Minato Kiyoumizu was once a rockstar among rockstars on his junior high water polo team. However, when a car accident put him into a coma for several months, he awakes without memories from the past few years. Not even fully understanding what water polo even is, he decides to not play and focus on his new high school. However, when the sole member of his school’s water polo team tries to recruit him and people from his past ignite a fire, he finds himself re-learning the sport from the start.
Let’s all learn about yet another obscure sport through the magic of sports anime! But really, though. This one is eye candy, but it’s got some great energy. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Re-Main, then head on down below.
Anime Like Re-Main
For Fans of Watersports
Free!
Haruka Nanase has a passion for swimming that led him to compete and win a tournament in elementary school with his friends. Years later, they reunite as high schools students, and while Haruka and three friends decide to form a swim club, his fourth friend, Rin, attends another school in order to surpass Haruka in skill. He has also made it clear he has no interest in being friends again.
Despite the difference between the watersports, you will find quite a few similarities between these two. Almost as if Re-Main wanted to catch some of that run-off. Both series have very handsome boys in very little clothes that are exploring their sport. However, Re-Main is more comedic much of the time and doesn’t have the same drama focus as Free.
Dive!!
Falling on financial troubles, the Mizuki Diving Club is dangerously close to being shut down. However, their new coach managed to persuade the parent company of the club to allow it to stay open on the condition that a member makes the Japanese Olympic diving team within the next year.
Both series follow watersports, and less broadly, watersports clubs on the brink of disbanding due to various reasons. Of course, much of the series is taking these zeros and whipping them into shape.
For Fans of Bromance
Bakuten
Shoutarou Futaba loves sports, but he has languished as a bench warmer on his middle school baseball team. One day after watching a group perform gymnastics in the park, he develops an interest in the sport. While watching a tournament, he finds himself captivated by Shoushukan High School’s team performance, but watches them place second to last for not fielding a full team. This motivates him to enroll in the school and join their gymnastics team.
Aside from also being about another obscure sport, what Bakuten and Re-Main most have in common is the bonding that goes on between the team as they aim for the top. Furthermore, while the circumstances are different, both series put a strong focus on learning a sport from the very basics.
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.
While the men in Haikyuu wear more clothes and are objectively less handsome, there is a strong sense of bonding in the team that both series share. Haikyuu focuses more on the struggle of things while Re-Main has its whole amnesia plot to follow.
Sk8 the Infinity
High school student Reki Kyan is passionate about skateboarding and board-making. While he works part-time in a board shop after school, his real interest is the underground race that happens at night. S is a competitive skateboard race where participants are encouraged to win at all costs. Unfortunately for Reki, his most recent race came in at a loss. The next day at school he meets new transfer student Langa Hasegawa who was a snowboarder when he lived in Canada. After a series of events that led both of them to an S race, Reki discovers that, despite having no experience on a skateboard, Langa’s experience snowboarding is unexpectedly useful in an S race.
While Sk8 the Infinity essentially creates its own sport, there is no more fun bromance to watch in sports anime than the one between Reki and Langa. You get remnants of that between the water polo team, but because there are more members, it gets a bit diluted. Regardless, both series look great and have great ways to draw you in.
Cheer Boys
Disheartened by judo and ultimately using a shoulder injury as an excuse to quit, college student Haruki Bando is invited by his childhood friend to join an unprecedented all-male cheer team called the Breakers. Together, they start to make history in this previously predominantly female sport.
Both series explore obscure sports with a strong focus on team relationships. However, Cheer Boys has that added element of overcoming prejudice that really isn’t a thing in Re-Main.
For Fans of Rehabilitation
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.
You can’t have an obscure sports anime without tossing Yuri on Ice out there as a recommendation. However, more applicably, Yuri on Ice is about a professional sort of rehabilitating themselves to compete at a high level while Re-Main is much about the same, but at a lower high school level of competition. It focuses on mental, physical, and an almost spiritual growth of the main character as things go on.
Tsurune
Kyuudo is a modern martial art with a focus on archery. Minato used to be into the sport in middle school, enchanted by the “tsurune” sound made by a releasing bowstring, but gave it up after a certain incident left him with target panic. This phenomenon resulted in Minato missing every shot he took and crushing his confidence. Now forces conspire in high school to bring him into the newly founded Kyuudo club, but can Minato overcome his anxieties?
Both series focus on the same sort of sports story. The main character used to be great at the sport, then an incident made them quit said sport. Now they are back in it and the relationships formed with their teammates push them forward.
Big Windup
Ren Mihashi was an ace of his middle school baseball team, but only because his grandfather owned the academy. Due the obvious and unwanted nepotism, Ren was crippled by anxiety over how his pitching led to the team’s constant losses, even with the endless practice he put in. The bullying of his team and low self-esteem got so bad that Mihashi decided to go to high school in another prefecture, intent on giving up on baseball despite his love for it.However, when he is unwillingly dragged onto the school’s reviving baseball team, he finds that his new teammates might just be his perfect match.
While ultimately both series have that element of mental rehabilitation as a character tries to get back into their sport, Big Windup has a focus on anxiety rather than the amnesia issues presented in Re-Main. Still, you will find that same element of team bonding in Big Windup, but with less of a focus on nearly naked beautiful boys.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Re-Main? Let fans know in the comments section below.
