Sports manga is a genre of Japanese manga and anime that focuses on stories involving sports and other athletic and competitive pursuits. Though Japanese animated works depicting sports were released as early as the 1920s, sports manga did not emerge as a discrete category until the early 1950s. The genre achieved prominence in the context of the post-war occupation of Japan, and gained significant visibility during and subsequent to the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Noted as among the most popular genres of manga and anime, sports manga is credited with introducing new sports to Japan, and popularizing existing sports.
Japan's gold medal in women's volleyball at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo increased the popularity of sports manga among female readers.
Yōichi Takahashi, whose 1981 association football series Captain Tsubasa is credited with popularizing the sport in Japan
Shōnen manga is an editorial category of Japanese comics targeting an audience of adolescent boys. It is, along with shōjo manga, seinen manga, and josei manga, one of the primary editorial categories of manga. Shōnen manga is traditionally published in dedicated manga magazines that exclusively target the shōnen demographic group.
Cover of the April 1929 issue of Shōnen Club
Stacks of Weekly Shōnen Magazine and Shōnen Sunday in 2005
