Sports (153)

Training for and participating in a sport take priority, with the goal of furthering one's athletic abilities—either to win a competition or achieve some social standing. While the featured sport may be individual or team, the main cast will always overcome conflict through discussion and insights gained from other athletes or coaches. This creates a general sense of collective support and achievement that is always present in Sports stories. Contrast with Action where the narrative is on resolving conflict with one's physical power. While both Action and Sports may focus on exciting action sequencies, the two genres are mutually exclusive.

Hajime no Ippo

Morikawa, George 2024
Makunouchi Ippo is a 16-year-old high school student who helps his mother run the family business. His hefty workload impedes on his social life, making him an easy target for bullies. One day, while being beaten up by a group of high school students, Ippo is saved by a boxer named Mamoru Takamura, and is brought to the Kamogawa Boxing Gym.

This afterschool bullying session turns his life around for the better as Ippo discovers his latent talent for boxing and decides to practice the sport professionally. However, Mamoru doubts Ippo's determination and assigns him a task deemed impossible to complete, but the resolute Ippo trains tirelessly to fulfill his mission. Along the way, he finds out what it means to attain true strength while making new friends and fighting formidable foes.

[Written by Animeranku Rewrite]
Sep 27, 1989 to ? | chp | Publishing

Eyeshield 21

Inagaki, RiichiroMurata, Yusuk 2024
Timid, diminutive, and frequently the target of bullies, Sena Kobayakawa has just enrolled at Deimon Private High School. When he angers a group of delinquents by refusing to act as their errand boy, he makes an incredibly speedy getaway, an ability he has developed through years of running from his tormentors.

Youichi Hiruma—the demonic captain of the Deimon Devil Bats football team—happens to be nearby, and seeing Sena's "golden legs" at work, forcibly recruits him as a running back despite Sena's desire to be team manager instead. Made to don the number 21 jersey and a special helmet to hide his identity as a player, Sena becomes "Eyeshield 21," the team's closely guarded secret weapon. Soon he realizes his love for the sport, and aims to help the Devil Bats reach the Christmas Bowl, the high school football championship.

[Written by Animeranku Rewrite]
Jul 23, 2002 to Jun 15, 2009 | 333 chp | Publishing

Tennis no Ouji-samaPrince of Tennis

Konomi, Takeshi 2024
Seishun Academy is home to one of the best middle school tennis teams in all of Japan. Freshman tennis prodigy Ryouma Echizen enrolls in the prestigious institution with his eyes set on claiming a regular position on the Boys' Tennis Team. As the son of legendary tennis player Samurai Nanjirou, Ryouma is sick of living in his shadow and wishes to surpass him someday. He is confident in his skills and has the cocky attitude to match. His teammates, however, are reluctant to accept him into their starting lineup, as he hasn't proven himself worthy of the spot.

Seishun's ultimate goal is to make it to the National Tournament by the end of the year, but they first have to make it through the Kanto Regionals to even qualify for a spot in it. With their new "super rookie" on the team, Seishun is ready to take on anything that comes their way. With a varied assortment of rivals and opponents that can threaten their chance at the title, the Seishun team needs to give it their all in order to rise to the top.

[Written by Animeranku Rewrite]
Included one-shot:
Volume 5: Tennis no Ouji-sama (pilot)
Jul 6, 1999 to Mar 3, 2008 | 382 chp | Publishing

Slam Dunk

Inoue, Takehiko 2024
Hanamichi Sakuragi, a tall, boisterous teenager with flame-red hair and physical strength beyond his years, is eager to put an end to his rejection streak of 50 and finally score a girlfriend as he begins his first year of Shohoku High. However, his reputation for delinquency and destructiveness precedes him, and most of his fellow students subsequently avoid him like the plague. As his first day of school ends, he is left with two strong thoughts: "I hate basketball" and "I need a girlfriend."

Haruko Akagi, ignorant of Hanamichi's history of misbehavior, notices his immense height and unwittingly approaches him, asking whether or not he likes basketball. Overcome by the fact that a girl is speaking to him, the red-haired giant blurts out a yes despite his true feelings. At the gym, Haruko asks if he can do a slam dunk. Though a complete novice, Hanamachi palms the ball and makes the leap...but overshoots, slamming his head into the backboard. Amazed by his near-inhuman physical abilities, Haruko quickly notifies the school's basketball captain of his feat. With this, Hanamichi is unexpectedly thrust into a world of competition for a girl he barely knows, but he soon discovers that there is perhaps more to basketball than he once thought.

[Written by Animeranku Rewrite]
Sep 18, 1990 to Jun 4, 1996 | 276 chp | Publishing

Whistle!

