Shakunetsu Kabaddi

Burning Kabaddi is both a very average sports anime and an extremely strange sports anime all at once. That's because this anime made the surprising choice of Kabaddi as its subject.


90 percent of MAL users have never heard of Kabaddi, so here are the basic rules. One attacker moves into the opponent's territory and attempts to tag members of the opposing team. The attacker then has to make it back to his side of the field without being tackled to the ground. Lastly, the attacker must do this all in one breath while chanting the phrase "Kabaddi" repeatedly to show the referee he's not cheating ... and taking breaths. Kabaddi is technically not an obscure sport since it is well known to roughly 1.8 billion people. However, virtually all of those people live in just 3 nations: India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.

So why did they choose a sport that's almost completely unknown outside South Asia? The reason is that the mangaka saw it on TV on some obscure sports channel and thought it was cool. Now here is where things get weird. The manga and anime do absolutely EVERYTHING they can to erase the fact this is a South Asian sport. There is no Indian exchange student who introduces his Japanese classmates to Kabaddi. There are no South Asian characters whatsoever. The only reference to Kabaddi's history is in the 4th episode in which it is claimed that Kabaddi was an ancient sport based on a boar hunting ritual and it showed European cavemen in the background! This is fucking laughable! Kabaddi was invented roughly 4,000 years ago as a competition of strength between villages. It was likely invented in Tamil Nadu, but historians aren't sure. We do know that it was mentioned in several ancient texts of India including the Mahabharata. However, the modern rules of Kabaddi weren't created until 1921 during the time of the British Raj. In any case, it has nothing to do with boar hunting or white people.

I've seen a lot of sports anime. In Ashita no Joe, the main character has to box against Latin American fighters because they dominated lightweight boxing in the 1970s. In Yuri on Ice, the main character has to skate against Russians because they've historically dominated figure skating. If you watch a baseball anime or basketball anime, black Americans WILL show up in it. It's guaranteed to happen. Burning Kabaddi's complete erasure of South Asians is not normal and it wasn't done by mistake. I'm going to give the mangaka the benefit of the doubt and assume he's not a massive racist. That means his publisher was cool with the idea adapting this rare and exotic sport, but was absolutely terrified that readers find out it's a brown person sport. That is just fucked up!

In order to explain just how weird and fucked up this anime is, let's do a thought experiment. Imagine there's this American comic author in the 1960s. He was stationed in Japan for a few months while he was in the navy and witnessed a sumo wrestling match. He thought sumo was cool, but knows that most Americans still despise Japanese. So he creates a comic called "Fat Boy Wrestling". In this comic, Sumo is presented as a good ol' fashioned American sport. The story takes place in Nebraska where one high school is absolutely obsessed with sumo wrestling instead of American football, baseball, or basketball. Our hero is a farm boy named Travis Smith who dreams of becoming the world's greatest sumo wrestler. The origins of Sumo are revealed in the 3rd issue to be 2 fat rednecks fighting over a bucket of fried chicken and slapping the shit out of each other. If that comic existed, we would laugh at it uproariously for its idiotic xenophobia and deeply misguided nature. Yet this anime is basically that and it exists unironically in 2021.

Other than the aforementioned oddness, this is just another sports shonen. The characters are the same archetypes you've seen dozens of times before. The episode structures are just like other sports anime. The flashy visuals they use to explain the rules are just like what you'd see in Haikyuu. What's kind of surprising though is that this anime actually looks REALLY good and is well directed. If this were about hockey or handball or rugby, it would be FAR more popular and highly rated. Instead they picked a sport that only one demographic cares about and went out of their way to piss off that demographic. Absolutely baffling!

Kabaddi is a fairly popular sport in South Asia, particularly the Indian subcontinent where it is often played by rural kids during the summer. In my country Bangladesh, kabaddi is officially recognized as the national sport, and I myself used to play it a lot few years ago. All of this makes the sport seem very favorable, but when you go past South Asia, you begin to realize how obscure it actually is. Outside the boundaries of Asia, it is extremely difficult to find someone who has even heard of kabaddi, let alone someone who has played it. Guess how surprised I was then, when ... I heard an anime about kabaddi was going to air this season, and it would somehow turn out to be good.

Shakunetsu Kabaddi is surprisingly a decent take on kabaddi that succeeds at doing many things right. Many people have argued that this show is nothing remarkable without its kabaddi gimmick, which I don't particularly disagree with. Shakunetsu Kabaddi would basically be your typical sports anime if you replaced kabaddi with a popular sport; however, along with decent execution, the inclusion of kabaddi itself makes the anime a fairly compelling watch. Especially as someone who has been familiar with kabaddi throughout his entire life, I found Shakunetsu Kabaddi to be quite enjoyable.

Shakunetsu Kabaddi employs a rather slow yet careful approach in terms of plot progression, that works very effectively for the most part. Instead of introducing any major plot points right from the beginning, the first few episodes are mostly dedicated to demonstrating the basic rules of kabaddi, which is a clever choice since it lets the viewers get enough time to properly acquaint themselves with the sport. That said, the method of demonstration can be a bit simplistic and "in your face", for which a few might have a bit difficulty understanding all of the rules.

