Where to Go Next for More Sports Manga
Posted in Manga News on May 28, 2011 by JohannaAs a final goodbye to the Cross Game Manga Moveable Feast, now that Ed and I have both reviewed it and talked about it, I thought I’d point out some other translated sports manga, in case you’d like to continue with the genre:
Football: Eyeshield 21, Viz, 36 books
Soccer: Whistle!, Viz, 24 books
Angel Cup, Tokyopop, 5 books
Gothic Sports, Tokyopop, 3 books (English — 5 in German)
Tennis: The Prince of Tennis, Viz, 42 books
(Also, Maison Ikkoku, for being a romantic comedy, has a surprising amount of tennis playing in it.)
Volleyball: Crimson Hero, Viz, 14 books
Ice Skating: Sugar Princess, Viz, 2 books
Track and Field: Hana Kimi, Viz, 22 books — although the sport takes a far second place to the cross-dressing and teen love
Suzuka, Del Rey Manga, 15 books
Cheering: Dragon Girl, Yen Press, 2 books
Boxing: One-Pound Gospel, Viz, 4 books
Punch!, Viz, 3 books — a shojo take on fighting sports
Basketball: Slam Dunk, Viz, 16 books
Real, Viz, 9 books, by the same author as Slam Dunk, although this version has wheelchair players and is better recommended
Harlem Beat, Tokyopop, 9 books, followed by the sequel, Rebound, 18 books
Girl Got Game, Tokyopop, 10 books (Like Hana Kimi, this manga stars a girl pretending to be a boy)
And back to Baseball: Diamond Girl, CMX, only one book in the U.S.
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05/28/2011 at 9:04 PM
There’s a lot of Viz on that list! I guess I didn’t realize they publish so many sports titles. Your mention of Maison Ikkoku reminds me of the occasional tennis matches in Itazura na Kiss. I also think of Dragon Girl as a sort of sports-manga—the main emphasis is on the cheer squad (which is kind of a sport, right?) but there is some baseball as well! I’m not much of a sports fan, but I still got excited and wrapped up in the competitive spirit while working on the series :D (I lettered it for Yen Press)
Does Swan (ballet) count as sports-manga?
05/28/2011 at 10:15 PM
There’s also Suzuka, which is about track. Though I can’t personally recommend it, as I hated it, it’s still a sports title missing from your list.
05/28/2011 at 10:36 PM
I’ll add two more about soccer, both from Tokyopop:
Angel Cup. Jae-Ho Youn. Dropped after 5 volumes, not sure how many volumes it ran in Korean.
and
Gothic Sports. Anike Hage. Five volumes in German [orig. published in German], three in French [from Soliel], two in English from Tokyopop.
05/29/2011 at 8:19 AM
Yeah, the Viz-heaviness shouldn’t be surprising, I guess, but it does stand out, doesn’t it? (On second thought, that makes sense for a first draft, because it’s now harder to research Tokyopop and Del Rey titles, since they no longer have websites.) I was just impressed at the range of sports covered. I’m not familiar with the other titles mentioned — I’ll look them up and add them. I was hoping people would help fill in the gaps of those I wasn’t familiar with, so thank you all.
Swan, although quite competitive, doesn’t count, unfortunately. I also thought about including Hikaru no Go, my favorite competition manga, but ultimately went with a more restrictive definition of sport.
05/29/2011 at 2:29 PM
There was also the Chuck Austen Boys of Summer that had one volume from Tokyopop. Not that I’d recommend it, as it was more about girl taking clothes off than baseball.
05/29/2011 at 3:32 PM
I want to recommend All-Rounder, an MMA/Shooto manga
05/29/2011 at 4:35 PM
That’s never been in print in the U.S., though.
05/30/2011 at 9:13 AM
[...] Manga Worth Reading: Johanna Draper Carlson suggests other sports manga [...]
06/04/2011 at 12:25 AM
Should not Bamboo Blade published my Yen Press be on this list too?
06/04/2011 at 7:12 AM
I’d consider Kendo a martial art, not a sport in the U.S. sense, but yeah, that’s another competition manga readers may want to check out.