Higuchi, Daisuke 2024
Everybody has a dream, and for Shou Kazamatsuri, that dream is simple: he wants to be the best soccer player he can possibly be. He's the spirited leader of the Josui Junior High team and everyone looks up to him. In turn, he tries to keep the team together at any cost!

(Source: VIZ Media)
Feb 24, 1998 to Oct 8, 2002 | 216 chp | Publishing

Angel Cup

Yoon, Jae Ho 2024
Angel Cup tackles the highs and lows of girls' soccer at Hansin High. So-jin and Shin-bee are fiercely competitive and will play against anyone, including boys, for their beloved sport. Can our heroines navigate the fakes, fouls and penalties in the games of life and love well enough to reach their goal of being champs?

(Source: Tokyopop)
2001 | 35 chp | Publishing

Harlem Beat

Nishiyama, Yuriko 2024
Some athletes dream of the bling-bling, others dream of the women. But real hoop dreams reflect the desire to be the best. The dream of being able to take the rock, drive the lane, and take it to the hole. That's Nate Torres, branded as the team benchwarmer, just trying to get that shot at high school fame and glory. When he blows his chance to try and make his high school team, he takes his dream to the only place he has left ... the streets.

Away from the spotlight and glory of organized basketball, Nate Torres discovers himself on a back alley half-court.

(Source: Tokyopop)
Jul 27, 1994 to Jan 19, 2000 | 247 chp | Publishing

Uwasa no Midori-kun!!

Ikeyamada, Go 2024
Yamate Midori is a 15 year-old girl and is very much a tomboy. One day Midori meets a boy called Hino Tsukasa, who came to the island she lives on for a holiday. He teaches her to play soccer and she falls in love with the sport. Midori is inspired by Tsukasa and continues to play soccer in hopes that they would meet again someday. When they do meet again Tsukasa does something unforgivable. Determined to defeat Tsukasa on the soccer field Midori enrolls in an all boy high school.

(Source: Tenshi-Tachi)
Included one-shots:
Volume 8: Shounen x Cinderella
Volume 9: Shounen x Cinderella II
Aug 5, 2006 to Aug 5, 2008 | 51 chp | Publishing

Beniiro HeroCrimson Hero

Takanashi, Mitsuba 2024
All that matters to 15-year-old Nobara Sumiyoshi is volleyball—she's an awesome player with big-time ambitions. But sometimes it seems like a girl just can't get a break in the competitive world of high school volleyball.

(Source: VIZ Media)
Included one-shots:
Volume 15: "Second"
Volume 16: Sugar
Dec 13, 2002 to Jan 13, 2011 | 87 chp | Publishing

Suzuka

Seo, Kouji 2024
Easygoing and energetic Yamato Akitsuki is ready to start his high school life in Tokyo. Having been invited by his aunt to stay rent-free at her housing complex, he unhesitatingly accepts her offer. But unbeknownst to him, the boarding house is actually an all-girls dormitory.

Upon visiting his new school, Yamato catches sight of a girl training for the high jump. Amazed by her athletic ability and beauty, he yearns to learn more about her. To his fortune, this girl, Suzuka Asahina, lives right next door to him—but all of their encounters thus far has given Suzuka a bad impression of him. In spite of the constant misunderstandings, Yamato still joins the track team with the intent of impressing her and soon discovers he has the potential to become a top hundred-meter sprinter. With friendship, and possibly love on the line, Yamato trains his heart out in order to win over the girl he loves.

[Written by Animeranku Rewrite]
Feb 18, 2004 to Sep 19, 2007 | 171 chp | Publishing

Power!!Girl Got Game

Seino, Shizuru 2024
Sixteen-year-old Kyou Aizawa's relationship with her father has always revolved around basketball. He wanted to join the NBA, but suffered a knee injury that ended his dream; since then, he has tried to live vicariously through Kyou. When her father suddenly gets transferred to another part of the country, Kyou gets the opportunity to attend Seisyu Academy. She is excited because Seisyu is famous for its cute girls' uniforms. When she opens the box sent by the school, however, Kyou discovers an unflattering boys' uniform instead!

As it turns out, her father has faked paperwork and enrolled her as a male student so she can join the school basketball team, which is ranked fourth in Japan. As a sacrifice to carry on her father's legacy, Kyou begrudgingly cuts her hair and moves into the boys' dormitory. She meets her roommate and teammate Chiharu Eniwa but somehow manages to irritate him on the very first day. He is quick to taunt Kyou about her short stature and questions her dedication to the sport. Will Kyou be able to live in close quarters with someone so annoying and thrive on the basketball team, all while hiding her true gender from everyone?

