Within anime and manga, the sports genre is typically known for certain characteristics depending on the dominant sex making up the cast. Titles like Slam Dunk and Hajime no Ippo, which revolve around a boys team, are charged with energy and perform anime tropes while adhering closely to the reality of playing the sport. If the cast is a girls team, or even has a mixed team, the aim is typically fan service. Whether it’s Welcome to the Ballroom joking that boys only start dancing to get close to girls or Keijo!!!!!!!! being about girls in bathing suits knocking each other into the water with their chests and butts, the focus is on their bodies and the male gaze.
Starting in the 2010s, however, the norms of sports anime were flipped as more “manservice” series aired. For a short while, anime with all-male casts seemed to be trying to outdo each other on this front, so 2016’s refreshingly calm Cheer Boys!! went largely unnoticed. At the time, the Free! franchise had peaked in popularity and the stage was set for titles like Yuri!!! on Ice and All Out!! to make their marks on the sports genre. Cheer Boys!!, however, went against the grain with its more mature, nuanced look at sports.
While its cast is absolutely one of pretty anime boys, the series doesn’t rely on eye candy. Cheer Boys!! does show its boys in various states of undress, but it’s done in a different way than the manservice shows of its time. Whether it be Haru examining his shoulder in the shower or the boys unwinding at a local bath house, the show’s “camera” never focuses on titillation. It handles the cast’s nudity as just another part of their lives rather than a selling point.
It can be argued that Cheer Boys!! specifically calls out Free! at one point. One of the latter’s best-known scenes from Season 1 is of Rei stretching in a speedo while the “camera” pans over his body in compromising positions. Episode 2 of Cheer Boys!! opens with a similar idea, where the team is practicing in a public area and Mizoguchi is moaning. The sounds and confused faces of passersby linger long enough to imply a sexual nature, but the next shot shows the audience that this isn’t what’s happening. In reality, Haru is helping Mizoguchi stretch beyond his normal range of movement. Haru even smacks the back of his head and tells him to stop making such weird noises.
On top of its trend-breaking stance on sports anime with male casts, Cheer Boys!! also takes a different stance on the genre in general. Taking place in college rather than high school is just the beginning of its differences from the average sports anime. While most series like it have the goal of going to the national competition or its equivalent, Cheer Boys!! takes a mature stance from the start. Most of the original team members choose cheerleading for reasons other than wanting to win a trophy or look cool. Kazu does it because he admires his cheerleader mom, Mizoguchi enjoys challenging himself with new activities and Tono joins in order to change himself as a person.
While winning competitions is a goal down the line, the team’s beginnings are humbler than most, starting with two former martial artists and a dream. The Breakers aren’t titans with a reputation to uphold or fallen greats like many anime teams; they work with no support and become something worth watching. Even their name, Breakers, comes from a meaningful place. Kazu says he wants to break a lot of things, from the stereotype that cheerleading is for girls to his teammates’ masks and doubts. The other boys agree and add what they want to break by joining this team.
The characters’ lives outside of cheerleading are also prominent and become the source of problems. Cast members in sports anime largely occupy a few spaces: the court/field, or elsewhere in their school. All that matters is the sport — until exam season rolls around and they have to scramble to get passing marks. It’s rare that the characters have problems at home or anything else getting in the way of being an athlete.
This is not the case in Cheer Boys!!, where more situations have to be accommodated as the team grows. Members who are further along in their education regularly miss practice because they’re job hunting, while others may have to skip because they can’t afford to cut back on shifts at their part-time jobs. For those with the time to dedicate to cheer, especially Hisashi, it looks like they are simply slackers who don’t take the sport seriously. The reality is vastly different.
Cheer Boys!! is far from a perfect anime. At times it weighs too heavily on slice-of-life elements for those looking for a pure sports anime, and the animation is average for 2016. However, its different perspective on sports as a genre makes it stand out. It’s calm and mature where comparable series never lose momentum. Victory is a goal, but that isn’t all the characters get out of participating. All the while, the story shows bits of where the cast will wind up once they get their degrees.
