When it comes to real athletes, it can be hard to feel connected to them, especially if you are not athletic. But when it comes to fictional athletes in anime or even TV shows, they often feel more human than the real deal. It’s hard to relate to being good at sports, wealthy(if they are professional), and successful in many other areas
I’ve seen so many sports anime, and I relate to a lot of the characters. One is a football anime where the main character gets bullied, then realizes he can run really fast. That’s when the football team finds him and makes him the runner to score goals. I feel connected to this character because even though I am a slow runner, I can relate to getting bullied and treated like a gopher.
Another is a basketball anime where one team is seen as legendary, but one of the players is pretty much invisible. And when a character starts to understand him more, they make a pact to work together and make the team even better. In this one, I feel connected with them because I don’t think I was noticed much in school, and the only time I was was when I did anything good in sports such as serving a volleyball, kicking a kickball, or winning a pickleball tournament.
There is also a swimming anime that I enjoy and feel connected to several characters but I also never really learned how to swim so it wasn’t much about the sport that I connected with but more just the personalities of the characters.
Fictional characters are very relatable whether it’s about sports, or something else, you can always find someone to relate to for one reason or another. I can’t connect to any of these shows in a sport related reason but the characters just feel alive. They get hurt, they get bullied, the popular ones get noticed a lot and the shy smaller characters get over looked. When it comes to sports it doesn’t matter if you are good or not just have fun.
