The Art of Sports Anime

this video was made possible by honker impact third the hand of God rumble in the jungle the 2008 Wimbledon final when we talk about some of the most iconic sporting moments ever these are some of the classics that have stood the test of time if you're a basic ass normy sports fan nah we aren't here to talk about this boring overhyped pansy-ass [ __ ] we're talking about the good stuff I'm talking Saiyans rematch at OA fo vs. endo Oh talking gate of [ __ ] booty Lord [ __ ] real sports at anime sports sports anime used to be the underachieving child of the medium sitting in this weird limbo gray area where it didn't fully appeal to either of the target demographics it was meant to weebs wouldn't want to watch it because it was about jock ridden bro sports and sports fans wouldn't want to watch it because it was bad as weird as Chinese we've [ __ ] luckily in recent times the reputation of watching sports anime has become more widely accepted with a handful of recent titles even becoming breakout hits so today I wanted to show my appreciation for sports anime by talking about all the weird and wonderful things about them because I like sports anime I've always loved sports anime I mean it's just really an excuse to show tornament art after tournament our cough the Toyman ark after why would I not love a John Rowe that is made up of 90% tornament dark sea one of the appeals of sports anime is that you're taking something based on reality we're transporting it to the anime world with anime rules and nowhere is this more apparent than with superpowers by superpowers I don't mean athletes flying about Dragon Ball Z style flying over some sports pool of some kind cuz I'll be [ __ ] stupid and ridiculously over-the-top and that's why it only happens occasionally know what I'm talking about how anime can take the simplest move and turn it into a goddamn superpower specialized techniques different formations personalized skills if there's one rule to adhere to it's that every move needs a name no matter how big or impressive or no one will give a [ __ ] something like this may look impressive to a football fan but if you know nothing about football how are you supposed to know how amazing this is if it's not called something like [Music] because it's based on reality you can literally [ __ ] any skill into an epic superpower like imagine how stupid akashi's Emperor I would look in real life cleanest people just literally kneeling down to the most basic of crossovers you can do [ __ ] but that's part of the charm of it because what sounds cooler to you a sudden change in poor direction causing people to wrong-foot themselves and fall over or a [ __ ] magic emperor I that causes people to kneel before them because his orders are absolute this is still a show about basketball by the way and this becomes truly apparent when you learn about some kind of specialized technique from an anime then you see the real-life counterpart and you realize it really wasn't as cool as the anime made it out to be let's take one of the most iconic moves in all of a sports anime the Dempsey roll that's right if those ultimate finisher nobody stands a chance once it gets going because you're about to be hit by multiple 10-ton punches from each direction there is no move cooler than this and when you look around a better ring now what that's it what do you mean this is the Dempsey roll where's the steam where's the [ __ ] jet engines didn't even shout out the bloody move name this isn't realistic at all next you'll be telling me they're strapping metallic mechanised arms and boxers would be a slight health and safety issue but aside from giving super mega awesome move names for the most mundane of actions how else can we portray the power of a move so the audience can fully comprehend where the players are feeling like in the moment well we get to the visual metaphors move names are one thing but if you truly want the audience to grasp boy is like to be a player on the field it's all about the visual metaphors some may be simple like haikyuu using the crow imagery when someone jumps ping pong the animation proven that you can awareness you have a power of gods and anime by your side with a dash of LSD and then you have ICO 21 giving a different over-the-top visual cue for everybody move for one person this guy isn't just running fast he's running faster than the speed of light which shouldn't be possible according to Einstein when Einstein can go [ __ ] himself and I get it sometimes we need an artistic rendition to properly portray and exaggerate and move while actions so the audience can anchor it to a feeling like we all know the teleports behind you meme that we see all over anime or what no one seems to mention is that by far the worst offender of doing this an ironic Lee is every [ __ ] ball in the history of anime sports nothing personal kidding all of this however is completely irrelevant next to the magnum opus of any technique in sports anime the teske sewed from Prince of tennis you see by alternating the spin on a tennis ball what this does is tesca can kind of manipulate the direction the ball comes back in sort of makes sense right I mean you can kind of see some real-world logic here so with this basic principle in mind what tesca can do and his single stroke is the spin he puts on the board translates this into a gravitational force which starts sucking in planets now this gravitational force becomes so powerful that he can create a black hole which starts sucking in the entire universe which tesco can now use to recreate the Big Bang and I know what you're thinking what's this got to do of tennis anymore well if you pay attention [ __ ] and knew anything about physics you'd know that this tennis big bank released thousands of planets size tennis balls which spread all over the entire universe and and that's not all [ __ ] because this is war killed off the dinosaurs ha ha ha ha ha ha ha that's the tezuka's own it makes perfect sense but because of ridiculous moments like these I want to take a quick moment to show appreciation for how amazing sports anime can look when it just looks realistic whether it be free making the act of swimming look more refreshing than a cold drink in the Sahara Desert Hani Bardot's crisp and intense choreography that feels as exhausting is actually playing it or some of the performances in URI are nice I remember getting proper chills the first time I saw the year nice choreography just because of how damn beautiful and graceful eloped you know before before the rest of the series happens it proves that sometimes the most impressive thing you can do with the sports anime is just to make it look and feel like the actual sport because there are also other things that acts a bit weird in the genre but before that I wanted to introduce the sponsor for today's video Hong Kong impact Thirds now this is the second time Hong Kong impact have come to me and I'm honestly really happy to promote it again as you can see here as an action combat game that is free-to-play and runs on your mobile and honestly still surprises me how good this game looks for a free mobile game the real-time combat system is really satisfying and has more depth and it initially seems especially when you start unlocking different characters weapons and skins because in this game the skins aren't just cosmetic where they affect your abilities and play style if you want to know Mei is my favorite girl cuz I like the close quarters rapid attack style and either way Mei is BAE alright the game has since been updated since my last shout out with a new skin and character being added just a few weeks ago which you can now get your hands on and also the latest story chapter has just been added for you to play through and follow along with yes that's right there is a story mode that come to the game complete with cutscenes and it sounds like your cup tea or you just want to try this out then there is a link in the description below where you can download it on either iOS or Android and with that we can get back to our sports anime as we are just talking about anime Sports superpowers and visual metaphors but here's the thing everything I've just described can be applied to any real-life activity whether it technically counts as a sport or not and because of this there are a whole myriad of shows that might not technically be a sports but they certainly feel like a sports anime they're not Sports anime they're sports and in May what I'm talking about here is the Chi hiya Furies ik Argy initial DS and even the food Wars of the world shows which take the traditional sports anime formula and applies it to an activity or a game the dictionary definition of sport is an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against each other or others for entertainment which could apply to pretty much anything he'll this is anime so you can take any activity put it in a competitive environment add the actual girls orgasm