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| Hinata Shouyou, you will conquer the world someday with the National team, receiving Olympic Gold(s) on your repertoire. Considering your progress and ambitions, you are definitely on the road to becoming a nationally recognized figure, more than any other undersized ace from any other school ever. You will shock the Americans and the Brazilians so much in-universe they will admire your tenacity and skill. I will cheer you guys on! |
Maybe because I can like sports if people just sat me down either by telling me the rules and everything that goes into it (most sports anime did explain their basics along with some spins such as sports psychology in Oofuri's end) or by telling me in a dramatic story (I am quite good with that, considering my goal and I take the time to analyze through anything writing-wise). It worked for me with a lot of sports or games I wouldn't consider playing for the life of me, knowing I am terrible at them. Hikaru no Go is an awesome manga that I will always recommend and it's always on my upper list of sports anime recommendation on board games and altogether with physical sports games. I hoped to write a sports story myself in the future because that is how deep my love for it is. Sure, fairy tales and myths would take more priority as well as exploring alternate dimensions and differences in such a world.
Sports anime rarely go onto the world stage; they will mention it if there are character's goals in mind like Rin Matsuoka. Understandably too because there are lots of things going into making more than just the national stage with payments for loads of stuff like coaches. I mean just look at Hajime no Ippo as an example. There are lots more stakes involved. Olympics or whatever international competition is usually reserved for those who have lofty ambitions to actually make it such as the Oddball Duo, Hinata Shouyou and Kageyama Tobio. This is why YOI is surprising because it focused on the international stage; because narratively, it centered on Yuuri's ambitions to skate side-by-side Viktor, not on his rise to fame as Japan's top figure skater. Seriously, Yuuri is a well-written unreliable narrator.
The Olympics is the world stage, given the acclaim. Even Hetalia gave trivia about it. My family always go to watch the men's swimming events and other events too if they're on. I remembered my brother turning on the TV to play the golf event one time. Now that I think about it, one TV displayed my family's regular channels and the other the Olympics.
Then there are events instated into the Olympic curriculum in Tokyo 2020.
Seriously, though, in-universe, those who would go onto that stage would definitely shock the world with their unpredictability and get that gold for Japan. Japan, in-universe, will be so proud of their athletes. Their family and friends will proudly boast their victory for a long time.
Remember that the timeline in the series is definitely unless stated. What year are they living in? Are Rin and Haru going to participate in London, Rio or the Tokyo Olympics when they make the national team? There are some fanfics that just made these athletes participate in the closest or the future event at the time the fic was written.
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| Ah... I'm pretty sure you two with your training would get the gold. You would make the Iwatobi Swim Club proud and recognized. Your childhood rivalry would be milked by the media, don't forget about it. |
So these are just speculations who are likely to go either on the national or international stage in the sports anime. No, if there is a series that already displayed the professional stage (or at the least working toward that) at that point like Baby Steps, Major and Yuri on Ice, then I won't put on here. I am also disregarding anything that has any kind of international stage for non-physical sports too such as Hikaru no Go where the final arc, the Hokuto Cup arc, was international. Of course, given their profession, go-pros are going to compete internationally one way or another. Even with my limited sports knowledge, I'm pretty sure there are international events.
Of course, I'm not even putting in Yu-Gi-Oh in this because we already saw how the card game even made it into the international stages already in later series. I still adore YGO, don't forget it but when it's already clear that many players such as Syrus and Chazz would do well in the pros. Even when Jaden is not a pro - surprisingly, given his character development, I don't see him pursuing a route of pro dueling, probably traveling and teaching. It took time-traveling to get back into the spirit of passionate dueling again but I don't think Jaden minded about becoming a nomadic traveler and teaching people to duel. While I am sure Yugi is proud of his title of King of Games, he would be just as happy for anyone to play happily as they used to. Even if it's a worthy opponent who preferred other routes in life. I seriously worried about the health of those playing Duel Monsters in the media because the sanity is so thin to slip such as in the case of Zane. Zane, dear, you should work on your health and sanity before choosing to go back to the pros. While I'm sure the pro world would be dubious welcoming you back, I'm pretty sure Kaiba, Yugi, and Joey would let it slide, given the shit, they went through. And I just know that the future works, just like Digimon Tamers, would make things realistic but also not at the price of what makes YGO popular in the first place. YGOGX kept the spirit despite its deconstruction. There is nothing wrong with realism but when you focus on realism above characterization and plot, it will the story die faster than the speed of light. Just look at Steven Universe, who focus on deconstruction to the point it dragged the story down. Just like VLD which focuses way too much on the darker stuff without anything real and honest about it. It's dark for the sake of darkness and that's one of the worst things you do when writing something dark.
