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kiminewt
Feb 1, 2022

Sports!

Sports manga/anime are my favourite genre. There have been threads like this in the past but nothing in over a year, so I figured it's decent time to give it another shot.

Sports manga/anime range from being hyper-realistic to characters calling out their basketball shots and appearing behind either players like they're in Bleach. They also range greatly in how much the personal life of the characters are shown or are integral to the plot itself, with the characters sometimes not really existing outside the sport.
They unfortunately range very little in their treatment of female characters, mostly because most of the titles are shounen manga and any female characters are neglected to the sidelines as support/love interest/cheerleader/oogling-target.

Here's a few of my personal favourites of various kinds (though I only really like 'realistic' sports manga), feel free to post some more and I'll them here.


Haikyuu
Status: Anime ongoing (4 seasons complete, movies pending). Manga complete.
Ball of energy Shoyo Hinata doesn't have a volleyball team, until he does. Very classic shouneny sports manga that focuses a lot on the sports itself and the characters. Most characters have distinct personalities, playstyles and arcs. Humour is good, gets very "hype". No real drawbacks other than shounen yelling and the lack of anything other than the sport.


Ping Pong The Animation
Status: Manga and anime complete (1 season).
If you want to learn about Ping-Pong, go read the wikipedia page. If you want to see a treatise on the nature of competition, talent and friendship in a much colder yet still uplifting way than most children's manga, look no further. Also features interesting animation and an amazing soundtrack.


Real
Status: Manga ongoing (came back from hiatus in August 2023). No anime (yet).
By the same writer as Slam Dunk, ostensibly about wheelchair basketball, the manga follows three main characters as their lives kinda intertwine. The story is quite mature and deals mostly with the way different people handle their disabilities or their interactions with people with disabilities. Also pretty damning about how Japanese society treats them.


Baby Steps
Status: Manga complete (cancelled), anime complete (2 seasons, doesn't cover the entire manga).
Yet Another Tennis Manga, this one about a boy whose main talent is that he is meticulous. Quite a departure from the usual hot-head passionate protagonist in these kind of series, we follow Ei-chan from his modest beginnings of wanting to take up some tennis as exercise to becoming a tennis pro in very realistic and sometimes almost too detailed terms. Gets very technical about tennis at times. My personal favourite, and as a semi-professional athlete I identified with many moments in it, but I realise it's not for everyone.


Run With the Wind
Status: Book, manga and anime complete (1 season).
University long-distance relay running group composed mostly of complete amateurs face individual issues and come together as a group. Nice to have people slightly older than highschoolers for a change. Has character arcs for most of the characters but it felt a bit abbreviated (at least in the anime) to me.


Hajime no Ippo
Status: Manga ongoing. Anime probably complete (~125 episodes).
The classic boxing manga about Ippo learning to become a man and punch people in the face. Can be very crude at times, but you have to give it some leeway based on the time it was written. A fun romp but it's probably best if you don't take any life-lessons from it.


Hikaru no Go
Status: Manga complete (kinda cancelled). Anime complete (covers almost, but not all of the manga).
A young boy meets a ghost and starts playing an ancient board game that isn't chess. The classic example about how you don't need to understand poo poo about the game to enjoy a manga about it.


Chihayafuru
Status: Manga complete. Anime ongoing (3 seasons so far).
Another manga about a traditional game, this time a weird memorisation-listening card game that I can't explain. If you wanted more romance in your sports, look no further. Also some nice tales about teams and hard work.


Ao Ashi
Status: Manga ongoing. Anime ongoing (1 season so far).
A fairly by-the-books but well-crafted (European) football manga about a kid playing in a youth team and wanting to go pro. I hate the fact that he has a harem and for no good reason, but the plotting is interesting in a shounen way and the characters that aren't the protagonist are interesting.

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Arc Hammer
Mar 4, 2013

Got any deathsticks?
Thanks for making the thread also reminds me that I've got a few updates of Dogsred to catch up on. Figure skater turned hockey player and it just gets the small-town minor hockey mindset so drat well.

Ohtori Akio
Jul 15, 2022
wheres kaiji

Endorph
Jul 22, 2009

kiminewt posted:

They unfortunately range very little in their treatment of female characters, mostly because most of the titles are shounen manga and any female characters are neglected to the sidelines as support/love interest/cheerleader/oogling-target.
dog what are you talking about theres hundreds of female-led sports manga

Endorph
Jul 22, 2009

some of the most influential and important anime and manga of all time are about female sports. have you heard of aim for the ace.

kidcoelacanth
Sep 23, 2009

bring back baby steps you monsters

kiminewt
Feb 1, 2022

RE: female-led ones. Could be, I only really read modern ones, and I haven't seen anything other than Chihayafuru that was popular in the past couple of decades. More than willing to edit the OP if you come up with poo poo.

Also yes Baby Steps is a goddamn travesty. I rewatched it often before I had to go to training camps. Also one of the few shows where the MC gets together with the female lead not in like the last chapter.

Ringo Roadagain
Mar 27, 2010

i thought crimson hero was pretty good

Ringo Roadagain fucked around with this message at 19:05 on Oct 6, 2023

Shinjobi
Jul 10, 2008


Gravy Boat 2k

Arc Hammer posted:

Thanks for making the thread also reminds me that I've got a few updates of Dogsred to catch up on. Figure skater turned hockey player and it just gets the small-town minor hockey mindset so drat well.

Not only am I excited for that, I got an old friend of mine to pick up the manga and he hasn't kept up with anime anything for like a decade. The potential of a hockey anime brought him back into the fold, I was so happy.

Archer666
Dec 27, 2008
Despite being very much not into football, I think Blue Lock is just great. Everyone being loving crazy and their stories are keeping me super engaged... And Chigiri. Manga definitely to have more Chigiri in it.

