20 Most Influential Sports Mangas and Anime, according to Charapedia ⋆ Anime & Manga

The sports genre has always been one of the most popular genres in both anime and manga, and have often inspired readers and viewers to take up the sport that series is about such as basketball, football, and swimming. For this week’s poll by Japanese anime character database, Charapedia, they have asked their reader which sports anime or manga series has influenced them the most.

The poll asked 10,000 fans, 46.6% were male while 53.4% were female. Here are the Top 20:

20) Aim for the Ace! (tennis)

19) Giant Killing (football)

18) Kenkou Zenrakei Suieibu Umishou (swimming)

17) Baby Steps (tennis)

16) Hajime no Ippo (boxing)

15) Touch (baseball)

14) H2 (baseball)

13) Ro-Kyu-Bu! (basketball)

12) Big Windup! (baseball)

11) Eyeshield 21 (American Football)

10) Inazuma Eleven (Football)

9) Ace of the Diamond (Baseball)

8) Yowamushi Pedal (Cycling)

7) Captain Tsubasa (Football)

6) Free! (Swimming)

5) Major (Baseball)

4) The Prince of Tennis (Tennis)

3) Haikyuu! (Volleyball)

2) Slam Dunk (Basketball)

1) Kuroko’s Basketball (Basketball)

Basketball takes the top 2 spots (as well as the #13 spot for Ro-Kyu-Bu!) in this list which featured a whole lot of baseball, football, and tennis anime. The Top 2 wins by Kuroko’s Basketball and Slam Dunk aren’t very surprising as these two Basketball series are considered by many to be two of the most influential anime and manga series in history.

And looks like plenty of people got interested in volleyball thanks to Haikyuu!, as the #3 ranked anime has proven to be very popular to females. Prince of Tennis meanwhile has been known to get a lot of people started in the sport of tennis, while Japan, already being baseball crazy like the United States, has proven why they are one of the best in the sports with Major over at #5.

So which sports anime has influenced you?