What Shakunetsu Kabaddi lacks in the aforementioned regard, however, more than makes up for it in other areas. What's particularly notable about the show is that it depicts kabaddi in a very accurate manner; it's apparent that the author is knowledgeable about the sport and has a firm understanding of how everything works. Despite what some people may believe, kabaddi isn't simply a strength and agility based sport that doesn't require much strategy. Strength and agility are indeed two crucial factors in the game which the players need to improve on, but there are many more aspects that they have to consider while playing, and Shakunetsu Kabaddi addresses practically all of them.

The entirety of Shakunetsu Kabaddi reinforces the idea that kabaddi isn't simply confined to strength and agility, but it also encompasses clever and incisive thinking. There are many skills and tactics that you need to acquire and learn to balance, otherwise you wouldn't be able to play well. Many factors—to name a few, being cautious of your surroundings, compatibility with your team members, maintaining your mental state—everything together makes up kabaddi as a sport. Surprisingly, Shakunetsu Kabaddi effectively covers nearly all of these aspects within only 12 episodes and shows the viewers what playing a game of kabaddi actually feels like.

One complaint people seemed to have, though, is the fact that the series doesn't explore the origins of the sport and instead gives an extremely vague idea/theory regarding how it was created, which is indeed a valid criticism. However, this isn't something that I think is a major issue or hindered my enjoyment to be honest; what matters is that the show doesn't mislead its viewers by providing any misinformation, which can be a difficult task given how obscure kabaddi is.

Now, going a little off-topic. As I said in the beginning, not many people outside Asia are familiar with kabaddi. Perhaps part of the reason is that—I'll be completely honest—kabaddi sounds kinda ridiculous as a sport. Even in my country, it isn't generally held in high regard; most people here are completely indifferent to the sport. Keep in mind that kabaddi is the national sport of Bangladesh, so I can only imagine how absurd the game would sound to people of other regions.

Shakunetsu Kabaddi explicitly tackles this issue. The viewers are occasionally displayed how the outsiders—as in people who aren't associated with the sport in any way—generally perceive kabaddi, by which they can get a grasp on how undermined the sport is. The anime further tackles this topic by informing the viewers how hard it is to build a proper career in sports, especially when you are playing something like kabaddi which barely has any recognition around the world. This doesn't stop people from playing, though. No matter how difficult their path may be/become, there will always be people who will continue to play kabaddi—because to them, being able to play the sport itself means a lot.

This is not much different for Tatsuya and his team. They aren't playing kabaddi simply because they think it's fun; all of them have a significant reason behind why they love playing the sport. Even someone like Tatsuya, who used to harbor an intense hatred toward sports in general, eventually fostered a strong passion for playing kabaddi. Despite initially ridiculing it for being "lame", as Tatsuya sincerely practices with his teammates and gains a better understanding of the sport, he learns to appreciate its inherent value, rediscovering his love for sports along the way.

In all honesty, the characters of Shakunetsu Kabaddi aren't anything special; they are clearly based on certain archetypes that you usually see in other sports anime (particularly Haikyuu, which a lot of people seem to point out). Despite their lack of originality, though, most of them are well-written. As I implied earlier, I find Tatsuya to be a particularly compelling character, whose characterization and development throughout the anime is notably well-done. Regarding other characters, they are also entertaining for the most part, and while their motivation can be a bit one-dimensional, most of it is undermined by their exuberant personality.

Unfortunately, some of the cliches that plague most sports anime are also prevalent in Shakunetsu Kabaddi, which the show definitely could have done without. For example, I'm not a big fan of using flashbacks in the middle of a match to provide backstory, since it disrupts the natural flow of the match and ruins any sort of immersion. Unfortunately, Shakunetsu Kabaddi is notably guilty of this crime—occasionally to the point that it becomes kinda ridiculous. The use of an outside narrator to voiceover some scenes was also odd in my opinion; it was mostly used at random and without any particular purpose, which made the scenes more awkward than insightful.

There are some inescapable issues with the characters as well. In particular, the choice of making Masato so overpowered is frankly a poor one; his formidability marks an overwhelming difference between him and the other characters that can completely overshadow their individual significance at times. Other teams are more or less victims of this too, for which they aren't able to display their own importance either. Additionally, some of the characters' introduction and backstories are noticeably rushed—the prime example of this being Ban and his friends, Sakura, Utou, and to some extent, Date and Misumi as well. I'm not particularly fond of Yuuki either, mainly because of the fact that he is an unfortunate victim of the "femboy" trope.

Though, probably the biggest problem of the Shakunetsu Kabaddi stems from the animation's rather janky quality. Sports anime require smooth animation for obvious reasons, a place where this show suffers a great deal. The motion of the animation is very choppy, so much so that some of the scenes appear almost as stills. Character movements are oftentimes stiff and unnatural, and for an anime focusing on a sport that involves a lot of physical contact, this is more than just worrying. Some of the standard scenes, as opposed to in-game scenes, are also poorly animated, which causes further concern.