On the upside, we know that these guys would not take steroids because these people are talented as fuck and they know it. Kageyama and Hinata would refuse to take them because they want hard work and their own skills, not drugs. Although accusations would still spring about though... They would refuse to let their hard work go to waste simply because of drugs. Some might have peer pressure going in but come on, these guys would know right from wrong...depending on their character. I can trust these guys over Lance Armstrong at any time of the day.
By the way, this post might be updated with more once I remembered more sports anime.
Daiya no Ace: Miyuki Kazuya, Sawamura Eijun, Haruichi, Mei, Raichi, Tetsuya, and that's what I know. As much as I don't like Terajima's writing of Furuya, Furuya is likely going to go to the pros too. But that guy needs to grow first. I don't know about Chris though. Given his connections, he would likely make an American team. Now we know he hasn't broken it completely, it just would take time for his shoulder to regain mobility to play again. I know Chris doesn't mind it now, given his character development.
These guys I can see going pro just because of their sheer love for it. It's not just because they are so talented they would be scouted. I'm pretty sure people would want Raichi in the pros the moment he could graduate high school. Even when he made his debut, offers would likely come in and Raichi's dad would likely keep track of them if they're still interested as high school goes on.
Even without Sawamura's current goal to be an ace, I'm pretty sure Sawamura would go pro. He, like Hinata, is my sunshine in their series and I will defend their character. No, I am not a stan, but I make this clear that when things go wrong, especially in DNA, Sawamura usually brings a smile. Unlike Haikyuu which stayed well-written in its run, DNA has its dreary days that can only be lightened up by Sawamura.
Haikyuu: Personally, there's plenty of people who could go into the pros. The most who are definitely going to keep playing volleyball professionally was Kageyama Tobio, Hinata Shouyou, Oikawa Tooru, Ushiwaka, Bokuto Kentarou, and that's on the Miyagi Prefecture.
I don't see a majority of the current Karasuno team going pro though joining a volleyball club either in uni or as adults much like the alumnus is still very open. About Nishinoya, I can see him going pro in the future but I wasn't exactly sure. The rest of the cast from other teams I really don't see going pro despite their skills, not even Kuroo or Lev or Goshiki or Aone or Kanji. For Kei's character development, he didn't seem the type to go pro despite his recent love for it. Let's not forget that just because he wanted to block Hinata does not mean he wants to pursue life on the international waters. It's like forcing a talented writer to become a published author despite the author's wishes. Talented lot no doubt, but I don't think they would want to go into professional work. There's a difference between high school/university sport vs actual professional work as a sportsman. Being a pro athlete means more than just time and money.
We know Kageyama's head is always filled with volleyball to the point his dream is to play it on the international field. He already on track to get there too, being invited by the Japan under-19 training camp. Hinata is heading there, albeit at a slower pace because he didn't have the same exposure as Kageyama, who was already known as a prodigy. He is getting noticed during his first nationals and I trust Furudate to take him where he needed to go. Kageyama and Hinata made a promise in the manga to go to the Olympics together. Aside from the romantic implications, it's a done deal from the beginning since Hinata is fucking talented and ambitious. They're a pair since the start of their partnership and I can't see them separating when it comes to volleyball. Except maybe to evolve their training such as in the case in the training arc previous to the Spring Nationals and the Qualifiers.
