First, I'm gonna talk about injuries/deaths. I know injuries are inevitable in sports but why the heck are they always shoved in right when the protag is starting to reach peak performance, show some real promise? Like in Smash!, just when MC's playing the best game of his life, he has to forfeit due to injury which takes long months to recuperate from. Same with Fulldrum. Be Blues is even worse as he is injured right from the start of the manga (in grade school, at that), and has to rehabilitate for at least a couple of years. And don't get me started on death of the genius brother trope, where the less gifted brother inherits his dreams... looking at you, Area no Kishi and Switch. It's like the mangaka absolutely had to have an underdog MC, but couldn't find any decent means to make the less talented brother step out from under the shadow of his genius sibling, so they offed him. Very convenient. And cheap. The too-serious-for-their-age trope is what ultimately forced me to drop Bungo. There is something inherently wrong about wet-behind-the-ears early middle school kids (12 y.o.) treating baseball and Koshien with the same gravity as commandos on a suicide mission. Let 'em be passionate by all means, but don't f**king make them behave like they are gonna face literal death matches or risk their life to merely play in the Koshien. What asinine pep talk! Utterly ridiculous. There are also the usual ones, like taking up a sport for the first time at high school, playing a sport ill-suited to one's physique (shrimps playing basketball/volleyball), etc which are not so bad if executed well (or maybe I've simply learnt to endure them). All in all, finding a good sports manga among generic trash is similar to looking for a needle in a haystack.
and there is the stupid commitment of "i will win" or "i will fight(?)" or "i will stop him" as if my life depends on it.... no....sports is not a battlefield....u dont fking die from pitching, hitting, or kicking a ball or tackling a player..... the only true to the sports sense manga i found is Baby Steps minus his obsession of taking notes.....its not possible in the time players get during break points.... But i guess Giant Killing works? since its a professional football series and upsets r bound to happen..... Mai Ball was a good shoujo football manga even tho it was short..... there was another shoujo football manga but had a guy in the team(forgot the name)...it too was good but i dont know if there is any rule of having mixed football teams....this was so short that it felt like it got the axe....
You double posted... The tropes that I find most annoying in sports is: 1) MC and team being totally shocked about opponents ultimate technique despite: a) they are famous for that technique b) they just watched a ton of videos the day before about the opponent 2) MC and team beat the strongest team somehow, then end up struggling against weaker teams 3) MC and team win the national tournament, then find out they they are still bottom of the barrel and there is some training camp of secret elites which make even the strongest national player a joke 4) The coach knowing the MC's weakness or how to improve the MCs ability but not bothering to tell them until way later
Sport tropes huh? Definitely weird angles. They touch my nerves. I ain't here to see the FL's ass bro. If anything, I want to watch her sweating and bleeding for her objectives not fucking moan like a ***** in ****.
another manga i liked is Last Inning.....it showed the dark side of Koshien which maybe fictional with gambling, yakuza and what not schemes.....and i refuse to believe that the high school baseball board has the power to judge schools by their ability to get players sorry students from different prefectures.....too bad the TL is dead..... Adachi Mitsuru's baseball manga are my favorites.....altho they all look the same but there is a different feel to them....
Baby Steps and Hajime no Ippo are my fav ones, they have some tropes but not all and HnI is in a really unique arc atm, i didnt really see anything similar before i also liked Hinomaru Zumou but it has all those annoying tropes you mentioned
Baby Steps and Giant Killing are cream of the crop. Maybe cuz they focus on the pros? Honestly, I wish more sports manga were like that. 2) Can happen sometimes, but when it happens regularly, it can get really annoying. I've also noticed that the protag's team tends to struggle against almost every opponent. Surely, there should've been some easy victories? 3) That reminded me of Eyeshield 21's second last arc. Ruined that manga for me. 4) Something something about introspection and discovering one's own flaws oneself being better. Stupid, I agree, esp. since it's literally the coach's job to do that. P.S. Have already reported the double post.
The whole "I won because my friends/family/girlfriend cheered for me" is really annoying. You're bound to mess up if you keep looking at the stands, and it's unlikely that you could even spot them in the middle of a heated game, especially in a large stadium
I hate that trope too it's not only that they get injured sometimes it's scheming bad guy who asks his players to injure the main character. it happens in majors and wild hear hungry striker, tsubasa and many other manga and anime. I know they do it to make the character weak again so as build him up stronger than ever, but it's annoying sometimes they just do it so as to inspire perseverance and sometimes there's no real point to it. Baby steps is probably the only sport manga that the main character hasn't gone through that trope yet 400+ ch. Majors has both tropes his dad dies and he gets injured like 4 times. Ive played baseball all my life the worst injuries I have had were scrapes and bruises from sliding or getting hit with a ball.
IMO, One Outs is a rare manga that actually manages to make baseball thrilling. You hv great taste, bro!
Another example is one of the earliest basketball manga (and is still one of the greatest), Slam Dunk Spoiler It really make me sad that the team didn't manage to win until the very end, with Sakuragi need to recuperate from injuries It's understandable tho. The author need them drama and those trope are really easy to write
IIRC, in Slam Dunk's case, it happened only after the Sannoh match. It never felt like the mangaka purposely interrupted their advance or development... if it can be done naturally without taking away from the story, there's no problem. Slam Dunk isn't one of the greatest without reason, after all; the execution is top notch, and the reason for their loss after the Sannoh match, realistic and believable. P.S. It's not just about overused tropes, but also their timing and execution.