The Olympics are almost here, and whether you are a sports person all year, you just become one during the Olympics or you are the type that can only consume sports when there’s an entertainment aspect to them, the good news is that there’s something for you to watch! And we don’t just mean in the documentary realm.
Sports anime has been a thing for years, but it seems like the genre has become more popular during the past few years — and there are a lot of sports to choose from. So, if you are looking for something to watch before, or during the Olympics, we’ve got some sports-centric anime that might just hit the spot.
Blue Lock
Japan’s desire for World Cup glory leads the Japanese Football Association to launch a new rigorous training program to find the national team’s next striker. Three hundred high school players are pitted against each other for the position, but only one will come out on top. Who among them will be the striker to usher in a new era of Japanese soccer?
Backflip!!
The final summer of middle school, Shotaro Futaba discovers boys gymnastics and is completely enamored by it. Shotaro ends up going to Soshukan Private High School (aka Ao High) and decides to visit the boys gymnastics club. He’s greeted by very unique senpais and a star gymnast named Misato Ryoya. Dedicating your life to something you love during your fiery days of youth… Of course, there is frustration, and fights, but see how these boys work together as a team towards a similar goal in this drama about sports and youth.
Harukana Receive
Oozora Haruka is a high school second-year who’s just moved to Okinawa. Haruka is generally cheerful and optimistic, but there’s one thing she feels insecure about: she’s taller than most other girls. Higa Kanata, her cousin of the same age who meets her at the airport, also has one hang-up: she had to quit her beloved beach volleyball in the past because she was too short. Through some twist of fate, these mismatched cousins find themselves paired up as a beach volleyball team. How will this duo play together in a sport where the presence of one’s teammate is more important than anything?!
RE-MAIN
Just after winning a national water polo title in his third year of junior high, a car accident left Minato Kiyomizu in a coma for nearly a year. Now in high school with a fresh start, he leaves the sport behind, but a promise has him returning to it.
Kuroko’s Basketball
An up-and-coming power player, Taiga Kagami, is just back from America. When he comes to Seirin High School, he meets the super-ordinary boy, Tetsuya Kuroko. Kagami is shocked to find that Kuroko isn’t good at basketball, in fact, he’s bad! And he’s so plain that he’s impossible to see. But Kuroko’s plainness lets him pass the ball around without the other team noticing him, and he’s none other than the sixth member of the Miracle Generation.
All the titles on this list are available to watch on Crunchyroll, so whether you do it now or between Olympic breaks, this feels like just the time to watch sports anime, doesn’t it?