in doing so activity and you have yourself ahead show shokugeki and kakigori are pretty much turns cooking and gambling at in extreme sport at this point so why else can we do extreme mining Edward cider hands loading pornhub while your phone's at 1% battery well you know what I guess by that same definition doesn't that mean you go also counts as a sports anime here you can take this kind of worms I just opened I don't want to deal with this right now take it take you [ __ ] take it I don't I don't want it when I side know about things that are debatably sport or not I am still waiting for an eSports anime I know a lot you're gonna shout kings avatar but that didn't really turn out to be an eSports anime but more an anime with eSports in it so I'm looking at you riots games yes you right he just used a no game no life OST for their newest trailer look I know you want to make one just just just do it already just just do it make the first eSports anime look you can even script ESM to win something as low it'll be perfect that way you all count as a fantasy anime too then you have the sports anime with completely made-up sports that we wish really existed Air Gear did something near impossible and almost made the gaps of rollerblading cool again Keijo is a bot wrestling sport which technically doesn't exist but it does in my heart and that's all that matters okay and finally we have girls and Panzer portraying the fictional sport of tanker II where a bunch of cute anime girls basically play World of Tanks with real tanks and live ammunition now you may be wondering how can this possibly count as a sport because that just sounds ridiculously stupid and dangerous to keep on this train of things which follow the Sports anime formula let's talk about the setups it's no secret that many sports anime follow a similar set up and part of the reason I love sports anime is that in a lot of ways it's the purest form of Shonen and it's so unapologetic about it most of them tackle themes of rivalry determination hard work camaraderie it's about power scaling power ceiling power rankings it's constantly about training and progression and while predictable it's always interesting to see how different series talk with these in their own way if you're just looking for a cheap and cheerful shown in fix there is no better way than sports anime however with us said you can't deny that there are many things about the setting that have got a little cliche I think most of this boils down to so many shows taking place in the high school setting with lots of the same character archetypes though you'd be forgiven for these characters are in high school because half of all sports characters don't even look they're [ __ ] aged a lot of characters already look really old for their age like almost everyone in croco bud croco looks like fully grown men wearing school uniforms all over the whole power escalation progression trying to make new arrivals look more intimidating than the last your honor with some characters just taking the [ __ ] piss like if this is our athletes look in high school is what the [ __ ] pros of the world look like honestly I would love to see more sports anime that is not set in high school where the ultimate goal is to jerk off your teammates hard enough to find a way to Nationals of course the protagonist is gonna be a first-year who is either an absolute genius or complete newbie and of course we've got to win because this is the last time we're gonna be able to play with our sand pies guys our sand pies we don't want to be like that other team of [ __ ] who are crying because I don't get to play with us damn it man I'm taking the face when it gets me every bloody time and then there is the reminder that we are still indeed in high school because there is nothing more giant when the show finishes our super intense what feels like life with death match and then in the next episode everyone's like oh [ __ ] guys your [ __ ] homework to do like seriously who the [ __ ] actually likes the homework episodes like at least in the hot springs of beach episode we get some good fanservice to keep us distracted but who the [ __ ] thought it would be a good episode idea to see boys panic studying to get moderately possible grades and then what's supposed to happen after Nationals is over deuce implies graduate and realize that dribbling a ball that Mac three is not an employable skill sets does illuminae go on a date gets offered a cheeky [ __ ] then smack his date in the face because he needs to remind that [ __ ] the only one who can beat me is me this is why I can appreciate when an anime goes beyond high school and mirrors the structure of the real international stage and part of the draw when I first saw a Poe and Yuri on ice was exactly that the stage felt much grander the stakes felt higher and I don't know sometimes watching epode matches actually feels like you're watching a real sporting event and it was much easier to absorb myself into it but on occasion you also get a sports anime with a sport merely acts as a vehicle to explore deeper themes I've talked to lots about my love for ping pong the animation and how it's a crushingly realistic portrayal of aspirations in life but even more recently with megalo box which everyone thought was just gonna be an unrelenting hype machine i he became a succinct exploration of dreams of sacrifice and ambitions with Joe himself acting as a vehicle for the different characters around him to explore this while also being an unrelenting hyper machine but to bring this all back no matter how a Sports anime sets a self up or how many cliches it ends up using or how over-the-top it goes there is one more thing that I've noticed sports anime has done for me at least in the time I've been watching it let's be honest alright I'm sure a lot of us don't give a [ __ ] about sports and certainly we don't give a [ __ ] about every sport we are the one confused [ __ ] in every sports anime where the show just pauses for five minutes to blatantly spell out the rules just for us like the beginning of every show is a sports rendition of our slash explain like I'm five and as much as I'm joking about this I've learned the rules of American football baseball and volleyball from watching sports anime alone but that's the thing thanks for watching these shows I've learned a deeper appreciation to many sports I would never have given a second look otherwise and seen moments like actual ice skaters profess their love for URI and ice shows how much care and passion can go into these shows they can have a real world effect on anyone watching it because these are real-life activities they are based on and sometimes just sometimes it can do something truly magical getting a weave interested into sports if you want to know my favorites in the genre for hype it's hard to beat the king Hajime no Ippo for an unfilled to take on life and ambition it's ping pong the animation and four most underrated I've got to go with one else a different take on sports anime that focuses on winning using wine games deception and trickery and it's basically what would happen if Death Note [ __ ] a baseball show because if you haven't figured it out by now Sports anime aren't about the sports it's about the stories and characters behind them so whether you want an underdog Shonen tale or a crushing reflection of real life ambition realistic or ridiculous uplifting or painfully relatable you'll find it all here and if you still want that hasn't dove headfirst into sports anime yet then you need to change that because the bottom line is you don't need to give a [ __ ] about sports to give a [ __ ] about sports anime [Music] hey guys hope you enjoyed that video thank you very much again to honk I impact for sponsoring this video if any of what I talked about today interested you then you can download their game by clicking on the link below and I've also got a quick announcement so I'm trying something new this Saturday and I'm going to be live-streaming my impressions of the new season of anime basically what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go through the seasonal charts we're gonna watch all the Peavey's I haven't seen any of these myself so I don't know what any of them look like and then we're just gonna see what looks good what doesn't look good what we're gonna be watching this season and what we're gonna be avoiding this is something I've been wanting to do for a while so if you want to join in I'm gonna be live streaming on twitch.tv slash gig on this Saturday at 4 p.m. British Standard Time that's 11:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time if you want to join in on the fun well you can also follow me in my Twitter in case any updates happen sorry if that's me early for any of you in America but we're gonna be going for him for a few hours so hopefully you can catch it if you wake up in time anyway that's it for me now though I've been gigging and I will see you all next time

