Crunchyroll is all about anime (as an anime streaming service, after all), and the 2022 FIFA World Cup is only a few weeks away as of this writing. Specifically: November 20, 2022. Thus, what better way to prepare for it than by watching a whole bunch of soccer (or football) anime? At least, according to Crunchyroll.
Crunchyroll Now Kicking Off World Cup?!
To celebrate the upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup, Crunchyroll has put together a list of soccer (or football as it’s called everywhere outside the USA) anime for fans to enjoy. You might expect, all of the anime are sports anime. And as you might also expect, all of them feature an all-male main cast…save for one, refreshingly enough. Want to know which one? Then check out the full list of soccer anime below:
Crunchyroll Anime Recommendations for 2022 World Cup
BLUELOCK! (8Bit)
Japan’s desire for World Cup glory leads the Japanese Football Association to launch a new rigorous training program to find the national team’s next striker. Three hundred high school players are pitted against each other for the position, but only one will come out on top. Who among them will be the striker to usher in a new era of Japanese soccer?
Aoashi (Production I.G.)
After a loss in his last junior high school soccer tourney, Ehime Prefecture’s ace player, Ashito Aoi, is devastated but in every loss there’s a victory. Tatsuya Fukuda, manager of an organization that trains students for one of the leading clubs in the J-League, sees Ashito’s raw talent and offers a tryout to his group. Together they’ll bring the youth club and Aoshi’s talents to new heights!
Clean Freak! Aoyama-kun (Studio Hibari)
Aoyama kun is a hot, young soccer prodigy who plays midfielder for the National U-16 Soccer Team. But he’s also an extreme germaphobe! The TV anime adaptation of “Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama kun!” (Clean Freak!! Aoyama kun) portrays the friendships he forms and the challenges he overcomes in a “spotless” coming-of-age story!
Farewell, My Dear Cramer (Liden Films)
Onda Nozomi has been playing soccer with boys since she was a child. Despite practicing harder and being better than anyone else, once she enters middle school, she hits a wall. “Physical difference” ─In a sport like soccer where athletes sometimes violently collide, it becomes a reason for the boys to be separated from the girls. Nonetheless, Nozomi doesn’t give up! She rejects the words “because she’s a girl” so that she can continue to play her favorite sport with her friends. Nozomi is about to become a soccer star who captures everyone’s attention!
DAYS (MAPPA)
With no skills or outstanding features, one boy hides a passionate heart, Tsukushi Tsukamoto. The other is a lonely soccer genius, Jin Kazama. The winds of change begin to blow in the world of high school soccer as these two boys with nothing in common come together. The curtain on this hot-blooded, touching story is rising…
Shoot! Goal to the Future (EMT Squared, Magic Bus)
Years after winning a National Championship for Kakegawa High School, Atsushi Kamiya returns as a coach to a less-than-stellar team. And one of the team’s best players, Hideto Tsuji, is over playing soccer altogether! Will the star of a famous soccer team turned coach be able to reinvigorate his team and Hideto?
FUTSAL BOYS!!!!! (Diomedea)
For the past 10-odd years, futsal has been booming across the world. After watching Tokinari Tennoji represent Japan in the U-18 World Cup, Haru Yamato aspires to be a player like him. He joins the Koyo Gakuen Futsal Club where he meets teammates Seiichiro Sakaki, a loner who refuses to pass the ball to anyone, and Toi Tsukioka, who is burdened by a past that nearly made him quit futsal for good.
Source: Crunchyroll