[Written by Animeranku Rewrite]
Aug 11, 1999 to 2002 | 44 chp | Publishing

The Cherry Project

Takeuchi, Naoko 2024
The story about a girl named Chieri (also known as Cherry) who began ice skating ever since she saw the handsome ice skating champion, Tsuzuki Masanori, skate. She pursues her dream of being Tsuzki's partner, all the while facing her rival, 'Princess' Canty. With the help of her friends, and her own courage, can Cherry win the heart of the boy she loves so much...?

(Source: StarryHeaven)
1991 to 1992 | 15 chp | Publishing

Real

Inoue, Takehiko 2024
Tomomi Nomiya, former captain of his high school's basketball team turned delinquent, decides to drop out of school after he is crushed by the guilt of ruining a young girl's life in a traffic accident. As he dedicates his free time to helping her, he stumbles upon Kiyoharu Togawa, a former sprinter who has lost the use of his right leg and now plays wheelchair basketball as an alternate outlet.

After challenging Kiyoharu to a one-on-one game, Tomomi is completely defeated. Inspired by this encounter, he realizes that he can't let his love for basketball die so easily and decides that he will do what he can to help others while striving to become a professional player. Meanwhile, Hisanobu Takahashi, Tomomi's replacement as the high school's team captain, gets into an accident and finds himself permanently paralyzed below the waist. Real tells the touching tale of these three young men as they struggle to overcome their disabilities and inner conflicts in order to achieve their dreams while igniting a passion that will bring them together.

[Written by Animeranku Rewrite]
1999 to ? | chp | Publishing

Bamboo Blade

Totsuka, MasahiroIgarashi, Agu 2024
Kojiro is an impoverished young teacher and the supervisor of his high school’s kendo club. He doesn’t have the leeway to spend time on his students–he can barely feed himself as it is. So when an old friend makes him a bet with an entire year’s worth of deluxe sushi on the line, Kojiro finds a new purpose in life: to beat his friend’s kendo team! But before he can arrange a kendo meet for both schools’ kendo teams, he needs to actually put together a five-woman squad–and the first girl he needs is Tamaki Kawazoe, kendo athlete extraordinaire and daughter of an elite kendo dojo master. The problem is, she isn’t really interested in doing kendo for fun. What can Kojiro do to convince her to join the team?

(Source: Yen Press)
Note: Originally published with 117 chapters, but was collected into 102 chapters in the tankoubons. There are also 5 special stories, which makes the total chapter count - 107.
Dec 3, 2004 to Sep 3, 2010 | 107 chp | Publishing

Bowling King

2024
Bowling King is a Taiwanese comic about a kid named Shautieh Ley and the humiliation he puts himself and his opponents through bowling alleys.

Shautieh is infatuated with Tz'zuhn whose family owns a bowling alley. When he finds out that Tz'zuhn's family has a $3M debt and that Tz'zuhn has an American pro bowler boyfriend, Shautieh tries to resolve everything, with bowling of course. However, although Shautieh has an incredibly strong left arm, he doesn't know anything about bowling.

(Source: MU)
Sep 1998 to Jan 2007 | 254 chp | Publishing

Bakuten Shoot BeybladeBeyblade

2024
Takao Kinomiya dreams of becoming the best beyblader in the world. Along with his friends Kai, Max, Rei, and Kyoujou, they make the team known as the Bladebreakers. They strive to be the best but don't do it alone... because within each of their beyblades resides a Sacred Spirit that gives them even more power to reach their goals.

(Source: MU)
1999 to Jul 28, 2004 | 62 chp | Publishing

Yawara!

Urasawa, Naoki 2024
Inokuma Yawara is just another young high school girl. Well, not quite for Yawara is being raised by her grandfather, 7th dan Judo master Inokuma Jigorou, to be Japan's great hope for the women's Judo competition at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. All the same, Yawara just wants to live a normal life...
1986 to 1993 | 331 chp | Publishing

Break Shot

Maekawa, Takeshi 2024
A boy named Oda Shinsuke is very infatuated with billiards. Problems arise when a new student body president, Hayakawa Asako, suddenly decided to cut the funding for his billiards club. Unhappy with that, Shinsuke wants to convince Asako that his billiards club is worthy of the funding. He decided to challenge a two-time former national billiards champion. Will Chinmi be able to defend his club?