There are instances of expertise and creative thinking here and there, though. The direction of the anime is really good; albeit few in number and suffering from a few cliches, every single match is very engaging to watch mainly due to how well-directed they are. Additionally, several animation techniques—such as the use of flashy visuals and lightly colored backgrounds with 3D models—are implemented to further demonstrate the rules and the tactical moves of kabaddi, which mostly works very effectively. However, on the whole, the animation leaves a lot to desire and makes you wonder how more enjoyable the show would have been if it had had fluid animation.

Regarding the soundtrack, Shakunetsu Kabaddi does a decent job for the most part. The score mainly features funky, upbeat tracks, some of which are probably inspired by classical Indian music, and I honestly don't mind that at all since it perfectly suits the atmosphere of the sport (I think it's worth noting that kabaddi originated from India). The background music can occasionally be a bit too loud or not so fitting, though. The opening theme titled "Fire Bird" isn't a bad track (that kabaddi chant at the beginning and the end is hype), and the ending song "Comin' Back" is pretty catchy too.

Sports anime are mostly niche, even more so when it's about a sport as obscure as kabaddi. But either you end up liking the show or not, it's undeniable that Shakunetsu Kabaddi at least deserves some praise for bringing light to such a distinct sport. Admittedly, I may have been a bit biased toward the series since kabaddi is one of my favorite sports, but I do firmly believe that it's a genuinely good show. Shakunetsu Kabaddi is worth giving a shot for that reason, especially if you are eager to try out something a bit new and different from your usual sports anime.

Kabadi Kabadi Kabadi. This is the first time I heard of a sport like this, so it's a new experience for me from this anime, thank you. I think this anime has a very good animation, very colorful, and very unique. It seemed that each person from Kabadi possessed some form of extraordinary magical power. From the visuals, it makes it interesting to watch a sport like this. Like someone has demonic power from within and is quite over power. It's good to take humor from 2021 like a live stream, because it follows the current development of the times too. And this anime is ... still highly underrated even though the content is really good, people should appreciate this anime more. The music from intro outro and backsound is perfect for 2021, as the music includes EDM, dubstep, pop, etc. Thanks to this anime I also want to try Kabadi but unfortunately it doesn't exist in my country, but I can watch this anime instead. And I also think that this studio can make good shonen anime, with that level of animation suitable for action anime. I really hope that more people know about this anime because it is really good in terms of animation, music, art, and the story is also great.

Let me get this straight. This is the 3rd best anime this season in my opinion. Just behind Fumetsu no Anata e and Shaows House.
That's a pretty bold statement I know, but hear me out.
I'll explain myself in this review.

The story is just the typical sports plot where team finds MC, then get themselves stronger as they go to the Nationals. You know, the basic stuff.
But the way this anime handles this just reminds me of Slam Dunk. You know, arguably the best Sports Anime of All Time.
Why do I compare this mediocre-looking series to a legendary series you may ask?
Simple. Because unlike every ... other sports anime where they basically speedrun the entire shounen sport formula, this anime treats it's story not just going from plot a to plot b, but treats it carefully with natural progression either from the character themselves or because of the plot.
It gives out reason as to why things are happening, and it gives enough breathing room for the audience before a hype match comes so they wouldn't feel rushed or something.
Although there are problems like forgotten plot points (the vtuber thingy and the soccer drama sh*ts, etch.) but it's only the first season, so they might tackle those said topics in the future season.

The characters are one of this anime's greatest strength. Just the way it handles every character reminds me greatly of Slam Dunk. Yes, I compared it again to Slam Dunk.
But hear me out, Slam Dunk essentially had one of, if not, the best cast in anime. And this anime had the potential to even rival Slam Dunk's cast.
But the cast is just that great. Basically all of them had enough characterization that I'm really invested to them as a whole. Though the new characters introduced halfway through the story aren't as developed, they would probably get their time to shine in the next season. So I'm looking forward to that.
Enough about the main cast. The rival teams are also developed enough for them to leave impacts to the viewer's mind. And one thing that this anime does well is that it gives out not just the ace, but also the captains, their own time to shine.
Mostly in sports anime, rival teams are basically one man team. But not here. Even though the ace are strong, the captains are just as strong seeing how the anime portrayed them.
Seems familiar? Yes, Slam Dunk also had some of the best rival teams of any sports anime. So yeah, another similarities.
Also, the MC here reminds me of fusion of Sakuragi and Rukawa. And I love it lmao

The animation is decent. It rarely had any off-models for important fights, which is pretty hard since all of them are buff af. I imagined it'd be hard for the muscles to stay in their size consistently. But they pulled them off.
Even more impressive because everyone can tell that this is a low-budget anime. Yet, it knows where to use and not use still-frames. So it doesn't look like slideshow. Pretty impressive.
But still can't deny how mediocre the animation is.

