is a genre of Japanese

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

and

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

that focuses on stories involving

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

and other athletic and competitive pursuits. Though Japanese animated works depicting sports were released as early as the 1920s, sports manga did not emerge as a discrete category until the early 1950s. The genre achieved prominence in the context of the post-war occupation of Japan, and gained significant visibility during and subsequent to the

1964 Summer Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 ( ja, 東京1964), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this ho ...

in Tokyo. Noted as among the most popular genres of manga and anime, sports manga is credited with introducing new sports to Japan, and popularizing existing sports.

Characteristics

Narrative

The core element of a sports manga series is a depiction of a specific sport. The genre is inclusive of a breadth of sports that are both Japanese and non-Japanese in origin, including sports with mainstream popularity (e.g.

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

cycling Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from two ...

), comparably niche and esoteric sports (e.g.

street racing Street racing is typically an unsanctioned and illegal form of auto racing that occurs on a public road. Racing in the streets is considered an ancient hazard, as horse racing occurred on streets for centuries, and street racing in automobiles is ...

rhythmic gymnastics Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which gymnasts perform on a floor with an apparatus: hoop, ball, clubs, ribbon. The sport combines elements of gymnastics, dance and calisthenics; gymnasts must be strong, flexible, agile, dexterous and coord ...

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

wheelchair basketball Wheelchair basketball is basketball played by people with varying physical disabilities that disqualify them from playing a non-disabled sport. These include spina bifida, birth defects, cerebral palsy, paralysis due to accident, amputations (of ...

), and other broadly competitive activities and pursuits (e.g.

billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . There are three major subdivisions of ...

shogi , also known as Japanese chess, is a strategy board game for two players. It is one of the most popular board games in Japan and is in the same family of games as Western chess, ''chaturanga, Xiangqi'', Indian chess, and '' janggi''. ''Shōgi'' ...

mahjong Mahjong or mah-jongg (English pronunciation: ) is a tile-based game that was developed in the 19th century in China and has spread throughout the world since the early 20th century. It is commonly played by four players (with some three-play ...

, go). A popular formula for sports manga stories is ''spo-kon'', a portmanteau of ''sports'' and . In these stories, a hero from an often tragic background resolves as a child to become the "best in the world" at a sport, and trains themselves to increase their aptitude. The hero often seeks to emulate his or her father, or achieve a goal that his or her father was unable to accomplish. Often, the hero trains under the tutelage of a coach or father figure who is harsh and unforgiving in his training methods; the "

oni An is a kind of ''yōkai'', demon, orc, ogre, or troll in Japanese folklore. Oni are mostly known for their fierce and evil nature manifested in their propensity for murder and cannibalism. Notwithstanding their evil reputation, oni possess i ...

coach" or "devil coach" is a common stock character in such stories. Other common story formulas include

underdog An underdog is a person or group in a competition, usually in sports and creative works, who is largely expected to lose. The party, team, or individual expected to win is called the favorite or top dog. In the case where an underdog wins, the ...

characters who achieve success in the face of staggering odds, and amateurs who unexpectedly discover that they are naturally gifted at a sport. Sports manga is a popular genre among young readers, particularly readers of ''shōnen'' manga (boys' comics). The typical structure of a sports manga story is one that is readily understood by younger audiences:

conflict Conflict may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Conflict'' (1921 film), an American silent film directed by Stuart Paton * ''Conflict'' (1936 film), an American boxing film starring John Wayne * ''Conflict'' (1937 film) ...

is sublimated into a sporting event, a

climax Climax may refer to: Language arts * Climax (narrative), the point of highest tension in a narrative work * Climax (rhetoric), a figure of speech that lists items in order of importance Biology * Climax community, a biological community th ...

is generated through the action of the sport, and the conflict ends with a literal or metaphorical finish line. Writer

Paul Gravett Paul Gravett is a London-based journalist, curator, writer, and broadcaster who has worked in comics publishing since 1981. He is the founder of ''Escape Magazine'', and for many years wrote a monthly article on comics appearing in the UK magaz ...

notes that "in the end, a sports manga hero is bound to win, or lose well, so the thrill comes from reading how he overcomes all challenges with determination and honesty".

Themes and style

In ''

Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics ''Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics'' is a 1983 book by Frederik L. Schodt. Published by the Japanese publisher Kodansha, it was the first substantial English-language work on Japanese comics, or ''manga'', as an artistic, literary, comme ...

