-flowing, there’s also Haikyuu!, a volleyball anime with a lot of episodes.
I enjoy Slam Dunk for basketball and Eyeshield 21 for American football (the Japanese version is called Eyeshield 21, and the American version is called Eyeshield 21 The Phantom Demons).
Good luck with your search for the perfect good sports anime!
Also Read: Top 10 Best American Anime Series
is there any sports anime like Haikyuu
Many best sports anime focus on team sports such as volleyball, basketball, or soccer, but the two most popular are Haikyuu and Kuroko no Basket.
Haikyuu is an anime based on a manga series by Furudate Haruichi, and it is a fantastic anime because it is extremely realistic in its depiction of basketball.
The characters are all extremely likeable and interesting to watch, and the animation is based on real-life volleyball players.
Kuroko no Basket is based on a manga series by Tadatoshi Fujimaki and is also a realistic portrayal of basketball.
Although it is very different from Haikyuu, there are still many similarities in terms of style, music, and characters. Both are enjoyable and worth watching!
Where can I watch sports anime online?
If you want to watch sports anime online, you will have to look for a streaming service.
Usual places where you can enjoy a large selection of anime, such as Funimation, Crunchyroll and Netflix, do not have many sports anime available. You will have to look for smaller streaming services.
Top 9 Greatest Good Sports Anime List
Here we present a list of the 9 greatest good sports animes of all time. Our list features anime that centre on individual sports.
These are very different from sports anime which feature athletic competitions between schools (e.g. “Kuroko’s Basketball”).
No matter whether you’re a fan of baseball, martial arts, or soccer, one of these anime will appeal to you.
We’ve collected anime from various sources, including T.V. series, OVAs, and full-length films. Many others didn’t make a list but are still worth checking out.
This question got me thinking, so I decided to make a list of the top 9 sports animes ever:
Haikyuu
Haikyuu inspirational sports anime It’s about two high school teams, Karasuno and Nekoma, who face off in their version of basketball.
The players are high school students, but they strive to be professional basketball players and play in college. The story centres around Hinata Shoyo, one of Karasuno’s players who struggles with his height and jumps but is determined to become better and help his team.
My favourite character is Yachi Hitoka, a high school student Nekoma’s manager.
She is one of the nicest characters and always teaches Karasuno’s players about the importance of teamwork.
This is a great anime for anyone, especially if you enjoy sports or feel like a small fish in a big pond!
Kuroki no basket
Kuroko’s Basketball is a Japanese anime sports series written and illustrated by Tadatoshi Fujimaki. The series, often referred to as KUROBA ( Kuroko’s Basketball ), began as a one-shot manga drawn by Tadatoshi Fujimaki.
The manga, inspired by Fujimaki’s past experiences in a basketball team in his school days, was first published in Shueisha’s Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on December 8, 2008.
The manga was then published in Weekly Shōnen Jump’s sister magazine Jump Next! on August 4, 2009. The manga series ended its run on the latter magazine on April 3, 2014, with 187 chapters.
This inspirational sports anime tells the story of a high school basketball team struggling to make it to the national tournament.
It premiered on October 6, 2012, and finished on April 7, 2014. It was animated by Production I.G. and was produced by Toho.
The series has been well received; it was listed as the 8th best selling manga in 2013.
The manga has sold over 48 million volumes worldwide as of September 2015.
Hajime no Ippo
Hajime no Ippo follows the story of Ippo Makunouchi, a high school student who is bullied often due to his large forehead.
One day, he is caught up in a local street fight and defeats the town bully. His fists, filled with all of his anger against the bully, begin to call themselves “Thunder Fire”.
After the event, he decides to join a boxing gym to pursue his dream of becoming a professional boxer.
Ippo has no idea what he is doing since he is still a beginner. However, he keeps practising and admits that he enjoys boxing after a lot of tough fights.
He soon begins a journey to the top of the boxing world, facing many different boxers with his thunder fire fists.
