Get Your Head in the Game with These 7 Sports Manga

Ace of the Diamond, by Yuji Terajima
Baseball is about as classic as you can get when it comes to sports manga, and Ace of the Diamond embodies much of what makes this sport so beloved of the genre. The story follows Eijun Sawamura, an impulsive lefty pitcher scouted by a prestigious baseball high school. Unlike the typical underdog teams we often see in sports manga, Ace of the Diamond throws its protagonist onto a powerhouse team with several talented pitchers and excellent chances of going all the way—the question is whether Sawamura will be on the mound when they do. The manga is a slow burn (the series stands at forty-seven volumes in Japan), but the pacing invites readers to become intimately familiar with every member of the team as we follow the boys through each frustration, heartbreak, and victory. Ace of Diamond isn’t a manga where you can avoid absorbing the nitty-gritty details of the sport at hand, so be prepared to learn more about throwing a fastball than you ever thought you’d know in this lifetime.

Kuroko’s Basketball, by Tadatoshi Fujimaki
Basketball is another tried and true sport for manga, as anyone who remembers Slam Dunk can attest. Kuroko’s Basketball’s unique angle comes from its eponymous hero, a boy so unnervingly bland that he almost literally fades into the background. Of course, it turns out Kuroko’s lack of presence is actually his greatest asset on the court—it allows him to make passes no one can see coming, and appear where no one expects him. Kuroko’s weird misdirection skill makes for some fun in-game strategy, and his status as the ultimate support player allows mangaka Fujimaki to rotate a colorful cast (pun absolutely intended) of present and former teammates in and out of the spotlight. Unlike Ace of the Diamond, which takes a fairly grounded approach to its sport of choice, Kuroko’s Basketball’s need for increasingly powerful opponents leads to some improbably fantastic basketball skills down the line. Complete in Japan, the manga is currently being published in two-volume omnibus editions by Viz Media.

Haikyu!!, by Haruichi Furudate
Even if the only volleyball match you can remember watching is one infamous scene in Top Gun, don’t let that stop you from picking up Haikyu!! This ebullient volleyball manga follows Shoyo Hinata, an enthusiastic but unskilled player who joins the team of his dreams only to find that his bitterest rival, the talented but prickly Tobio Kageyama, has joined the same team. Despite their mutual distaste for each other, the boys quickly find they have a strange sort of chemistry that makes them much stronger together than they ever were apart. Haikyu!! is the kind of manga where every single character gives you a reason to fall in love with them (yes even you, Tsukki), and its sincere optimism, goofy sense of humor, and terrific energy bursts from every page.

Yowamushi Pedal, by Wataru Watanabe
What, you think cycling is a strange sport to write a manga about? Buckle up, because we’re still just getting started. Yowamushi Pedal’s protagonist is the furthest thing from an athlete—in fact, he’s an anime otaku, who spends hours every week riding into the city to pick up anime merch on his crappy bike. Upon entering high school, Onoda’s casual feat of endurance catches the eye of cycling club members, who see in him the missing piece their team needs to challenge the national championship. Part of the charm of YowaPeda is its quirkiness—mangaka Watanabe’s characters really are characters, and his art style is idiosyncratic compared to many on this list. The mangaka’s own enthusiasm for road racing shines clearly through the naive and earnest Onoda, who is astonished to find not only a passion for cycling, but a group of friends along the way.

Welcome to the Ballroom, by Tomo Takeuchi
Yes, dancing is a sport too . . . particularly when it’s competitive ballroom dancing. When Tatara Fujita is saved from a group of bullies by a motorcycle-riding ballroom dance champion, he’s roped into a trial class at the nearby studio. What starts as polite interest becomes a fascination as, for the first time, Tatara finds something he wants to be good at. Welcome to the Ballroom hits all the notes of a traditional sports manga: an underdog latecomer, an unreachable rival, and plenty of training and tournaments. At the same time, Takeuchi immerses the reader in her subject, nailing details of technique and performance that will be familiar to anyone who’s set foot in a studio. One of the major highlights is Takeuchi’s own art—the way she visualizes movement is incredible, and it’s hard not to feel swept up along with the dancers. Like her art, Takeuchi’s manga has momentum, and once you start reading it’s hard to put it down.

Hikaru no Go, by Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata  
Hikaru no Go is the oldest manga on this list, but it’s a classic example of a sports manga that doesn’t need to involve excessive sweating to be riveting. Hikaru, a relatively normal child with no particular interest in complex strategy boardgames, stumbles over an old Go board and accidentally awakens the spirit of Fujiwara-no-Sai, a Heian-era Go player. Haunted by Sai, who desperately wants to play again, Hikaru lets his ghostly companion guide him through matches with other players, but increasingly becomes enthralled by the game himself. If you are fascinated by intricate strategy, this is the sports manga for you. Don’t know how to play Go? Don’t worry: the manga does a capable job of laying out the stakes of each match without requiring in-depth knowledge of the game. And, like most sports manga, it’s really the clash of characters that keeps you hanging on—and here Hikaru no Go definitely delivers, featuring one of the bitterest rivalries in sports manga. (Artist Obata is better known for his work on Death Note.)

Chihayafuru, by Yuki Suetsugu
If you thought a board game was the strangest sport on here, you were utterly, woefully wrong. The sport featured in Chihayafuru is a Japanese poetry card game called karuta. That’s right. Poetry. Card. Game. Chihaya is  a tomboy whose interests have always taken a backseat to her sister’s burgeoning modeling career. That is, until she meets Arata, a quiet boy who lives and breathes karuta. Caught up by Arata’s passion for this little-known competitive card game, Chihaya devotes herself to catching up to him, discovering her own natural talent along the way. Chihayafuru tackles the sports manga formula with a josei sensibility: it’s a deeper character drama than many of the others on this list, with a strong romance subplot and as much focus on the shifting relationships of the characters as on the competition itself. It’s a lovely manga, and epitomizes one of the greatest things about sports manga: when it’s good, it’ll make you care about its sport. Even if that sport is a poetry card game.
What sports manga gets your blood pumping?