'', author

Frederik L. Schodt Frederik L. Schodt (born January 22, 1950) is an American translator, interpreter and writer. Biography Schodt's father was in the US foreign service, and he grew up in Norway, Australia, and Japan. The family first went to Japan in 1965 wh ...

argues that sports manga are distinguished from American and European sports comics in their focus on ''

bushido is a moral code concerning samurai attitudes, behavior and lifestyle. There are multiple bushido types which evolved significantly through history. Contemporary forms of bushido are still used in the social and economic organization of Japan. ...

''-inspired themes and subject material that use sports as "a metaphor for human endeavor and testing of the spirit". Common themes in sports manga include friendship and camaraderie, teamwork and selflessness, steadfastness and determination, prevailing over hardships, and ''supokon-kei'' (a contraction of ''supōtsu-konjō-kei'', which translates literally to 'willpower in-sports-genre'). The genre is additionally noted for its highly stylized depictions of the action of sports, such as jarring layouts,

speed line Speed line is the art technique which uses streaks to convey the impression of speed. The French artist Ernest Montaut is usually credited with its invention. He used the technique freely in his posters which were produced at a time when auto r ...

s, sound effects, blurred and foreshortened figures, and cinematic-style framing. The 1968 television anime adaptation of ''

Star of the Giants is a Japanese sports manga series written by Ikki Kajiwara and illustrated by Noboru Kawasaki. It was serialized in Kodansha's ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' from 1966 to 1971. It is about the actual baseball team Yomiuri Giants using fic ...

'' is credited with pioneering many "special effects" now common in anime, such as time stops, slowdowns, extreme closeups, and the narrowing of the screen in moments of heightened drama. Decompression is a common storytelling technique used in sports manga to heighten drama and suspense, with individual games or events frequently lasting hundreds of pages or multiple episodes. The manga series ''

Slam Dunk A slam dunk, also simply known as dunk, is a type of basketball shot that is performed when a player jumps in the air, controls the ball above the horizontal plane of the rim, and scores by shoving the ball directly through the basket with one ...

'', for example, is noted for presenting a four-month high-school basketball season over the course of six years' worth of weekly serialized stories.

History

Animal Olympic Games is a Japanese animation film from 1928. It was directed and animated by Yasuji Murata for Yokohama Cinema Shōkai. Plot At the Olympic Games of animals, the most diverse species of animals compete in the sporting disciplines. Monkeys do gy ...

'', a 1928 animated

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

directed by

Yasuji Murata was a pioneering animator who helped develop the art of anime in Japan. Studying the animation techniques of Sanae Yamamoto, Murata produced dozens of mostly educational films at the Yokohama Cinema studio featuring such characters as Momotarō ...

, is regarded by critics as the first sports

. The film was inspired by the

1928 Summer Olympics The 1928 Summer Olympics ( nl, Olympische Zomerspelen 1928), officially known as the Games of the IX Olympiad ( nl, Spelen van de IXe Olympiade) and commonly known as Amsterdam 1928, was an international multi-sport event that was celebrated from ...

in Amsterdam and was indicative of a western influence on sports that would come to shape the genre, as in the subsequent short animated films ''Our Baseball Game'' (1930) also directed by Murata and ''Baseball in the Forest'' (1934) directed by Siichi Harada. Though western sports have been played in Japan since the

Meiji era The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization b ...

, American forces during the

occupation of Japan Japan was occupied and administered by the victorious Allies of World War II from the 1945 surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of the war until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect in 1952. The occupation, led by the United States wi ...

took an active role in encouraging the adoption of sports such as

, and

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

. Traditional Japanese sports such as

judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponi ...

karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the ...

, and

kendo is a modern Japanese martial art, descended from kenjutsu (one of the old Japanese martial arts, swordsmanship), that uses bamboo swords (shinai) as well as protective armor (bōgu). Today, it is widely practiced within Japan and has spread ...

were banned from Japanese school curriculums as part of a broader effort to suppress activities that were seen as promoting belligerence or aggression. The ban was lifted in 1950 by General

Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was C ...

, leading to a boom in popularity for both sports in general and sports manga. The

manga series ' by

Eiichi Fukui Eiichi Fukui (福井英一, March 3, 1921 – June 26, 1954) was a manga artist. Life Fukui graduated from middle school in 1938 and then began working in the animation industry. During World War II, he worked for Nippon Eiga sha, which produc ...

