Favorites Do you like Sport Mangas? If so, which are your favourites?

[Miso]

Yeah... here's the thread for our sport mangas.
What do you think about this genre? Do you like sport mangas or are they boring?
Which sport mangas do you like? Why?


Ok...I'm beginning.
First, I wouldn't make a thread about sport mangas if I don't like them. So you've got the first answer straight away.
Second, a good thing about this genre is that the plot mostly deals with character development. At the beginning those protagonists mostly don't even know the sport but somehow get into it willingly or unwillingly. And while they mostly suck at first they will get better with some effort. You can see how they struggle and grow by overcoming their obstacles.
Most sport mangas are highly competitive by nature. So these mangas don't get too boring as there are always matches to play and fights to win.

Good, and now we have my favourite mangas:
1. Hajime No Ippo
Wonderful story about a boy who learns boxing and becomes a pro. What I blabbered about character development some lines ago: here you'll find it too your full extend. Every fight is enthralling and there are always surprises coming so you don't get bored. But it's not only a string of fights you'll experience in this manga you also see him training at camps and also his inner feelings when he struggles about how to get better and why he has lost a fight.
2. SlamDunk
Great series about Basketball full of slapstick comedy but also a good story. It's a comedy-sports-manga and one of the best of its kind out there.
3. Prince of Tennis
About a boy who is a Tennis prodigy. Nice matches. What you can see there is pure tennis magic.
4. I'll (Generation Basket)
Also about basketball but not really comedy-style like SlamDunk. Here you can also find the typical rival plot between the main players of a basketball team. It's good but doesn't reach SlamDunk. The art is also quite nice.

 

[xallisto]

Id have to agree with u on those above there all brilliant, but i gotta admit Slam Dunk is porbably the funniest anime/manga ive ever seen lol

Prince of tennis is good although a little wierd, i dont think its an accurate representation of Tennis but its fun to watch all the same

 

[Miso]

...
Prince of tennis is good although a little wierd, i dont think its an accurate representation of Tennis but its fun to watch all the same

Absolutely true. That was the reason why I originally wrote "pure tennis magic". It reminded me of the anime "Mila" which dealt with a young girl playing volleyball. They also had all that fancy techniques which are absolutely impossible in real life.
PoT is similar in these regards. But nevertheless it's fun to read.

 

[Gold Knight]

Sports manga is fascinating to me because they usually do a good job of getting me interested in sports in which I previously had little interest.

I got into Hajime No Ippo a while ago due to my friend Justice (a moderator at NF). Now that I'm done with One Piece, I'll likely be moving on to reading more of that. I like it so far (only read the first volume); Ippo's a very likeable character.

But the sports manga I was already enjoying long before I read Hajime no Ippo are:

Whistle! - story & art by Daisuke Higuchi.
It's about a little teenager kid named Sho Kazamatsuri whose dream is to be a professional soccer player but had to switch schools in order to get an opportunity to play on a team. He has to overcome some things to get accepted, but his love for the game eventually inspires the players around him to play at a high level. It's a very, very well written story and I love all the characters in it, and it's even fun to get to know the opponents too ( who are just kids themselves too ). Soccer is a very popular sport in many countries of course, and that definitely includes Japan, and I think this is the MOST popular soccer manga, so they do a good job of explaining the game and all the various team styles and keeping it interesting. If you want to read this one, though, hopefully it's being released in your country (as it is in America by Viz) because the problem is that there's a gap in volume Edited Mangas at the moment. You have the first couple of volumes scanlated and then there's a skip to later volumes. If you can buy it, though, and you're a fan of sports, I think it'd be worth giving a shot. This manga managed to get me interested in a sport I never thought I would.

Eyeshield 21 - Story by Riichiro Inagaki and Art by Yusuke Murata.
This is American football being played in Japan, and as a former football player I was pretty interested in this manga and haven't been disappointed so far, though it's more zany than Whistle!, kinda like One Piece. Wimpy teenager Sena Kobayakawa is the star of this series, and after being bullied all his life, he gains confidence as he becomes the starting running back for the Devil Bats of Deimon High School, and it doesn't hurt that he's one of the fastest ever at that position. What I enjoy about this series the most, though, is the quarterback - Hiruma. He's fiendishly awesome and is as demonic as the mascot of his team. If you enjoy One Piece and Hajime no Ippo, I'd strongly recommend this one.

