If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time you will know I’m just not into sport. I actually don’t mind occasionally playing one sport or another but find watching sport fairly tedious, and for the longest time avoided sports anime like the plague. It was right up there with the ecchi tag for me not going near it (and I’ve softened my stance on that one as well over the years).
Today I’m looking at the 5 sports anime that while watching I at least entertained the idea of maybe playing the sport on offer. Usually common sense prevailed and I didn’t actually go forth and sport however given my recent joining of a volleyball comp I have to question how much anime influences my life choices.
What sports anime maybe convinced you to try a sport?
This is my personal list but I’d love to know what sports anime you have watched that might have maybe made you want to play the sport.
Number 5: Prince of Stride
You know, try as it might, Run With the Wind never made me feel like I wanted to put on some shoes and go for a run. Partly because that’s a good way to get bitten by a dog (happens fairly regularly to those who do run in my town) and partly because it just doesn’t look all that fun. However, Prince of Stride with its weird mix of relay team/sprinting/parkour actually looked really fun.
Two reasons why I didn’t act on this one. Firstly, it is a made up sport. Secondly, I have no athletic ability or agility so it would mostly be kind of tragic if I tried. Still, the anime makes it look like a great team sport.
Number 4: Cheer Danshi
Seriously, an anime about male cheerleaders didn’t seem like an overly appealing proposition to begin with and yet the enthusiasm they ended up with was pretty infectious. Sure there’s a lot of hard work involved but the team come together and really look like they are enjoying. Plus, technically I’ve been a part of cheer leading teams previously and always kind of enjoyed them (the low key kind of cheerleaders who do not go flying through the air).
Number 3: Tsurune
It is amazing how they managed to make Kyudo seem so appealing and meditative in this anime. I really doubt I’d have the patience or will power to actually go through with it, but watching the anime and seeing each of the characters improve and find their calm focus was lovely. The magical sparkly leaves that flew whenever they made a good shot also kind of helped with the appeal of this one.
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Number 2: Yuri on Ice
Now if this was just a list of favourite anime that had sport in them, Yuri on Ice would most definitely be number one. However, it is not. It is a list of sports anime that made me want to try the sport. I actually don’t mind ice skating when I’m somewhere that has a rink but I’m incredibly uncoordinated so figure skating is a little out of my league. Still, Yuri on Ice made me wish that maybe I’d gone into skating as a kid because it just seemed magical the way they glide over the ice.
Number 1: Haikyuu
Yep, the anime that inspired the list due to silly choices on my part. I will admit, that while I am terrible at playing Volleyball, I actually have a very sound grasp on the rules and how the game works because of watching Haikyuu. That doesn’t actually help the ball get over the net mind you but at least I know what went wrong and why it didn’t.
On the other hand, it is hard not to be inspired by these characters. They are so passionate and dedicated to the game and throw themselves at it with enthusiasm. Definitely an inspiring anime.
And that’s my list this week but be sure to let me know what anime made you think that maybe you could play a sport.
Thank-you for reading 100 Word Anime.
Join the discussion in the comments.
Karandi James
As an adult-ish type person I play a ton of sports (tho my poison of choice is Softball and Volleyball not Tennis, Sorry) I play 3-6 nights a week depending on the season. I also read a ton of fantasy (its my favorite genre). All that being said, HOW DID I NOT REALIZE BEFORE NOW THAT SPORTS WERE MISSING FROM FANTASY BOOKS?!?!!?! If I had to guess it is because most of my sports friends don’t read and most of my reader friends don’t play sports. I have sort of compartmentalized the two parts of my life as separate entities. But now I need more fantasy sports in my life!!!
You mentioned that there were a lot of races in fantasy and I agree with that, but I would also like to add tournaments to that. In HP you have the tri-wizard tournament. In A Gathering of Shadows you have the Essen Tasch. In medieval fantasies you get a lot of jousting and sword type tournaments. I don’t necessarily think these fall into the sports category, but they do have the same sort of energy and they can have the history as well!
Awesome post!!!!
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Loving the enthusiasm.
I’m not sure how sports fit into a lot of epic fantasy stories but I’m sure some author somewhere will figure it out.
I totally bought a set of roller blades after watching Air Gear. Pretty sure my mom hid them after all my enthusiasm induced injuries… *crying and laughing*
I get that. Roller blades seem designed to create enthusiasm induced injuries. I may have suffered a few of those myself in the 90’s.
Becoming such a big fan of Saki is what inspired me to learn how to play Japanese mahjong. That’s really the only one I can think of, though. Most traditional physical activity sports I’d already tried long before I ever became a serious anime fan. Harukana Receive was kind of a pleasant nostalgia trip for me, since I was on my middle school’s volleyball team and remembered practicing all of the same drills and workouts they had Haruka doing when she was learning how to play, but that’s a slightly different angle to the question.
Still fun to reminisce.
Ah, I definitely enjoy the sports genre but I can see how it’s not for everyone. I do think a good sports title should be about more than just the game that they’re playing. One thing I liked about Kuroko’s Basketball is it also had a lot of good interactions between the characters on and off the court. Prince of Tennis also had a lot of that, but it’s so long that the sports do tend to override everything else. Glad to see these 5 ranked pretty high though, I need to get around to checking em out.
