More sports mangas are getting adapted into anime nowadays. This season alone there are six sports anime in the list, namely "All Out," "Haikyuu!! Season 3," "Long Riders," "March Comes In Like A Lion," "Scorching Pingpong Girls" and "Yuri!!! On Ice." However, there are more undiscovered gems that definitely deserve anime adaptations. Read the list below:
"Nononono"
This is the first time I saw a sports manga about skii jumping and was captivated right away. The story centers around Nonomiya Nono, a girl who is pretending to be his brother, Nonomiya Yuuta in order to win the Olympic gold. There is no category for girls in the Skii Jumping competition in the Olympics and his brother committed suicide so she can bear the name of Nonomiya Yuuta. The twins were desperate to get an Olympic gold because their father, a former ace of the national skii jumping team, busted Japan's chance to win a gold due to a mistake. However, fate made a cruel twist and Nono was the one gifted with natural talent in the sport instead of her brother, Yuuta.
Nono (using Yuuta's name) transfers to a new high school as she tries to chase her and her brother's dream. Among her teammates are Akira Amatsu, the son of her father's former teammate, and Hiroshi Kishitani, a first year student who has a crush on her and discovers her real identity.
The jumps in the manga looked very cool in pictures and I'm sure it will be far better in animation! But it is best if they do not include the ecchi parts for the sake of young viewers. The manga has 13 volumes, 142 chapters released from October 2007 to December 2010. However, the ending seems rushed as it fast forwarded to the time Amatsu and Yuuta became representatives of Japan.
"Major 2nd"
The best baseball battery is passed to the second generation. Although the last OVA's of the classic baseball series "Major" was released five years ago, this must definitely be adapted to an anime series.
"Major 2nd" started in 2015. It follows the story of Daigo, the son of Shigeno Goro (main protagonist of "Major"), who quit baseball because he is burdened by the high expectations of being born into a baseball family. He had a bad experience in the Little League and suffers from inferiority complex. It's not that he's bad at it but his throwing arm is not good if you compare it to his ace pitcher father. He would be teaming up with the the son of Toshiya Sato (his father's bestfriend and battery partner), who transfers to his school.
G (Yamada Hitotsuki)
A racing sports manga similar to Capeta, this is a story about Mao who had exceptional concentration and observation skills which are very crucial for racers. Fate brings him to the number one F1 racer in Japan, Tsuji Yoshiki, whom he met when he was almost hit by his car while he was chasing for his F1 car. Yoshiki was amazed by Mao, who then brought him to get a look at the real F1 car. Since then, Mao has decided to be the best F1 racer. Yoshiki also gave him a cart and a helmet and advised him to practice only on the snow.
Years later, Mao was invited by Yoshiki to apply for FRS training camp, and with his monster-like skill as a result of years of practice in the snow, he defeated his enemies using the most disadvantageous tires. The manga is so good that it will give you goosebumps. Unfortunately, only the first five chapters are available with scanlations up to now. You can read the chapters here, though I advise you not to if you can't deal with the agonizing wait for the next scanlations.
"Wind Breaker"
The student body president of Sunny High, Jay, has another side of him despite his model student appearance. He is a biker with great skills! His grandfather was actually a professional biker and left him his bike. One day his classmates saw him do a very fast skid on a downhill without using breaks. They invited him to be part of their group and his adventure in road biking competitions started.
This is a webtoon, not a manga, but reading this story makes me really want to learn how to ride a bike even though I know I'm hopeless. Plus, the pages are in full color! Unlike other biking series "Overdrive" and "Yowamushi Pedal," the characters compete in informal biking competitions on roads rather than the formal ones. You can read this on Naver.
