Tsukasa Akeuraji dreamed of becoming a professional figure skater, but with professionals starting training in elementary school, he started too late in his teens and his ambitions never got off the ground. Giving up on his dreams, he takes a job as an assistant skating coach.
On his first day, he meets Inori Yuisuka, a fifth grader that was trying to sneak into the rink to practice skating. She, too, is captivated by figure skating like Tsukasa, but after her older sister’s ambitions in figure skating fizzled out, her mother won’t let her younger daughter experience the same heartbreak.
Moved by Inori’s determination to skate despite her mother’s wishes, Tsukasa decides to become her coach.
It truly is an accomplishment to make a story about young kids feel this mature. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Medalist, head on down below.
Anime Like Medalist
For Fans of Figure Skating
Yuri on Ice
After a crushing defeat at the Grand Prix finale, Yuuri Katsuki returns home no longer as Japan’s most promising figure skater. With his window for skating success closing, he assesses his options.
After a video of Yuuri performing a routine by five-time world champion Victor Nikiforov goes viral, he suddenly finds the champion on his doorstep, offering to be Yuuri’s mentor.
Similarities Between Medalist and Yuri on Ice
- Both are sports anime specifically about figure skaters doing figure skating competitively
- Frustration at you own abilities, performance anxiety, and character drama focused more on the sport than the character personal lives
- Expanding cast of diverse figure skaters
Differences Between Medalist and Yuri on Ice
- Yuri on Ice follows adults that are already competing in a high-level professional sphere.
- Yuri on Ice is, if not a boy’s love anime as is so often debated, then heavily baits it in the romantic sub-plot it has for the main character.
Skate-Leading Stars
Kensei Maeshima was a skating prodigy, but suddenly quits after his one-sided rival, Reo, refuses to acknowledge his skill at the sport. Now in high school, Kensei assists other sports teams, but never joins them.
One day, Reo announces that he is switching from figure skating to skate-leading. Kensei’s classmate Hayato, who has a connection to Reo, manages to convince Kensei to make the jump into skate-leading in order to finally face his rival.
Similarities Between Medalist and Skate-Leading Stars
- Both are sports anime about figure skaters
- Character new-ish to the sport have to overcome their hurdles
Differences Between Medalist and Skate-Leading Stars
- Skate Leading Stars takes figure skaters, and has them do a fictional team-based figure skating called Skate-Leading.
- Skate-Leading Stars follows high schoolers rather than younger children.
- Skate-Leading Stars focuses more on its rivalry and the main character’s lack of team ability than learning the fundamentals of a real sport.
Find Out Where to Continue The Medalist Story At Our Sibling Site:
For Fans of Never Too Old to Start If You Love It
Blue Period
In his second year of high school, Yatora Yaguchi goofs off with his friends and studies hard enough to make good grades. However, neither makes him happy. Bound by normal activities, he wonders if there is something more.
One day, he discovers the joy of drawing after becoming enchanted by a painting made by an art club member. Deciding he wants to do art as a living, Yatora faces a number challenges including his own hesitation on how far art can take him.
Similarities Between Medalist and Blue Period
- The main characters are starting something with the intention to be a professional despite not getting started “young enough”
- “How far can passion and practice take you when your peers have years of training under their belts?” is the theme these series explore.
- Features a main character, but spends ample time exploring side character drama as well
Differences Between Medalist and Blue Period
- Blue Period is an anime about an adrift high school boy that decides to try to make art into his career despite starting in late high school.
- Blue Period features character drama that is not always focused on art, but more aimed at the character’s personal struggles and how that affects their art.
Haikyuu
After being inspired by the small, but talented volleyball ace Little Giant, Shouyou Hinata trains endlessly despite his middle school not having a boy’s volleyball club.
Managing to scavenge enough athletes at his school to field a team for a middle school volleyball tournament, Hinata is soundly crushed in his first and last game of middle school by King of the Court, Tobio Kageyama.
Swearing to surpass him, Hinata joins the volleyball team in high school only to discover Kageyama is now his teammate.
Similarities Between Medalist and Haikyuu
- Scrappy main character loves a sport, but for various reasons, was kept from doing it competitively.
- When main character does get to do the sport, they are behind their peers, but passionately dedicated
- A wide variety of characters with a diverse array of personalities and styles to approaching the sport
- Highly investing sports action the grows surprisingly intense
Differences Between Medalist and Haikyuu
- Haikyuu is about a boy playing volley ball in high school, not a girl figure skating as an elementary schooler.
