Alternate Titles: Abarenbou Kishi!! Matsutarou
Manga Adaptation by Toei Animation
Simulcast on Crunchyroll

Premise

Matsutaro Sakaguchi is a giant of a man, towering over all of his peers. Rude, rough, brash, lazy, lecherous, and a whole other slew of bad habits make him a pretty unpopular guy. Despite all that, he’s hands down one of the strongest guys in town and soon learns to use his strength in the Sumo ring, if his bad habits don’t stop him first.

Gee’s Verdict: Lightweight

As a big fan of the sports genre of manga/anime, an anime about sumo wrestling seemed like a pretty decent idea. Despite the connotations, sumo is a pretty impressive sport that requires a fair bit of strength and technique. In addition, being created by Tetsuya Chiba, creator of the iconic Ashita no Joe, meant there was quite a reputation going for it. Unfortunately, Rowdy Sumo Wrestler Matsutaro!! does a pretty bad job of introducing us to its world. Let’s get this out of the way, Matsutaro is a really shitty person. Like, probably one of the most unlikable main characters I’ve seen in a while. Now this isn’t inherently a bad thing. Plenty of sports anime protagonists start off rough, which makes their gradual development as both an athlete and a person all the more satisfying.

However, the first episode makes the cardinal sin of sports anime; not mentioning the sport in question in the first episode. That’s right folks, the first episode consists of Matsutaro literally going around, physically assaulting people, stealing candy from children, robbing people of their food, threatening others, and even trying to make out with an unconscious woman. But not once do they even mention sumo. I’m not a patient person, if a show wants to win me over, it’s gotta do it in minutes, not hours. Rowdy Sumo Wrestler Matsutaro failed and I doubt I’ll be watching more. Combined with its unlikable protagonist with no sign of improvement, it’s hard to find a reason to stick around.

Marlin’s Verdict: Abhorrent

Absolutely horrible. I get it if you want to make your main character a little bit of a jerk, but Matsutaro is unabashedly a horrible person and no amount of sumo-ing would ever change anyone’s opinion of that after watching this episode. How anyone could think watching Matsutaro bully and assault his way around town is funny is beyond me. Avoid at all costs.