Favoritve SPORTS anime .... Part Deux

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Permalink Reply by B.Bally on June 1, 2009 at 9:49am

Here are my picks of over the top sports anime:

Captain Tsubasa: I believe this anime should always be mentioned when talking about over the top sports anime since this one anime actually popularized this genre during the 80's. It began as a manga by Yoichi Takahashi, who is also the author of Hungry Heart- Wild Striker.

The story focuses on the adventures of a Japanese youth football team and its football captain Tsubasa Ozora, whose name literally translates to "Big Sky Wings". The series is characterized by dynamic football moves, often stylish and implausible. The plot focuses on Tsubasa's relationship with his friends, rivalry with his opponents, training, competition, and the action and outcome of each football match.

The Captain Tsubasa manga series was originally serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump manga magazine between 1981 and 1988, spanning a total of 37-tankōbon volumes. It was continued onto a sequel, Captain Tsubasa: "World Youth" Saga, which was serialized between 1994 and 1997 in Shōnen Jump, spanning 18 volumes, and another sequel, entitled Captain Tsubasa: Road to 2002, which was serialized between 2001 and 2004 in Weekly Young Jump, which spanned 15 volumes. The manga is still running, with the latest sequel entitled Captain Tsubasa: Golden 23, serialized in Weekly Young Jump from 2005 to currently.

The original Captain Tsubasa manga series was adapted soon into an anime series, produced by Group TAC and Toei Animation, whose first season premiered in Japan on the TV Tokyo network between 10 October 1983 and 27 March 1986. This first serie tells only the synopsis of the first 25 volumes. Four anime movies followed soon, between 1985 and 1986, continuing the storyline. In 1989 a new anime series, entitled Shin Captain Tsubasa, was produced by Shueisha and CBS Sony Group inc. and spanned 13 OAV.[1] Shin captain Tsubasa tells the manga synopsis from volume 25 to volume 36. The anime series was followed soon after into a second sequel, entitled Captain Tsubasa J, produced by Nippon Animation, Studio Gallop, which aired between October 21, 1994 and December 22, 1995 in Japan on the Fuji Television network and spanned 47 episodes, as well an OVA series, Captain Tsubasa: Holland Youth, which was published in 1994. The anime series was continued on further into a third sequel, Captain Tsubasa: Road to Dream, also known as Captain Tsubasa ~ Road to 2002, the latest anime adaptation of the series, produced by Group TAC and Madhouse Studios, which aired in Japan between October 7, 2001 and October 6, 2002. The success of the series also spurred several Nintendo Super Famicom video game adaptations.

Despite being obscure among mainstream English speaking anime fandom, this title was a major hit everywhere else, it received popularity in Europe, the Middle East and South America. In fact many successful soccer/football athletes in those parts of the world along with Japan were fans of the original 80's anime growing up, Captain Tsubasa has inspired the likes of prominent footballers such as Hidetoshi Nakata, Seigo Narazaki, Zinedine Zidane, Francesco Totti, Fernando Torres and Alessandro Del Piero to play football and choose it as a career.

The anime was also an influence on the Stephen Chow comedy, Shaolin Soccer.

Back in Egypt during the show's popularity in the 90's, an Egyptian sports shoe company got the rights to insert images of the characters on the shoes and recently a Japanese-aid truck in Iraq was decorated with images of Captain Tsubasa, to dissipate people's fear of it, due to the popularity of the program.

The anime aired under different names overseas for example the Arabic dub was called Captain Majed naming the main character after the Saudi football star Majed Abdullah.

Because of its potential to help promote the sport, the Japan Football Association assisted with the development of the Captain Tsubasa series.



Ring Ni Kakero: An over the top boxing manga by Saint Seiya author Masami Kurumada published in Shonen Jump between 1977 and 1981. The story centers around the life of a young boxer named Ryuuji Takane and his sister Kiku, who is his coach. Ryuuji and his sister both inherited their father's talent for boxing with Ryuuji inheriting his strength and techniques while Kiku picked up his talent for analysis and strategy. In the past, their father was a famous boxer. Ryuuji and Kiku went away from home to train and become famous in order to help their lonely mother. On the way to stardom, they have to defeat the strongest challengers all over the world.

Not only did this title established Kurumada as a potential hit author before writing Saint Seiya but it also created the over the top sports genre as well as helped Shonen Jump find it's niche with the casual manga readers and established the publisher's style, despite its success it hasn't received an anime adaptation until 2004 which is still on-going. The manga also spawned a sequel Ring Ni Kakero 02, that ran from 2000 to 2009, which unlike its Shonen theme predecessor, targeted the Seinen (18–30 year old male audience) demographic.




Plawres Sanshiro

The story is about a young boy named Sanshiro Sugata and his miniature PlaWrestler pocket robot, Juohmaru, Sanshiro takes part in robot battle tournaments that were a hybrid blend of modern professional wrestling, hi-tech Robot Wars and Japanese noh theatre against the will of his grandfather, a judo master of the local dojo, who is critical of Sanshiro's PlaWrestling exploits, preferring him to practice judo and eventually succeed him as dojo master instead. However, he is also shown secretly watching many of Sanshiro's fights and worrying about the outcome. Eventually, Sanshiro's success and determination convince his grandfather to let him pursue his own dreams. Despite not taking part in the judo dojo, Sanshiro does use Judo as a reference for Juohmaru's fighting style, since Sanshiro was named after the Akira Kurosawa movie character and judo expert.

Initially, the show was about Sanshiro's battles with Juohmaru against other PlaWrestlers in As the series went on, its focus shifted to Sanshiro exploring the possible uses of PlaWrestling technology in medical implants, and his clash against those who wish to use it for military purposes instead.

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Permalink Reply by Witten on September 26, 2009 at 8:56am

i'm a big american football fan so i gotta go with eyeshield 21

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