Examining depictions of athletics, games, and competition
The popularity of high-profile sports anime has grown in recent years and generated more interest in the sports those series portray. In an attempt to get in on this boom, Shufu to Seikatsusha has published two issues of Spo-Ani!, a “sports animation magazine”, so far in the past 6 months. I received my copies of issues one & two today from Amazon Japan and had some time to flip through them.
The second quarter of 2015 in Region 1 home video releases just got two more sports anime additions as FUNimation announced today it plans to put out Ping Pong the Animation and Wanna Be The Strongest in the World! this June in Blu-ray/DVD combo packs featuring English & Japanese voice tracks.
Those two bring the total number of sports series with home video released currently scheduled in the next three months to five:
April 28th: Free! Season 1 DVD (sub-only; Discotek)
May 12nd: Slam Dunk DVD set 1 (dub & sub; Cinedigm)
June 2nd: Haikyu!! Blu-ray Collection 1, DVD Collection 1 (sub-only; Sentai Filmworks)
June 2nd: Wanna be the Strongest in the World! Blu-Ray/DVD Combo set (dub & sub; FUNimation)
June 23rd: Ping Pong the Animation Blu-ray/DVD Combo set (dub & sub; FUNimation)