Favoritve SPORTS anime ....

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by B.Bally on May 29, 2009 at 6:47pm

Slam Dunk: This centers around Hanamichi Sakuragi, who starts as a delinquent outcast, becoming the leader of a gang. Hanamichi, being very unpopular with girls, has been rejected by them fifty times. Yet, he finds out that Haruko Akagi is the girl of his dreams, and is happy when she's not scared of him like all the other girls he has asked out.

Haruko Akagi, who recognizes Hanamichi's athleticism, introduces him to the Shohoku basketball team. Hanamichi was reluctant to join the team at first because he had no previous background in any sports and thought that basketball was a game for losers (also because the fiftieth girl rejected him for a basketball player). Sakuragi, despite his immaturity and hot temper, proves to be a natural athlete with potential and joins the team in order to impress Haruko and prove that he is worthy of her. Kaede Rukawa — Sakuragi's bitter rival (both on the basketball court and love, even when Rukawa doesn't acknowledge Haruko's crush on him), the star rookie and a "girl magnet" - joins the team at the same time. Hisashi Mitsui, an ex-junior high school MVP, and Ryota Miyagi , a short but fast player, both also rejoin the team and together these four struggle to complete team captain Takenori Akagi's dream of making Shohoku the national champion. Together, these misfits gain publicity and the once little known Shohoku basketball team becomes an all-star contender in Japan.

What seperates this from the typical sports anime is that the main character is a complete amateur when he starts out and no super moves either (screw Prince Of Tennis XP)



Hajime No Ippo: One of the best anime titles involving combat sport, in this case boxing. Ippo Makunouchi is a very shy high school student who never had the time to make friends because he was always busy helping his mother with the family charter boat fishing business. Because he kept to himself, a group of bullies led by Umezawa got into the habit of picking on him. On one particular day these bullies decided to give him a rather serious beating, but a middle-weight professional boxer who was passing by stopped the bullies and took the injured Ippo to the Kamogawa Gym (鴨川ボクシングジム, Kamogawa Bokushingu Jimu?), owned by retired boxer Genji Kamogawa, to treat his wounds. After Ippo awoke to the sounds of boxers training, the boxer who saved him, Mamoru Takamura, tried to cheer Ippo up by letting him vent his frustrations on a sandbag. It was then that they had their first glimpse into Ippo's talent for boxing. After that incident, Ippo started his regular training and began his path in Japan's professional boxing.

The story focuses heavily on character development, even during the matches something is learned about the fighters. Ippo and his friendly rivalry with Miyata is the main draw in the early part of the series. That later changes to Ippo's path towards the Japanese Featherweight Championship and eventually the world championship. Along the way we are given glimpses into the other side character's pasts, motivations, relationships to others and current boxing trials.




Ashita No Joe: Another boxing anime only older and more tragic, Ashita no Joe tells the tale of a wandering orphan named Joe Yabuki. He falls into one of Tokyo's slums and gets into a fight with a local gang and his street fighting skills gets him the attention of a washed up alcoholic boxing trainer. Until he sticks up for Joe when the gang comes back to finish Joe, Joe decides to live with the trainer. Despite the trainer's generosity, Joe is still committing money making scams and lands him in prison. While serving time, he meets another boxer named Rikiishi Tooru who gets Joe interested in boxing. Upon release, Joe then pursues a boxing career.

The series debuted at a time when considerable economic and social upheaval was transforming Japanese culture in the late 1960s. Joe was essentially the tragic hero representing the struggle of the lower class. His trial and sacrifice to the sport was a semi-reflection of the will of the people he was representing. By the 1970s, manga readers and college students across Japan would turn the character into an icon. When one of Joe's rivals Rikiishi dies at the end of their bout, there was a real life funeral for him. In March 1970, about 700 people including famous celebrities packed the streets dressed in black, wearing black armbands and ribbons with flowers and incense, participated in the funeral. The event was called for by poet Shūji Terayama. The service was conducted in a full scale boxing ring watched over by a Buddhist priest.

The anime is still a cult favorite in Japanese pop culture to the present day. On October 13, 2006, it was voted "Japanese Favorite TV Anime" placing 4 out of 100 among celebrities votes. It has succeeded in capturing people's hearts around Japan with its quality storyline and excellent boxing matches. The characters are very human and have their own weaknesses like Joe causing trouble all the time and Dampei being short tempered.




Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl: As you can tell by the title, this anime has a lot to do with Judo. The story is about Yawara Inokuma, a young girl who aspires to an ordinary life but who, due to her innate talent, is forced to keep practicing judo by her authoritarian grandfather, Jigorou Inokuma, with the aim of achieving championship in Japan and the gold medal in the Barcelona's 1992 Olympic Games. Because of all the pressure from her grandfather, she has a generally bad attitude about judo, avoiding it as much as she can. However, as the manga continues, she begins to understand why her grandfather so loves judo, and she begins to appreciate it more.

The significance of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics in the story is that in the real world, this was the first time that Women's Judo would be a full competition event, and would thus see the awarding of the first ever Olympic gold medal for Women's Judo.

Yawara! was very popular in Japan, so when real life Japanese teenager Ryoko Tamura won a silver medal for judo at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, she was seen as a real-life "Yawara" (her age, stature, and ability all being strikingly similar to those of the fictional character) and promptly nicknamed "Yawara-chan". She was still known by this name eight years later, indicating perhaps the enduring popular recognition of the series as well as that of Ryoko Tamura herself.

The track "Miracle Panda" on the Ranma 1/2 Fighting Karuta soundtrack is a parody of the Yawara opening theme "Miracle Girl"

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by l3ongl3oi on May 30, 2009 at 7:09pm

GREAT animes! I've seen all of Hajime no Ippo and Slam Dunk, but I've never seen the other two. I heard they were good though. I've actually read the first few volumes of the Yawara manga.

▶ Reply to This