I watched the first season of Kuroko yet it just didn’t grab me so I haven’t watched on. I liked Kuroko’s character but never really clicked with the rest of the cast.
The characters are super important so I can see why you stopped there since they weren’t clicking. Watching a whole season is definitely a super fair shot at that
First, thank you for a new Anime to watch! Cheer Danshi!! completely went over my radar!
Second, I don’t really like sports… Maybe volleyball which I played in Highschool. I have to say the ones who made me want to get out of my house and start some classes were, Yuri on Ice! (Although I’m terrible at ice skating, it’s not like we have many ice skating rings here in Portugal where is sunny most of the year and doesn’t snow at all) and then Ballroom e Youkoso. I love dancing, I had classes before, so I just loved this show and I was ready to start classes after watching it… Though I found myself without time to do it haha
I know. Taking up a new hobby is incredibly time consuming so even if anime gets you fired up all the practicalities of time come into play and you usually don’t follow through.
I also suck at sports, so basically when sport was compulsory for me in the past I always had to choose the lesser of two evils. Notably, I still can’t ride a bike, even though I was locked out of the house one time specifically to learn how to and had to beg my way back in…that’s one reason why I don’t touch Yowamushi Pedal…
That said, I’ve done (indoor) soccer due to Detective Conan and ice-skating due to the same anime/manga (as it does appear in a case or two), years before Yuri!!! on Ice.
I really need to write a post at some point about all the things I’ve done or tried since becoming an anime fan. It is amazing how it opens up your world.
While I have never felt inspired to try sports, watching The Big Windup did lead to the one and only conversation about sports that I’ve ever had with my father. His face lit up momentarily when I said I had a question about baseball. I’m sure the disappointment he felt when I explained that it was because I was watching an anime about baseball and not real baseball was crushing. LOL!
Hey, I learned the rules of Volleyball from anime and happily talked with people about various competitions and teams last year even though I wasn’t playing.
Anime – helping people connect through shared interests. 😁
I haven’t seen any of the anime on here although one of my friend’s recommended Haikyuu before. If we count manga, then Whistle would be one of them (the anime wasn’t that great).
I totally put off watching Haikyuu for the longest time because I just thought I wouldn’t be into a sports anime. It is infectiously enthusiastic and I ended up utterly loving it. The story isn’t exactly deep but the characters really carry it.
Gotcha. That’s good about the characters. I haven’t seen as many sports anime, but I do like some game themed ones like Hikaru no Go.
I second Chihayafuru!
Yama no Susume is a great noncompetitive sport anime.
Does Chihayafuru count?? 🤣 Yowamushi Pedal inspired me to be a more active cyclist…but only for a few moments hahaha.
I know. The urge hits usually during the peak of excitement while watching a sports anime and yet by the time the end credits roll you can usually let it go and allow yourself to not get roped into a new sporting pursuit.
Incidentally, I totally count Chihayfuru as a sports anime. And March Comes in Like a Lion. I may or may not have bought a travel shogi set last time I was in Japan. Still haven’t had a chance to learn yet.
I didn’t buy karuta cards but I actually bought the books of poems (in Japanese with English translation)that they use for the karuta cards. 🤣
I have a Karuta set but not with the poems. It matches letters with words to help learn Japanese. It is great fun.
Oh, cool! That would be nice to have.
There’s various sets on ebay with different versions. I certainly enjoyed learning to play and it really did help me remember the letters.
I am probably the only dutchie that can’t iceskate! I nearly fell head first in someone’s skate. She was pretty startled at me sliding full speed towards the blade. With Volleyball I manage to bruise 6 fingers at the same time once, and I did manage to shoot myself witch Archery (well I managed to break my bow and then the arrow fell in my foot ).
Sports seem to hate me as much as I hate them.
I am really happy to see people admitting to hating sports again though, in the age of #fitgirl it’s nice to meet kindred spirits.
There’s still a lot of us out there who just don’t get the appeal of sport. I don’t mind exercise (taking a walk or hiking and the like) but sport is another situation.
You joined a vollyebal comp? Wow! I have to be honest, the sport I hated the most at school was volleybal. And then I had a sports teacher who loved it so much that we played it every time…ugh😔But…I’m drifting off here…sorry😅 It’s really cool that you have done this tough!
Like you I’m not. a huge sportsfan. I did watched Yuri on Ice if you remember, and was watching two sports animes when my health started getting the better of me: Tsurune was one of them, the other was Hanebado! I honestly need to get back to that last one, as I quite enjoyed and was about half way. Tsurune I can’t really say much about as I only watched one episode. Stil..not feeling the urge to go play sports though 😂😂
Yes, I joined my town’s local volleyball comp. Someone asked me this week if I was playing and I pointed out the obvious, I was going to be standing on the court but whether or not that counted as playing remained to be seen. Fortunately the team I’ve joined consists of mostly people who have never played or are even more scared of the ball than me so no one actually minds that I suck.
Haha😂 Well, I have the feeling you would do better than me. I really was one of the worst players of volleybal ever I think😊 Still, I think it’s great that you are doing this, and with some kindred spirits joining in I still hope it’s fun in this way 😊
There’s certainly a lot more laughter happening on our side of the court and the ball actually going over the net is most definitely cause for celebration.