Hajime No Ippo is one of the most well-known anime series in the sports genre. Its popularity can be attributed to its great art and voices that help to tell its story.
You can watch Hajime no Ippo on many different streaming services. We recommend Crunchyroll!
Slam dunk
Slam Dunk is a Japanese pioneer sports anime series written and illustrated by Takehiko Inoue.
It tells the story of a basketball team from Shōhoku High School in the Shōnan area of Japan.
The stories focus on the team’s unusual star player, Hanamichi Sakuragi, and the team’s coach Haruko Akagi.
a delinquent youth who was never really interested in basketball until he met a girl determined to make him into a proper player and complete a school basketball team.
The original manga, also of the same name, was serialized in Shueisha’s Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1990 through 1996.
The 519 individual chapters were published into 32 tankōbon volumes. It was adapted into an anime twice, where the first anime covered the entire series from the beginning to the end of the summer tournament.
The second anime is a series of movies that start from the ending of the original series and then continue where the manga left off.
The Prince of Tennis
The Prince of Tennis is a Japanese manga series the story of a 12-year-old boy Ryoma Echizen who becomes the team’s star player and a contender to be Japan’s representative in the junior tennis circuit.
The story follows his growth as a tennis player and individual as he navigates his high school career and family life.
The tennis in the series is realistic; the series has won the Shogakukan Manga Award for the shonen category, and it continues to sell well to this day.
The series has been adapted into an anime series and OVAs, a live-action movie and live-action series, video games, and more.
Eyeshield 21
Eyeshield 21 is a fictional sports anime that revolves around American football. It is written by Riichiro Inagaki and illustrated by Yusuke Murata.
Sena Kobayakawa joins an American football club as a secretary. The manga has a sports genre. It has achieved great popularity in Japan and other countries.
It follows Sena and his teammates to take on their rivals in high school American football games.
It offers a realistic view of the sport, with detailed depictions of the rules, strategies, and facilities.
The series has been praised for its drawings, sense of humour, and the players’ unique personalities.
There are also some scenes showing characters reading manga during the matches.
Ping Pong
Ping Pong is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Taiyō Matsumoto about table tennis.
The series is about a young talent named Masaki Hirai who aims to be Japan’s greatest ping pong player, despite being known more for his attitude problem than his skills.
The series revolves around the Mizuki Sports Club, a high school club passionate about table tennis.
The story begins with Mizuki’s invitation to join the club; she begins to get to know her new teammates and falls in love with the sport.
Bamboo Blade
Bamboo Blade is a girls sports anime manga series written by Masahiro Totsuka and illustrated by Aguri Igarashi.
The series revolves around the lives of the kendo club members of a girls’ high school and their coach, Toraji Ishida.
The “Bamboo” in the title refers to the bamboo swords used in kendo. The series follows the girls’ attempts to win the All-Japan High School Kendo Championships against rival schools.
Inazuma Eleven
Inazuma Eleven is a Japanese anime television series. A talented young goalkeeper tries to revive his school’s lackluster team based on the hit manga and video game in this anime series.
With a soccer club comprised of the most underperforming team in Japan, Raimon Jr. High has not won a single game for a solid ten years.
Luckily for them, a miracle transfer student named Endou Mamoru arrives to turn them into a top contender!
With his passion and talent for the game, Endou rallies the team behind him to compete with the most talented players in the world!
The anime has been licensed by Geneon in North America, who simulcasted the series on the Internet.
Funimation has also licensed the series and released it on DVD and Blu-ray. Sentai Filmworks has licensed the series for its release in North America.
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Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed our article about the best sports anime series. If you’re a fan of animated shows, then you’re probably a fan of anime and we hope this list has given you some new series to watch!
If you’re looking for other anime recommendations, then we have a list of the top 9 anime on crunchyroll, Funimation anNetflix .
Thanks for reading and don’t forget to share this post with any fans of anime you know! We do this blog out of our love for anime and would love to connect with other fans on social media.
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