There’s even a manga about curling (that, sadly, doesn’t have an adaptation).
The sports genre is famous for its modern staples like Haikyuu!! and Kuroko’s Basketball (Kuroko no Basuke). The popularity of both makes sense: volleyball and basketball are familiar to many and can be understood even with little knowledge of actual rules.
In Japan, one of the most popular sports is baseball, which can be seen by the sheer number of anime focusing on it. Despite that, there are many anime about different sports, some of which are quite obscure. You wouldn’t expect some of these to ever have an anime — let’s look at them!
Golf (Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story)
Birdie Wing is not the only anime focusing on golf — many years ago there were anime like Dan-Doh!! and Pro Golfer Saru. Outside of those, however, the sport wasn’t exactly in the spotlight in anime until Birdie Wing came out.
Otaku praise the series for its over-the-top presentation and charismatic characters, which compensate for the actual sport having some dull moments.
Archery (Tsurune: Kazemai High School Kyudo Club)
There’s just something magically serene about watching people shoot the target with the bow. And the feeling doubles when the sport is animated by the studio known for consistently making the best-looking anime in the industry: Kyoto Animation.
While the reception of the first season of Tsurune was mixed, the common opinion is that the series gets much better in season two, becoming a very realistic character-focused drama.
Water polo (Re-Main)
Water polo is very interesting to watch, and it’s actually very weird that it never got more anime. The one series it got, Re-Main, is actually incredibly underrated: it doesn’t exactly follow the classic sports anime formula, but that’s because it’s an anime original.
Such projects are a rarity nowadays, and with both an unusual subject matter and a different approach to storytelling, Re-Main is a great watch.
Rock climbing (Iwa Kakeru! Sport Climbing Girls)
Yes, rock climbing is an actual sport. It was even added to the Olympic Games in 2020 — coincidentally, that’s also the year Iwa Kakeru came out.
While the anime didn’t end up being much more than another weird anime about girls getting into a crazy hobby, it is still worth watching for the obscure sport alone.
Horseback riding (Fanfare of Adolescence)
Horseback riding is actually very popular in Japan. Despite that, it doesn’t have many anime made about it. Yes, there was a visual novel and anime called Walkure Romanze back in the 2010s, but it focused more on the romantic relationships between the characters.
Fanfare of Adolescence (Gunjou no Fanfare) is a recent series about a boy suddenly enrolling in a horse racing school. The plot takes off from there, and it’s a very solid watch. Like the aforementioned Re-Main, Fanfare of Adolescence is an anime-original series, which is probably why it flew under the radar of many otaku.