Sports Manga Reviews

155 reviews in this genre

Wanna Be the Strongest in the World!
Sports / Action

Wanna Be the Strongest in the World! Review: A Pop Idol Enters Professional Wrestling and Takes It Completely Seriously

by Shoji Gatoh (Story) / Kengo Matsumoto (Art)

Yu's review of Wanna Be the Strongest in the World! — Sakura Hagiwara is a member of the idol group Sweet Diva; after an altercation with a professional wrestler, she decides to enter women's professional wrestling herself; the series follows her training and career through the sport she is entirely unprepared for.

★★★☆☆Completed
Teppu
Sports / Drama

Teppu Review: A Girl Who Has Always Won at Everything Discovers Mixed Martial Arts and Meets the First Person Who Makes Her Want to Fight

by Moare Ohta

Yu's review of Teppu — Natsuo Ishido is a natural athlete who has won everything she has tried without effort and resents every second of it; when she meets a girl who fights MMA with genuine passion despite not being naturally gifted, Natsuo joins an MMA gym to find out what it means to want something.

★★★★★Completed
Dokaben Super Stars
Sports / Drama

Dokaben Super Stars Review: What Happens When Legends Return to the Game They Never Left

by Shinji Mizushima

Dokaben Super Stars is the professional baseball continuation of the legendary Dokaben series, following Taro Yamada and his teammates as they move from high school heroes to professional players on the same team — and discovering that the professional game is a different kind of challenge from anything their high school careers prepared them for.

★★★★Completed
One Pound Gospel
Sports / Comedy

One Pound Gospel Review: A Talented Boxer Who Can't Stop Eating and the Nun Who Believes in Him Anyway

by Rumiko Takahashi

Yu's review of One Pound Gospel — Kōsaku Hatanaka is a genuinely talented featherweight boxer with one catastrophic flaw: he can't stop eating, constantly missing weight for his fights; Sister Angela, a young nun, becomes his most unlikely source of encouragement; Rumiko Takahashi's compact boxing comedy with a warm central relationship.

★★★★Completed
New Prince of Tennis
Sports

New Prince of Tennis Review: The Tennis Players Get Sent to a Training Camp Where Normal Physics Stop Applying

by Takeshi Konomi

Yu's review of New Prince of Tennis — the sequel to The Prince of Tennis; Ryoma Echizen and Japan's top middle school tennis players are invited to a U-17 national training camp where the high school players are even more powerful and the tennis becomes increasingly divorced from physical reality; the sequel escalates the original's supernatural sports to maximum extremes.

★★★☆☆Ongoing
Mitsudomoe
Sports / Comedy

Mitsudomoe Review: Three Sisters Who Are Impossible to Control and the Teacher Who Is Not Prepared for Them

by Norio Sakurai

Yu's review of Mitsudomoe — Yabe Satoshi is a new teacher at an elementary school; his class contains the Marui triplets: Mitsuba, who is manipulative and vain; Futaba, who is incredibly strong and fixated on the physical; and Hitoha, who is terrifying to everyone around her for reasons she doesn't fully understand; the series follows his attempts to manage a classroom that manages him instead.

★★★★Completed
Major
Sports / Drama

Major Review: A Boy Who Wants to Be a Pro Baseball Player Like His Father Pursues That Dream Through Every Obstacle Life Creates

by Takuya Mitsuda

Yu's review of Major — Goro Honda is the son of a professional baseball player; when loss defines his childhood, baseball becomes how he carries his father forward; the series follows Goro from little league through professional baseball across 78 volumes, one of the longest complete sports manga stories ever told.

★★★★★Completed
Knight in the Area
Sports

Knight in the Area Review: A Soccer Prodigy's Brother Teaches Him That Hard Work Can Rival Raw Talent

by Hiroaki Igano

Yu's review of Knight in the Area (Area no Kishi) — Kakeru Aizawa is a timid soccer boy who manages his school's soccer team while his older brother Suguru is a genuine prodigy; after a life-changing accident, Kakeru discovers that the potential his brother always believed in was real; a long-running soccer manga with genuine emotional stakes and technical depth.

