Anime comes with a lot of variety. If you want to watch cheerful and determined teens take the world by storm and defeat impossible villains with a smile, you go for a Shonen.
If you want blood, gore, and all things dark you go for the Dark Fantasy genre and if you’re looking for excellent co-ordination, great teamwork, and mind-blowing sports action, then your favorite would be the Sport Anime genre.
Sports Anime is quite popular with the Otaku community. These can be about any sport, from Relay Racing to Volleyball. People love them for their unique characters, slice-of-life qualities, and general great anime-level storytelling.
So, without further ado, here are 10 Sports Anime you should check out!
10. Yuri on Ice
A figure skating anime about Yuri Katsuki trying to make his way up the ladder in the sport. He follows his idol Victor Nikiforov, who eventually coaches for his match in the Figure Skating Grand Prix.
Yuri is a highly competitive individual, but he also gets upset quickly. Faced with failure, he can easily go into a depressive period and torture himself with these sad feelings.
He is also a somewhat anxious person. This impresses the main character because he resembles real-life people with a high drive for success. This anime is also famous for its unique depiction of homosexuality, which is something to look out for.
9. Slam Dunk
As made evident by the title, Slam Dunk is a basketball anime about a teen named Hanamichi Sakuragi who joins his High School Basketball team to attract a girl’s attention.
What starts as a way to impress the one he seeks quickly becomes a solid passion, with Hanamichi seriously becoming interested in the sport.
Now this one aired between 1993 and 1996. It is indeed an ancient anime, but that also makes it a total classic. The animation may not be on par with the new generation shows, but the story and characters are still top-notch, with an IMDb rating 8.7.
This is something you should check out if you’re into sports anime.
8. Big Windup
Big Windup is a baseball anime about Ren Mihisahi, an ace pitcher on his school’s baseball team. Ren is incredibly hard-working but hated by his teammates because they think he only made it to the team.
After all, his grandfather owned the school. With continuous losses at the hands of rival teams, Mihisahi’s confidence in himself becomes lower and lower.
He later joins a different school where the new coach encourages him to start playing, and from there on out, he only grows and brings his teams to many victories.
7. Free!
Free! is an anime all about the sport of Swimming. It aired for three seasons from 2013 to 2018. The first two were loosely based on the light novel High Speed! By Koji Oji.
It is a show with a significant slice-of-life element paired with the competitive spirit of the sport. It’s about Haruka Nanase, a talented swimmer who forms a swimming team at his school, and his friend challenges their rivals.
It has the basic concept of competition between two school sports teams, with great action and character relationships established and maintained.
6. Hajime No Ippo
Every consistent anime follower must have at least heard of Hajime No Ippo—a Boxing anime about Makunouchi Ippo, who powers through the world of Boxing to become a professional.
The show is top-rated, with an IMDb rating of 8.8. Makunouchi was saved by a boxer when bullies were beating him up.
His boxing talent was also discovered accidentally by the same boxer. It was then that his journey began. It’s a must-watch if you’re looking to watch something action-packed and inspiring.
5. Ping Pong The Animation
It is a table tennis anime about childhood friends Peco and Smile, both members of their high school Table Tennis club.
The relationship between these two friends is impressive even though they have opposite personalities.
The animation style of this one is a little different than what most anime fans must be used to, but still, it’s a great show with great characters and fantastic storytelling, with an IMDb rating of 8.6.
4. Bamboo Blade
It’s an anime about the Japanese sport of Kendo. This one stands out because the main important characters are female instead of the most dominant male characters in sports anime.
It started airing on the Funimation channel in 2010. It’s a great show to look out for with 26 episodes; this makes it great for a binge-watch over a week.
3. Ace of Diamond
Another brilliant baseball anime is about Eijun Sawamura, a talented pitcher who gets a scholarship offer from a prestigious school for his baseball abilities. He gets to play in the nationals and bring home the big win.
2. Kuroko’s Basketball
It is another excellent basketball anime about Tetsuya Kuroko, a talented player of a once-great team that got split with time. Now Kuroko, with his ally Taiga Kagami, tries to trace the members of the old team back to bring the team back together and take themselves to the top again.
This show promises a excellent adrenaline rush and is action-packed, with great characters from the beginning.
1. Haikyuu
Everyone must have at least heard the name of the popular sports anime Haikyuu. It’s about a junior high school student, Shoyo Hinata, who becomes obsessed with volleyball and watches the nationals on TV.
He joins the school’s team but is the only member to be there, so he spends a lot of time finding interested players and getting them on the team.
This is the most popular current sports anime on the list and probably something every sports anime fan has watched at least once.
Honorable Mention
Keijo
Want to Be The Strongest in The World
Harukana Receive
IwaKakeru! Sport Climbing Girls