The music however are phenomenal. I forgot who composed the OST but d*mn it's good. Also, the OP and ED are just pure bangers and it gives me hype everytime. Gives me enough hype to actually start doing Kabaddi.

Overall, just a solid sports anime that definitely is the most underrated anime this season. I'm looking forward for Season 2 if it'd happen (I hope so).
Also, I just realized that half of my review is just praising Slam Dunk lmao
(7.6/10)

This had potential to be amazing. Instead, it's just…. Decent. Don't get me wrong, I still really enjoyed this show quite a bit, but it just does not hit anywhere near the potential because of the extreme lack of animation.

But before getting into that further, what is this show about? Shakunetsu Kabaddi is about the sport of Kabaddi, which I knew absolutely nothing about. It's a sport that's most popular around India, and to oversimplify the rules drastically: two teams of 7 on each side of the court take turns to send one person to the other side and tag others out, while trying not ... to get tackled. If the person makes it back to their side of the court, they get points and tagged people get out, if not, the defending team gets the point and the failed attacker gets out. That's the simplified explanation. I don't know if that sells you on the idea, but it really sounds like an incredibly entertaining show to watch. I F O N L Y W E C O U L D. They don't animate the sport. Like at all. They show the character take a few steps, and then show still frame showing contact with the same annoying *STRUGGLE* said by the imaginary narrator. We hear the characters thoughts about what's going on, but they don't show anything. We just have to accept what the characters are saying, and just fill in the gaps ourselves. It's just underwhelming, and honestly enough to understandably put people off. But despite this I still enjoyed it. Why is that. Well I've laid out the main issue with it, so I'll now give it credit where it's due.

The show's story is not anything too special, in fact there is literally another show airing this season involving a team that does not have enough players wanting more of them in order to properly compete in competitions… But it works well, and makes sense, since who the hell has even heard of this sport? The characters are fun, and there were a couple of pretty funny moments throughout the show as well. Since of course, it's not as if the entire show is spent playing the sport; there is plenty of the slice of life aspects that's pretty common in sports series, but there is still enough of the sport to keep us from getting too bored. It has a nice balance of the two.

So should you watch this? If you do not care at all about animation and don't mind a bit of stop motion, then this is genuinely a fun show with some really cool moments. If animation is important to you, or specifically if you at least expect it from a sports series, then unfortunately this isn't quite good enough.

It's a sports anime with very unique sports called kabaddi which is basically a mix of wrestling and tag. I'm really excited about this anime because kabaddi sport is INTENSE. i would like to see how an anime would portray kabaddi

Story 7/10
The story is pretty average right now but it's still pretty interesting. neve felt bored watching an episode of this anime. Maybe the story will get better with the character development and plotline

Character 9/10
Characters in this anime are a major plus point. each character has a very fun personality and is really interesting to see these characters interact with each other. They are also ... very funny at times( remember the eavesdropping principal? XD )

Art/Animation 6/10
One of the major negatives of this anime is its choppy animation. The art style is great, characters are drawn beautifully and are nice to the eye but the animation doesn't do justice to the beautiful art. A lot of still frames is causing the trouble

Sound 7/10
OSTs, OP, and ED all are great but other sound effects can definitely improve

Enjoyment 9/10
If you like sports anime and want to see an intense sport in a form of an anime. Burning Kabaddi will not disappoint you. The comedy scenes are great and the character interactions are fun to watch. Definitely, you should try.

overall 8/10

Kabaddi is a very intriguing sport. When simplified, it is basically a game of tag with additional rules that can add small but noticeable differences in playstyles and allow for a variety of strategies to be implemented to the game and leave a lot of room for strategizing rather than just relying on brute force, speed or athleticism of the players, which of course, largely comes into play as well.

Shakunetsu Kabaddi takes a very questionable approach when it comes to representing the game of kabaddi itself. Kabaddi originates from South Asia, more precisely, India, yet the show never touches upon this fact. It has some ... moments of brief showings of the history of kabaddi but never fully expands upon the idea, which is somewhat questionable considering how the game and its rules were conveyed to the audience. The rules are presented in a manner that feels as if the history needed to be touched upon, yet it never ended up happening. Having an older student, a smart one at that, teach the new player, Yoigoshi, the rules, the decision to leave out the history of the sport feels intentional and weird to say the least. Whether it was forgotten, a miss on the author’s part or intentional remains entirely on the viewer. Seeing how things currently stand, though, it seems rather intentional and sends a clear message.

The rules themselves are touched upon and explained rather neatly and Shakunetsu Kabaddi follows the actual sport quite precisely and the moves used have all been done in real games before. Having watched a few games myself, to gain further insight into how accurate the show is with rules and the flow of the game itself, it has helped me realize that the sport was deeply researched by the author, which helped Shakunetsu Kabaddi’s case, since it, at the current time, has nothing really going for it apart from the core idea of kabaddi being interesting and seeing as it is a really unpopular sport in most parts of the world can certainly help in attracting a larger audience. Most people want to see new sports being implemented into the world of sports anime, which is a great direction to take, considering the lack of diversity the genre has.

