While many believe that the allure of sports anime is that it appeals to non-basement-dwelling weebs who have an interest in sports, that’s actually not as true as you might think. For many who specifically seek out and enjoy sports anime, they might not be too into the sport. Instead, they are there for some of the top tier character stories that really make sports anime shine.
The honest charm of sports anime is that it often presents more realistic characters who are exploring relatable problems that just happen to be framed by them playing a sport. So you get great character development and drama and, on occasion, it can also lead to some lovely romance stories. What’s more, the romance in sports anime has other things to focus on outside of the ham-fisted tropes that can take over anime that only focus on romance.
If you enjoy sports anime and romance anime, you will find a lot to love in these sports romance anime recommendations that keep feelings and competition in excellent balance.
Sport Romance Anime
Chihayafuru
Chihayafuru follows a girl that became passionate about the sport of Karuta, a card matching game where the start of a poem is read, and players must choose the end of the poem correctly from a collection of cards laid out in front of them before their opponent.
While that might be dubious in its status as a sport, Chihayafuru certainly makes it look more physical than it actually is with its dramatic card slapping. However, while Chihayafuru works very hard to endear you to this obscure, distinctly Japanese card game, the charm of the series is really the characters and the love triangle that quickly forms between them.
The series follows a heroine passionate about the sport who wants to play with and/or compete against her two childhood friends. One moved away and—for mysterious, dramatic, brooding reasons—no longer wants to play Karuta while the other is less passionate about the sport, but devoted to—and secretly in love with—the heroine, determined to support her even if her eyes are firmly on the other boy.
Cross Game
Are to ready to see every Mitsuru Adachi sports anime listed right in a row? Because that’s what we’re doing, and it starts with Cross Game and ends with Mix.
For those unfamiliar, the manga author Mitsuru Adachi is a staple in the sports genre of manga and anime in that he creates baseball stories, and those baseball stories often have a strong romantic element.
Anyway, Cross Game is probably the most well-known of the Mitsuru Adachi lot, perhaps because it does have more of a focus on romance than it does the actual sport of baseball.
Cross Game follows the son of sports shop owner and his relationship with the two daughters of the nearby batting center. In what is best described as a “baseball-flavored romance,” he is close to the older daughter while the younger tomboy is incredibly jealous that he is stealing away his sister.
Of course, Cross Game didn’t became so well loved because it was all tender sweetness…
Touch
Touch is another baseball-themed romance, but this time, with more emphasis on playing baseball.
Touch follows twin brothers and their female childhood friend that serves as the love interest they play tug-of-war over.
Touch is all about tension between the brothers. There is a gap in skill between them, and then there is the uncertainty of the feelings that have over their childhood friend and who she has feelings for.
H2
While Adachi may have had two twins playing tug-of-war with a girl in Touch, H2 goes the obvious different route of having a main character develop romantic feelings for two different girls. So now, you get to watch this baseball fiend that got pulled back into the sport be caught in the difficult position of loving two women at the same time.
Mix
Mix is not only the newest Mitsuru Adachi series to be adapted to anime, but probably the best one in terms of its balance between “sport” and “romance.”
Like Touch, Mix follows two twin brother that excel at baseball. Unlike Touch, the two brothers each have separate love interests and similar high skill in baseball.
Instead of focusing on romantic or sport tension between the brothers, it explores smaller, more personal drama specific to each of them.
Yuri on Ice
As Yuri on Ice details the building same-sex romance between a figure skater with shaken confidence and his all-star peer-turned-coach in a fairly subtle and not aggressively in your face sort of way, of course there are many sports anime fans who refuse to acknowledge it as a boy’s love anime.
Regardless, the big focus on Yuri on Ice is on the sport and rehabilitating the main character’s self esteem in it, but the romance is often one of the driving factors of his journey in the sport.
Suzuka
While much of sports romance anime involves interpersonal drama, Suzuka is really the sports romance anime that thrives on it. If you like your romance heavier on the drama, Suzuka has got you.
Suzuka follows a boy who moves into his aunt’s dorm in Tokyo where he discovers that an enchanting, talented high jumper at his school also lives there with him. In order to impress her, he joins that track team.
