The diverse world of competitive sports has come into play countless times in anime. Everything from baseball and soccer to Sumo and Ping-Pong have found themselves under the animated lens more than once. The competitive, character-building nature of competition and physical adversity often converts beautifully into high-action, emotional anime storytelling.

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The usual tropes of tournaments, hard training, and underdog victories are all commonplace in this genre. There are, however, some anime that have sought to go beyond the norm and confront the commonplace themes and ideas found in the sports genre. Here are eight such shows:

8 Free!

Free! Swim team celebration huddle.

This swimming drama turns the theme of respect between rivals on its head. Protagonist Haruka Nanase’s childhood feud with Rin Matsuoka leads to him building his school’s swim team to take on Matsuoka and his crew. Essentially letting himself be defined by his hatred of Matsuoka, Haruka eventually costs both of them a tournament over it. Now disqualified, they mend their dispute in order to keep playing without issue.

It’s a fascinating inversion of the usual growth-through-competition trope, with both characters instead growing through childish regression. In turn, they learn respect in spite of their sport rather than because of it, allowing a more nuanced bond to develop rather than simply shaking hands after a game. A compelling take on the heated rivalries competition can cause.

7 Princess Nine

Princess Nine Ryo Hayakawa playing baseball

Sports anime is a fairly male-character-dominated genre. On the few occasions where female protagonists have led, they’ve often toed the line of being outright fetishized. Princess Nine bucked the trend by presenting a serious take on an all-girls high school baseball team.

The series is not subtle in criticizing and subverting the sports genre’s lack of authentic female representation. In simply telling a story of female athletes in a dramatic, thoughtful fashion, this cult hit successfully broke down and analyzed gender dynamics in sports storytelling like no other.

6 Run With The Wind

A group of runners looking back at someone

On the surface, Run With the Wind seems like a fairly straightforward show about teamwork and commitment. The character development and personal struggles of much of the cast, however, lend this series a harsher, more compelling edge. Lead character Kakeru, for example, is essentially destitute since starting college. Running proves to be a mode of survival for him as team leader Haiji offers to house him and keep him well-fed provided he commits to the sport.

Rather than the thrill of competition or professional ambitions, most of the characters here are running for survival as they navigate through the increasingly difficult world of adulthood. It’s a sobering take on the genre that picks apart the more standard tropes of guts and glory so many sports anime emphasize.

5 Yuri On Ice

The main characters from Yuri!!! on Ice posing at the rink

Yuri on Ice is among the very few sports anime out there to tackle both the perils of figure skating and homosexual identity. The underdog story of the 23-year-old Yuri bordering on being too old for his chosen sport provides a look at the fear of time having passed an athlete by. Considering the youthful, often adolescent focus of sports anime, Yuri’s age issue is a compelling dissection of the later years' fears many athletes endure.

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The romance between Yuri and his mentor Victor is also uncharted waters in the sports genre. It confronted the Japanese government’s stance on gay marriage through a maturely handled relationship, and eventual engagement, between the lead characters that garnered a good deal of discussion at the time of its release in 2016.

4 Megalo Box

Yuri from Megalo Box prepares to fight.

Initially conceived as a sci-fi reboot of the classic boxing anime series Tomorrow’s Joe, Megalo Box forged its own darker, more personal storytelling identity. In a class system with a huge wealth divide, protagonist Junk Dog competes in fixed fights in a slum in order to get by. The sport here is not for pride or glory but for survival, as Junk Dog risks his body time and time again.

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The result is a bleak look at a fighter struggling with chronic pain, financial hardship, and even identity forgery just to compete with the upper-class pros of the exoskeletal boxing world. This futuristic boxing drama manages to subvert and pick apart every key trope associated with the underdog fighter tale with harsh, confronting gusto.

3 Blue Lock

Blue Lock poster featuring main characters posing

Teamwork is an essential component of nearly all sports. In the case of Blue Lock, themes of positive teamwork and cohesion are dissected from the start with lead protagonist Yoichi Isagi suffering defeat due to being a team player. Despite his superior skills, when Isagi’s just shy of potentially scoring a goal, he passes the ball to someone else. The reason behind the odd move is simple; it’s his instincts from years of training.

Additional trope-bending setbacks lead to a harsher, more single-minded Isagi coming to the fore. He learns to put himself first and believe in his talents ahead of everyone else’s. It’s a dark, invigorating take on the pitfalls of team dynamics and the importance of self-realization.

2 Ao Ashi

Ao Ashi's Kaido soccer team line-up before game.

Similarly to Blue Lock, Ao Ashi dissects the positives and negatives of being a team player in a soccer-focused environment. Lead character Ashito Aoi is a prodigy on the field who’s incapable of playing well with others. The result is him initially carrying his team before reaching a psychological boiling point when he gets disrespected by an opponent.

Where most sports anime will depict the hotheaded hero learning and growing through playing and training, this show takes a more frustrating, grounded approach. Aoi is sidelined, loses his confidence, and suffers a losing streak before he gets anywhere near making a comeback. It’s a harsh look at the often crippling stress of competition, and the unpleasant truth of its impact on countless athletes’ mental well-being.

1 Prince Of Tennis

Prince Of Tennis' Ryoma Echizen playing tennis

One of the key shows behind the explosion in popularity of sports anime in the early noughties, Prince of Tennis is, at a glance, a rather conventional series. In lead character Ryoma Echizen, however, the show highlights the flaws that can come with obsession and perfectionism. Deemed a tennis prodigy at just 12 years old, Ryoma’s whole life revolves exclusively around the sport.

While his obsession pays dividends on the tennis court, viewers frequently get insight into what it costs him everywhere else in his life. Ryoma has no hobbies, no interests, and no real friends. He’s frequently depicted as being oblivious to any potential romantic partners that come his way and struggles to even remember people’s names and faces. It’s a quietly sad dissection of what total commitment can do to a driven athlete’s personal life.

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