★★★★Completed
Kakegurui
Sports / Psychological

Kakegurui Review: At a School Where Status Is Determined by Gambling, a New Transfer Student Arrives Who Actually Enjoys Losing

by Homura Kawamoto / Toru Naomura

Yu's review of Kakegurui — Hyakkaou Private Academy determines student hierarchy through gambling; transfer student Yumeko Jabami arrives and reveals she is not playing for money or status but for the pure pleasure of risking everything, which systematically dismantles everyone who thought they were in control.

★★★★Ongoing
How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?
Sports / Comedy

How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? Review: A Gyaru Discovers Fitness and the Manga Becomes a Workout Guide

by Yabako Sandrovich (Story) / MAAM (Art)

Yu's review of How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? — Hibiki Sakura, a high school gyaru worried about weight gain, joins a gym with the intention of losing some pounds; she finds the gym populated by muscle-obsessed regulars, a personal trainer with suspiciously good looks and suspicious enthusiasm, and a fellow student who turns out to be a serious competitive bodybuilder; the series is structured around actual exercise instruction embedded in comedy.

★★★★Completed
Girls und Panzer
Sports / Action

Girls und Panzer Review: High School Girls Compete in Tank Warfare as a Martial Art

by Ryousuke Ryuura

Yu's review of Girls und Panzer — in a world where operating tanks in competitive combat is a traditional martial art for girls (called Sensha-do), Miho Nishizumi transfers to Ooarai Girls High School and finds the school has restarted its long-dormant Sensha-do club; she must lead a team using tanks from a dozen different nations against schools with much stronger programs.

★★★★Completed
Giant Killing
Sports

Giant Killing Review: A Legendary Dropout Returns to Coach His Struggling Hometown Football Club

by Masaya Tsunamoto / Tsujitomo

Yu's review of Giant Killing — Takeshi Tatsumi, a player who disappeared from Japanese professional soccer and became a legend coaching a small English team, is hired to rescue East Tokyo United from the bottom of the J-League; a soccer management drama that treats the tactical and human sides of sports organization with equal seriousness.

★★★★★Ongoing
Cross Manage
Sports

Cross Manage Review: A Delinquent Becomes a Girls Lacrosse Team Manager and Discovers What He's Good At

by KAITO

Yu's review of Cross Manage — Takasugi Misora was a champion lacrosse player until injury ended his career; he reluctantly becomes manager of his school's girls lacrosse team; a sports manga about the strategic and supportive role of management, the rehabilitation of someone who lost their path, and what it means to contribute from behind the scenes.

★★★★Completed
Crimson Hero
Sports / Drama

Crimson Hero Review: A Girl Born to Run the Family Restaurant Chooses Volleyball Instead — and Pays for It

by Mitsuba Takanashi

Yu's review of Crimson Hero — Nobara Sumiyoshi is the eldest daughter of a traditional Japanese restaurant family and is expected to take over; she chooses volleyball instead, is cut off by her family, and must rebuild her life around the sport she loves while fighting to get her school's girls' volleyball club taken seriously.

★★★★Completed
Battle Club
Sports / Comedy

Battle Club Review: High School Wrestling Comedy With Technique, Chaos, and the World's Most Unlikely Team

by Yuji Shiozaki

Yu's review of Battle Club — Mokichi Utagawa joins a high school wrestling club that turns out to be far more chaotic than expected; the series mixes genuine wrestling technique with sports comedy and a cast of increasingly unusual members; a wrestling manga that takes the sport seriously while surrounding it with absurdist humor.

★★★☆☆Completed
Bakuon!!
Sports / Comedy

Bakuon!! Review: High School Girls Discover Motorcycles and the Freedom of the Open Road Together

by Mimana Orimoto

Yu's review of Bakuon!! — Hane Sakura notices a girl on a motorcycle during her commute and is immediately drawn to two-wheel transportation; she joins her school's motorcycle club, acquires a vintage bike, and enters a world of very specific brand loyalties, riding culture, and the peculiar freedom of motorcycle riding; a comedy manga about motorcycle enthusiasm with genuine affection for its subject.

★★★★Completed