6 Weird Sports Anime to Watch While Sitting on Your Couch
Going outside to play sport is overrated. Just watch these sports anime instead.
I have this habit of choosing approximately 10 anime to watch each season. Some fantastic, some awful, and some downright weird. I do this on purpose because I like variety. I like to watch strange anime and just go with it. It’s a hobby within my hobby. A little minigame treat, just for me. I also never drop these anime, no matter how boring or unbearable they get. I must complete them, otherwise I wouldn’t be Australia’s biggest weeb.
Thanks to the popularity of Haikyuu!! in the past few years, other production companies jumped on the lucrative sports anime bandwagon and started pumping out some… questionable works. Here’s my list of the weirdest sports anime of all time. From awful clones of fantastic series, to anime that are good but about sports you’ve never even heard of.
2.43: Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Team
2.43 spiked right off the back of Haikyuu!! and failed miserably. The characters are basically Hinata and Kageyama if they were from Shelbyville and the story is just a watered down version of a Haikyuu!! arc. This was the show I put on in the background when I was doing the dishes.
You should watch this if: you want Homebrand Haikyuu!!.
A fantastic anime about skateboarding. SK8 takes a pretty niche sport and turns it into something that even non-sports fans will enjoy. It goes through the motions of someone new to the sport picking it up and learning to skateboard before getting really into the activity and making it their whole personality. I kind of love this because we get to see a good chunk of character growth. The series ties in drama and friendship in a way that doesn’t detract from the action, but instead makes it a part of the sport. The animation and pacing are fantastic, and the main villain is just Dio on a skateboard.
You should watch this if: you enjoyed Free! and JJBA.
This series is what actually inspired me to write this list. Bakuten!! is an anime about men’s rhythmic gymnastics. Our main character joins the rhythmic gymnastics team at his high school after watching a tournament for the sport on a whim. He’s taken in by the bedazzled outfits and superhuman strength needed to compete seriously. He joins the club despite having no prior experience with gymnastics and we essentially follow him as he tries his best to improve and help the team be able to compete in the Inter-High tournament.
The series itself isn’t fantastic in terms of plot or characterisation, in fact, it’s pretty average. But the way it presents the sport (especially that it’s men’s rhythmic gymnastics) and the competitiveness of gymnastics is brilliant.
You should watch this if: popular sports anime just aren't cutting it anymore.
It almost wasn’t a surprise to me when a water polo anime was announced. Water polo is just volleyball for mermaids. While still riding the Haikyuu!! hype-train, Re-Main took a different route in terms of story and characters. It’s still about a high school sports club, but instead of the main character being a newcomer to the sport, he was actually a water polo genius. Until a car accident left him in a coma for 203 days. His confidence is shattered, leaving him torn between relearning the game he loved to go pro or living his life as a normal high schooler.
Re-Main is the baby of Free! and Haikyuu!! and while it isn’t a masterpiece, it’s not bad for a series about a niche sport.
You should watch this if: you think speedos are cool.
Yes, it does have eight exclamation marks in the name. I was reluctant to add Keijo!!!!!!!! to the list because it’s ecchi and it isn’t even about a real sport, but it’s so weird that I had to mention it. For those who haven’t heard of it, the anime is about an imaginary sport called keijo. The sport requires female-only participants to stand on platforms floating in a pool and try to knock each other off using their boobs and butts. Naturally, the series is just a fanservice nightmare, but if you can get past that, the animation is actually really well done and the competitiveness makes for a pretty fun watch.
You should watch this if: you like tits and ass.
Iwa Kakeru! Sport Climbing Girls
As bouldering became more popular, it was inevitable that we’d get an anime about it. Iwa Kakeru is about a girl who loves video games and puzzles, but when it starts to impact her grades, she decides to quit and find a new hobby. She discovers a bouldering club at her school and her new life climbing rocks begins.
This series is average at best. The fanservice takes away from what the characters are doing. It’s based on a web manga but I’m inclined to believe that it was animated only because of Keijo’s popularity. While bouldering is still a niche sport, I feel like a good anime about it could make it interesting enough that it doesn’t need fanservice to get viewers.
You should watch this if: you like tits and ass (again).
There are plenty more that I haven’t covered here, but I haven’t seen them (yet). Let me know what your favourite weird sports anime is.