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Are there any sports anime worth watching?

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SolVanderlyn

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
I'll start with the disclaimer that while I follow big name shonen anime like One Piece, Bleach, and until recently, Naruto, I'm not really a big anime guy and passed my big anime phase back in high school. Moe/waifu/fanservice shit has always been loathesome, and I tend to dislike internet anime culture. I'm not huge into sports either.

So why ask about sports anime, if I don't like most anime or sports? Hajime no Ippo has me interested in the genre. I saw a few .gifs and clips in the well animated fights thread and realized that anime with a realistic premise has the potential to be a gripping experience. A couple that I know of, but not really about:

-Eyeshield 21
-Some basketball anime that has a guy with blue hair
-Hajime no Ippo
-Prince of Tennis

Are these worth watching? Is there anything else out there that's good?
 
Z

Zombine

Banned
slam-dunk-episode-50-english-dubbed.jpg
 
F

Frog-fu

Banned
All of those are worth trying, OP.

Also:
Major
Big Windup!
Ace of the Diamond
Slam Dunk

Don't bother with One Outs. Terribly boring nonsense.
 
R

Reset

Member
-Eyeshield 21Yes
-Some Basketball anime that has a guy with blue hair Watch SlamDunk instead.
-Hajime no Ippo Yes
-Prince of Tennis No
 
J

John Kowalski

Banned
Ping Pong is one of the best animes of all time. I remember enjoying Moshidora, but since i don't understand anything about baseball other than you have to hit the ball with the bat i can't really say if it makes any sense.
 
U

ultraspank

Member
Haikyuu!

It's about volleyball. I don't give a shit about volleyball and i marathoned the first season in three days.
Loved it.
 
B

badscooter

Member
If you're talking sports anime/manga, you're talking Adachi Mitsuru, my friend. His series Touch is considered a seminal 80s manga and TV show. It might be best to watch the 3 adapted movies. H2 is another famous baseball series. A more recent hit of his was CrossGame.

His swimming manga Rough is one of the best manga I've ever read.

He's good, man. He's good.
 
J

julesodies

Member
Hikaru no Go is the best anime ever. Watched it about 6 times. Great character development and music. Must watch if you're into anime.

Ping Pong: the animation is good too. Really artistic and deep.

Ippo has great action scenes which really pump you up and the story between the fights is hilarious.

Didn't like Eyeshield that much. Too kiddy.

Def watch Major if you're into caps falling on the ground

Ace of Diamond has a great director who really knows how to build up excitement. Each ep gives you goosebumps.

Prince of Tennis. Meh, save that for last if you really crave for more.

Slam Dunk. Read the manga that was pretty cool, so cant tell you about the anime ;) .

Kaleido Scope. Worth the watch, cause of the girl lead. Hearthwarming and its about figure skating which to my suprise is a real sport and not just for looking at hot women :p .

Initial D. This was so awesome when I first watched it but the CGI is a real letdown, def the first seasons. Music is awesome though, highlight of the show.

Tons of other options out there but these all are awesome
 
J

jon bones

hot hot hanuman-on-man action
i don't know if it helps but despite not being much of a manga guy i enjoyed the hell out of Eyeshield 21

dunno how the anime is and it could just be my love of football
 
D

Droplet

Member
Big Windup, Ping Pong, and Haikyuu! are the three least bullshit sports shows I've seen. Ping Pong is just really good in general but the other two are good shows for sports. Free is also a fun show if you were a swimmer, but otherwise I can find no good reason to recommend it to anyone.
 
J

jerry1594

Member
OT but does anybody know the name of an old soccer anime that was low budget and it them forever to do stuff in the games?
Philippo said:
Hajime no Ippo is everything you need.
Never felt more manly than after watching some of the fights.
Click to expand...
Does it bear a semblance to boxing or is it anime fighting with gloves?
 
N

Not

Banned
Eyeshield 21 is in the OP, but I'm still going to mention it a freaking gain a because Murata is a kami, you know?

Dirty kami
 
P

Philippo

Member
To sell someone on Ippo you don't even need a clip, but only Inner Light by itself.

