2024] Hot Blooded, Inspiring! 10 Recommended Sports Manga! From Sporune to New Olympic Athletes!

The 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be held in Paris, France, beginning July 26, 2024. At the Olympics, 329 events in 32 competitions will be held with the addition of a new breakdance competition. At the Paralympics, 22 events are scheduled to be held.

In this article, we pick up 10 sports manga based on the competitions to be held at the 2024 Olympics. We hope they will help you find a manga that will move your heart.

Item: Heaven's Runner; Rally Game; Bullet Tackle; Three Star; rock throw; Baby Steps; One Wing Shuttle; SK8R'S; Men's water!; Yushun's Gate 2020 Equestrian

Recommended Sports Manga

Heaven's Runner by Hikaru Nikaido / 7 volumes

Akira, a high school student with an eerie high smile at all times, is called a "monster" by those around him because of his appearance. One day, Akira meets Yumiko, a classmate with a cheerful personality, who is running along the street at night for a voluntary training session, and they end up running together.
Akira, who showed amazing running ability that was hard to believe for an amateur, was invited by Yumiko to join the track and field club. Akira is eager to make friends there. With his physical gifts and unusual motivation, Akira takes the high school track and field world by storm!
Despite the author's comment, "This is not a gag manga," the story is full of ironic and amusing tidbits, such as Akira enjoying hell and falling to the ground. However, the sense of speed and the serious expressions on the characters' faces when they start running give the reader a tingling sense of tension as well.
The game is also the first DLC for the 2015 PlayStation3 game "Downtown Nekketsu Koshinkyoku Soreyuke Daiundoukai - All-Star Special," which was released in 2015.

God's Valley by Tsuruya Watanabe and Yasumasa Nishizaki

Azuki, an analyst who has twice led a business team to victory by giving instructions from off the bench. One day after a match, in the presence of the current coach and the president of the business team, Azuki dared him to give up his seat as coach. The chairman then said that if the junior high school's weak volleyball team could win the national championship, he would offer him the position of All-Japan coach.
The weak volleyball club is coached by a former candidate for the national team, a man who likes to use his guts and spirit, and is in stark contrast to the IT volleyball team, but he takes bold action to change the mindset of the club members toward a national championship!
The story centers on an analyst called "Data Strategy Staff," but by using junior high school volleyball as its subject matter, the story can be read easily. The junior high school students, who do not have any special personalities, use their brains, which are unique to a preparatory school, to carry out Aguki's strategy and win the game, and the story is quite realistic.
Nowadays, analysts in volleyball are not only used by the national team and professional teams, but also by some high school teams, where they also serve as managers. This work depicts the real volleyball, and we believe that by experiencing this work, you will be able to enjoy the Olympics even more.

Bullet Tackle by Yoshiyuki Sato / 10 volumes

Noboru is a short, timid bully who is saved from being bullied by the head of the wrestling team, Hitaka. Noboru, a small, weak, bully, fights off one of the three bullies with his strong legs and back, which he acquired from helping out at his family's liquor store, and by tackling one of the bullies that Hitaka taught him, and Noboru joins the wrestling club.
Noboru heads for the club in high spirits, but the bus he takes with Asaka takes him to the venue of the rookie tournament, where he suddenly finds himself in a match against an experienced judo fighter!
He is a small man who can carry a 4-doubt barrel weighing nearly 100 kg by himself, and his tackles are like bullets. This is one of the few films based on wrestling in which the rules and techniques are explained in an easy-to-understand manner so that even wrestling novices can enjoy.
Even today, Japanese wrestling is a sport that has produced many medalists in the past. Why not read and feel wrestling, which is said to have the longest history in the world?

Three Star written by Osamu Kajisa

Tsukasa's father gave him radical ping-pong lessons when he was a child, and he rose to become a regular at national tournaments. However, an injury that nearly ended his playing career before he entered junior high school led to his parents' divorce, and Tsukasa was taken in by his mother while his father disappeared.
Tsukasa had decided not to play table tennis anymore, but by chance he learns that his father has been appointed coach of one of the most powerful table tennis clubs in the country. In order to take revenge on his father for destroying his family through table tennis, Tsukasa picks up the racket again! However, as Tsukasa focuses on surgery and treatment for an injury in order to become a competitive player again, he coincidentally finds himself in the same position as his father, that of a table tennis instructor.
Tsukasa's father's trauma flickers when he gives advice and guidance to inexperienced table tennis players, and Tsukasa's struggle to keep his mother from knowing that he has returned to table tennis is heartbreaking. However, the gut-punch of his student's first victory in a tournament is heartbreaking.
Few works on the subject of table tennis have continued for more than 10 volumes, and this work, which will be released in volume 15 at the end of May 2024, is recommended for those who want to enjoy a work in its entirety. It is a representative work of table tennis manga that was featured in a program featuring Olympic medalist Jun Mizutani.