Is Furudate going to go through the many things Hinata and Kageyama need to participate in the international field? Not just logistically, but with time and money and managers and so forth. Because I think they would have lots of supporters when they graduate. Karasuno would be so proud to see them play in the Olympics.
Honestly, I hope one of the last pictures we see of Hinata and Kageyama is them participating in the Olympics together. Just seeing canonical panels of the culmination of their effort would make me a happy camper.
Free!: Rin and Haru. I will say this: I'm never the one to ship rivals, very rare I do. I shipped Contestshipping (May/Haruka X Drew/Shuu) and Appealshipping (Dawn/Hikari X Zoey/Nozomi) but I certainly don't ship RinHaru, even when the rivalry eventually went to friendly. I don't know even know my thought process for even picking a rivalry-turn-romance.
Now for Haru, I actually didn't see him pursuing a career in professional swimming, no matter how talented he might be. He wanted to be 'free', whatever that means in his definition. I don't think being a pro swimmer would be free. Remember this is my thought before the finale of the second season. I'm still ambivalent, don't forget it, but I don't see the point of it bothering me so much it should take over my life. I have better things to worry about like getting a job.
I haven't even seen the third season of Free yet so yeah, the Free finales don't bother me much anymore since I long since moved on. I already moved forward from VLD so no worries about trauma or long time salt or anything like that. Given that I saw something similar happened to VLD in other forms of media, I'm not that worried about it.
I'm more surprised Free is still continuing well to this day. Is there more to the story? I know that they bought back characters in the movie in the later seasons but I have no clue that they planned more to it. I know YOI would still continue, of course.
Oofuri: Tajima, maybe Abe. I don't even know about our star pitcher, Mihashi. And that's on Nishiura side of things.
I actually don't see a lot of people going into pro baseball in this end. Like I see a lot of players in Daiya no Ace becoming pros but I barely see anybody in Oofuri who desires a place in the international stage. The most interesting part of Oofuri was sports psychology, written by someone who knows said psychology.
Just because they want to go to Nationals and play on the said stage does not negate their later pursuits in life.
Kuroko no Basuke: Surprisingly, none of the MiraGen made on the list of going pro, not even Aomine. The only character I see going pro would be Kagami Taiga and even then, that's dubious. Just because they love basketball does not mean they wish to pursue internationally like Hinata and Kageyama who think of volleyball almost all the time. Seriously, Kageyama would break if he was never ever to play volleyball again. I'm pretty sure the MiraGen and Kagami could live without basketball. This had been my mindset well before I saw the jobs like Firefighter Kagami or Kindergarten Teacher Kuroko or Pro Shogi player Akashi or Pilot Kise. Seriously, I thought Murasakibara would be much happier baking in his little patisserie than he would be playing basketball professionally.
Yowamushi Pedal: Like the Haikyuu examples, there are a lot of people that have the potential to go pro. I don't know about the future goals of these characters unless they truly honestly love the sport to the point they want to travel around the world to participate. I have no fucking clue until we get to the third year. I can see Naruko and Iwaizumi going pro. Onoda became a cyclist because it brings him friends. I can see him continuing to cycle in university and in his free time exempting the time fanboying over anime. I'm pretty sure he will still watch cycling and communicate with his friends but I don't see him pursuing a life cycling on the more international
...At least, I know that they would refuse the doping culture prevalent in the professional road racing sport. The characters would know from right and wrong although I do see them coming down with peer pressure and actually take it but utterly refuse a doping program. Even if pro cycling is getting better these days with Lance Armstrong and his former teammates hanging as a warning sign, there would still be the peer pressure of stupidity. Steroids are not going to make them better. The point of sports anime is that your spirit would strive you to go over the limit, reality be damned. Even if it means breaking your body.
Whether it was the national court or it would be the international games, I'm sure you will do well. Shock the world with your unpredictability that I love so much~! Silence those who don't expect Japan to make a humongous comeback with more than determined than ever. Isn't sports anime, across many tackling of genres like slice-of-life or just upfront Japanese spirit, is just that?
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