Once an elite runner, Kakeru is now only running to escape those accusing him of stealing food. While fleeing, he meets another runner, Haiji, who persuades him to live in his old apartment complex. There, Kakeru finds it is full of fellow residents who all have one goal – to enter the Hakone Ekiden Marathon. Unfortunately, aside from he and Haiji, they are all pretty novice.
Although a sports anime about running, it still holds a lot of sports anime tropes. So if you are a runner, then this is perhaps an anime for you, but, so, too, are these other anime recommendations.
Anime Like Run With The Wind
For Fans of Troubled Athletes
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 in different circumstances, both series follow a previous athlete that quit the sport only to be convinced to pick it back up again. They need to overcome their painful pasts in order to move forward, but this time have friends to do it.
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.
Both shows are about those who used to be athletes pickling up the sport again. They have their reasons for why they quit, but they are convinced again to try, and this is the tale of their journey back to the top.
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.
Both shows are about the struggle to the top that is common with sports anime. The main characters are good at their sports, but after being beaten down by constant set backs, it is usually up to a friend to try and lift them up.
For Fans of Apartment Shenanigans
The Pet Girl of Sakura Hall
Unable to resist taking in abandoned kittens, and amassing quite a collection of them, Sorata Kanda is forced to move to Suimei High School’s infamous Sakura Hall. This dorm is used to house all the misfit students that don’t quite fit in the regular housing. There, Sorata meets an array of different oddballs that inspire him to work towards getting back into the regular dorms and away from them. However, when a new transfer student moves in, he meets the incredible artist, Shiina Mashiro. While talented, she is completely incapable of taking care of herself, and so, Sorata brings her into his care and his strange days truly begin.
Did you enjoy Run With The Wind because of the bonds formed in that dorm? Then this is the series for you. While they are not motivated by the same purpose all the time, in The Pet Girl of Sakura Hall, there is a few times where they bind together to work as a team. Regardless, the dorm mentality is present throughout the show like with Run With The Wind.
Food Wars
Ever since he was a child, Souma Yukihira helped his father cook in his restaurant, constantly challenging him to cook-offs in anticipation for the day when he would finally win. However, when his father suddenly decides to leave to go on a trip around the world, Souma is sent to the Totsuki Culinary Academy, an elite cooking school where only the top 10 percent graduate. Here, Souma learns that not only are some of his classmates top-tier chefs, but they also engage in intense competitions called ”food wars”.
While wildly different in almost every respect, what Food Wars has in common is the competitive world. Not only do you have friendships and rivalries formed over food or running, but the show also features students living in a dorm together. There they swap different techniques and help each other grow.
Grand Blue
Iori Kitahara is excited to travel to the seaside town of Izu for his first year of college. He moves into his uncle’s scuba shop, Grand Blue, but things don’t go according to plan. Inside the shop is a bunch of naked and drunk upperclassman who get him drunk. After his cousin walks in, his college life starts to derail, but his work getting it back on track doesn’t go quite as planned either.
Both anime series are somewhat comedic sports series featuring college aged athletes. While there is less of a dorm feel in Grand Blue, they spend so much time together it still feels very much like it. While the sports are different, they still have that similar feel.
For Fans of Racing
Yowamushi Pedal
Although otaku Sakamichi Onoda hoped to join the anime club to make friends in high school, he sadly finds it disbanded. To cheer himself up, he decides to bicycle to Akihabara – a 90km round trip he has been doing since elementary school on his mommy bike. When determined, competition-minded cyclist and fellow first year student Shunsuke Imaizumi is practicing peddling up an incline at the school’s rear entrance, Onoda’s effortless skill at climbing on an inferior bike it baffles him enough to challenge him to a race. It is this race, and the fire it ignites that fuels Onoda to put his dreams of reviving the anime club on the back burner in order to join the school’s cycling club.
Although it is not running, Yowamushi Pedal shows off a series of people training in the world of competitive cycling. They are bound together by the sport and also by their own competitive nature. It is a show about friendship like Run With The Wind in a way, but they are still competing.
Prince of Stride: Alternative
Nana Sakurai enrolled in her school for one reason – Stride. This sport that includes parkour, free running, relay, and sprinting is as captivating to watch as it is freeing to participate in. Unfortunately, the club was disbanded due to lack of members, so now Nana and another eager freshman do their best to bring it back.
The tie here is obvious – they are both anime series about running. Prince of Stride is a bit less traditional and and more intense, but still just as interesting to watch. However, Prince of Stride is less about sports tropes in its own way.
Suzuka
Yamato Akitsuki is new to Tokyo. He lives with his aunt in a local bath house while he studies. One day, he spots a curious girl from his school, a track and field star named Suzuka. He later discovers that she lives next to him too. Little by little, his life with this girl in it begins to change.
Romance and slice of life are the primary themes in Suzuka, with the sport of track and field as sort of a secondary focus. Suzuka does track and she is extremely focused about it, but it is not as big of a focus as it is with Run With The Wind.
If you have more anime recommendations like Run With The Wind, let fans know in the comments section below.
