Manga like Baby Steps

Ao no Hako

Also known as Blue Box.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Romance , Slice of Life , Sports

Taiki Inomata is on the boys' badminton team at sports powerhouse Eimei Junior and Senior High. He's in love with basketball player Chinatsu Kano, the older girl he trains alongside every morning in the gym. One Spring day, their relationship takes a sharp turn ... And thus begins this brand-new series of love, sports and youth!



Tags: Primarily Teen Cast , School Club , School , Athletics , Male Protagonist , Heterosexual , Coming of Age , Badminton , Love Triangle , Female Protagonist , Basketball , Shounen , Cohabitation

Tennis no Ouji-sama

Also known as The Prince of Tennis.

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Sports

Ryoma Echizen just joined the Seishun Academy's tennis team, which is known for being one of the most competitive teams in Japan. Its members are incredibly talented, gifted, and athletic. With rigorous and extremely intense practices, the upperclassmen of the team expect the very best from themselves and they expect even more from the new members of the team. While most of the freshmen are on pins and needles hoping they won't get cut from the team, Ryoma Echizen is confident, cool, and collected. Some might even say he's cocky, but at least he's got the skills to back up his attitude. With his virtually unreturnable "twist serve," Ryoma is sure to make the starting team. Join Ryoma and the other first years, as they train hard, make friends, and try to find a place for themselves on the team. And meet Ryoma's cute but chronically shy classmate Sakuno Ryuzaki. She's got a big crush on Ryoma, but will he ever notice her? Ryoma Echizen is the Prince of Tennis. He may be ready for the Seishun Academy tennis team, but are THEY ready for HIM?



Note: Includes one extra chapter.

Tags: Tennis , School , Anti-Hero , Primarily Male Cast , Male Protagonist , School Club , Shounen , Primarily Teen Cast , Time Skip

Haikyuu!!

Also known as Haikyu!!.

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Drama , Sports

A chance event triggered Shouyou Hinata's love for volleyball. His club had no members, but somehow persevered and finally made it into its very first and final regular match of middle school, where it was steamrolled by Tobio Kageyama, a superstar player known as "King of the Court." Vowing revenge, Hinata applied to the Karasuno High School volleyball club...only to come face-to-face with his hated rival, Kageyama! A tale of hot-blooded youth and volleyball from the pen of Haruichi Furudate!!



Notes:
Winner of the 61st Shogakukan Manga Award in the Shounen Category in 2017.
Chapter count includes 2 extra chapters.

Tags: Volleyball , Male Protagonist , Shounen , Coming of Age , School Club , Primarily Male Cast , Ensemble Cast , Time Skip , Primarily Teen Cast , School , Philosophy , Twins

Eyeshield 21

Also known as Eyeshield 21.

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Sports

Wimpy Sena Kobayakawa has been running away from bullies all his life. But when the football gear comes on, things change—Sena's speed and uncanny ability to elude big bullies just might give him what it takes to become a great high school football hero! Enjoy all the bone-crushing action and slapstick comedy that this heartwarming coming-of-age story has to offer.



Tags: American Football , Shounen , Male Protagonist , School Club , Coming of Age , Guns , Primarily Male Cast , Gambling , Primarily Teen Cast , School , Foreign , Bullying

capeta

Also known as Capeta.

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Drama , Sports

Taira Capeta was a 4th grader boy. He had lost his mother when he had been very little. Although he pretended to be tough in front of his father, actually he felt lonely. One day, his father brought junk parts home from his workplace and made a racing cart. Soon, they went to a circuit to drive the cart. However, Capeta found that its frame was bent and it could hardly run straight. But, with his technique he managed the cart. Furthermore, he followed soon after the fast cart and he could nearly leave it behind. The driver in the cart was Minamoto Naomoi, the champion of the East Japan Junior Cart. Looking at their chase, Naomi’s mother, Minamoto Nanako, advised Capeta to take part in the official race.