- Haikyuu features a much larger cast, as volleyball is a team sport and you get to see many different teams. They are all made a bit more quirky and memorable in design as well.
- Medalist is fairly grounded in realism while some of the techniques in Haikyuu can border on the superhuman.
- Haikyuu’s main character is far more fiery that the rather timid Inori in Medalist
The Gymnastics Samurai
Jotaro Aragaki has devoted his life to gymnastics. However, he finds himself no longer able to compete to his own expectations physically due to injury and age.
Despite training every day, even his coach recommends that he quit. However, on a trip to an amusement park where he will break the news to his daughter, he meets a self-proclaimed ninja that renews his vigor.
Similarities Between Medalist and The Gymnastics Samurai
- Main characters passionate about a less mainstream sport are giving it their first/last shot
- Sports action grounded in realism with poignant character drama
- Overcoming physical limitations plays a large role
- Passion is contagious among the main cast
Differences Between Medalist and The Gymnastics Samurai
- Gymnastics Samurai is so similar in its presentation of the sport, but truly the exact opposite of Medalist in that it follows an aging professional gymnast with an injury that he should retire from giving professional competition his very last shot despite it.
- Gymnastics Samurai follows adult professionals who are all aware of each other from past competitions
Chihayafuru
Growing up in the shadow of her older sister, Chihaya Ayase is strong-willed and a tomboy with no dreams of her own. However, after learning an outcast in her class, Arata Wataya, has incredible skill at karuta and his huge passion inspires her, she is pulled into the world of the poem-based card game along with her other childhood friend, Taichi Mashima.
While Chihaya grew a passion for karuta with her two childhood friends, they grew distant when they were separated in middle school. Now a high schooler, Chihaya still aims to be the queen of karuta and wants to compete with Arata again to grow her skill.
Similarities Between Medalist and Chihayafuru
- Both series feature female main characters passionate about less mainstream sports and highly driven to excel.
- Sizable cast of rivals and more friendly peers
Differences Between Medalist and Chihayafuru
- Chihayafuru is about Karuta, a traditional Japanese matching card game, which is far more obscure than figure skating.
- Chihayafuru follows a girl who is in high school, but has been honing her skill in the sport since childhood.
- A large chunk of Chihayafuru is also about the love triangle and personal drama therein that is going on between its main character and her two male childhood friends.
For Fans of Mentored By a Washed Out Pro
Hey! Tonbo
Once-professional golfer Kazuyoshi Igarashi is looking to get a fresh start by moving to Hinoshima Island. It is there on this rural island that he discovers a golf course made by the local residents who enjoy golf as a hobby.
To his surprise, he meet Tonbo Ooi, a girl that only plays golf with a 3-iron. As he witnesses Tonbo make seemingly impossible shots, he begins to rediscover how fun the sport can actually be.
Similarities Between Medalist and Hey Tonbo
- A middling professional that has dropped out of a sport happens across a young girl that re-ignites his passion. The old pro then decides to become their coach.
- Watch as the child main character and her middle-aged mentor enter the low-end professional realm of a sport
- Child has some talent, but lacks many fundamentals.
Differences Between Medalist and Hey Tonbo
- Tonbo is about golf
- Tonbo, the titular main character of Tonbo, is a bit more cheerful and carefree compared to the rather high strung Inori.
Welcome to the Ballroom
Tatara is rescued from bullies one day by a professional dancer and teacher named Sengoku. Ending up back at his dance studio, he meets a school mate that he had secretly come to idolize and is lured into the sport of ballroom dancing.
From this moment, Tatara is thrust into the world of dance, aiming to improve as a dancer in order to be acknowledged by his peers and rivals while Sengoku nurtures his natural talent.
Similarities Between Medalist and Welcome to the Ballroom
- A young person is noticed by a once-professional that is now a teacher
- The young main character works with their teacher to develop their low level skill in the sport
- A large cast of rivals, competitors, and friends are drip-fed to you
- Extremely passionate, if high strung main character
- Intricately choreographed dancing/skating scenes
Differences Between Medalist and Welcome to the Ballroom
- Welcome to the Ballroom features a male main character lured into ballroom dance, so he is not exactly super into the sport like Inori is in the beginning of Medalist already.
- The mentor in Welcome to the Ballroom teaches several students, not just the main character. He was also a well-respected professional and not a wash-out like Tsukasa in Medalist.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Medalist? Let fans know in the comments section below.
