Katsuki Yuri had one dream: to become an all-time great figure skater like his idol Victor Nikiforov. However, those dreams may be coming to an end after Yuri completely tanks the Grand Prix Finale. Feeling defeated and depressed, Yuri returns home and just lets himself go. While he’s at home, Yuri reunites with his old crush from high school and, in order to impress her, perfectly recreates one of Victor’s routines. Unbeknownst to Yuri, though, he was actually being recorded and the video was uploaded to Youtube, where the performance goes viral. Even more shockingly, Victor watches it. He decides on a whim to travel to Yuri’s hometown and coach Yuri himself!

Often times, it feels like people forget that anime, with so many discussions largely revolving around plot and characters, is a medium for animation first and foremost. And the story of Yuri on Ice is so beautifully conveyed through its animation, combining the effortlessly fluid motion you’d expect from an ice-skating routine with the up-close and personal camera work that would be physically impossible if Yuri on Ice were live action. A lot of Kaze ga Tsuyoku’s Fuiteiru’s appeal comes from Production I.G.’s own impeccable animation work, so Yuri on Ice is a great follow-up if Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru’s animation has got you sweatin’.

What do you get when you combine parkour, relay racing, and telecommunications? You get Stride, the dominant sport of the world. It’s so big that training buildings are constructed just for private practices. One hopeful girl named Sakurai Nana enrolls in Honan Academy just to be the Caller for the prestigious team, only to find that the Honan’s team was entirely disbanded. However, she’s not giving up! Nana’s made friends with prodigy-in-the-making Fujiwara Takeru to recruit some new members. And once they set their sights on the multi-talented Yagami Riku, they might have a chance to even make nationals!

Question: how many series actually make running not just an aspect of the show, but an actual spectacle? Prince of Stride: Alternative is just that, focusing on some truly absurd setpieces to drive home just how cool these boys really are. They flip over walls, jump off of roller coaster tracks, and even leap straight through trees just for the sake of shaving seconds off their time. It’s wonderfully insane, and a great series to check-out if Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru has got you amped for some running.

Diving just isn’t as popular as it used to be… you know, relatively. It’s gotten bad enough anyway that the Mizuki Diving Club is lacking in members and is in serious danger of getting shut down. However, before the board of directors shuts it down, a compromise is made: if the MDC can produce a diver that’s ready to go to the Olympics, they’ll keep the club open. Sakai Tomoki, a diver who’s just in junior high, doesn’t really care that much about those adult issues, though. He just wants to get really good at diving.

The heart of Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru ultimately comes down to the bond of the members of the club and their struggles both to succeed in their sport and with their relationships with each other. Dive is just rife with teenage melodrama and young boys figuring out how to deal with one another. It’s a coming-of-age tale using diving as a metaphor for finding a passion, similar to how Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru is basically everyone having one last shot at fun in college.

Despite having some real potential as a pitcher, Harada Takumi’s parents drag him out of the glitz and glamour of the big city to live in some podunk town with his grandfather. What sucks is that, in spite of how good a pitcher Takumi is, he can’t make use of his talent since no one on his team is good enough to catch his pitches… or so Takumi thinks. Takumi is actually relieved to meet Nagakura Gou, a catcher who can actually keep up with Takumi’s incredible fastballs. Unfortunately, though, not everyone is as thrilled to have a star-in-the-making like Takumi on the team, and Takumi’s haughty attitude is only bound to cause some issues.

Battery is a series that just oozes realism, from its depiction of school management to the struggles of being a teenager without a social circle to fall back on. This is very similar to how Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru has a much more realistic view of college life than what we are normally given in anime. That is to say, everyone lives in squalor and has to learn to put up with one another rather than just miraculously all getting along right away. For those who want another anime like Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru that keeps its sport and drama realistic, maybe look into Battery.

There was a quartet of fantastic elementary school swimmers that managed to win the national tournament back in the day. They all separated when it was time to go back to middle school, but three of them (Nanase Haruka, Hazuki Nagisa, and Tachibana Makoto) manage to reunite in high school. Their fourth friend, Matsuoka Rin, however, doesn’t really see eye to eye with their desire to relive their childhoods. Instead, Rin attends a separate high school so he can get his chance to best Haruka. Even worse, Haruka’s school doesn’t technically have a swimming club yet!

Okay, look, you don’t need to front with us. Yeah, you can come up with any excuse you want about how you like Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru for the plot or the atmosphere. We know that, deep down, you’re just looking for some hot boys spending all their time with one another and getting more intimate than they ever could with any girls. Even better, Free! forgoes the pretense of its main characters needing to wear clothes since they’re always swimming. You can get an eyeful of well-toned men wriggling about in the water and their well-toned abs glistening in the light thanks to Free!
Oh, and if you end up caring about the plot, there is a third season that just aired over the summer, so it’s as good a reason as any to get caught up!

Kyuudo, or Japanese archery, is a sport that has existed since, well, Japan has had bows and arrows. Narumiya Minato loves Kyuudo with all his heart but gave it up in junior high school due to an accident. However, once he gets into high school, he makes new friends who end up driving him back to practice again. Not wanting to be held down by his past, Minato and the rest of his gang set their sights on the Japanese national tournament!

There’s something about Tsurune that really touches into what makes Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru so special. It comes down to the atmosphere. Despite having stories that wouldn’t feel out of place in a shounen battle series, both Tsurune and Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru have a very down-to-earth feel that make them much more relatable stories. They aren’t high energy with a lot of fiery proclamations of meaning that will decide the course of history, but rather just low-key tales of a group of friends setting out to get good at what they love.

Better yet, Tsurune is actually airing right now, so that gives you a second show to follow this season if you were hurting for more slice-of-life sports stories!