Tags: Cars , Shounen , Time Skip , Coming of Age , Male Protagonist

Ao no Hako

Status: Finished
Genres: Romance , Sports

A boy from the volleyball team comes in early to the gym everyday, and falls in love with the senpai from the girl's basketball team who's always there practicing, too.

Tags: Shounen , School , Heterosexual , Primarily Teen Cast , Male Protagonist , Female Protagonist , Basketball , Volleyball

Blue Lock

Also known as Blue Lock.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Action , Drama , Sports

After a disastrous defeat at the 2018 World Cup, Japan's team struggles to regroup. But what's missing? An absolute Ace Striker, who can guide them to the win. The Japan Football Union is hell-bent on creating a striker who hungers for goals and thirsts for victory, and who can be the decisive instrument in turning around a losing match...and to do so, they've gathered 300 of Japan's best and brightest youth players. Who will emerge to lead the team...and will they be able to out-muscle and out-ego everyone who stands in their way?



Note: Winner of the 45th Kodansha Manga Award in the Shounen Category in 2021.

Tags: Football , Battle Royale , Male Protagonist , Primarily Male Cast , Athletics , Primarily Teen Cast , Ensemble Cast , Shounen , Fitness , Foreign , Super Power , Augmented Reality , Language Barrier , Tragedy , LGBTQ+ Themes , Suicide

Happy!

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Sports

One day the Yakuza comes knocking on the door of the orphaned Umino siblings. The oldest brother has gone into hiding after acquiring a huge debt. Afraid for her brother, Miyuki agrees to take responsibility for the loan. The yakuza wants her to become a ho, Miyuki wants to be a tennis pro. Turns out she used to be a very promising player before her parents died. However, becoming a pro is difficult when friends are few and everybody else conspires to make Miyuki's life hell.



Tags: Bullying , Tennis , Ojou-sama , Seinen , Love Triangle , Fugitive , Gambling , Yakuza , Female Protagonist , Tragedy , Nudity , Foreign , Language Barrier , LGBTQ+ Themes

Hanebado!

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Sports

Tachibana Kentarou is a high school badminton coach who has a lot more enthusiasm than some of the members of his very small team. One day, he meets the quiet-voiced student Hanesaki Ayano, who is effortlessly physically capable and experienced in badminton. He tries to recruit her, but she seems to have no interest in the sport at all. Due to a series of circumstances, she eventually ends up joining the team. Coach Tachibana is determined that with her on board, they'll be champions!

Tags: Badminton , Seinen , Female Protagonist , Primarily Female Cast , School , Tomboy

Shanimuni GO

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Drama , Romance , Sports

Ide Nobuhisa has always been a boy full of vitality and a young promise in the field of track running. However one day after a competition, he stumbled over the pretitest pair of legs he had ever seen! Their owner, a young girl practicing tennis makes a promise with Ide that she will teach him how to play. After seeing the name tag on her racket bag, Ide puts all his efforts into passing the test for accessing the same high school she goes to, Makunogama. In his first days in his new high school, Ide discovers two things: an old friend of his is also attending, and nobody knows of a girl with the name he saw on the tag! He and his friend join the school tennis club, where they meet another first year, Takita Louis (Ruui), a very good tennis player with a little of an attitude problem.

However things start to look better for Ide when his dear missing girl appears in the school! As it happens, he misread her name on the tag. Takada Hinako was well known as one of the members of the tennis club, but some time after meeting Ide for the first time she suffered an accident and has now lost the use of her left leg. Hinako is no longer a happy spirited girl and tells Ide she can't fulfill her promise.

Eventually the opposite characters of Louis and Ide end up confronting each other in a tennis match. Ide is an incredible fast learner, but he is no match... until Hinako decides to give him advice. Things only get worse, however, when their club president decides to put Louis and Ide as a doubles pair for the upcoming inter-highschool tournament!

Tags: Tennis , Shoujo , Male Protagonist , School Club