LiA Bespoke is back. Once again the benefactor is the incredibly generous Nicc, LiA MVP. And the commission this time is a straightforward one, my top ten sports anime.
Or is it?
As I’ve waded into this project, I’ve come to realize that it’s not nearly so straightforward as it seems. The main reason is that deciding what is and isn’t a “sports anime” is damn hard. I think we can all agree that Haikyuu!! or Ace of Diamond are sports anime. But where does one draw the line? How about series focused on a game like Karuta or Go? Or dancing (ballroom or ballet), or music? Then there’s the matter of how to measure franchise anime – as a collective whole, or by their individual incarnations?
As is almost always the case in these situations, I have to take an arbitrary view and just choose. So I’ve arbitrarily chosen to judge a franchise by its collective body of work. And as regards definitional questions, I’m just going with my gut. If it feels like a sports series to me, that’s what I’m calling it. In one area there’s clarity – this list applies only to anime, not manga (at Nicc’s request). Most of these shows have manga of course, but my criteria will be judging the anime only. And it probably goes without saying, but there are sure to be omissions that puzzle and annoy some readers, but remember – this is my personal favorites list, not an attempt to objectively identify the “10 best”.
As it’s become something of a tradition at LiA, if a few folks want to take a shot at guessing the top 10 (which I suspect will be devilishly difficult in this case), I’ll do a custom haiku for the winner.
So, without further ado, let’s hit the list:
Honorable Mention – Kono Oto Tomare
Kono Oto Tomare as a sports anime is right on the knife’s edge for me. I think one could make the case that all “music club” anime are sports anime structurally. And this one certainly observes a lot of the customs. It was almost a coin-flip but the can of worms I would have opened by admitting this one gave me pause in the end. Whatever you call it, Stop This Sound is a great and emotionally powerful piece of work, an anime that makes full use of the medium to deliver a fuller experience than the manga could.
The post LiA Bespoke Project : The Top 10 Sports Anime – Honorable Mention appeared first on Lost in Anime.
