Hinomaru Sumo

A sports manga about a high school sumo wrestler who’s fiery spirit overcomes his physical limitations as he dreams to become the next Yokozuna.

We discussed this series on a recent episode of Darfox Dabbles.

It’s a standard sports manga with a lot of sports manga cliches but unique because it covers sumo wrestling. And that’s not to say this isn’t a bad series at all. I quite enjoy the shonen sports genre and Hinomaru Sumo definitely delivers with strong action and good characters.

There’s heavy influence from Weekly Shonen Jump as Hinomaru and the other wrestlers have extravagant names to their throws and techniques that make them feel like super moves right out of a fighting game. While I like this book, I personally think the Bachi Bachi series by the late Takahiro Satou was a superior sumo manga.

This series isn’t included in the English Shonen Jump lineup but you can still read legal chapters in English on MANGA Plus. The current anime is good as well.

~dakazu