Common Name: Hinomaru Sumo
Alternative Names: Hinomaruzumou, Sumo of the Rising Sun, Sumo Wrestler Hinomaru
Score: 8/10, 5/5
Length: 24 Episodes
Genre: Shounen, Action, Comedy, Sports
Summary: Sumo is a martial art and sport that greatly favors taller men with large frames since it is important that you are solid enough to not be moved or picked up. Unfortunately for Ushio Hinomaru, he failed to grow enough to meet the minimum height requirement to become a professional sumo normally. Cursed though he might be, Hinomaru hasn't given up on his dream of becoming yokozuna, champion of the sumo ring. Through his hard work and the will to overcome every hardship, he's finally reached the point where he might prove himself in the pro world, despite his small stature, by taking one of the titles that can earn a recommendation at the high school sumo nationals. Since competing in nationals requires you be part of a team, though, Hinomaru cannot hope to make his dream come true on his own.
Review: Variety is widely accepted to be the spice of life but, like all spices, there is always the risk of overdoing it and upsetting the intended balance of flavors. Obviously, this same kind of balancing act is true for media as well. Novelty and variety are what hook an audience and keeps them coming back for more so long as it isn't too different or weird. That's why most shows functionally work to inject variety into tried and tested aspects of storytelling, creating variation within an established genre. Going this route also has its downsides though. If the novel concept of a series isn't strong enough to spice up the genre tropes, you end up with something dull, samey, and something most people will think isn't worth their time. Finding that balance between novelty and tradition is key to making any piece of genre fodder engage its intended audience and Hinomaru Sumo is, thankfully, one of the best examples of a series not just achieving but capitalizing on that ideal balance.
If it wasn't clear enough, this is some Class A shounen fodder.
From the word "go," Hinomaru Sumo has a peculiar kind of charm to it that makes it immediately stand head and shoulders above its competition. Little touches and flourishes to the basic character designs make them stand out more and the fluid movement of the action makes every hit feel that much more impactful but these are just little bits of polish that work to refine that initial charm. Rather than the culmination of all the little details, the charm of this show lies simply in the fact that it is a very grounded story backed by fantastic characters. Let's take, for starters, the titular character of Ushio Hinomaru and his goal to become the greatest sumo wrestler in all of Japan, the yokozuna. Instantly, I'm sure you're already recalling all the battle cries of past shounen characters who insist they're going to become someone great (King of the Pirates, Hokage, Wizard King, etc.). This is what I mean by having a show building off the established traditions of a genre. With Hinomaru Sumo, we're working with something familiar but also novel since sumo wrestling isn't a sport anime has focused on the same way it has things like baseball, basketball, boxing, and even baking. Sumo is the variation thrown onto the formula this time around and Hinomaru himself is the vehicle for that spice. Through his story, we get to learn about the ins and outs of sumo wrestling as he works to both uphold the traditions of the sport and overcome them due to his personal limitations--his being too small to pass the physical for the pro circuit.
Like any good protagonist, though, there's more to Ushio than just his ultimate goal.
What makes Hinomaru Sumo live up to its initial charm, though, is how it capitalizes on its balance of novelty and tradition. Like almost every shounen title, the vast majority of the story is propelled by one character's determination to see his goals achieved. With most shounen titles, though, those goals are often ridiculous and impossible. This tactic immediately adds a level of intrigue to the show since you're forced to wonder how the character might overcome that impossibility, assuming you have an interest in the character or their goal. With Hinomaru, though, that lofty goal is actually rationalized and broken down into much more reasonable chunks. As we get to meet and understand Hinomaru and his goal, we learn that he's more or less starting this series "in medias res," in the middle of his journey. When we first meet him, he's already undergone years of intense training and planned how he might make his goal a reality. This false start might make him seem overpowered Mary Sue but, once we see what he's up against, it becomes clear that his training was merely his ensuring that he'd be strong enough to match his competition. What's more, at this midpoint in his journey he's already weighed his chances of success and plotted the steps he'll need to take to realize his dream of becoming a yokozuna. This is why he starts the series off by explaining that he'll have to become "the strongest high school sumo wrestler," since that's what'll start him on his path in the pro sumo league. And just like that, his impossible dream is turned into something we can see him actually achieving now that he and his goal have been firmly planted in reality, rather than the aether of impossibility most shounen protagonists try to grasp from.
Oddly enough, though, Hinomaru's story isn't the only place
this kind of lofty but grounded dream can be seen.
Like other shounen titles, Hinomaru's story is grounded not just in his ambitions but also those of the friends he makes along the way. The friendships and rivalries he develops over the course of the show simultaneously work to further his own goals and expand on the thematics of the series as a whole. After all, since getting to nationals to prove his strength requires that Hinomaru be part of a team, it makes sense that Hinomaru would surround himself with similarly willful but unorthodox wrestlers. Namely, all of Hinomaru's teammates end up possessing either a quirk they need to overcome in much the same way he does or a style that differs from traditional sumo. For example, the president of the sumo club and Hinomaru's first friend, Ozeki Shinya, embodies a lot of the traditions of sumo--being a heavy-built person that utilizes his weight and strength to win--but struggles constantly with his Inferiority complex. Having been picked on and treated as a joke for most of his life, Ozeki's internal battle is one with his own self-worth, rather than any specific, physical opponent. Yet, despite that key difference, his journey is just as important as Hinomaru's. As we see his initial determination to keep wrestling and growth as a wrestler, we see him find value in himself as he realizes that he isn't alone in this sport that he adores above all else. What's more, through Ozeki's journey, we see a glimpse of the same kind of insecurity Hinomaru has already dealt with and still deals with from time to time, whenever he starts to fear he might lose.
