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.
As someone with no interest in figure skating and casual interest in boy’s love, Yuri on Ice was an absolute gem that shines through its characters. If you are looking for anime recommendations like Yuri on Ice, then head on down below.
Anime Like Yuri on Ice
For Fans of Returning To The Sport
The Gymnastics Samurai
Jotaro Aragaki has devoted his life to gymnastics. However, he finds himself no longer able to compete to his own expectations. 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.
Both series feature professionals that were undermined by their own ability and self-confidence as they get back into the sport. Instead of a handsome mentor, Jotaro in The Gymnastics Samurai is encouraged by his daughter and a fan.
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.
Aside from the fact that they are both about ice skating, both series feature main characters who have quit the sport, only to get back into it. However, while Yuri on Ice is about gaining confidence, Skate-Leading Stars is more so about overcoming the hurdles that arise in switching from a solo skate to a team-based experience.
Re-Main
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.
Both Yuri on Ice and Re-Main feature characters that were quit the sport getting back into it. This means both rehabilitation mentally and physically in order to compete. However, what the bigger draw might be to Re-Main is how handsome and often mostly naked the water polo teams are.
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 about different sports, both series are about those who quit sports they love because they developed an issue with self-confidence. As such, both series focus in on all the ways that a character’s confidence in their sport is built back up.
For Fans of Passion-Driven Competition
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 series are sports anime about main characters that are driven to become better by the sheer passion they have for the sport. However, perhaps what they have most in common is their penchant for boy’s love baiting and fan service for the ladies.
Welcome to the Ballroom
Tatara is rescued 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. 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.
Yuri on Ice and Welcome to the Ballroom focus on male competitors in sports that aren’t typically seen as masculine sports. While that element comes into play in Welcome to the Ballroom, what they most have in common is the passion for the sport that develops and is urged forward by a mentor.
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.
If you are one of those strange beasts that persist that Yuri on Ice isn’t boy’s love, then what Sk8 the Infinity and Yuri on Ice most have in common is the best kind of supportive bromance. That aside, they also have a series in which features a wholesome mentorship between a veteran of the sport and someone up and coming.
Carole and Tuesday
This is the story about two very different girls with the same goal. Tuesday, a girl raised in wealth, and Carole, a girl just scraping by, both want to make music. A chance meeting brings them together, and together they may just make their dream come true.
While Carole and Tuesday is a music anime, it becomes a series about a competition between passionate characters who work hard for recognition and their rival who has wealth and acclaim, but also skill and determination. The relationship between the duo and their rival becomes akin to Yuuri and Yuri.
For Fans of Grounded Boy’s Love
No. 6
After a series of bloody wars, humanity retreated into six city-states. However, while everything seemed peaceful and perfect to the elite of these cities, the poor suffered. One day, Shion, a resident of the elite, encountered Nezumi, a fugitive from outside the utopia. After taking him in, Shion and his family were forced from their home and now learn the ugly side of their society.
In essence, these series have nothing in common save for the way they present their boy’s love. In both series, you may think it is just vague subtext at first if not there at all. While it becomes more prominent as the series goes on, others will still argue that neither is a BL series.
Banana Fish
During the Iraq War, a soldier named Griff goes insane and starts killing his own platoon. After being subdued, all he kept speaking was the words “banana fish”. Years later, Griff is taken care of by his brother Ash, a boy who ran away from home and was taken in by mob boss Papa Dino who abused him. Now, Ash seeks to unravel the mystery of this banana fish, a phrase that keeps mysteriously popping up in his life.
While different in their plots and settings, Banana Fish features a character that is very similar to Yuuri in personality and even in looks. While Ash has more the temperament of Russian Yuri rather than Victor. Regardless, both series are boy’s love, but really do give dedicated attention to the plot rather than the romance.
Given
On one particular day, Ritsuka Uenoyama decided that two things he loved – playing guitar and playing baseball – had become boring to him. However, when he encountered Mafuyu Sato holding a broken guitar, he fixes it. Upon fixing it and hearing him sing, it leaves a huge impression.
While Given is more diligent to developing the romantic relationship of its characters, both series are part of the newer wave of boy’s love where things aren’t overly dramatic or rape-y. They present realistic characters who develop grounded relationships with each other.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Yuri on Ice, then let fans know in the comments section below.
