Call me crazy, but as a 16-year-old teenage girl I find it quite appealing to watch animes with guys sweating really hard while playing a sport, and doing that same sport for almost every single episode. It's literally supposed to be a girl's worst nightmare, right?
Many people look down on sports animal because they're SUPER repetitive and even I'll admit this as a fan, but there's just something about them that really grabs my attention and keeps me watching them. Of course it helps if I'm watching bishies (very attractive men) playing it (oh ho hoho~ Kuruko no basket = full of them) but I also have tried watching ones that have fairly..."average" looking guys. I find that it's not necessarily the appeal that draws me in, but rather the amount of energy and action found in sports animes.
So I'm sitting down now and asking myself:
What is it EXACTLY that makes sports animes "so interesting" to watch?
Everyone has their personal tastes, and of course if we find connections in an anime or can relate to it more, then we grow a closer bond with it HOWEVER this is not the case with the sports anime I watch because I happen to be the least athletic person probably in the entire world. I'm not even exagerating. Okay, maybe I'm a little better off than people who can't exactly do sports due to an injury but you kind of get my point. Sports are just...not for me.
I literally watched the anime "Big Windup!" without a clue about baseball I've even been playing softball in Physical Education (gym) class ever since the 3rd grade...but I honestly didn't know crap about it until watching this anime. Heck, they kept talking about "ace this...""ace that" and it took me a good 5 episodes to realize what the heck they were talking about. Turns out they were referring their PITCHER as the ace...yeah took me awhile. I also didn't know that pitchers threw balls so fast. Dang. I average about 13 mph and I'd say that's pretty impressive. The balls I pitch even slow down in the air. They take approximately an hour to reach you just because it'll never reach you, haha. My aim is pretty laughable.
Enough about my impressive baseball skills and knowledge, haha, I actually was enamored by the improvement every single person on the team made in Big Windup! You see each character's skill improve and with each match or when they're practicing you watch them transform into a better player. The INTENSE matches they have and seeing the characters struggle to win...seeing all of their hard work pay off is really rewarding to me. They gain confidence, improved their skill, and that one moment when that one overly anxious pitcher on their the team (I'm super bad with names) pitched against that other pitcher (the...guy he was scared of. I think his name was Kanou...? YOU KNOW WHAT...JUST WATCH IT AND YOU'LL KNOW WHO I'M TALKING ABOUT! srry I'm really bad at explaining...) I was literally squealing. These two were literally fighting for the title of 'ace pitcher' and competing to see who was better. Of course the anxious pitcher is freaking out because he thinks he isn't good enough but with all the hard work he put into his pitching, it definitely paid off. I JUMPED out of my seat watching this glorious victory!!! I don't know why. Okay, I do and the FULL explanation will be elaborated in another blog entry but I tend to have this obsessions with RIVALS. When two people put all their effort in trying to do something better than another person, I get all excited especially seeing them confront each other and have this EPIC BATTLEEE!!
Okay, in sports animes they don't exactly engage in an "epic battle" as I described HOWEVER they do engage in an epic match. A perfect example would be Prince of Tennis where they literally are not playing tennis but throwing a dangerous ball around using super non-human abilities that are literally aiming to kill the other player. I'm serious. Some of these moves can literally leave a person immobile FOR LIFE...FOR LIFEE!! I'm not even kidding. Dead serious. Ryoma's pretty much considered EVERYONE'S rival because to be honest, this guy just can't be stopped. His arrogance actually makes me die a little inside everytime just because someone srsly needs to teach this little boy manners, but at the same time I get all excited and find myself stupidly repeating his infamous line: "Madamada dane!" which means "not yet!" after he beats up everyone. Basically he's saying "You're not good enough". I'd kill the brat if I played him and he said this to me, but for some reason I'm fine with him saying it to others. Hmm, must be because they're not me, lol that makes perfect sense yet it doesn't at the same time...
Anyways, I'm a pretty normal girl...okay, maybe not...but I'm pretty positive most people like it when there are rivals too. It makes things so much more interesting to watch and I'm not talking about LOVE rivals (blehh) I'm talking about I'M KIRA AND I'M GOING TO BE GOD OF THE NEW WORLD versus L THE AWESOME DETECTIVE GUY OF JUSTICE rival!! Or I'M LULU WHO IS ZERO WHO WILL CHANGE THE ENTIRE WORLD BY MY OWN POWERRR against SUZAKU WHO TRIES TO OBTAIN POWER THROUGH GOING THROUGH THE VERY SYSTEM THE WANTS TO DESTROY AND EVEN ENDS UP WORKING FOR THEM BY JOINING THE ARMY AND...*takes a breath* yeahh that kind of rivalry. I can go on about a couple of more but you get my idea. Sports animes have the BEST rival scenes as well because in general sports creates an atmosphere that just encourages rivalry. I'm just sitting there WAITING for two people to go like " I CHALLENGE YOUUU" and...is it just me? Really? I must be some sort of a freak.
Mehh...whatever. I honestly could care less whether I'm a psycho/hysterical.
I think I know why sports animes are so freaking awesome.
One word, my friends: epicness. Don't understand that word?
Watch an episode of a sports anime and you may be able to get a glimpse of what that word means.
Watch the entire anime...and you will understand. Trust me.
↧