Now here’s a curiosity: Why hasn’t soccer every taken off in the US? Sure, we have Major League Soccer and the World Cup, but soccer has always been bigger elsewhere than in the US. We’re too busy playing football (the one where you throw the ball, not kick it), America’s Pastime, and eating apple pies. But there’s a bevy of soccer manga and anime to be had in Japan. Stuff like Inazuma Eleven, Giant Killing, Captain Tsubasa, and probably the worst one out of the list and the one I’ve seen, Knight in the Area. I haven’t watched much soccer myself, but I’ve enjoyed Knight in the Area well enough.
But you know what’s kind of weird? Professional wrestling. Before I even started watching anime, I was watching the WWE around 2005. I loved watching people like Rey Mysterio! But in Japan, Tiger Mask has been a kind of cultural phenomenon that’s only been made bigger when people started donating stuff in Tiger Mask masks. I understand that Yuasa’s Kick Heart is also about pro wrestling. Imagine if the US made a movie about professional wrestling? You know, like The Wrestler…So of all things, pro wrestling is what the US makes a recent popular sports movie of.
Basketball is a sport that I’ve never gotten into myself, but I’ve heard of several basketball anime that I’d like to get my hands on. Slam Dunk, which is streaming on Hulu, and Kuroko’s Basketball, which is streaming on Crunchyroll, are at the top of my list. A second season of Kuroko’s Basketball is coming this fall from Production I.G, so I might catch up on those 25 other episodes from 2012.
There’s also a myriad of sports anime about sports you might not expect there to be about. I was shocked that there was a comic about a lacrosse team. So shocked, in fact, that I picked it up (it’s only in Viz’s digital repertoire). I’ll get to that later. But the shows I haven’t seen that I’m talking about are Eyeshield 21, about football, Initial D, about racing, and Princes of Tennis, about tennis. I skipped over the tennis aspect of Aim for the Ace, because I was focusing on Dezaki more, but the only things I know about tennis are that Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer are really good. Oh, and also that Isner–Mahut match was good for neither of them. But what’s more curious is that Eyeshield 21 never took off. That’s a show about football and Americans love football! I can’t explain how the Super Bowl gets over 150 million viewers, but Eyeshield 21 gets the boot. There are still a few volumes of Eyeshield 21 and Prince of Tennis at my local Barnes and Noble, though.
Why no mention of Free!, Knight in the Area, Ginga e Kickoff, or Kuroko’s Basketball?!
I didn’t mention Ginga e Kickoff, because I didn’t know it existed. But I mentioned everything else. Name dropped, if you will.
I would just about shed blood for a legit release of Touch. I’m still holding out a faint hope that Right Stuf or somebody else will pick it up someday.