Some days back, when I was watching my favourite sports genre anime ‘Haikyuu’, I realised that it had some clichés which has been there in lots of other sports anime; even though the anime was still able to create the same anxious emotions as it did when I watched its previous season. So today I decided to pen down some of those anime clichés which are there in most of the anime of the sports genre.
- THE ULTIMATE DUO…… ALWAYS HAS A ROUGH START:
Every sports anime out there has this amazing duo, who together have the capacity to destroy the opponent team completely. But still, all those partners have a rough start. Now, I know that most of the real life sportsmen have a fight or are irritated by their future partners, but to be honest, this concept have been used so many times that it has become too predictable and has become one of those clichés in mainstream sports anime.
- AIM FOR NATIONALS, WHAT AFTER THAT….. ???:
If you have seen some of the mainstream anime like ‘Kuroko no Basuke’, ‘Haikyuu’, ‘Ace of Diamond’; you should know where I’m getting at. Most of these anime gets us all pumped about reaching the nationals and use up 70-90 episodes in showing us how they went up to the nationals. ButI have still not seen the story of what that team finally did in the nationals or at least a short story of how they fared there. However, it seems like Haikyuuwill be showing us that part of sports anime.
- 1ST SEASON= THE GREAT DEFEAT
2ND SEASON= ACQUIRING NEW TECHNIQUES
3RD SEASON= WINNING TICKET TO NATIONALS:
Before 
After
I think that I just spoiled someone who just started watching a new sports anime series. Well, of all those sports anime I have watched, all of them had the same story, the only difference being was the change in sport. (Chihayafuru being an exception) Every anime of this genre will start off with great talent of first years, ending with a defeat to the rivals, then the second season will focus on how the team becomes stronger and finally the third season is a total show of how they finally defeated all of them with god-like strength and then went on to the nationals. - TIME?? TO HELL WITH THAT SHIT!
Now I know that right now all of you will be thinking that I have repeated this point in most of my posts, but seriously guys, that’s the only thing that I’m really pissed off about in sports genre. I mean, yeah it is okay to take some time into showing the game in details but come on! 15 episodes for a single game of 40 minutes or so?? That’s just totally rude to him who discovered what time is!
- NO ONE CARES ABOUT THE SECOND YEARS:
The ‘OTHER’ 2nd year team members
In all those sports anime where there are no shortage of members, the only characters who get attention are the third year and the first year students, as for the second year students……. wait, was there any?? Now don’t get me wrong, there is some focus on second years like the characters Tanba, Nishinoya (Haikyuu), Miyuki and Kuramochi (Ace of Diamond), but the number doesn’t exceed than 2, as for the rest of them….. Man, to hell with them! No one cares. It’s a sad life for the second year members. - THE UNDER-CONFIDENT ONE:
Every sports anime, and by every I mean every, will have this one team member who does his job really well and has given much support to the team, but is always scared. I mean, why are you always so scared? At one point you get really pissed off by the fact that these guys are there in every single sports anime. Can’t someone try something else? - THE MAIN CHARACTER IS NOT FAMOUS:
In case you didn’t understand what I meant, allow me to explain this cliché to you. All the main characters in these kinds of anime are not from any prestigious middle school and all they posses is raw talent. They don’t really get much attention by the audience at first, but as soon as the team reaches semi-finals, that guy suddenly becomes the most popular member of the team and all those extra audiences have these dialogues, “Who is that kid?”, “Which middle school is he from?”, “That kid has talent” and some other nonsensical comments like that.
So that sums up my post for the clichés of sports anime. What did you think about my post? Do you have any other clichés you could think of? Let me know in the comments below and also thank you for reading my post!
Ryuuji Tatsuya's Anime Corner 
It’s kind of impossible to spoil most of these sports anime by now because they are already pretty well discussed everywhere anyway. Have to agree with you about these cliches and its part of the reason I’ve never been a big fan of sports anime. Then again, most genres are riddled with their own cliches so I should probably let that go as a complaint.
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The story of a sports anime is somewhat the same wherever we go and you pointed it out well that it has now become impossible to spoil this genre. Even though sports genre has it’s own cliches, I still like them, maybe because it often makes us feel enthusiastic. Thanks for reading my post! 🙂
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Good post. I had an argument with some idiot about days. Yeah sure days has it’s problems however it is a good underdog story that is quite real – for most people have to earn their stripes ie gain any form of talent and work hard on it. Unlike most of these sports anime where the main character as you correctly put it; has raw talent. With little to no training. And they instantly become “ace” in just one to two episodes. And yeah they are so predictable. They lose the main game – where the entire team suddenly becomes relevent, but yet throught out the entire season they were irrelevent.
Urgh I’m just ranting now. Keep up the posts!! :D.
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I’m glad you liked my post. I realise that sports anime tries to focus on the success story of the protagonist but sometimes they take it to the next level a little too soon.
I actually get really upset when they make us believe that their team is an ultimate one but then they lose horribly in a main game. I’m happy that it is not only me who has felt that. Thanks for reading my post!
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Hmm… I completely agree… Also, what about that shy female manager… Or the tomboy manager in case of KNB and Cross Game?
And I believe the anime untouched in India is slowly changing…. I know a bunch of people from there who I mail and stuff, and they tell me that several other students have started to watch anime. Fret not!
We shall be the messengers of manga! (Please do ignore the synonym MOM- totally not intentional- I swear.)
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Every female manager in sports anime mostly serves to be a kind of fan service, be it the cute one from Haikyuu!! or the tomboy type from KNB (I still can’t say that the one from KNB was cute, but anyway).
I know that there are some people here who are also a fellow anime viewer like me, but the only problem with it is that, even though I know they exist, I haven’t got the chance to meet with them in person. I hope I get to… some day. Thanks for reading my post and glad that you agree with it!
PS: I will be glad to be part of the Messengers of Manga. (Totally not MOM lol)
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Pretty much nail on the head there. The lead constantly being a plucky underdog is fun, probably Mishashi in Big Windup and Hinata in Haikyuu!! are my favorites. I haven’t watched past season one of Haikyuu!! yet, but I like them LOSING at the end, and the loss was just because of a tiny mishap that could’ve happened to ANYBODY. That made it feel that much more authentic.
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Some so-called “analysts” from rival schools will always be present among the audience during a game, sometimes in a corner. They watch the match intently and give random commentaries. One is a veteran/master and the other is a rookie 😀
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That’s another good point, can’t believe I missed it. Indeed, it’s sometimes cringey that these veterans would suddenly pop out of nowhere and will give serious commentaries about stuff that is yet to happen in the game. What’s even more frustrating is the fact that they are able to foresee any game moves that even the one doing it was unaware of. Thanks for sharing your views!
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And then the characters who are playing the specific sport will act what those “analysts” have commented 😀
– If those “analysts” say that this person is getting tired, the guy they are referring to will indeed be tired.
– If they say that this player is heating up, or is “in the zone,” you can see that the specific player is getting serious, and/or will give an evil-ish smile.
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Exactly! I realise that the creator wants a medium to help the viewers follow with what’s going on in the game, as some might not be familiar with the rules of that sport, but seriously, having a veteran predict future and a rookie asking obvious and in some case, dumb questions, just makes it a little bit unbearable to watch.
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Their usual lines:
Rookie: Is that what I think it is..?
Veteran: You are correct.. (insert explanation of situation/skill)
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