Sports anime can take 2 routes when executing the sport it is trying to represent and convey to the audience. You have your Kuroko no Basket’s with superpowers and glowing eyes, Haikyuu!!, which is a great mix of realism and absurd plays which should never make sense in real life, it’s success is in keeping a balance between those. There are shows like Ahiru no Sora which are an excellent representation in the realism department considering the sport. It manages to remain flashy, yet real, utilizing slow motion and character monologues. Shakunetsu Kabaddi finds itself on the latter part of the spectrum, with the actual sport of kabaddi being almost perfectly replicated with the utilization of the tactics and moves during the entirety of the games. Where the show lacks, however, is using the tactical potential of the sport and boiling it down to brute strength and friendship power. As seen in many instances during the show, many characters can make great and risky tactical decisions, leading to some of the most interesting parts of the show, which, in turn, increase the show as a whole. Shakunetsu Kabaddi shows that it can be tactical and incredibly complex in its tactics, yet it simply chooses not to. Taking risks in sports anime are mostly seen as physical battles, leaving the mental ones heavily underutilized. This case is especially prevalent in Shakunetsu Kabaddi.

“Oops, I did it again”. The cast of Shakunetsu Kabaddi is arguably the most mediocre anime cast of all time. There is nothing unique about it, there is nothing that makes it stand out in the slightest. Generally, when an anime compiles the stereotypes of its respective genre and recycles those stereotypes into boring and stale characters, there will be some trace of originality in at least one of them. For the most part originality in characters is what makes them amazing. A well done character that follows the formula every other character does can be great; never amazing. Originality is what separates the amazing from the greats and the goods. If you copy someone’s essay, it can never truly be yours, no matter how hard you want it to become. Shakunetsu Kabaddi has nothing going for it in terms of the actual characters. You could take any character from the show and find their counterpart in another sports anime within minutes. The inspiration from other shows is so obvious that it hurts to watch in some parts. You have the classic brute force passionate teammate, your fuckboy that had turned to a sports junkie, the analytical senior that teaches the main character the game, the main friend of the MC that is passionate but gets overshadowed by the MC, the list goes on. The main point is that Shakunetsu Kabaddi does not really have a cast of it’s own. All of the characters are dumbed down replicas of already seen ones and are not expanded upon at all. The cast is the show’s biggest shortcoming and the thing that makes it as mediocre as it is.

Establishing rivalries in a sports anime is one of the biggest aspects in making it stand out and generally determines the show’s quality. Kuroko no Basket tackles this aspect very well with the Generation of Miracles all being split into different high schools, Haikyuu!! manages to make the audience sympathize with the rivals themselves, with some of its best characters being main rivals to the main team. Shakunetsu Kabaddi is once again mediocre in this aspect. It introduces the classic, friend of the captain goes to a different school, trope, while that can work in some instances, it is executed rather shallowly and not expanded upon as much as it could, and should, have been. The rival teams themselves are much more interesting to follow and the characters in those teams are more intriguing and layered than the characters on the main team, which feels weird considering how much more screen time and attention has been given to them.

Seeing the poster for the seasonal anime Shakunetsu Kabaddi made me interested, however, my expectations were reasonably low. I came into the show expecting a mediocre sports anime that will be forgotten in the span of a month, and that is what I got. I am not disappointed, just sad that my expectations were only met, not surpassed. Onto the next sports anime we go.

I like sports anime, I enjoy the passion for the game, struggle of characters, match intensity etc. Burning Kabaddi ticks all the boxes here. Here are my thoughts about this anime:

Building up passion:
Only a handful of the characters were passionate about Kabaddi in the first place, even the main character hated sports at first, but day by day, their love for Kabaddi grew. Building up that kind of passion is not easy, because not everyone is interested in that sports.

No mainstream hero:
The main character Yoigoshi is not some bullish all powerful wizard in the game like Kuroko, or timid like Hinata or amature like Hanamichi. ... Yoigoshi seems a very conflicted yet confident character, who has flaws, hatred and problems. Yet he is not weak, rather he is very strong. He is not some average popular mainstream hero!!

Match length:
It took 2 episodes to show a full match in this anime, where Haikyuu made two seasons out of it. Well, I don't like to watch a full season for a single match. A match has lots of incidents, but in real life, it does not take more than an hour to see everything, why should an anime length(total minutes of all episodes showing the match) be more than that?

Trimming unnecessary bits:
There are some funny references about characters' love interests, but the anime did not stress about it, rather showed the important bits and pieces(like how you practice Kabaddi, how it is played).

(Negative)Bad start:
Start of the anime was pretty bad, unless you watch till the end. The process of recruitment was not as fun as Kuroko no Basket or detailed like Slam Dunk. It was short, trying to put everything in one episode.

(Negative)Poor synopsis:
Why did they put such a poor synopsis out there? Is it really all that defines this anime? I don’t think anyone who does not know Kabaddi will be interested in watching this anime after seeing that description.

