For a good chunk of sports anime, the appeal isn’t in the sport it presents. You can only present soccer, basketball, or baseball in so many different ways before its not actually anything like the sport.
Instead, the appeal of many sports anime is the characters and the relationships between them. Everyone loves a supportive team, or even interesting ragtag team of dysfunctional misfits, but there is nothing that drives an sports anime like a rivalry.
Sports anime rivalries are often the motivation for the main character. Yes, they often have other goals for being in their sport, but a more immediately reachable goal is to make their rival acknowledge their greatness.
Sometimes the rival sits across the field from them on another team or sometimes a rivalry comes from within the team. Regardless of which you prefer, we’ve gathered a whole slew of great rivalries in sports anime.
Best Sports Anime Rivalries
Shoyo Hinata and Tobio Kageyama from Haikyuu
There isn’t much debate these days on which sports anime is the most popular, and as such it should be no surprise that Haikyuu also has a pretty endearing rivalry.
In the beginning, Kageyama is all natural talent while Hinata is driven by passion. Though on the same team, this rivalry started off almost as enemies at first. The pair are like cat and dog in almost every respect – except perhaps their shared sense of stubbornness and love of volleyball.
However, over time they begin to get a sense for each other as teammates and eventually as friends. Kageyama finds that Hinata’s drive to grow eventually makes him into a peer on his team while Hinata finds Kageyama to be a teammate that can, because of his natural talent, adjust play to make up from Hinata’s height shortcomings.
Of course, while they go from enemies to proper teammates, the competitive spirit between these two rivals never dies. Now instead of just being at each other’s throats, they channel the rivalry into sometimes silly competitions outside of official games while being perfectly in sync when it comes time to hit the court.
Haruka Nanase and Rin Matsuoka from Free!
For a time, it feels like the rivalry in Free is completely one-sided. Rin went his own way in order to grow and beat his rival, Haruka. However, Haruka doesn’t consider him a rival. It was never about competition for him, and he even left the swim club after beating Rin because he felt guilty of spoiling the fun they did used with have with his skill.
However, even though Haruka returns to swimming, it isn’t until Rin shows back up that the spark he had for the sport returns.
The fire of competition is sometimes all you need to push you forward, and they both take that a bit too seriously. Now instead of just competing in swim competitions, the pair compete over everything.
Hanamichi Sakuragi and Kaede Rukawa from Slam Dunk
Although the anime is pretty old at this point, Slam Dunk and its character rivalry set the standard for a lot of sports rivalries to follow.
In the series, Sakuragi only started playing basketball because of a girl. He is loud, thuggish, and doesn’t initially have any great admiration for the sport. This is complete contrast to Rukawa, the cool and brooding basketball star with a passion for basketball that boils underneath the surface.
What’s more, these two are also part of a love triangle. Sakuragi started playing basketball to impress Haruko. In turn, Haruko only has eyes for Rukawa whose eyes remain firmly planted on the sport. While the potential to score points with Haruko is Sakuragi’s main motivation – it works! As he grows in skill in the sport, he earns the respect of Rukawa, though like many sports anime rivals, they’ll never be best friends.
Hikaru Shindo and Akira Touya from Hikaru no Go
Hikaru no Go is unique as a sports anime in that the main character, at first, doesn’t really have a particular interest in playing Go. Instead, he is being possessed by the ghost of a skilled Go player.
This is sort of what attracts Akira to Hikaru. He is a talented and driven Go player who is enticed by the advanced moves used by Hikaru – a novice at the sport – during a match.
He actually develops a serious obsession over learning where Hiakur’s skill come from, and this is how they become rivals. However, Akira’s obsessive interest is actually of some benefit to Hikaru, since his passion for the sport begins to rub off on him and Hikaru starts to take an interest in the game his body is used to play.
Sena Kobayakawa and Seijuro Shin from Eyeshield 21
Eyeshield 21 plays the classic rivalry trope of making the characters two complete opposites and on opposite teams.
Sena, being the previously bullied teen that he was, is small, new to the sport, and afraid of getting hurt. It makes him fast, but not sturdy. Shin is the opposite. He is tall, experienced, and muscular. His speed and advantage on the field coming from pure muscular strength, and this is exactly what makes him so terrifying to Sena.
Yes, that’s right, these are rivals in the same way a cat is rivals with a mouse.
Shin is an obstacle to Sena. He must learn to overcome his fear of him on their field and use his strongest trait – his speed – to his advantage. This works out because no one can stand against Shin’s spear tackle except for Sena who possesses the dexterity to counter it.
Ryoma Echizen and Kunimitsu Tezuka from Prince of Tennis
What do you do when you have a main character in a sports anime that is so good already that he has gone cocky? Oh, you put someone even better in his path.
Ryoma, the main character, moved to Japan, promptly won several competitions and is considered a near invincible prodigy in tennis. This gives him both hot-blooded sports anime protagonist energy and the cocky attitude usually reserved the rival character who rest on talent without a need to grow it.
Tezuka, on the other hand, is everything opposite to Ryoma. This older captain is calculating alongside being talented. It is his victories over Ryoma that encourage him to grow his skills outside of his prodigal talent even more.
In this way, Tezuka is both mentor and rival to Ryoma since Ryoma never stops wanting to beat him, but still learns from him.
Joe Yabuki and Tooru Rikiishi from Ashita no Joe
Typically, when you have a sports rival, they make the rival a little more dislikable. A lot of modern sports anime have gone a bit softer on sports rival personalities. Now they often just have different ideals instead of being haughty or mean.
