20 anime similar to Over Drive based on genre, format, studio, and popularity
Looking for anime similar to Over Drive? Here are 10 anime recommendations that share similar themes, genres, or storytelling styles.
We selected these anime based on shared genres (Sports), similar narrative structures, comparable art styles, and positive fan overlap. If you enjoyed Over Drive, these series should appeal to your taste.
With a stray pitch that completely missed the batter, Eijun Sawamura loses his final middle school baseball game. Frustrated by this defeat, Eijun and his teammates vow to reach the national tournament once they are in high school. But everything changes when a scout unexpectedly invites him to Tokyo's prestigious Seidou High School after seeing the potential in his unusual pitching style. Encouraged by his teammates, Eijun accepts the offer, ready to improve his skills and play at a much more competitive level of baseball. However, now surrounded by a large number of skilled players, Eijun struggles to find his place on the team. He declares that he will one day become the team's ace, but that's only if fellow first year Satoru Furuya doesn't take the title first, with his breakneck fastballs that earn him a coveted spot on the starting roster. With the addition of these talented new players to an already powerful lineup, the Seidou baseball team aims to become the best in Japan, facing off against a number of formidable foes that stand in their way. (Source: MAL Rewrite)
The second season of Diamond no Ace. After the National Tournament, the Seidou High baseball team moves forward with uncertainty as the Fall season quickly approaches. In an attempt to build a stronger team centered around their new captain, fresh faces join the starting roster for the very first time. Previous losses weigh heavily on the minds of the veteran players as they continue their rigorous training, preparing for what will inevitably be their toughest season yet. Rivals both new and old stand in their path as Seidou once again climbs their way toward the top, one game at a time. Needed now more than ever before, Furuya and Eijun must be determined to pitch with all their skill and strength in order to lead their team to victory. And this time, one of these young pitchers may finally claim that coveted title: "The Ace of Seidou." [Written by MAL Rewrite]
The series revolves around a closed-down "Stride" club at Hounan Academy. First-year high school students Takeru Fujiwara and Nana Sakurai attempt to restart the club, but they must recruit six members for the team. They ask Riku Yagami to join, but he turns them down by saying that Stride is the one thing he doesn't want to do. However, Takeru and Nana drag Riku into the clubroom to try to convince him. (Source: Anime News Network)
Ashito Aoi is a young, aspiring soccer player from a backwater town in Japan. His hopes of getting into a high school with a good soccer club are dashed when he causes an incident during a critical match for his team, which results in their loss and elimination from the tournament. Nevertheless, he catches the eye of someone important who happened to be visiting from Tokyo. How will things turn out for Ashito?(Source: Shogakukan Asia)
Gion Kenji is short and perpetually pissed off about it. Iwashimizu Sumiaki is tall but timid. Although it's bullies that bring this unlikely pair together on the first day of high school, it's the rugby club that will make them friends.
Ever since their champion was defeated, the world of girls' junior high ping pong has been in turmoil. Koyori is the new smirking transfer student at her junior high and she's ready to shake up girls' ping pong. (Source: Anime News Network)
202X A.D., a future beyond Initial D. Self-driving cars are in widespread use in Japan, and public roadways are used for auto racing. In such an era, a race called MFG has become popular around the globe. Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini… Participants are invited to race with their fastest cars. One such participant, a British racing school graduate, Kanata Rivington, returns to Japan to achieve his goal. (Source: Crunchyroll)
Picking up the next year after the end of the fall tournament, Seidou High School baseball team battle it out with new and old faces as they begin their tournament run at Koshien. (Source: Crunchyroll)
The anime's college rugby story centers on Natsusa Yuzuki, who expects to be an ace on the rugby team when he enrolls in college. However, he is no longer able to play rugby due to certain circumstances. Ibuki Ueoka is an older fellow student who quit rugby. Yasunari Tsuru is a younger student who finds Natsusa disagreeable. Yuu Mashiro is a younger student who admires and follows Natsusa. Seiichirou Shingyou is Natsusa's close childhood friend. Together, they compete in the Kansai university rugby league. (Source: Anime News Network)
The second season of MF Ghost.
Ryou Mizushima enrolls in junior high and joins the badminton club with great vigor. Although the club didn't have a proper coach, Mizushima improved his skills with his own physical strength by the time he participated in the prefectural tournament. Afterwards, he is approached by the Yokohama Minato High School's badminton coach, Ebihara. Indecisive and timid, Mizushima hesitates to attend such a prestigious school. However, with his elder sister Rika giving him a strong push, he decides to go to Yokohama Minato. Now blessed with a coach and idiosyncratic teammates, Mizushima will gain experience he's lacked till now, and aims to win the inter-high tournament. (Source: Bilibili TV)
"Keijo" is a popular gambling sport where contestants stand on platforms floating on the water and must use their butts and chests to fight against each other to push each other off the platform. Nozomi Kaminashi, a high school student, aims to join the sport after she graduates. Nozomi was raised in a poor family and hopes to make lots of money by playing Keijo. She grew up training in gymnastics, and she has good balance and flexibility.After high school, Nozomi joins a training boarding school and enters the world of Keijo.(Source: Anime News Network)
After a falling out with his middle school team, Mihashi enters Nishiura high school with no social skill, a warped opinion of himself, and every intention to quit baseball. The newly formed Nishiura baseball team, however, needs a pitcher, and they welcome him. Most enthusiastic is Abe, a domineering catcher with his own game issues. And so a battery every bit as complementary as it is dysfunctional is formed. If they can figure out how to work together, they might be the answers to each other's problems-and the team might be able to win.