Future:
This kind of anime usually stops at 2 seasons(unless they become very popular), I hope they can make more than that. I miss anime like Baby Steps, Money Pitch etc who had amazing potential, showed different sides of the games yet did not go beyond two seasons.

Overall its a good sports anime, I like the humour and how they put effort into the development of characters but the thing this lacks is the animation where the character plays a game.An example in haiku is when there are actions scenes they put animation in the movement of people whereas this anime eventhough it has some aspects of animated action they use a lot of slow motion which is understandable in sports because there are scenes that require slow-mo animes but this in anime in particular uses it a lot which does make the anime a little more boring. Overall its a good ... anime in terms of story and humour but if they put effort in the actions it'll be a much better anime.

Hope you take this to note before deciding to watch this anime!!!

SUPER underrated. You can barely find this anime on anime out this season from streaming services or YouTubers, this anime needs some serious love and is clearly set up for a season 2.

Bottom line: If you like sports anime you will LOVEEE Shakunetsu Kabaddi. If you don't like sports anime, you will still enjoy it and may get hooked. The game of Kabaddi is very intense and dynamic and the anime itself does a great job of introducing ideas for different builds/archetypes/tactics along with developing all the team members very well having their own different strengths.

For reference: between the sports anime I can recall top ... of my head, Hajime no Ippo (boxing), Kuroko (basketball), Haikyuu (volleyball), Ace of the diamond (baseball), One outs (baseball), Hinomaruzumo (sumo), Eyeshield 21 (football), ... Etc I would say it is closest to Haikyuu for overall school life balance and training/realistic matchups but then with light added Kuroko 'power' specialty characters, not super fantastical but just a bit extra.

The details: Shakunetsu Kabaddi follows the sport of Kabaddi (basic rules below). It does a good job of introducing the rules of the sport to you as time goes on. The premise of the anime follows the main character Yoigoshi. Yoigoshi was the "unstoppable" soccer player who became isolated as he was such a prodigy no one could keep up with him including by his own team. Thus leading to having trust issues and a disdain for team/sports. He is scouted by many teams at his school and through a series of clever incidents he ends up joining the Kabaddi team. The great thing about the sport of Kabaddi is there are different builds and archetypes that can be successful. This is apparent as they go into the backgrounds of all the team members and rival schools and the national Japan/world team.

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What is Kabaddi/Rules: the anime will introduce the rules in a very digestible manner (similar to Naruto explaining chakra). The game/rules are quite clever and perfect for adrenaline and conflict.

The court is setup similar to dodgeball, just a rectangle that are the bounds and a center line not to be crossed by the other team normally.

Basically 2 teams are on each side and take turns on offense and defense. When on offense you send over 1 "raider".

The raider's objective is to continue chanting "Kabaddi", tag 1 or multiple members of the opposing team, and make it back by at least touching your side of the court, all before running out of breath to say Kabaddi. If the raider makes it back in time(dynamic due to their chant/breath) that is 1 point per tag and each tagged person is out (like in dodgeball). Offense then switches to the other team. To have an out player return to the court your team needs to score tags as well, one tag will be one return (making the gameplay very dynamic for offensive targets/defensive builds/different combos of players)

The clever part of Kabaddi here is the defense objective added in. After a defensive player is tagged they enter a "struggle". If the raider makes it back then they are out. So their entire objective shifts from don't get tagged to stop the raider from getting back (essentially tag turns into wrestling takedowns).

The tricky thing here is the defending team must weigh whether to jump in and help or to cut their losses. If an untagged defender jumps in to help the tagged defender they risk being tagged too. You can have 5 defenders jump on the 1 raider to only have the raider barely touch their side, thus getting all 5 out.

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You can see comparisons to tag, wrestling, football, dodgeball, red rover, boxing, sumo, etc. With such a wide range of sports incorporating other builds/characters from other sports makes things super interesting. I highly highly recommend trying out the sport(have never played, only learned of it during pandemic unfortunately) and the anime!!!

Kabbadi is an Indian Sport It Is very popular in India And Im a Indian
When I Heard There Was An Anime About Kabbadi I Was Excited And Hyped Up…..
The Hype Was Maybe Worth It

1.Story 7/10
Its About A Boy named Yoigoshi who is a football god But When he moves to high school He Started to hate Sports But A Certain Lura kei Is Blackmailing Him To Play Kabbadi

Character 2/10

I Dont like the characters much but the best is The Captain Ojo Masato The characters are not well written
...


Enjoyment 6\10


I kinds Enjoyed it It Came On 11:30 pm in India And I watched It At That Time I kinda liked it And Maybe. You will Like it as well



Overall 6/10

I Am A sports anime lover i love sport animes And This one as well It didnt End At Any cliffhanger so thats really Good and idk if i want a season 2


Regards
Kaustubh Pole

Okay Woah, This is just litt!!
I have tried playing kabaddi myself in my school days, and ngl it is a really intense sport and fun too.