, first published in the manga magazine ''Bōken'ō'' in 1952, is noted by

as the first sports manga series. Baseball became the most popular sport in the genre through titles such as ''

Dokaben is a Japanese baseball manga series written and illustrated by Shinji Mizushima. The original series was serialized in Akita Shoten's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Champion'' from April 24, 1972 to March 27, 1981, but it wa ...

'' and ''

'', the former of which has sold over 48 million copies. Real-life sporting events that could be filmed by a single unmoving camera (such as

pro wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

sumo is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a ''rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring (''dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by thr ...

) became popular televised sports, which discouraged anime and manga creators from attempting to adapt them;

Jonathan Clements Jonathan Michael Clements (born 9 July 1971) is a British author and scriptwriter. His non-fiction works include biographies of Confucius, Koxinga and Qin Shi Huang, as well as monthly opinion columns for '' Neo'' magazine. He is also the co-aut ...

and

Helen McCarthy Helen McCarthy (born 27 February 1951) is the British author of such anime reference books as ''500 Manga Heroes and Villains'', ''Anime!'', ''The Anime Movie Guide'' and ''Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation''. She is the co-author of ...

note that creators realized the genre's "true potential lay in showing audiences ..things they would not get so easily from live action". The

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

prompted a boom in the popularity of sports manga and anime. Japan's gold medal in women's volleyball at these games saw an increase in the popularity of

women's sports The participation of women and girls in sports, physical Physical fitness, fitness and exercise, has been recorded to have existed throughout history. However, participation rates and activities vary in accordance with nation, era, geography, ...

in Japan, and a corresponding increase in the popularity of sports manga in the ''shōjo'' (girls' manga) and ''josei'' (women's manga) demographics. The popularity of ''shōjo'' sports manga series such as '' Attack No. 1'' – the first sports anime for a female audience – are credited with introducing a greater diversity of sports into the genre, including

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

and

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

. The 1960s also saw the melodrama of ''spo-kon'' stories decline in favor of comedic stories and four-panel comics, as well as the first anime adaptation of a sports manga with ''Star of the Giants'' in 1968. In the 1970s,

merchandising Merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of products to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to displaying products that are for sale in a creative way that entices customers to purchase more i ...

became a major sales driver for anime, leading to a proliferation of series such as ''

Speed Racer ''Speed Racer'', also known as , is a Japanese media franchise about Auto racing, automobile racing. ''Mach GoGoGo'' was originally serialized in print in Shueisha's 1966 ''Shōnen Book''. It was released in tankōbon book form by Sun W ...

'' that had potential as toys; baseball would also re-emerge as a popular subject for the genre. The 1980s saw a decline in the popularity of sports manga, as

sci-fi Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universe ...

and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

emerged as the medium's dominant genres. The majority of sports manga released during the 1980s were

one-shot One shot may refer to: Film and television * One-shot film, a feature film shot in one long take with no edits, or manufactured to look like so * ''One Shot'' (2005 film), a Sri Lankan action film directed by Ranjan Ramanayake * ''One Shot'' (2 ...

s or only broadly gestured at sports; manga series such as

Mitsuru Adachi is a Japanese manga artist. After graduating from Gunma Prefectural Maebashi Commercial High School in 1969, Adachi worked as an assistant for Isami Ishii. He made his manga debut in 1970 with ''Kieta Bakuon'', based on a manga originally crea ...

's ''

Touch In physiology, the somatosensory system is the network of neural structures in the brain and body that produce the perception of touch (haptic perception), as well as temperature (thermoception), body position (proprioception), and pain. It is ...

'', first published in 1981, foregrounded romance and a suburban setting that reflected Japan's growing middle class. Conversely, some 1980s sports manga such as ''

Captain Tsubasa is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yōichi Takahashi. The series mainly revolves around the sport of association football focusing on Tsubasa Oozora and his relationship with his friends, rivalries with h ...

'' gained popularity on the basis of foreign sales potential; the series has been translated for international audiences in Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian. The 1990s saw the genre expand into esoteric sports such as

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

and

boat racing Boat racing is a sport in which boats, or other types of watercraft, race on water. Boat racing powered by oars is recorded as having occurred in ancient Egypt, and it is likely that people have engaged in races involving boats and other wate ...