There's rarely any doubt that Hinomaru won't succeed in the end, though.
Along with those kinds of mental limitations, there are also exemplars for those who deal with physical limitations that are more obviously representative of Hinomaru's situation. Namely, the club's manager, Tsuji Kirihito, and their least experienced member, Mitsuhashi Kei, deal with different kinds of physical complications. Like Hinomaru's size issues, Mitsuhashi struggles simply with the fact that he lacks the experience or the build to be a real asset to the team. As such, he often is forced to deal with self-confidence issues similar to Ozeki's. In spite of that, though, he manages to continue on and trains in the hopes of catching up to his fellow club members while also developing shortcuts and tactics that'll at least give him a chance in the meantime. Serving as an inverse to Mitsuhashi's initial lacking and potential for growth, though, Kirihito is presented with a much more real barrier to his capabilities. While he has the experience and physique to wrestle, he has a solid limit on what he's capable of thanks to a medical condition that limits how much strain he can put on his body. Like Mitsuhashi, this creates something of an inferiority complex in Kirihito that makes him insist that he'll never be able to wrestle with everyone. Yet, when push comes to shove, he still very much wants to be in the ring with everyone else. So, to combat their physical deficiencies, both end up developing unique skills and tactics that can at least allow them to compete in a way most others wouldn't. For Mitsuhashi, this develops into his using underhanded tactics and mind games that'll throw off his opponents. Kirihito, however, turns his weakness into something of a specialized martial art, one that focuses on using and manipulating both his and his opponent's strengths to end things as quickly as possible, letting him work within his physical limit.
This one line more or less becomes the mantra of Hinomaru's team.
In the case of the team's delinquent, Gojou Yuuma, and resident muscle-head, Kunisaki Chihiro, that development and use of techniques is twisted into something a lot more direct. Initially self-assured with his karate skills, Yuuma starts the show assuming that he'll always be the best of the best up until Hinomaru proves otherwise and knocks him down a peg. Similarly, the Chihiro's mastery of mixed martial arts puts him on a pedestal that Hinomaru knocks over without much effort, forcing him to come to terms with the fact that he can and should keep striving to improve. In the end, both take a real liking to sumo wrestling and use it to hone themselves as people and fighters. What's more important to note, though, is that their previous martial arts skills never truly go to waste. Both work to find a way to blend their previous skills with the strengths of sumo wrestling and end up fashioning a unique form of sumo wrestling that has the potential to challenge and beat the traditional styles. In essence, their growth shows how sumo might change once it's opened up to a world full of other martial art forms and styles that could breath new life into the traditional sport. That, in turn, though, also speaks to Hinomaru's ultimate goal of shaking things up in the sumo world by proving that his height deficiency can't stop him from taking the title of yokozuna.
There is that too.
This kind of twisting and melding of different styles to overcome one's mental hangups, physical limitations, and preferred styles is what ultimately defines the whole point of Hinomaru's journey. While the show itself is very much centered on Hinomaru, as a character, overcoming his own limitations and reaching for the top, the story as a whole is focused on how this band of weirdos and misfits might use their quirks to usher in a new future for sumo wrestling. In other words, it is through their hard work and efforts, as well as Hinomaru's dream, that they prove that sumo can feature more diverse techniques and wrestlers than what is traditionally accepted, functionally globalizing a traditionally Japanese martial art.
Incidentally, I have a feeling that very goal is why each of the
opposing teams have at least one foreigner on their roster.
The thing that clinches Hinomaru Sumo as something truly great, though, is the way that it acknowledges that sumo isn't a novelty many people might find engaging. On top of the main cast, there are a couple of other members of the main team who ultimately seem to exist as audience proxies that speak to different levels of interest in sumo wrestling. For any die-hard sumo fan, these characters are easy to ignore and aren't particularly obtrusive beyond their minor roles as potential love interests. For anyone only mildly interested in sumo or wholly new to the concept, though, the characters of Hori Chizuko and Gojou Reina are invaluable. As outsiders looking in on this sport, they offer their own perspectives over the course of the series that might better reflect and reinforce the viewer's own opinions, allowing the viewer to basically grow along with either of these two characters. For those with a mild interest in sumo, Hori enters the series as a fan of sumo. Through her support of the team and quiet crush on Hinomaru, it becomes easier to understand why people like this sport and might want to support the wrestlers who dedicate themselves to the craft. Reina, on the other hand, serves as a proxy for those with no interest in the sport. Over the course of the show, she repeatedly refuses to even engage with the wrestlers until she eventually becomes charmed by Hinomaru's determination to succeed and the sheer power of the sport. Trite as that pattern of growth might be in a female character, particularly one who'll eventually become the main love interest, the way she slowly starts to care about the characters and then their sport isn't all that much different from the viewer's journey. While they might start off not caring for the show's gimmick, it makes sense that someone might eventually fall for the characters or the action itself and end up a sumo fan when all is said and done.
I mean, I obviously can't speak for everyone but that's pretty much how I learned to appreciate this sport.
As far as shounen go, Hinomaru Sumo ultimately boils down to being a straightforward but thoughtfully crafted show. Rarely did I ever find myself surprised by the story or where things led but it gave me exactly what I wanted and even got me to care about a sport I knew nothing about until now. If that's not a sign of success, I don't know what is. So, all things considered, I honestly believe that this is just an all-around great show that used its novelty and some of the better aspects of the shounen genre to the best effect possible. It won't win any awards in my book or even make the top of any list but it was a solidly enjoyable show that I can recommend without any conditions or clauses. If you ever want to learn about sumo or just want something simple but quality, then look no further than Hinomaru Sumo.