Arc Hammer
Mar 4, 2013

Got any deathsticks?
https://twitter.com/shonenjump/status/1722267743289041334?t=56BMFZkpJwOJKLFmP7gLAw&s=19

kiminewt
Feb 1, 2022

I was very confused and turns out it's a relaunch of Supinamarada with a new title (thankfully, I read the whole thing and I still couldn't remember the title). I'm assuming once it catches up to the original run there'll be new chapters?

I really enjoyed it at the time so I'm hyped. It's also up on Manga plus for non Americans.

Arc Hammer
Mar 4, 2013

Got any deathsticks?
It just "gets" hockey culture in a way I really appreciate. I get so many flashbacks to playing minor hockey.

Can Of Worms
Sep 4, 2011

That's not how the Triangle Attack works...
Golden Kamuy was a amazing labour of love so I have faith this will also be good, since presumably Noda has a good idea of how to improve it from the original version with his previous experience.

Edit: The thumbnail for chapter 10 is just Ogata, hahaha.

UnderFreddy
Oct 9, 2012

GEGENPOSTING

been reading both DOGSRED and the new rugby manga. Nice to finally have some good sports manga out there sprouting.

Flesnolk
Apr 11, 2012
what's the rugby one

UnderFreddy
Oct 9, 2012

GEGENPOSTING

Flesnolk posted:

what's the rugby one

Rowdy Rumble

nothing groundbreaking, but just a simple fun sports manga about rugby. It's a bit Kuroko no Basket like I'd say with the "perfect generation" and such.

kiminewt
Feb 1, 2022

New chapter of Real out. I should really reread it a bit cuz I forgot the new character completely. Shame it comes out so infrequently.

Arc Hammer
Mar 4, 2013

Got any deathsticks?
https://twitter.com/Haikyu_EN/status/1735844152909115496?t=DA4xVDQW2lpnE4vdU5TXMw&s=19

2/10 trailer did not see any garbage dump

kiminewt
Feb 1, 2022

Animation looks fantastic. I'm still a bit bummed about it being a movie since Haikyuu is the kinda show that really benefits from taking its time and delving into every character (and even the lsdt season cut out a bunch of stuff), but hopefully seeing it in a cinema will be worth it.

Arc Hammer
Mar 4, 2013

Got any deathsticks?
https://twitter.com/AniNewsAndFacts/status/1737761522955502046?t=uQCRfi6ZWYgx9InyOvs6vA&s=19

Football is back

GateOfD
Jan 31, 2023

*doki* *doki*
man, Baby Steps tennis manga really ended really weak.
Just stops in the middle of a match.
The End.

really liked the more realistic data approach over the HunterxHunter Prince of Tennis style

Sindai
Jan 24, 2007
i want to achieve immortality through not dying
It somehow got suddenly canceled completely after over 400 chapters, I actually can't think of another series that ended like that.

kiminewt
Feb 1, 2022

It's probably my favourite sports manga, or at least in the top 3, and that was just devastating. Wanted to see Ei-chan go all the way.

GateOfD
Jan 31, 2023

*doki* *doki*
the worst cancelled ending I seen was some martial arts school manga, and the ending was a time skip into adulthood, with everyone paired up and they just summarized all the "cool arcs" or twists the author had planned at their reunion.

At least Mx0 managed to get some semblance of an ending note.

GateOfD
Jan 31, 2023

*doki* *doki*

Sindai posted:

It somehow got suddenly canceled completely after over 400 chapters, I actually can't think of another series that ended like that.

Wonder if the anime under performed badly or something.

imagine Ippo getting cancelled and Ippo getting back into the ring.

The End.

GateOfD fucked around with this message at 23:23 on Dec 21, 2023

Archer666
Dec 27, 2008
Teppuu ending still bums me out. There was much potential there.

UnderFreddy
Oct 9, 2012

GEGENPOSTING

The Days of Diamond and Catenaccio which just got added to MangaPlus are super good. Very different types. One being about a prodigy who is good at everything and the personal life difficulties that come with that and the other being a guy who has very little talent but an absolutely insane mental drive. Really enjoying both.

Eeevil
Oct 28, 2010

Well obviously he didn't see it, or he'd be wearing a hardhat :colbert:
Is there a way to get the MangaPlus app if I don't have a smartphone?

UnderFreddy
Oct 9, 2012

GEGENPOSTING

Eeevil posted:

Is there a way to get the MangaPlus app if I don't have a smartphone?

best bet would maybe be to look into an android emulator of sorts? It's super annoying that everything is forced to be on smartphones

kiminewt
Feb 1, 2022

It's available on the browser, are not all series available there?

Also, there's a new chapter of REAL. It's really good and slow-paced as usual. Shame about the "once every few months" schedule, can't even wait a year to have a substantial amount to read.

Eeevil
Oct 28, 2010

Well obviously he didn't see it, or he'd be wearing a hardhat :colbert:

kiminewt posted:

It's available on the browser, are not all series available there?

Also, there's a new chapter of REAL. It's really good and slow-paced as usual. Shame about the "once every few months" schedule, can't even wait a year to have a substantial amount to read.

They changed it recently where you can only read the first and last 6 chapters of a free series in browser

Eeevil
Oct 28, 2010

Well obviously he didn't see it, or he'd be wearing a hardhat :colbert:
Ashita No Scanlation translated the first chapter of what I remember hearing is one of the classics of sports manga, Star of the Giants. I'm excited to read it so I hope they continue.

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Flesnolk
Apr 11, 2012

UnderFreddy posted:

One being about a prodigy who is good at everything

So it's about every pro athlete? :V

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