Iwakakeru! by Ishizaka Ryudai / 6 volumes

Konomi, a junior high school student who has won all the Japanese titles in numerous puzzle games, discovers sport climbing at the high school she enters in order to break free from her crippled lifestyle. At first, he was about to give up because of the difficulty of the sport, but when he used the holds as puzzles, he was able to climb like an amateur.
He is so impressed with the holds he could not conquer that he decides to join the climbing club, which is led by a high school champion in the "lead" event. The new climbing routes created by his experience in the game greatly expand the possibilities of sport climbing.
Incidentally, "lead" is an event in which climbers climb a course set on a dozen-meter wall and compete to reach the highest altitude they can reach.
This work was adapted into a TV anime in the fall of 2020. The number of people competing in Japan is currently about 600,000, and the popularity of sport climbing, which is rapidly rising, is the focus of attention in this work.

Baby Steps by Hikaru Katsuki / 47 volumes

Eiichiro (a.k.a. A-chan), who is a perfectionist and meticulous and likes to keep notes on his classes, visits a tennis sports experience for his health. There he meets Natsu (a.k.a. Nacchan), a classmate who aspires to become a pro. Inspired by her appearance, Eiichiro joins the STC tennis club and starts playing tennis.
At first, Eiichiro could not even hit a ball back to the opponent's court, but by compiling a vast amount of information in a notebook, he grows at an explosive rate! This is an authentic tennis work in which he continues to fight against superior players while covering his shallow experience with data tennis utilizing notebooks.
Kei Nishikori, a world-renowned tennis player, and Shuzo Matsuoka, a world-renowned tennis player, are fans of this work, which has sold more than 12.6 million copies in total. It has also been made into an animated TV series and a live-action TV drama. The middle and latter half of the book depicts Eiichiro, who has become a professional player, playing an active role on the international stage, and the world expands with each successive reading.

One Wing Shuttle by Aguri Kurita / 4 volumes

Kaito, who made a name for himself in badminton doubles in junior high school, goes to a different high school from his partner. He could not get used to the club activities at his high school and was living a life like a shell of his former self. One day, however, he sees the potential in the extraordinary jumping ability of Inushiro (a.k.a. Pochi), who has been following him around, hoping to become his friend, and decides to have him practice the jumping smash.
Pochi, an amateur badminton player, learns the jumping smash in just five days, and the image of his former partner comes back to haunt him, igniting Kaitora's passion once again! There are many badminton manga, but this is one of the few that depicts men's doubles.
After the pair of Takuro Hohki and Yugo Kobayashi won the first Japanese gold medal at the World Championships in 2021, the men's doubles badminton team is said to be one of the candidates for the gold medal at this Olympics. By understanding the range of offensive and defensive swaps and strategies, we can learn the depth of badminton.

SK8R'S by Tojitsuki Hajime / 3 volumes

Akio is an elementary school student who meets a man on a skateboard in the countryside. Attracted by the skateboarder's lightweight skills that made him feel weightless, Akio called the man his master and learned skateboarding from him. One day, his master left for overseas with a skateboard and the words, "I'm going to be on the cover of Slasher. Despite his family's disapproval, Akio secretly continued to hone his skills until he was a high school student, when he began streaming skateboarding videos in the hopes of reaching his mentor. This was the catalyst for a major change in Akio's skateboarding life! The skateboarding magazine "Slasher" that appears in the film is an actual magazine, and the first gold medalist in the men's street skateboarding at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Yuto Horiyone, also graces its cover. If you like skateboarding, this is a work you should touch at least once.

Otoko Mizui! by Tatsuya Kiuchi

The men's swimming club, whose members are Shuhei, Taiki, and Harumi, all of whom have a big brotherly nature, is on the verge of falling out of the club due to lack of members. However, the club manages to survive after newcomers Taki and Harada join the club. While Taki is faithful to the basics, Harada, who calls himself athletic, is in fact a can't-do-it-all swimmer who can't even float! This is an everyday story with a relaxed atmosphere, depicting narcissists, oneei (oneei), and naturalists with strong personalities. Their efforts to seriously devote themselves to competitive swimming in an outdoor pool, a facility that is inferior to other schools, shine through. In 2017, the story was adapted into a live-action drama on NTV with Ryo Matsuda in the lead role. In the same year, the drama was adapted for the stage with its cast intact. We can't take our eyes off of these young men as they grow mentally and emotionally while experiencing both victory and defeat.

Yushun's Gate 2020 Equestrian by Takumi Yamasaki / 8 volumes

Despite a record of 99 races and one win, Moon, a racehorse loved by many fans, has retired. After undergoing a retraining process called "retraining," in which his muscles are re-trained and strengthened, Moon was re-employed in the Yo-No-Equestrian Club. However, Moon, who has a negative personality, has shut down his mind and withdrawn into his stable after losing 98 times. A volunteer coach named Tomekichi appoints Asahiko, who suffers from juvenile Parkinson's disease, to be Moon's keeper. When Asahiko turns down the offer because she is not confident in her ability to take care of Moon, she is told by Tomokichi, the overall coach, that she and Moon should compete in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics! Moon, who never even comes out of his stable, will he be able to become a competition horse? The friendship spun between Asahiko and Moon cannot be told without tears. The author, Mr. Yamasaki, made his debut in 1972 and has been a manga artist for 52 years. The old-fashioned drawing style and dialogues are sure to leave a deep impression. For readers who love horses, the "Yushun no Mon" series by the same author, which depicts racehorses, is also recommended.