And if you really need, a small but exciting snippet.

Pizarro said:
OT but does anybody know the name of an old soccer anime that was low budget and it them forever to do stuff in the games?

Does it bear a semblance to boxing or is it anime fighting with gloves?
Click to expand...

Oh no it's very realistic (except higher resistance than real life for obvious reason and some exaggerated effects for punches) and it goes deep in technical details.
 
C

Cerity

Member
Ippo is probably one of the most hotblooded things you'll ever watch or read.

Anything by Adachi Mitsuru, he blends romance and sports together perfectly. Touch, Cross Game, H2 etc.

Baby Steps is good too, based around straight up hardwork and perseverance. A lot of people hate sports anime for the bullshit they pull, the only bullshit in baby steps is probably maruo's talent for tennis. Not sure how the anime turned out though.
 
S

SolicitorPirate

Member
Ippo is great, but a lot of people have already pointed that out.

Prince of Tennis is basically Dragonball with tennis; it's cheesy fun but mind numbing if you're looking for anything vaguely approaching real tennis.

There was an anime about a girls baseball team in the 1950s, that was pretty good but for the life of me, I can't remember it's name.

Also, Girls Und Panzer is surprisingly decent. It's uh, about high school tank battles, but it uses a lot of the tropes and trappings of well done sports anime.
 
D

Dahbomb

Member
Seconding the Haikyu and Ippo nominations. Fantastic stuff.

But don't skip out on Kuroko No Basketball son! It's hype as fuck!
 
S

Squishy3

Member
Pizarro said:
OT but does anybody know the name of an old soccer anime that was low budget and it them forever to do stuff in the games?

Does it bear a semblance to boxing or is it anime fighting with gloves?
Click to expand...
It's obviously exaggerated but there's no real magic bullshit in it, it's far more grounded compared to something like Kuroko. The guy who created it owns his own gym for boxing/mma and is a part-time boxing second.

I'd also recommend Ashita No Joe as another boxing series, while I haven't personally watched it yet it gets nothing but praise from what I've seen. It's in the backlog.
 
W

WrenchNinja

Member
SolicitorPirate said:
Ippo is great, but a lot of people have already pointed that out.

Prince of Tennis is basically Dragonball with tennis; it's cheesy fun but mind numbing if you're looking for anything vaguely approaching real tennis.

There was an anime about a girls baseball team in the 1950s, that was pretty good but for the life of me, I can't remember it's name.

Also, Girls Und Panzer is surprisingly decent. It's uh, about high school tank battles, but it uses a lot of the tropes and trappings of well done sports anime.
Click to expand...
Taisho Baseball Girls?
 
R

rockmanjoe

Member
Cerity said:
Ippo is probably one of the most hotblooded things you'll ever watch or read.

Anything by Adachi Mitsuru, he blends romance and sports together perfectly. Touch, Cross Game, H2 etc.

Baby Steps is good too, based around straight up hardwork and perseverance. A lot of people hate sports anime for the bullshit they pull, the only bullshit in baby steps is probably maruo's talent for tennis. Not sure how the anime turned out though.
Click to expand...

+1 for Cross Game and Touch. Especially Cross Game, that show is a masterpiece. Love it so much. The character development is stellar.
 
T

TheBryanJZX90

Member
I really enjoyed reading Slam Dunk. I only caught a couple episodes of the anime but it didn't really come off as well as the manga.
 
J

julesodies

Member
rockmanjoe said:
+1 for Cross Game and Touch. Especially Cross Game, that show is a masterpiece. Love it so much. The character development is stellar.
Click to expand...
Cant remember it clearly but it felt to me that the story ended abruptly. Maybe I just wanted more :p.

His leasure free walk is the best :D
 
P

pashmilla

Banned
Seconding Kuroko no Basuke, Big Windup and Haikyuu. Big Windup and Haikyuu in particular are nice because they're far more down to earth than your average sports anime and avoid the usual ridiculous sports anime clichés. Kuroko is pure cheese but it's fun as hell.
 
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