 

[antukecik]

Yeah Eyeshield 21 is a great manga

 

[shinwei]

Definitely Slam Dunk! I really loved Slam Dunk.

Also Hajime no Ippo - I it more than Naruto. Its just so cool/funny/awesome.

I hear a lot about how Ashita no Joe pretty much invented the sports manga genre, and how its supposed to be the greatest of all time, but I can never find a good amount of scans for it - so I haven't read it.

 

[Miso]

I personally don't like Eyeshield 21 much. I know that it seems to be very popular and it's surely a more funny sports manga. The football teams are designed nicely.
However the story couldn't catch me. After reading chapter 20 I just stopped because I thought it was boring. There wasn't enough development for me in this manga.

 

[Gold Knight]

I didn't really think I would ever meet a girl who would like Eyeshield 21 all that much, though Rukia (of Soul_Society who translates Bleach ) proved me wrong. But I still think it's more for guys anyway so I'm not surprised.

 

[devo]

I downloaded as much Eyeshield21 as I could find thanks to the glowing reccommendations in this thread and have been reading it over the past couple days. 75 chapters in and loving it so far. My only question is, is Fucking-Manga still Editing 'em? The forums seem somewhat active but I'm not sure if they're still at work.

There's over 150 chapters out there, so thankfully, there's still a lot to read. ^_^

Edit: Never mind, found out on my own.

 

[barbapapa]

Eyeshield 21 is definitely my top-favorite; I love comedy mixed with shounen
second favorite has to be Hajime no Ippo, really awesome manga with great characters!

 

[venicia777]

i havent found many sports manga/anime around. of course the sports field can be a little too intimidating. but i have liked all the sports manga i have read- some of them really well. On my list the best 3

Hajime no Ippo(and watched all 75 episodes of anime or was it 76). Awesome boxing story. The fight scenes were really intriguing and kept me always interested.

Initial D- I love the races. Nothing more to say.

And

Eyeshield Nijuu ichi- this is just great(and theanime as well).

 

[Miso]

...
Initial D- I love the races. Nothing more to say.
...

Ah...I forgot that one . It's really an interesting manga for racing fans. I also like it. It's really awesome how Takumi with his old 86 is racing against all that pumped up street racing cars.

 

[One Eyed Sharingan]

there are some sport mangas that i like and there are some that i don't
me likes Eyeshield 21 da best!!!!! nice artwork and plot....and pretty Mamo-nee chan ^_^
the other thati like are H2, Slam Dunk, Harlem Beat, Hikaru no go too (is it counted as sport???)

 

[Miso]

I think Hikaru No Go can be seen as sport manga. Chess is sport, so Go is sport, too, I think.

What is Harlem Beat about? I checked www.manganews.net but there wasn't a summary.

 

[Gold Knight]

I agree, Hikaru no Go falls into that category of being "competitive game manga" and that's basically what sports are all about.

And if I had to guess Harlem Beat is about basketball ( Harlem Globetrotters ) though I wasn't able to find any info on it either.

 

[chin sai]

does dbz count as sports manga if so the hell yeah

 

[Miso]

Why should Dragon Ball Z be a sports manga? It's about fighting. Then Naruto also would be a sports manga because they fight, too.....
A sports manga is a manga which deals with SPORT - it can be a fighting sport like boxing or judo or karate or whatever - but not fighting in general. That's no certain sport.

 

[chin sai]

ok i got a huge amount of eyeshield but can only read in small doses

 

[zetman]

For me,Eyeshield 21is the best..

 

[Meijin no Kori]

Currently, for me it's Whistle! And that's because I really haven't read any other sports mangas. But I'm going to try to read Eyeshield 21 this weekend (and maybe sometime after that, Hajime no Ippo, since I've heard good things about it), so we'll see if I like it better or not.