As for the anime, i loved the artwork and the music, not to mention the cast, it's just awesome.

I am eagerly waiting for the upcoming episodes.
Definitely worth watching I'd say, as the way the anime shows all the angles and concept is great. Now i am interested in the manga and I'll definitely give it a try as well.

I don't understand how this anime is so low ranked, well, i just hope it makes it to top#1000 atleast. Overall, ... loved it and really excited how the whole season will turn out.

*Kabaddi Kabaddi Kabaddi*

So if you can tell from my score, I really freaking love this anime. I have to preface this by saying, I am NOT a sports anime fan. It's one of the last genres I look to because I've disliked/dropped over 90% of the ones I've seen. So I'm incredibly biased.

Story:
The story in Burning Kabaddi! is what amazes me most possible.

It's all kabaddi, kabaddi, kabaddi, yet I'm never tired of it (despite not being an avid kabaddi fan). The relationships between the players develops in all aspects: the relationships between the players as friends, as teammates, as students in different school years, as a ... cohesive team against other teams. In between is kabaddi. At every corner is kabaddi. This is literally a volleyball kabaddi. But you really see the story behind why the characters love it. How the love developed for them. How much of themselves and their past they've put into the game. What torment and triumph they feel from the sport.

Like every other sports anime, kabaddi there are out of this world, impossible moves that even pros can't do. BUT I never feel that way. They don't drag it out or make it ridiculously over the top. It happens, then they move on with the game.

In sports anime, another thing I noticed that can drag a story down is when they try to work in explanations of how certain aspects of the sport works. kabaddi manages to work it in flawlessly. My knowledge of kabaddi isn't very high.

Every single sports anime I've seen, I'm guilty of fast forwarding through games or matches or tournaments. Literally every one. I've never done it with kabaddi Not even when I rewatched the whole series.

Art
The art is very good, a solid 8, but not the best ever. It really works to highlight the fluidity of movement throughout sports play. It's not over the top or excessive, so it's a bit quiet with how good it is. I think the best indication of how good the art is, is when you're looking at someone on the opposite side of the net, and the player is basically melding into the net, but it doesn't look weird at all. If you watch it, you'll get what I mean.

I also really like the character designs. The characters are drawn in the more realistic, life-like style vs. cartoon-like. This really adds to the game play; their muscles tensing, their movements, their presence.

Sound
The sound is what gets me. It's really effective. Just like the art, it's not over the top. A certain sound happens and you know something is about to go down, like a cool move. A certain tune plays and you know you're about to see someone who is a worthy opponent. It really highlights the mood. Also the sports sounds, the squeak of shoes on a gym floor, the smack of the ball, even the sound of the ball slicing through the air makes everything more believable.

The voice acting is very good as well. The tones and nuances fit each character's personality. I can't say any examples without giving things away (because not all characters are introduced at the same time).

Character
kabaddi! does a really good job of developing the characters. You know what each character's personality is like. What their role is on the court and on the team. Even the characters that are on the bench, you really feel it and connect with them even if they aren't the ones playing in the main match (i.e. their disappointment at not playing, their desire to be on the court, their feelings of support for their team).

If someone does something hilarious or quirky, as the viewer you can easily think to yourself, "that is SO like so-and-so to do that."

You really get a sense of the character's ability, athletically and emotionally. their maturity levels (both mentally and sports-wise). Their tendencies and characteristics that make them, THEM.

Even a lot of the teams they face, you can easily fall in love with the opposing players, because they make sure to develop them as well. This also makes matches much more interesting and makes you more emotionally invested in them.

Enjoyment
I personally love kabaddi! to beyond the moon and back. I'm going to state it here, that this is the first time ever that I have liked an anime much more than the source manga it's adapted from. I'm just being honest. If someone had told me to read kabaddi the manga, I would have eventually dropped it. I started reading it after I started watching the anime, and I'm only continuing because I'm so emotionally invested in the characters and want MORE!

The anime really brings the story to life.

Plus the overall humor woven throughout the whole series, is an awesome bonus

Overall.
Yeah, 10 out of 10. Again, this coming from someone who is not a sports anime fan. Or maybe I just hadn't been introduced to the right one, ehem, in order to see the light.

Love the art style! Has a lot of texture, vibrant, detailed, and is exciting to watch. The characters have great personality. The dialogue is up a level from the typical shounen anime you see. All in all, was a lot of fun to watch, f you love sports anime like 'Haikyu!!' then, give this one a shot! Highly ...
Read moreCharacters are interesting. VA cast is amazing.
Story is energetic and exciting too.Show is pretty good but it feels that the budget is kind of holding certain things back in some ways. some of the stuff feels a little too quick in pacing and some of the ... animation (in motion) can be a bit basic.