While that all sounds very straightforward, Suzuka enjoys making standard character tropes complex and relatable, though it doesn’t always stick the landing.
Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl
Yawara follows a normal teenage girl main character who just wants to wear cute clothes and hang out with friends. Unfortunately, her prestigious talent for judo makes it so her grandfather, a judo master, expects her to become a superstar in the sport. While she tries to hide her talent at school, a young sports reporter is determined to make her famous.
Admittedly, Yawara is far more about the romance between its titular main character and the aforementioned sports reporter than it is about judo. This is sad for martial arts fans, but great for people who want a long-running sports romance. Just don’t forget to watch the Atlanta TV special/movie or you’re never going to get the romantic payoff every romance anime fan deserves.
Princess Nine
Princess Nine is a baseball sport anime about a girl, who was taught to be an excellent pitcher by her father, playing recreational baseball for various teams in town. Her talent is noticed and she is recruited to an all-female high school team that aims at competing in the Koshien nationals with the male teams.
The romance comes in the form of her relationship with the pitcher of the male team at the neighboring all-boys high school, and then transforms into a love triangle as a girl critical of the girl’s baseball team gets involved.
As this series is well-aged and doesn’t have an Adachi finesse behind it, you will have to endure some older shoujo tropes in the romance in Princess Nine, but it is an entertaining watch, if not a bit campy.
Baby Steps
Baby Steps follows a bookish boy who decides that taking up a sport would be good for his health. He tries tennis, and quickly becomes enchanted by a girl’s ability at the sport. Her passion for it is infectious and he starts becoming more and more serious about playing tennis competitively.
While Baby Steps is excellent at showing the main character’s growing athletic ability, it’s romance is definitely a slow burn sort of affair. The good news, however, is that there is very minimal romantic drama. This is one of those sports romance anime that definitely skews more sports than romance, though.
Blue Box
New enough and fantastic enough at both its exploration of sports and the particularly strong emphasis it has on romance, if it wasn’t Chihayafuru that incensed you to look for more sports romance anime, it was probably Blue Box.
If Blue Box wasn’t already on your radar, it is simply a must for anyone that wants both a good sports anime that explores the sport and uses it to push forward poignant character stories as well as had a strong, progressing romance plot. That said, Blue Box is very much more about the romance than the sports action.
Blue Box follows a badminton player who has slowly developed a crush on an older girl on the girl’s basketball team. They both use the gym before school to practice their respective sports, and have grown closer. He is then shocked to learn that their mothers are friends and she will now live with him after her parents moved overseas and she stays to continue trying for nationals.
While the whole cohabitation set up in anime romance can be a touch predictable, Blue Box masterfully dodges much of that to be a complicated, bittersweet, and tender exploration of young love. With its wildly likable romantic love rival tossed in the mix, Blue Box makes romance sting as much as it makes you swoon.
Welcome to the Ballroom
Not unlike many other series, Welcome to the Ballroom starts with an aimless teen saved from bullies by a cool mentor that pulls him into a sport. However, this isn’t a boxing anime, it’s a dancing anime!
The sport the main character is lured into is ballroom dancing, and while that is captivating, there is a woman there that makes it all the more so for the main character.
That said, Welcome to the Ballroom’s heart and soul is really the sport and the competition of it all. While it does well to set up strong admiration and building affection, even working its way towards a little hint of a love triangle, the romance in Welcome to the Ballroom is well and truly a slow burn.
Dance Dance Danseur
Sports anime is often the home to some of the most complex interpersonal relationships and character stories in all of anime—but Dance Dance Danseur does them like few others.
The entire premise of Dance Dance Dansuer is centered around ballet. With a male main character, it doesn’t take the cheap and easy route either. It steers itself head on into the realities of toxic masculinity that forced the main character to not pursue ballet, an art that had captivated him from a young age, until high school when a girl pulls him back into it.
While, obviously, romantic feelings bloom between the main character and the ambitious female ballet dancer that convinced him to formally get into the art form, you will also find their relationship contending with his other dance partner as well as the strange romantic feelings and rivalry between his crush and her cousin, who also does ballet.
Do you have more sport romance anime that you would recommend to make those hearts get a real workout in? Let fans know in the comments section below.
