Burning Kabaddi (Japanese: 灼熱カバディ, Hepburn: Shakunetsu Kabadi) is a Japanese kabaddimanga series written and illustrated by Hajime Musashino. It was serialized on Shogakukan's Ura Sunday website and MangaONE app from July 2015 to July 2024 and has been collected in thirty-one tankōbon volumes. An anime television series adaptation by TMS Entertainment aired from April to June 2021.
Burning Kabaddi is a manga series written and illustrated by Hajime Musashino. The series began serialization on Shogakukan's Ura Sunday website and MangaONE app in July 2015. In May 2024, it was announced that the series had reached its climax.[10] The series published its final chapter on July 23, 2024.[11] Shogakukan has collected its chapters into individual tankōbon volumes. As of November 12, 2024, thirty volumes have been published.[12]
An anime television series adaptation was announced on July 6, 2020.[1] Produced by TMS Entertainment, the series is directed by Kazuya Ichikawa and written by Yūko Kakihara. Mari Takada is designing the characters and Ken Ito is composing the series' music. Domerica is credited with animation cooperation. The opening theme, "Fire Bird", is performed by Shunya Ōhira, while the ending theme, "Comin' Back", is performed by Yuma Uchida.[43] The series aired from April 3 to June 19, 2021, on TV Tokyo, TV Osaka, TV Aichi, and AT-X.[2][44]Crunchyroll licensed the series outside of Asia.[45]Medialink has licensed the series in Southeast Asia, and is streaming it on their partnered platforms.[46]
"What is Kabaddi?" Transliteration: "Kabaditte Nanda yo" (Japanese: カバディってなんだよ)
Miyuki Kaieda
Yūko Kakihara
April 3, 2021 (2021-04-03)
Tatsuya Yoigoshi, the former ace of Junior High Soccer team, has come to dislike sports and does online live streaming instead. However, he is invited by Souma Azemichi to join the Kabaddi club. After many tries, Yoigoshi finally agrees to only see their practice. He goes to the Kabaddi Club with Souma and meets Vice Captain Kei Iura, Shinji Date, and Kyouhei Misumi. After seeing their practice match and getting amazed by kabaddi, Iura gives him an offer—if he wins a one-on-one Match against Souma, he will be allowed to go, but if he loses the match, he has to join the club. Yoigoshi accepts and after a few practice matches loses to Souma. According to the offer, he joins the club. Iura contacts the Captain Masato Oujou to tell him about the new member.
2
"Men Who Connect" Transliteration: "Tsunagaru Otoko-tachi" (Japanese: 繋がる男たち)
Miyuki Kaieda
Yūko Kakihara
April 10, 2021 (2021-04-10)
Tatsuya Yoigoshi starts practicing with the team. First, he refuses to practice in a defense formation because in this form they have to form a "chain" where they have to hold hands with each other and he does not like the idea. Instead, he preferred to practice as a raider. His raid success rate against them was zero. But after he is observing the deputy director Kei Iura, the second year students Misumi Kyohei and Date Shinji, Yoigoshi has discovered a successful way to win against them: "a raiding hat trick".
3
"Into the Burning World" Transliteration: "Shakunetsu no Sekai e" (Japanese: 灼熱の世界へ)
Miyuki Kaieda
Yūko Kakihara
April 17, 2021 (2021-04-17)
First year students Tatsuya Yoigoshi and Sōma Azemichi start practicing as a team against second year students Kyōhei Misumi and Shinji Date, unfortunately the first year students suffered during the match and defeated with a huge score. They realized that their failure happened because of the lack of coordination between both of them as team players. Yoigoshi used to hate all teamwork activities and gets irritated with all miss cooperation with Azemichi.
Suddenly, Yoigoshi gets an idea, if he needs to win this match, he has to invent a method to communicate with Azemichi in order to enhance their performance; done by using specific "codes" to harmony their plays. Both start practicing secretly to get used to the codes. Meet with the second year students again in new match and gain more points.
4
"The Strongest Raider" Transliteration: "Saikyō no Reidā" (Japanese: 最強のレイダー)
Kanako Yajima
Mana Uetake
Yūko Kakihara
April 24, 2021 (2021-04-24)
Tatsuya Yoigoshi wants to know more about Kabaddi; its rules, number of players per team and more. He becomes impatient to capture the "winning" feeling in training as he thinks that the game would not be fun unless you become a winner. Vice Captain Kei Iura notices that and influences him to use his potential strength factors to become "Noukin's Beast—the strongest raider". Yoigoshi went to Shinji Date for advises to be more toned physically.
One Day, while Yoigoshi was out running, he accidentally rams into a thin male that emerged suddenly without any sensed presence. This person was just released from a month stay in the hospital.
5
"The Match Begins!!!" Transliteration: "Shiai Kaishī!!!" (Japanese: 試合開始ィ!!!)
Mana Uetake
Takuma Kaneko
Midori Gotō
May 1, 2021 (2021-05-01)
6
"Chase X Counterattack" Transliteration: "Tsuigeki×Hangeki" (Japanese: 追撃×反撃)
Anime News Network had six editors review the first episode of the anime:[53] Caitlin Moore critiqued that it contained "moderately typical sports anime beats" but felt its cast displayed "little in terms of depth or complexity" and the animation degraded as it went into the kabaddi scenes; Nicholas Dupree commended the episode for explaining the central sport's fundamentals but criticized the stiff animation and shoddy direction of the kabaddi matches, and the unlikable cast ranging from "mildly unpleasant to loudly unpleasant"; Richard Eisenbeis also praised the explanation of the sport but was unimpressed with the overall cast and humor, saying: "Frankly, despite the rather fluid animation and interesting subject matter, this is not a series I would likely choose to pick up"; James Beckett criticized the production for having weak direction in its character interactions and not displaying "fast, fluid, and impactful animation" in its kabaddi scenes; Rebecca Silverman wrote: "In all honesty, Burning Kabaddi looks like it's going to be like any other sports anime [...] It'll probably be fine, and the lure of a somewhat unusual sport may be enough of a draw for those on the fence". The sixth reviewer, Lynzee Loveridge, wrote: "I want to recommend Burning Kabaddi for its efforts to highlight a unique sport and for its particularly dumb teen protagonist, but I found nothing impressive about this premiere and much of its sports action falls flat".[53]
Notes
^ abInformation is taken from the ending credits of each episode.