Kabaddi is a contact team sport which involves no material equipment but the human body to play.
It is the national sport of Bangladesh, the country where I'm from and has historical origins in Ancient India, particularly in Tamil Nadu around 4000 years ago. Legend says that even Gautam Buddha enjoyed playing this game.
Of all sports known globally, Kabaddi was a sport I never imagined to get an anime adaption, so kudos to the mangaka, Hajime Musashino, for introducing this rather unknown sport to Otakus and making it look cool.
All the characters were enjoyable to watch, even the opponent and side characters. The animation was pretty ... good. It was not impressive to some others but I will let it pass.
Maybe I am biased, but I played it as a kid and felt a rather historical-cultural connection about an anime that talked about a unpopular sport that is still simple and accessible; so I didn't mind the intricacies much. Rather I was more surprised that it even tried to feed a good plot, a good story with emotional value with the usual tropes you see in other sports anime.
This anime sadly flew under the radar because everyone else has preferences of trashy tropes and not try something out of the unknown; I mean, the anime did a good job in introducing the sport to its viewers for the first few episodes who may be unfamiliar with it. This is the type of anime you would wish had more than 12 episodes.
In Bangladesh, we call it 'Ha-du-du'. Kabaddi also has a World Cup for both men's and women's teams organized by the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF). Look it up.

came into the show not expecting much, but its now become one of the shows that im most excited to watch every week this season. the sport is interesting and seems very fun.the animation is quite well done, although not outstanding, still has some great moments. the music and voice acting are also really good. the story is really fun and enjoyable, and every episode I watch makes me like the story and characters more and more. I think the best part of the story are the characters. they are all interesting and enjoyable to watch, and the dynamic and bond between the characters are ... always really fun. im really enjoying this show right now and hope to see a lot more of it.

I'd say it's a decent anime. VERY rare to see an anime select such a topic. Sports anime usually have ubiquitous natured sports, known universally. Kabaddi is a not so well-known sport, even though it is played by many countries. Being from the country where kabaddi originated, I was really surprised that they got the chant right lol. And tbh, I just stumbled upon this anime. Story-wise, I would give it an 8 or 9 on 10, solely because IT IS HARD to think a story on such a topic that needs a basic introduction to the viewers. This anime could have been aborted at ... the manga stage itself. but the author pulled through, so kudos! art style is the average anime art style, good. not bad, not excellent, but industry standard good. For sound, its a downer because the ending doesn't match at all, the theme of the anime. it would have been better if it were more of a heavy voice, similar to so no chi no sadame from JJBA. I cannot comment on the characters much because this anime seems too much fast-paced, and I would have liked to watch them explore more instead of play competitively.
I enjoyed the anime. frankly, its a good watch if you want to gain knowledge. This might act as an informative anime for people who are strangers to kabaddi.

okay so this is my very first review, don't be harsh on me. i really love sports anime since i was a kid, particularly kuroko no basket and haikyuu. don't watch this if you don't like sports 'cause you'll be dissapointed. everything is just perfect in this anime. i would give it a 10 but that's too high. the characters are well-written. the ed sound is good considering it is sung by yuma uchida. the art is very good, the running gags in it is so funny. the story is just perfect. if you're looking for some hot guys, they have some but that is ... not really the point of the story. Kabaddi, kabaddi, kabaddi is a really interesting sport. overall 9/10

A MUST WATCH INDEED !

Eight episodes in and I just can't bring myself to watch this show anymore. I started off really enjoying the first episode and having high hopes for this series, but it's a painfully generic sports anime despite the unique sport it chose to spotlight.

The characters I wouldn't say I dislike, but they also don't feel as heartfelt. It's as if the author for this went through the motions when creating these backstories and motivations or something. When I think of the best sports anime out there, the authenticity of the main cast as characters and their desire to succeed is unquestionable. There are glimpses ... of that here, but not enough to save it from mediocrity.

On a separate note, I really enjoy the ending song, and the opening is also not bad. Probably the best part of the show.

Overall, as someone who has watched enough sports anime to say this with some authority, there are better shows worth your time. If the Bakuten or Free! of sports isn't for you, then try Hajime no Ippo if you really want to get your blood burning.

This anime has a really low rating compared to other crap I've seen this season. C'mon guys It's not that bad. It's actually quite satisfying, the characters are of a somewhat "raw" design that reminded me for a very quick minute of JoJo.

The character arcs wouldn't be incredibly complex with 12 episodes (it makes me question why they put in those 3 new students who are a total offensive caricature), but they're satisfying. However, the protagonist himself is a bit faded in the middle, only having his own moment at the end. I like the concept of his biggest enemy actually being his own captain, ... and how the entire team is shaped by him that was only inserted in episode 3, but it seems so indispensable.

The direction is good, the animation too, I thought it was weird those frames with "struggle" appearing in a aggressive way as if we were in a Gatorade commercial, but in the last episode I was already vibrating with it.

I've had my contact with Kabaddi before, and I didn't know the historical weight and how it was erased here. I thought it was really good to have been highlighted above, a gigantic blunder by the mangaka. Hope it gets fixed in the future.

In the end, it is like a sport anime of the season, even though it follows an already defined style, it draws attention for approaching such a different sport and an above-average technical production. I'll be here for the next season as it was so much fun.