How should you face an opponent who is bigger and scarier than yourself? Let’s increase the difficulty: How do you do it well? Further? What do you do when that enemy is part of you? Join Matthew of Team Anchester as he continues his Romans kick, this time looking at the 2018 series, Megalobox. Learn about hope in the face of despair, your relationship to sin, and what an old-fashioned, underdog, boxing anime has to do with Paul’s letter to the church in Rome and the modern Christian.
And we want your feedback as well! Each week we’ll ask a question on the podcast and feature your answers the next time that team rolls around. Here’s this week’s CQ (Cast Question): What do you think of sports anime? And, if you have a favorite sports anime, what is it and why?
And check out these articles related to today’s podcast:
- Here are the bible passages Mathew discussed today in the episode: Romans 7, Psalms 119:173, and I Corinthians 10:13
- It’s a Romans kind of week— @mulder8281 quoted that epistle in a post about volume eight of Battle Angel Alita yesterday
- Check out Matthew’s series of articles on Fate/Apocrypha
- One of our writers, @samuru1, is also a Megalobox fan—he wrote this piece about the series
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I’ve never really watched any sports anime. I don’t think I’d enjoy it as much as other genres of anime. Especially because I’m not very atheletic.
Same
How do you fight with yourself? Oh wait,I fight/argue with myself sometimes 😂
Twitter –
Matthew (@mdmrn): I have only watched a bit of sports anime, but I do love Haikyuu. Hyped for the next season.
Kayla (@kaylabushong): I love sports anime! It’s one of my favorite genres! I think my favorite is Free!, and then Haikyuu!! in close second, and then Daiya no Ace in third. But there are so many I’ve watched and liked.
Facebook –
Cassandra: I love Free!
Joshua (mutual): Really, there have been only two Sports anime I’ve been able to get into and enjoy: Bamboo Blade and Big Windup. Sports anime really doesn’t do it for me… Especially Free.
… Me and Free don’t get along.
Tyler (mutual): There are a few I like. I really like Girls Un Panzer.
Instagram —
@samuru (staff): Megalobox. That’s it.
@celtic.nerd (mutual): I don’t really care for most sports anime. But “Ace of Diamond
@pravallika.b: Free
@kidepingu: Love them. Haikyuu it Hajime no Ippo
@cesmacho (mutual): Haikyuu is a really good one!
@darrenwcw: Megalo box
@miniotakumymy2016: Free
@gablumpot: Aoyama-kun!! It’s really nice. Clean-freak Aoyama-kun is my fav cause I like soccer.
@saloni.dragon: Yes. Free.
@gabb._wp: FREE!
@noah_kanzai: Haikyuu it gets you in the feeling to do something GREAT MOTIVATION
@hnssuu: Inazuma 11
@7ayl03.13e11: never seen ANY except for Initial D if you count that
@half_shade_ (mutual): not much but I’ve read Cross Game. It’s really good and cute.
There’s something really special about a good sports anime—they seem to checkmark all the right boxes when it comes to heart and motivation and thrill. My very favorite is a baseball series called Cross Game. It’s funny and exciting, but it goes one further than that—I don’t want to spoil anything, but the series is ultimately a sensitive and quiet contemplation on what it means to lose a loved one and how we can help one another through grief. Highly recommended, both in manga and anime form.
Does Girls und Panzer count as a sports anime? It’s absurb and it appeals to me as a history nerd.
Lol. I don’t know about that, chief.
It’s the best sports anime.
Uh…heh heh. I am sorry about not indicating beforehand about the violent nature of Danganronpa. If one looks past some of its more obvious content on its face and track the story it’s a really good study of characters and how in spite of differences in human condition and lifestyles a common unifying hope for a better future can be common to everyone.
It’s really hard for me to talk honestly about your podcasts without sounding too flattering, so I won’t try to conceal how glad I am this series exists. I’ll just say thank you, and I really appreciate the effort you put into these casts. The concept of going into life without a facade for self-preservation down and your spiritual guard up is a brilliant analogy with the point well driven home by the situation in Megalobox.
It’s both comforting and frustrating for me to know that there is such fonts of wisdom in Christendom while at the same time hoping to be one of these fonts but feeling I helplessly fall short of where God probably wants me to be and not knowing how to get there.
Don’t worry about Danganronpa. It’s weird that, as much as I liked Berserk, I still have a hard time with gory horror series. But, like I said, I trust that there is a good underlying hope in it.
Thanks for the compliment. I’m glad someone enjoys it. I think I may have mentioned it before and I’ll certainly say it again, but the topics I take up are all things that I fail to do. It’s not like that’s a strategy on my part. It’s all a setup. God puts me into a position where I routinely preach to myself and my failings in front of an audience, and sometimes He uses it to benefit other people. So, don’t think it’s just you struggling with recurring questions. That’s all my podcast is really.
Thanks again for listening and for the engagement.
Sorry this is a late response to an old podcast, but I found this to be, once again, meat to chew on. I hope you do more and more of these, because you really mix Scripture and anime very well, and it’s actually really cool. I really dig that, and I hope to hear more and read more from y’all guys.
As far as what I think about sports anime, I don’t really have a huge complete list of sports anime I finished, but I did complete “Run With the Wind” and it was awesome. I will say I’ve noticed sports anime touch on things that really only sports anime can: determination, grit, and humility. As much as our typical super hero, fantasy anime touches on those as well, sports have a special way of portraying these because they’re real life situations.
So “Run With the Wind” so far takes the cake. There’s an episode where a team member got really sick, and he still competed in the final race. He really could’ve died, and still he pressed on. Another was when the captain passes out from cooking, because he worked day and night just to raise money for their track team- not even a moment he used to rest. This freakin anime showed me heart that is so inspiring, and so that’s why I recommend this.