In Ashita no Joe, a distinctly older sports anime, they twist the set up by making Joe, the main character, into a big brat. He was raised on the streets, so it has made him a bit abrasive. This is the complete opposite to Rikiishi, his most significant rival and the man that encouraged him to start boxing.
Both Joe and Rikiishi met prison. Joe was there for stealing, Rikiishi was there for beating an audience member when they claimed his match was rigged. Joe is a man with nothing, yet possesses pure talent. Rikiishi is a man who is given most things in order to devote himself to training. His encouragement for Joe to start boxing is a bit selfishly motivated as he wants to fight him again in a more official way.
Rei Kiriyama and Harunobu Nikaido from March Comes in Like a Lion
Sometimes I forget that because it is about playing Shogi sometimes that March Comes in Like a Lion is actually a sports anime. However, that’s not a terrible thing. It is what makes it unique in sports anime, and its characters are what make it unique.
One of the more interesting character dynamics is that between Rei and Nikaido. Imagine having yourself a rival that is so depressed that playing them hardly seems sporting, and yet they still constantly beat you. Instead of being upset about it, it compels a sort of friendship.
Rei sees playing Nikaido as a sort of chore, but Nikaido’s positivity is often something Rei needs in his gloomy life.
It is the opposite nature of the pair in this rivalry that drives each of them. It awakens a little fire in the otherwise passionless Rei while Rei’s skill is continued motivation for Nikaido to grow. In another sports anime, Nikaido and his hot-blooded spirit would be seen as the main character, but not here since March Comes in Like a Lion is often about things other than the game.
Eijun Sawamura and Satoru Furuya from Ace of Diamond
Another classic rivalry of opposites. Eijun is your classic hot-blooded sports protagonist with a big loud mouth and Furuya is a quiet fury of carefully honed talent. As they are both pitchers, that also is a natural set up to rivalry.
It is always a treat to watch rivalries grow and transform as the series goes on, and that is actually one of the more charming aspects of Ace of Diamond.
Over time you learn that Furuya, though confident in his own talent, admires the way the Eijun’s spirit can both bring up team motivation and connect him easily to his other teammates, something Furuya struggles with. Alternatively, Eijun wants to be like Furuya, as in he wants be someone that the team knows they can count on because they are confident in his skills. Eijun has spirit, but spirit takes time to become talent.
Taiga Kagami and Daiki Aomine from Kuroko’s Basketball
I know that because Kuroko’s Basketball has so many different rivalries going on at any one time, picking a singular one is an invitation for an argument. However, the ongoing rivalry between these two aces is a pretty safe one that we all can agree is pretty great.
Perhaps what drives this rivalry most is how similar the two are. They play the same position, both on their teams and for Kuroko on the court. They are both the fire that bring out the best of Kuroko’s abilities, and there is some point of contention between them as to who can do that better.
Essentially, they are kind of fighting over Kuroko for a bit in their rivalry. However, as things go on, these two form a mutual respect for each other, as rivals of similar personalities often do. Though, you won’t ever see them being best buddies.
Yuuri Katsuki and Yuri Plisetsky from Yuri on Ice
While, in a way, Yuuri really is his very own rival, his actual rival for Yuri on Ice is a Russian skater with the same name. However, if it were not for Victor offering to teach main character Yuuri, he never would have become rivals with Russian Yuri, or Yurio, who chased after Victor.
In a compromise, Victor trained both Yuri’s together. This was a rather masterful decision on his part because their sheer differences helped to elevate each individually. Yurio’s skill serves as a bar for Yuuri to measure himself against and it is Yuuri’s drive that continues to motivate their fierier Yurio to do even better.
Taichi Mashima and Arata Wataya from Chihayafuru
There are a number of rivalries in Chihayafuru, but to me and my big squishy shoujo romance anime-loving heart, the more compelling one is not Chihaya’s rivalry with Shinobu, but the rivalry going on between the other members of her love triangle – Taichi and Arata.
Both Taichi and Arata have feelings for Chihaya. Taichi is her childhood friend and has grown as good at karuta as he is at everything else. Arata, however, met both Arata and Chihaya as a child, and inspired Chihaya to play karuta by complimenting her skill. He ended up moving away and losing motivation to play before his friends visited him and inspired him to recommit himself to his dream of becoming a Meijin like his grandfather.
This dynamic shapes the love triangle, and also the rivalry. Arata and Taichi are both friends, but they compete in two realms – karuta and love. It sets an interesting dynamic of where two people already respect each other, but have a consistent drive to get better.
Ippo Makunoichi and Ichiro Miyata from Hajime no Ippo
Like there is debate between best girls in popular harem anime, I know there too is some debate as to Ippo’s true rival in Hajime no Ippo. Can’t both Sendo and Miyata be Ippo’s rivals? That may be too big of an ask for the competitively decisive nature of the sports anime genre.
To me, Miyata has a stronger “rival arc” for his character, despite that arc essentially removing him from the story.
Miyata was one of Ippo’s very first spars. He was the bar to which Ippo measured himself, and as such, soundly whooped Ippo. The interesting thing about their relationship is that while they were rookies in the same gym, they are also friends as well as rivals. As he was Ippo’s first bar to measure his skill, he views Miyata as an idol. As Ippo had promising talent, this drives Miyata to grow as a fighter.
It is this drive that even forces Miyata out of the story to grow his skills elsewhere.
While Sendo is a feisty, Miyata is fated to fight Ippo in an official ring. Theirs will be the fight to end the series, whenever that is.
Do you know more good sports anime rivalries? Let fans know in the comments section below.
