In my admittedly limited experience with sports anime, the vast majority of the plots can be split into two general themes. The first is that someone that was once good at a sport or sports in general has quit and the series is about them getting back into some sport. (I have a list for just that, by the way.) The second follows the complete beginner with the sport. You follow them from absolutely nothing as they begin to find passion for their activity of choice. It is a simple premise, but simple can be effective if passion is communicated well. Furthermore, you learning the sport as the characters do can be rewarding. If that whole rookie-to-rockstar journey is your jam in sports anime, then give these anime recommendations a try.
Best Sports Anime About Rookies
Slam Dunk
While aged, Slam Dunk still has the purest of plots – joining a basketball team because of a cute girl! Still, it is a basketball anime with a fair amount of swagger due to the main character’s general thug attitude and the stubborn desire to never give up.
Hajime no Ippo
Most, if not all, boxing anime fits into the whole rookie-to-rockstar thing. Usually, they are at the bottom of the totem pole and literally fight their way to the top. Hajime no Ippo fits things perfectly as it follows a kid that is constantly beaten by bullies, then trained by a boxer that saves him.
Welcome to the Ballroom
It’s funny that Slam Dunk and Hajime no Ippo precluded this entry completely by accident because Welcome to the Ballroom combines both initial setups. Tatara is bullied, saved by a ballroom dancer, then joins his dance studio because of a cute girl there. While not quite as adrenaline-pumping like boxing or basketball, Welcome to the Ballroom does well to highlight the grace and practice necessary to become an enthralling dancer.
Chihayafuru
This is a sports anime with a shoujo spin. While the card game in Chihayafuru isn’t quite as athletic, it still really highlights the spirit of competition. Furthermore, while you will enjoy the sport in this series, it legitimately does have quite the captivating relationship element to it as her love triangle grows complicated.
Yowamushi Pedal
Biking for a hobby and biking as a sport are not the same thing, and Yowamushi Pedal makes that pretty clear. The main character is recruited because he was noticed by a senpai for his very strong legs due to biking for his weeb hobbies. However, while that helps him initially, you follow as he learns that there is so much more to cycling.
Eyeshield 21
Much like Yowamushi Pedal above, Eyeshield 21 features someone brought into a sport simply because they do something well. Not cycling this time, but rather just running. The main character is fast and squirrelly, which can be as important in American football as being built large and strong.
Capeta
You really can’t have an experienced sports protagonist if your protagonist is a literal child, at least for the beginning of this series, anyway. Capeta is about a poor kid going through a hard time. He lost his mother, he is bullied at school, and his father is busy working. However, his father surprises him with a go-kart that he cobbled together from scraps. From one near-death experience in it in the rain, he is propelled towards a lifelong passion.
Bakuten
While the main character in Bakuten isn’t exactly a stranger to sports, I feel it merits inclusion because, while he played baseball, he was really quite bad at it. That same lack of skill, surprising no one, makes its appearance when his is inspired to join a Rhythmic Gymnastics team. Yet, despite that, the series shows how a passion for any activity can help foster growth.
Days
Days is yet another series where the main character is saved from bullies by an experienced sports player. In this series, it is all about soccer. A weak kid is saved by a soccer genius, and asked to join his pickup game that is short a player. The main character doesn’t exactly thrive, but his passion is ignited and he ends up joining his school team.
Aoharu x Machine Gun
In a premise that is suspiciously similar to Ouran High School Host Club, but sports-related, Aoharu X Machine Gun features that lesser utilized sport of airsoft. It, I imagine, is kind of hard to make a compelling sports anime about airsoft, but this series does a decent job. While it does have a shoujo-esque sort of setup, this one is definitely still your action-oriented sports show, however.
All Out
Remember how I said sports anime is split into experienced but returning to the sport and absolute beginners? Well, All Out splits the the baby. It features a main character who is a feisty absolute beginner at rugby who drags a guy that used to play rugby before entering high school onto their high school team. So you really get both angles covered as they go about their rugby and body issue struggles.
Keijo
Keijo’s kind of a special case, in many different ways. It isn’t something you train for in high school really. Instead the sport is sort of a national tournament you enter after you graduate. As such, the story follows a girl who was technically a gymnast in school, who decides to enter the tournament after she graduates. She is an absolute beginner, but so are many other girls. It is a simple sport of beating each other with butts and boobs, so there isn’t too terribly much for the characters to grasp.
Long Riders
Like Yowamushi Pedal, Long Riders is about cycling. Unlike Yowamushi Pedal, it is significantly more chill and entirely populated with cute girls. To be honest, the more aimless plot with a focus on cute girls doing cute things takes away from things a little bit, but it is still a perfectly fine anime about someone learning a new sports hobby.
Baby Steps
Oh, you know how it goes. Take up tennis for the fitness, but stay for the fine ass. I mean, stay for the girl you have come to enjoy. That’s Baby Steps, which quickly becomes a sort of less intense Prince of Tennis lite over time.
Stars Align
Stars Align is unique for a sports anime in many ways. The first is that the main character is basically strong-armed into joining a struggling team, and his own natural talent propels him forward quickly. This ends up inspiring his teammates to try with a bit more renewed passion. The second thing that makes Stars Align pretty special is that it handles drama in a pretty realistic way instead of just shoving in the usual sports drama situations and solving them in the usual sports anime way.
Do you have more sports anime that follows a rookie that rises to rockstar-dom? Let fans know in the comments section below.