Kojirou is the kendo instructor for Muroe High School and he's totally broke. But then an unexpected chance is given to him: his team must win against his senpai's team and the prize is: free meals for a whole year! Now, the only problem left... where to find girls skilled enough and willing to join the kendo team?
Based on a seinen manga by Kusunoki Michiharu serialised in Young Magazine. The story gets its roots from the actual street racing that occurs on Tokyo's Shuto Expressway, one stretch of which is known as the "Wangan", literally meaning "bay side" (although it is generally used to refer to the freeway), the longest, straightest road in the entire country. Of course, there's also lots of traffic to contend with, including a fair number of heavy trucks. Because of this, the action is inherently hazardous, and wrecks are common. Blown engines are also a frequent hazard, especially with the extreme-high power engines. One day, Akio Asakura, a third year high school student, is driving his Fairlady Z (Z31) and is challenged by Tatsuya Shima, a doctor, in his black Porsche 964 Turbo (nicknamed the "BlackBird"). With a friend in the passenger seat and two girls in the back, Akio pitifully tries to win, but is defeated. Determined to become faster, he goes to the junkyard to buy parts for his car, when he sees a pristine, unscratched midnight blue Fairlady Z (S30) in the junkyard. Intrigued as to why such a machine is about to be junked, he buys it. He soon finds that the car is unnaturally fast due to a tuned L28 engine, bored and stroked to 3.1 liters combined with twin turbos, which produces 620bhp. He also finds that all of the car's previous owners had unfortunate accidents in it, starting with the first owner's death. The manga follows Akio's various encounters, though the central plot revolves around his constant battle with the BlackBird for superiority. (Source: AniDB)
After leaving Kaido in a promise to meet them at the Koshien tournament, Goro comes back to his home town once again in an attempt to join up with his old friends. Only this time, things aren't as easy to get back in the groove of.
The main character, Endou Mamoru, is a very talented goalkeeper and the grandson of one of the strongest goalkeepers in Japan, who died before he was born. Even though his skills are incredible his school lacks a real soccer club as the 6 other members don't appear very interested even in training. But as soon as a mysterious forward called Gouenji moves to Endou's town, the young goalkeeper sets out to find and recruit members for his soccer team. (Source: Wikipedia)
The story begins when Hiromichi Kojima, the star batter of the fictional Lycaons in Japan's Pacific League, heads to the southern Japanese island of Okinawa to train and bring himself out of a slump. There, he meets Toua Tokuchi, a 134-kmph (83 miles per hour) pitcher and the undisputed king of a gambling form of baseball called "One Out." At Kojima's urging, Tokuchi signs up with the Lycaons under an unusual contract: he gets 5,000,000 yen (about US$46,000) for every out he pitches, but loses 50,000,000 yen (US$460,000) for every point he gives up. (Source: Anime News Network)
Teikou Junior High School's basketball team is crowned champion three years in a row thanks to five outstanding players who, with their breathtaking and unique skills, leave opponents in despair and fans in admiration. However, after graduating, these teammates, known as "The Generation of Miracles", go their separate ways and now consider each other as rivals. At Seirin High School, two newly recruited freshmen prove that they are not ordinary basketball players: Taiga Kagami, a promising player returning from the US, and Tetsuya Kuroko, a seemingly ordinary student whose lack of presence allows him to move around unnoticed. Although Kuroko is neither athletic nor able to score any points, he was a member of Teikou's basketball team, where he played as the "Phantom Sixth Man," who easily passed the ball and assisted his teammates. Kuroko no Basket follows the journey of Seirin's players as they attempt to become the best Japanese high school team by winning the Interhigh Championship. To reach their goal, they have to cross pathways with several powerful teams, some of which have one of the five players with godlike abilities, whom Kuroko and Taiga make a pact to defeat. (Source: MAL Rewrite)
Miyanaga Saki is a first year high school girl whose family would get angry if she won the family mahjong games. But losing would also have its consequences. Because of this she develops a new way of playing that allows her to stay on the thin line between winning and losing, the plus/minus zero score, an almost impossible score. In a game that relies mainly on luck, the plus/minus zero score is harder than winning, but Saki can achieve this every time.Having always hated the game, her friend from middle school, Suga Kyotoro, forces her to play in the schools mahjong club. Her developed skill and superhuman luck has made her a worthy mahjong opponent, even to the middle school's national mahjong champion.(Source: Anime News Network, edited)