Channel: Gigguk

Views: 1,758,966

Rating: 4.954289 out of 5

Keywords: Anime Zone, Gigguk, Top Anime, OP, ED, Sports Anime, Top Sports Anime, Top 10 Sports Anime, Best Sports Anime, Sports Anime Recommendation, Sports ANime be like, Basketball ANime, Volleyball Anime, Be

Id: tz8kXxsoctw

Length: 15min 56sec (956 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 25 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/colblitz]

Haikyuu's effect on Japanese HS volleyball

[u/Backha]

Was that QTP with nothing personnel kid ?

[u/ryorp]

"You can even script TSM to win something, it'll be perfect as that way it will count as a fantasy anime too"

oof

[u/AlexLong1000]

Who actually likes the studying episodes?

Me. Well, for Haikyuu at least. Why? Because as he later said:

Sports anime aren't about the sport, it's about the stories and characters behind them.

[u/SmurfRockRune]

It drives me nuts when people are asking for really good shows with tons of hype, but then specify that they don't want sports anime, especially when they haven't even seen sports anime and just assume they won't like it because they don't like sports.

[u/dcresistance]

I'm sad his editor didn't put in the Amagi Brilliant park clip when talking about extreme ironing

[u/Tsubasa_sama]

The Tezuka Zone

[u/TimespanClarity]

>talking about super powers and visual metaphors and how every move needs its special name
>no mention of Saki, anime about girls channeling literal god powers into visual metaphors while playing game literally made out of special attack names

[u/kimbombo]

Not a single cut of the most lit Ping pong series ever. Scorching Ping Pong Girls. You dissapoint me Gigguk