Birdie Wing: Golf Girl’s Story tells the heartwarming tale of two young women from completely different walks of life who find common ground and friendship (and maybe a bit more) through gold. It’s also an absolutely off-the-wall anime that turns the sport to 11 with high-stakes gambling, mechanized courses, virtual reality, and so much more. It is anime in every sense of the word.
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While there are a few familiar sports anime tropes within the show, Birdie Wing takes classic women-led sports stories and beats them over the head with a pitching wedge until they run for cover. To appreciate Birdie Wing is to appreciate the genuinely unhinged ends of genre convention.
10Basquash!
While Birdie Wing doesn’t go quite as far with its mechanized sports enhancers, Basquash’s rags-to-riches story combined with a back alley version of a popular sport certainly brings that same energy to the table. In a world where the most popular sport is a version of basketball that involves giant robots, a group of kids has developed a street version of the game and aim to change their fate through their skill. The themes of found family and self-made success are also found in Birdie Wing.
9Food Wars! Shokugeki No Soma
While its early seasons lack the back-alley dealings of Birdie Wing’s first arc, Food Wars is no less hyperbolic with its premise. At a cutthroat culinary school, disputes between students are settled with shokugeki — a form of high-stakes cooking competition. Protagonist Soma comes from seemingly humble origins, but his homey approach to cooking combined with world-class knowledge and knife skills has the potential to turn the culinary world on its head. The show is full of exaggerated reactions and big personalities.
8Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s
Birdie Wing’s mafia arc is extremely reminiscent of Yu-Gi-Oh!, with its use of completely unreasonable technology toturn a simple gameinto a strange competition that could only exist in anime. 5D’s is that premise taken to its furthest form, imaging a world where people take a card game played while driving motorcycles super seriously.
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Really any season of Yu-Gi-Oh! It would be an apt analogy for the way Birdie Wing approaches golf, but Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s really pushes the silliness in a similarly satisfying way.
7Chihayafuru
Although it’s entirely reasonable to come to Birdie Wing purely for its ridiculous action, underneath all the flair is a heartwarming love story of two girls searching for someone who can make them feel truly alive.
While Chihayafuru’s main character Chihaya Ayase seems a good bit less aware of the attraction component of her interest in her rival and friend Wataya Arata, her infatuation with his skill and the way it drives her to compete is no less intense.
6Sk8 The Infinity
Sk8 The Infinity is one of the few sports series that can challenge Birdie Wing for trying to show a real sport played by ridiculous people. The show centers on an underground downhill skateboarding competition where a colorful cast of characters settles their beef by racing. The show is a genuine love letter to skateboarding culture. And while the romantic undertones are far more muted and possibly unintended, the friendship between same-sex leads from entirely different worlds hits no less hard.
While a bit more grounded in itsdepiction of sport competition, One Outs leans hard on the gambling and back-room dealings that govern Birdie Wing’s world. The show’s protagonist Toua Tokuchi makes his way by participating in high-stakes one-on-one duels between pitcher and batter.
When he is discovered during these “One Outs” competitions by a player for a pro team, he is recruited to help turn the team around. Eventually, he’ll use his tolerance for risk and willingness to bet on his skill to change not only his own fate but that of the entire organization.
4Dan Doh!!
Despite the sport’s popularity in Japan, there are surprisingly few golf anime that have cemented themselves in popular consciousness in the West. Dan Doh!! It is a bit more straightforward in its presentation of the sport, but its premise is pure shonen. Tadamichi Aoba is a talented hitter in baseball, but a run-in with the school principal will introduce him to the world of golf. Seeing a chance to change his circumstances, he begins to compete in golf tournaments and meets a colorful cast of characters along the way.
3Blue Lock
The survival competition that forces high schoolers to bet their future careers on a chance to become the world’s best striker,Blue Lock, is peak sports shonen. Itsmatches feel relatively groundedcompared to some more outlandish sports series, but what sets Blue Lock apart from the rest of sports anime canon is the series’ commitment to its premise.
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Where so many shows focus on the power of friendship, Blue Lock’s characters consistently learn that the only way to grow is to get more selfish and egotistical.
2Yuri On Ice
It remains to be seen if Birdie Wing will actually commit to the queer love story it is clearly hinting at, but in the meantime, fans can whet their appetite with an overtly gay romance between two ice skaters. Disillusioned after a devastating losing streak, Yuri Katsuki steps away from competitive skating to return home. Through a series of circumstances, he’ll find his way back to the rink with coaching from his idol Victor Nikiforov. It’s a heartwarming tale of perseverance and mutual affection.
1Hanebado!
Strong women really get to shine when at the center of a sports story, and Hanebado! is no exception. Losing her motivation to compete after her mother walks out, Ayano Hanesaki’s talent has languished through middle school. As she enters high school, she is reluctantly recruited to the school’s badminton club by a former player and eventually regains her love for the sport and drive to compete. The show takes a number of relatively standard genre tropes but presents them in an underrepresented sport and gives them new life.
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