(Source: Mangasync)
1987 to 1990 | 152 chp | Publishing

Touch

Adachi, Mitsuru 2024
Touch is a shounen story about two twin brothers, a pretty girl next door, and that good old pastime of baseball. The manga was written by one of the most well known manga-ka out there, Adachi Mitsuru in the early 80's (1981-1986). He's a wonderful writer who tends to write stories that are related to baseball and Koshien, the stadium where the All High School Baseball Tournament is held.

(Source: MangaProject)
Aug 5, 1981 to Nov 12, 1986 | 257 chp | Publishing

1 Pound no FukuinOne Pound Gospel

Takahashi, Rumiko 2024
Kosaku Hatanaka is a natural at boxing, but he can't control his voracious appetite. As a result, he has been forced to change his weight, going from flyweight, all the way up to feather weight, something his trainer tells him he doesn't have the frame for. On top of this he accepts challenges from higher weight classes, giving his coach (and himself) constant trouble.

Into this picture steps Sister Angela, a novice nun who takes Kosaku on as a personal project, determined to set him on the right path and break his habit of gluttony. Unfortunately, closeness can sometimes breed feelings of affection, which Kosaku begins to develop. Even worse, Sister Angela realizes she's beginning to have the same problems as well.
Jul 24, 1987 to Dec 21, 2006 | 37 chp | Publishing

Happy!

Urasawa, Naoki 2024
Sitting in their cramped apartment, Miyuki Umino's older brother talks excitedly about the new business he's starting, promising to hit it big and bring her and their young siblings out of poverty. Months later, Miyuki is approached by creditors working for the yakuza, who inform her of her brother's disappearance and the two hundred fifty million yen loan he defaulted on. With her brother on the run, Miyuki is now responsible for his debt. The creditors give Miyuki an out: to pay off the loan with her body by working in a soapland.

Wracking her brain for a solution without having to resort to prostitution, Miyuki happens upon an article about the current women's tennis champion, who earned two hundred fifty million yen within the previous year. A once-promising tennis player herself, Miyuki withdraws from school in order to become a pro tennis player in hopes of paying off her debt. However, the establishment that pushed her out of the world of tennis has not forgotten nor forgiven her. Can Miyuki succeed within a world of competition actively conspiring for her failure?

[Written by Animeranku Rewrite]
Oct 25, 1993 to Mar 8, 1999 | 254 chp | Publishing

Rookies

Morita, Masanori 2024
Professor Kawato is the new Japanese teacher in the ill-famed Futagotamaga high shool, whose baseball club is composed by thugs and bullies who have been suspended for a year from all school competitions for causing a brawl during an official match. Now that the suspension is over, the only club's members left are interested only in women, smoking and doing nothing until, under professor Kawato's guidance, they discover a new dream called Koushien. The road to Koushien is far from easy, as they have to get back in shape, to learn how to play baseball and to win everyone else mistrust, including the principal's and other professor's one, with only a few months available. Sweating and fighting, the baseball club will find his determination and strength, as they proceed towards their dreams, while Kawato's enthusiastic and non-conventional ways slowly change the attitude of everyone near them.

(Source: ANN)
Feb 3, 1998 to Aug 25, 2003 | 233 chp | Publishing

Sasameke

Gotsubo, Ryuuji 2024
Elementary school soccer whiz Rakuichi Nagahama drew national attention a few years back with his impressive athletic skills. After disappearing to Italy for three years, Rakuichi reluctantly returns to the remote town where he grew up. The local high school soccer team can't wait to get their hands on the prodigy, despite the fact that he was obviously a failure in Italy. But Rakuichi's not sure he's ready to get back on the field. Sure, his best friend from elementary school (now a hot babe) can't wait to see him play again...and his childhood rivals are eager to have another go against him...and the entire school is counting on him...but how can Rakuichi live up to their expectations when he's sworn off the sport for good?

(Source: Yen Press)
Dec 26, 2000 to Nov 26, 2003 | 25 chp | Publishing

Ookiku Furikabutte

Higuchi, Asa 2024
Ren Mihashi is a pitcher who refuses to leave the mound, for better or worse. His middle school team hated him for it, blaming him for their continuous losses and chalking up his starter position to favoritism. In the end, Mihashi ran away to a different high school, convinced that he would never amount to anything in baseball.

Upon his enrollment at Nishiura High School, however, he is quickly pulled into the newly formed baseball team with people who recognize his abilities. Mihashi is paired up with the gruff catcher Takaya Abe, who promises to bring out his full potential as an ace—so long as he never disobeys his directions. This marks the start of Mihashi's journey to build the strength and confidence needed to stand with his new teammates on any field.

[Written by Animeranku Rewrite]
Sep 25, 2003 to ? | chp | Publishing