Hi, after recently (re-)watching movies like Million Dollar Baby and Punch Lady I've become interested in reading/watching stories featuring female athletes.

I'm looking for manga/manwha/manhua with 'sports' as main story element featuring a female lead (single or part of a group).

Romance is ok, but only if it's decent and without love triangles.
- not looking for pervy male/boycrazy female, so ecchi and fanservice stuff is definitely out.

Any (professional) sport will do, but I'd prefer the martial arts
- judo/kendo/archery/boxing/etc.

The era in which the story takes place doesn't really matter
- though most would probably take place in the last ±100 years.

The story doesn't have to be of the 'zero-to-hero' variety, not looking for the 'WOW' factor (think Saki).

Rivalry is a good thing, but please no villain of the week kind of things and definitely no 'shadow opposition'
- i.e. mystery organization X behind the scenes that sends a new antagonist out every time the old one is defeated.

'Realistic', no (magic/super) powers or parallel dementia elements.
- Sure, the story may be somewhat exaggerated but it should have a decent sense/feeling of reality.

Some comedy is very welcome, though preferably not in 4koma/episodic like formats. I prefer continues stories.

The lead must also actually want to do the sport herself
- Not being coerced by backhanded means and not necessarily from chapter 1.
- Some pride in what she's doing would be much appreciated... definitely not 'I can't do this sport because I want to be a girly girl'. (which, sadly, there seems to be many manga of)

I'd also accept stories featuring a cross-dressing lead
- female dressing as male so she can play that sport in tournaments / male dressing as female to i.e. 'help the team', though only if it's with 'pure' intentions (keyword: pride for sport, not libido).

Example:
Yawara! - Judo, though sadly she suffers from the girly girl syndrome and has a love/hate relationship with the sport.
Bamboo Blade - Kendo, with a decent dose of humour.
Ginban Kaleidoscope - 'Gymnast'
Sayonara Football - Football
Taishou Yakyuu Musume - Baseball

I know there should be more out there but just can't seem to find them that well.

P.S. I'd also welcome any suggestions featuring board games like Chess/Shōgi/Go even though it's debatable if they are really 'sports'.

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No Side (rugby) might be work.
Actually the female lead has a guy's soul. The guy died in the middle of a rugby match and thus can't ascend, so he possess a girl body to continue playing rugby.

Nononono. This is by the author of Elfen Lied. So I will warn you in advance that it shifts between 3 modes often very abruptly. The sports aspects, the romantic comedy aspects, and the very serious drama (rape, suicide, etc.). It also suffers from a common sports manga trope of re-explaining the rules every tournament. But, with that said, its actually a rather good seinen read about a female skii jumper who poses as her twin brother in order to try to work to go to the olympics for skii jumping. Keep in mind that the 2014 olympics is going to be the first olympic games with women's skii jumping as an event, and this was written before that announcement.

Ah yes, totally forgot about No Side. Thanks for the suggestion, might restart reading it when scanlation is a bit further along.



Looks interesting, will pick this up in the near future.



I did start reading this a while back, but when she was nearly raped I stopped reading (don't like that kind of stuff, not even in a joking manner).
Does it get better after that, or will she constantly have to deal with that kind of nonsense and 'threats'?

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OMGGGGGG, You would definitely LOVEEEEEEE Crimson Hero!!!

Umm... to some extent yes, that whole incident kind of boils over. But the author does other things. I think its really just the authors style that he treats his characters very badly. Its not something that everybody enjoys. I would say that if it bothers you, don't continue.

Girl Got Game

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"Always go too far, because that's where you'll find the truth." - Albert Camus

this is kinda tough..most sports mangas i know have a male main character
Ginban Kaleidoscope is very funny and realistic about figure skating
no wins-everytime-no-matter-what kind of plot
watch the anime though
Subaru is also really good...about dancing

thats all i could think of :l
AH wait! if i remember correctly..the anime rumbling hearts has a main female interested in swimming
EDIT : oh you already know ginban kaleidoscope..
EDIT 2: Shion no Ou is a good manga about shougi it also has a complete anime adaptation

Last edited by sarah-eats-cupcakes at 9:31 am, Aug 12 2011

Green Boy (IM Jin-Gook) is great. It's a really cute coming-of-age story about a weakling who is in love with a professionally boxing classmate. It takes many hardships to make up his mind, but he finally decides that he wants to join her in becoming a boxer, supporting her as well as becoming her rival.

I'd second Shion no Ou.

And recommending Girl Fight

Crimson Hero would be good but it has love triangle at the beginning.

Kiss and Never Cry - I'm not sure if there's a triangle but it's about figure skating and something happen (it's not shown or proven, but I think she might have been raped. just warning you) that made her hate the sport. I think she still loves the sport but somewhat hate it also.

Last edited by Sachins at 12:02 pm, Aug 12 2011

Apperently I have once started reading Girl Fight and stopped after a few chapters (probably due to scanlation lag)... Will be picking it up again

After reading some reviews about Kiss & Never Cry I'm guessing it's too much focussed on drama/tragedy and wanton 'romance' for me. Thanks for the tip anyway.

With love triangles I mean double dating or constantly switching between two partners. Multiple love interests are fine (in the beginning) if the lead makes up her mind and actually chooses someone.... Hate it when a mangaka has a decent romance going for a few chapters/volumes and decides to ruin it by creating a (often stereotyped/cliched) love triangle.

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