2 types: Tournament & Broken dream

[kitten320]

Hey, I was going through the threads just now and through some personal stuff and I felt like watching something that deals with those topics...

Type 1:
I want to see an anime which involves any kind of tournaments. Fighting tournaments might be the best but I don't mind some other sport orientated shows as long as they are good and not totally comedy based... and if possible make sure that main character is not invincible, otherwise it is no fun when he/she always wins.
Friends facing friends also is a plus. Also would prefer if it was on some kind of arena with people watching, supporting and so on.

What I had seen so far are:
Air Gear
Deadman Wonderland - main characters wins way too easily so far
Dog Days - a bit too happy
Katekyo Hitman Reborn!
Bamboo Blade
Fate/Stay Night
Mai HiME
Naruto - good example, some outcomes were suprising like for example Ino VS Sakura

Type 2:
I want an anime which deals with the theme of "Broken dreams". For example someone wanted to be a boxer but had seriouse hand injury and can't take part in competitions again.
Character can keep trying to get back or can try to find another dream, anything that is about dealing with this kind of problem.

Shows I watched:
Naruto - Lee case, best example I have so far
Clannad - Tomoya can't play basketball, sadly series were not really about his issue.


Hope you will be able to help me

[Vane]

One of the supporting characters in Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a boy who can't play violin anymore due some accident/illness. Even though he's not one of the main cast, his role is quite big in the series. I regardless recommed the series

Here's couple links where you can find many tournament-tagged series: TvTropes and AniDB.

[totoum]

For tournament the first thing that comes to mind is Kaiji but those are more "mind games" tournaments,still Kaiji is far from invicible.
Sometimes there's crowds sometimes there isn't,depends on the event.

[mecharobot]

Tournaments:

Flame of Recca
G Gundam
Grappler Baki 2nd season
Hajime no Ippo
Hunter x Hunter
Slam Dunk
Yakitate!! Japan
Yume-iro Patissiere
Yuu Yuu Hakusho

Out of these, Flame of Recca and Yuu Yuu Hakusho have big shounen super power tournaments (I think one tournament lasted like 60 episodes in YYH). Very standard material. Hajime no Ippo had at least one, maybe two small sports tournaments along with Slam Dunk, which had a big one. Yumeiro Patissiere and Yakitate Japan have many baking tournaments, with Yakitate having the bigger ones and Yumepati having many smaller ones.

These are fairly common in battle, sports, game and baking shows. You may also want to look at the first arc of Kaiji for an interesting game tournament.

[Kleo Scanti]

Revolutionary Girl Utena, if you don't mind slightly older series, for tournament.

[Kotohono]

For broken dream, maybe Bunjaku Shoujo the main char was a best selling author before certain events.

[SeijiSensei]

There are lots of tournaments in Hikaru no Go and Shion no Ou, though the battles are fought over, respectively, a Go and a Shougi board. That doesn't make them any less dramatic, though.

[Guardian Enzo]

I strongly second Hikaru no Go, which I recently picked up on SeijiSensei's recommendation. It's much more than I expected, and rather exciting.

[mecharobot]

For broken dreams, maybe:

Air Gear: It has one crippled character and should also double as a tournament anime.

Angelic Layer: I should have put this on the tournament ones, but technically the idea here is based on gaining back something that was lost. Not for the main character however, without spoiling it too much.

Heartcatch Precure! has one character that lost her powers. Nothing too special about that scenario here.

Kaleido Star has this to some extent. At least one character stepped down because of an injury.

I think Angel Beats! had something like this in one of its character arcs.

Oh and Hikaru no Go might also double as a broken dream anime, now that I consider it more closely.

[Haak]

Type One:
Katanagatari: It isn't a tournament per se but the main character does go around fighting the best fighters in the world. He's not invincible but he may stray into that teritory sometimes. But it's really more about the characters themselves than the fights.

There's also Star Driver, but if anything it's even worse than Katanagatari when it comes to the main character's invulnerablity. Again, it's more about the characters than the fights.

Type Two:
I definitely second Bungaku Shoujo. This is the order I recommend watching the series in.

I also recommend Oujisan no Lamp. It's not specifically about a broken dreams but it is similar. A feeling of hopelessness as you see the world around you changing and feel you no longer belong. It's a single episode OVA.

The idea of a boxer getting a serious hand injury comes up in Rainbow but it's only a side story.

[kitten320]

Cool! Keep them comming!

And I saw Madoka, sadly the guy over came it thanks to magic and that's not really what I'm looking for...

And yeh, forgot to mention Air Gear.

[Haak]

I forgot to mention Cross Game and 5 Centimeters Per Second for broken dreams aswell.

[Boduar]

"Kiba" probably works. Has several fighting tournaments (think pokemon if ash pulled out a sword). Overall pretty awesome but TBH I cant remember the outcomes of most of the fights so cant say for sure whether he loses any TBH (I think he does but I cant remember for sure).

Edit: Kiba actually works for your Broken Dreams scenario as well.