Tokyo Olympics Anime Characters, This is the second time that Japan has hosted the Summer Olympics, after Tokyo 1964, as well as the fourth time in total after hosting the Winter Olympics in 1972 (Sapporo) and 1998 (Nagano). That is why when the ‘Country of the Rising Sun’ won this honor again, it allocated considerable resources to make these Olympics an event for history. And although its plans were derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused the postponement for a year, this did not prevent the Japanese government from continuing to use all the tools available for its promotion, including its main export. cultural, anime.
Thus, beloved characters such as Astro Boy, Goku, Sailor Moon, Naruto, and Luffy have been promoting the event. For our part, so that the reader is also warming up for the Olympics, we have selected some of the best sports anime that you can currently see on streaming platforms.
It has been a long wait, but we are already on the eve of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which will open on July 23 and end on August 8.
10 . “Captain Tsubasa” / “Super Champions”
Among the many anime about soccer, few have had the impact that the ” Super Champions ” (“Captain Tsubasa”) did in Latin America, where the adventures of Oliver Atom (Tsubasa Oozora) on the field captivated young and old for weeks – a time in the same game.
Created by Yōichi Takahashi in 1981, the series already exceeds four decades of existence and therefore features multiple versions to date. Netflix currently has available ” Captain Tsubasa: Road to 2002 “, better known in Latin America as “Super Champions 2002”, which compiles events of the main character’s career from his early school years to his international career.
Amazon Prime Video for its part has available the version of ” Captain Tsubasa ” that came out in 2018 in the context of the World Cup in Russia. This remake, of 52 episodes in total, kept the original Japanese nomenclature and focused only on Tsubasa’s school days.
9. “Inazuma Een”
The other great anime about soccer is “Inazuma Eleven”, created as the center of a great franchise of video games, manga, and anime. The original series follows Mamoru Endou, a boy with soccer aspirations who will have to get his school team in shape to fulfill his dream of participating in a major youth tournament. We warn that this anime is more about fantasy elements, so realism or respect for the laws of physics should not be expected.
Amazon Prime Video currently features 78 of the 127 episodes of the original series, as well as its first film “Inazuma Eleven the Movie: The Ultimate Force, Team Ogre, Attacks!”
8. “Ashita no Joe” / “The champion” / “Joe’s morning”
Few sports series have the pedigree of “Ashita no Joe,” a classic boxing anime created by Asao Takamori that originally premiered in manga form in 1968.
Amazon Prime Video currently has all the episodes of the 1981 series under the title of “The Champion”, telling the whole story of Joe Yabuki, a criminal who finds a new purpose in his life in the world of boxing.
The impact of the series on sports anime is not to be underestimated, and in 2018 a boxing series titled “Megalobox” came out which, inspired by “Ashita no Joe”, tells the story of a series of futuristic boxing tournaments where competitors use exoskeletons to box. The latter can be found on Netflix.
7. “First step”
If you want a relatively more modern boxing series, we recommend “Hajime no Ippo,” a manga about rookie boxer Makunouchi Ippo and his rise in the boxing world. The saga also has the honor of being the eighth longest-running manga of all time, with more than 1,300 chapters to date.
Twenty-five chapters of the series are available on the Crunchyroll anime streaming platform as part of the series’ third season, entitled “The Rising”, which you can watch at no cost by registering for free, albeit with advertising.
6. “Yowamushi Pedal”
Considered by some to be the best cycling anime – although there are not so many of this theme either – “Yowamushi Pedal” tells the story of Sakamichi Onoda, a fan of Japanese animation who is convinced to join his school’s cycling club, an eclectic group of curious characters.
Currently, Amazon Prime Video has the original series – 37 episodes – as well as its sequel “Yowamushi no Pedal Grande Road”
5. “Kuroko no Basket” / “Kuroko’s Basketball”
One of the sports anime of recent years is “Kuroko no Basket”, which revolves around Tetsuya Kuroko, a basketball prodigy member of a legendary school team who will have to face his former classmates after entering high school.
Netflix currently has the first two seasons of the series, while Crunchyroll also has the third season and the movie, although the latter requires its premium service.
4. “WAVE !! -Let’s go surfing !! – “
Surfing is not a topic frequently covered by anime, being “WAVE !! -Let’s go surfing !! – ”the exception rather than the rule. This production set in the coastal town of Ōarai (Japan), features Masaki, a young man who falls in love with surfing after being introduced to the sport by an exchange student named Shou.
They will be joined by other sports fans such as otaku Naoya and scholar Yuuta, among others, to compete in local tournaments. All 12 episodes of this anime are available on Crunchyroll.
3. “Run with the Wind”
Originally a novel by writer Shion Miura, “Run with the Wind” has subsequently been adapted into manga, film, and anime. The story centers on Kakeru Kurahara, an athletic prodigy who left the sport once he entered college. He is recruited by another athlete named Haiji Kiyose, who dreams of participating in a prestigious college post-marathon, so he needs to train a rookie team in the art of athletics.
The anime, available on Crunchyroll, has 23 episodes.
2. “Free!”
Tell me if you have read this description before: a prodigy in a sport, in this case swimming, arrives at a new educational center and revitalizes the club of that discipline. That is the story of Haruka Nanase in “Free!”, A series that, while not much out of the sports anime mold, is greatly elevated by the animation of Kyoto Animation.
All three seasons of the series, 37 episodes in their entirety, are available on Crunchyroll.
1. “Diamond no Ace” / “Ace of the Diamond”
Baseball is the most popular sport in Japan and the amount of anime about the sport proves it. Among them, one of the best is “Ace no Diamond”, also known as “Ace of the Diamond“, a series about a baseball pitcher named Eijun Sawamura, who is recruited to a prestigious academy with the promise of participating in the national tournament. called Kōshien.