5 animes that helped popularize sports in Japan

Some sports considered quite traditional in the West, such as soccer, basketball, and volleyball, were not very popular in Japan until the mid-90s and 2000s, before animes like Slam Dunk, Captain Tsubasa, Kuroko no Basket, and Haikyuu became a craze among children and young people.

With the popularization of these animes and mangas, various sports gained many fans and, consequently, more athletes. It is not exactly known the precise influence of pop culture on the daily lives of Japanese people in general, but the youth tends to read and watch these sports animes/mangas quite frequently.

Not only in Japan but also in several countries around the world, there is an increase in children’s interest in practicing a certain sport due to some anime. I myself started playing basketball during high school because of Slam Dunk and started practicing Muay Thai due to the influence of the anime Hajime no Ippo.

In this article, we will see which animes and mangas helped to increase the popularity of some sports in Japan.

Slam Dunk

The first on the list could be none other. Slam Dunk was one of the major contributors to popularizing basketball in Japan. The manga, published from 1990 to 1996 by Shonen Jump, written and illustrated by Takehiko Inoue (the same author of the manga “Vagabond”), tells the story of Sakuragi, a tall, red-haired student who is awkward with women and joins the high school basketball team with the goal of winning over a girl.

The 31-volume manga features extremely well-drawn artwork, a funny, entertaining, and motivating story, in addition to teaching various concepts related to basketball. An animated version was produced by Toei Animation and aired between 1993 and 1996 on TV Asahi. The anime gained significant popularity at a time when the characters’ red uniforms made a clear reference to the Chicago Bulls’ Dream Team in the NBA, which was then led by global star Michael Jordan.

In Brazil, Slam Dunk had its manga published for the first time by Conrad in mid-2005. Recently, Panini released a new physical version of the manga, in better quality. The anime, on the other hand, was never dubbed into Brazilian Portuguese and was never broadcast on any Brazilian TV.

In Japan, Slam Dunk was a resounding success, still considered one of the most popular sports mangas/animes of all time. Due to its immense popularity, many young people became interested in basketball, a fact that even earned praise and awards from the Japan Basketball Association to the series creator, Takehiko Inoue.

Below, you can watch the opening of the Slam Dunk anime:

Captain Tsubasa

Another well-known manga both in Brazil and Japan is Captain Tsubasa (or “Super Campeões” as the Brazilian version of the anime is known). The Tsubasa manga was first published in 1981, at a time when Japanese soccer was still extremely amateur. Over the years and with the publications, the series was adapted into an anime and distributed in various countries around the world, including Brazil, where it was a huge success both during its airing on the now-defunct Rede Manchete (in the 90s) and later on Cartoon Network and, subsequently, Rede TV.

Super Campeões tells the story of the boy Oliver Tsubasa and his rise in soccer. Throughout the plot, we follow various matches and plays that oscillate between realism and fantasy, a fact that also occurs with the anime Super Onze (which is predominantly aimed at a younger audience), having a reasonably well-constructed and somewhat mature plot for the young audience, considering that, unlike Super Onze, the Oliver Tsubasa anime does not exaggerate in fantasy and childishness.

The manga received several adaptations into anime, with the first airing in the 80s (between 1983 and 1986), the second in the 90s (1994-1995), another in the early 2000s (2001-2002), and the last one recently, in 2018/2019.

Below, you can watch the opening of the 2001 version, titled “Captain Tsubasa Road to 2002”.

The Prince Of Tennis

Many of you may know or have at least heard of the famous tennis player Naomi Osaka. The 24-year-old Japanese was the first woman from the country to win a Grand Slam, defeating none other than Serena Williams in 2018. To develop an athlete like this, motivation was needed, that is, a desire to practice the sport. Exactly because of this profile, the manga/anime by Takeshi Konomi also had its share of importance in promoting tennis in Japan and encouraging the practice of the sport.

The Prince of Tennis is better known in Japan as “Tenipuri” (テニプリ), an abbreviation of the words テニス (Tenisu = Tennis) and プリンス (Purinsu = Prince). The original name in Japanese is テニスの王子様 (Tenisu no Oujisama), which means “The Prince of Tennis”.

The “tenipuri” manga began serialization in 2000, gaining an anime version in 2001. The extraordinary success of the series led to numerous films, musicals, and related themed products, in addition to greatly helping in the popularization of court tennis in Japan.

In Brazil, the anime is better known than the manga.

Hikaru no Go

Many may not consider “Go” (碁) as a sport, but if even poker or video games are considered sports, then why exclude Go from that list, right? Considering it is a sport, Go also had its fame boosted by a manga. To learn what the game of Go is, read our article by clicking here!

As mentioned in a previous article, the manga and animated version of Hikaru no Go (ヒカルの碁) helped to democratize knowledge about a game that, until then, was mostly practiced by the elderly or by a restricted group of individuals, providing young people with an opportunity to start getting interested in the game.

Many professionals from the Nippon Kiin (the name of the Japanese Go Association) started playing Go precisely because they watched the anime or saw something about it in another series. In other words, the opportunity given to young people to learn about this complex game may have been beneficial for an increase in the number of players and enthusiasts.

An interesting but no less important curiosity is the fact that Hikaru no Go was drawn by Takeshi Obata, the same artist of Death Note.

Haikyuu!

Due to the short stature of most Japanese and the disinterest of many young males in the sport, volleyball has never been very strong in the land of the rising sun. However, after the overwhelming success of Haikyuu, this finally changed.

In 2016, the well-known broadcaster NHK showed a documentary with graphs illustrating how the number of students joining volleyball clubs increased significantly after the publication of the manga. In the graph, we can see that starting from 2012, precisely after the serialization of the manga began, the curve of students in volleyball clubs rose exponentially.

All the success achieved, especially among young people, may have been influenced by the plot of the series, as the protagonist of the manga, a high school student named Shōyō Hinata, is not tall, which likely generated identification among real-life Japanese students with the character, as they are generally not tall compared to Westerners.

So? Do you know any other sports anime or manga that impacted Japanese culture? Let us know in the comments!

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