, while the 2000s saw increasing popularity of sports manga with fantasy elements (''

Eyeshield 21 is a Japanese manga series written by Riichiro Inagaki and illustrated by Yusuke Murata. The series tells the story of Sena Kobayakawa, an introverted boy who joins an American football club as a secretary, but after being coerced by quarte ...

'') or that focus on sedentary activities such as go or gin rummy. ''Spo-kon'' stories with stylized action and scrappy protagonists enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in the 2010s, as typified by series such as '' Ping Pong the Animation'' and ''

Kuroko's Basketball is a Japanese sports manga series written and illustrated by Tadatoshi Fujimaki. It was serialized in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from December 2008 to September 2014, with its chapters collected in 30 ...

''.

Impact

Yōichi Takahashi - Lucca Comics & Games 2011 - crop

Sports manga is among the most popular genres of manga and anime. It has been noted as "a vital part of the medium since its earliest days" and helped pioneer manga narratives where protagonists "struggle to succeed", a common trope in contemporary ''shōnen'' manga. Patrick Drazen notes in ''

Anime Explosion! ''Anime Explosion! The What? Why? & Wow! Of Japanese Animation'' is a book of essays about anime written by Patrick Drazen. It was published on January 1, 2002 by Stone Bridge Press. The first half of the book defines "what anime is, what it is n ...

'' that sports manga is the best example of a manga genre where heroes "strive for perfection" in an attempt to "do one's best". Outside of the small specialty

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

manga magazines ''Golf Comic'' and ''Golf Comic Athlete'', there are no manga magazines dedicated exclusively to sports manga, as the genre is ubiquitous in mainstream publications. In 2010, sports manga composed 33.3% of manga series in ''

Weekly Shōnen Magazine is a weekly ''shōnen'' manga anthology published on Wednesdays in Japan by Kodansha, first published on March 17, 1959. The magazine is mainly read by an older audience, with a significant portion of its readership falling under the male high ...

'', and 10.5% of manga series in ''

Weekly Shōnen Jump is a weekly ''shōnen'' manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the ''Jump'' line of magazines. The manga series within the magazine consist of many action scenes and a fair amount of comedy. The chapters of the series that run ...

''. Sports manga is credited with introducing new sports to Japan, and popularizing existing sports.

Association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

became popular in Japan through ''

'', with members of the

Japan national football team The , nicknamed the , represents Japan in men's international Association football, football. It is controlled by the Japan Football Association (JFA), the governing body for football in Japan. Japan was not a major football force until the e ...

at the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

citing the series as among their influences. In 2017,

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

broadcast ''Bokura wa Manga de Tsuyokunatta'' (''We Became Strong Through Manga''), a documentary series about athletes who overcame hardships after being inspired by sports manga. The

Olympic Museum The Olympic Museum (french: Musée olympique) in Lausanne, Switzerland houses permanent and temporary exhibits relating to sport and the Olympic movement. With more than 10,000 artifacts, the museum is the largest archive of Olympic Games in the ...

scheduled an exhibition on sports manga for 2020 in advance of the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

in Tokyo, calling the genre "a perfect tool to understand the evolution of sport in post-War Japan". Titles in the sports genre are frequently influenced by major sporting events, or are timed to release concurrently with major sporting events. Notable examples include ''

Attack on Tomorrow was an anime series aired in 1977 in Japan. There were 23 episodes aired at 25 minutes each. It is often mistakenly believed to be a spinoff of the earlier and more popular, series '' Attack No. 1'' (1969-1971), due in part to the involvement ...

'', which launched in 1977 to capitalize on Japan's victory in the

1977 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Cup The 1977 FIVB Women's World Cup was held from 8 to 15 November 1977 in Japan. Teams Results First round Pool A Pool B Final round 5th–8th places Final places Location: Osaka ...

; the anime film adaptation of ''

Yawara! ''Yawara!'' (also stylized as ''YAWARA!'') is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Naoki Urasawa. It was serialized in ''Big Comic Spirits'' from 1986 to 1993, with the chapters collected into 29 ''tankōbon'' volumes by pu ...

'', which was timed to release with the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

; and the anime remake of ''

Attacker You! is a 1984 Japanese manga series by Jun Makimura and Shizuo Koizumi published by Kodansha. An anime series, consisting of 58 episodes of 24 minutes each, was produced by Knack Productions and broadcast by TV Tokyo from April 13, 1984, to Ju ...

'', which was timed to release with the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

Notes

References

Bibliography * * * * * * * * {{Animation industry in Japan Anime and manga genres Anime and manga terminology