Oodachi High School Sumo Club. Originally having a single member, being on the verge of disbandment and not even having control over it's own dojo, those who had heard of the club had long assumed it was not going to last for much longer. That is how it was at least, until a short student named Ushio Hinomaru transferred, ready to bring the club not only back on its own feet, but also to the top, with the title of Yokozuna as his goal. Initially met with disbelief, he destroys any prejudice he is met with, proving the power of effort can overcome physical barriers, inspiring fellow club members and people around him.
Originally thought to be a very talented newcomer to the world of sumo, it is soon revealed that Ushio had made a reputation for himself in his elementary school years already, being known as Onimaru, a legendary sumo wrestler who was feared by all. After a hiatus, rumors of him cooled down considerably, though he is back to prove himself once more, quickly gathering more attention and improving people's opinions of the club. As time passes, new members join, and together, they experience the hardships of rigorous training, competition, loss, victory, and the spirit of sumo.
The story is written and illustrated by Kawada, and was published in Weekly Shounen Jump from 2014 to 2019. It received a 26 episode anime adaptation produced by studio Gonzo in 2018-2019.
Hinomaru Zumou provides examples of:
- Academic Athlete: To the surprise of everyone, Hinomaru gets very good marks on all subjects, to the incredible annoyance of Tsuji, his coach, who barely made it into the same school.
- The Ace: Mizuki, who excels in everything he does with little to no effort. Tennoji is also this, having once been as small as Hinomaru before he grew out and became high school Yokozuna by combining all the skills he learned back then with one of the biggest builds among the high school wrestlers.
- Arms and Armor Theme Naming: Virtually all of the significant wrestlers
- The National Treasures are nicknamed after legendary swords, and use them as their ring names as pros. There's a subgroup called the Five Heavenly Swords, named for the five most revered National Treasures.
- Hyoudou changed his ring name to "Daihannya", after a National Treasure sword, to signify that he's from their generation and shouldn't be overlooked.
- Ozeki took the ring name Taroutachi after a 7ft+ long National Treasure to mark himself as a rival to the shrimpy Onimaru.
- There's also the Three Great Spears, whose ring names come from... Well, guess, dummy.
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Tonbokiri of the Great Spears looks down on everyone he considers "untalented", particularly any wrestler of a lower rank. Intentional or not, when he badly injured a newly-promoted Juryo wrestler he wasn't sorry at all. He did back off when Ozeki held his own against him, though — and even apologized for misjudging him.
- The Atoner: Yuuma, whose guilt with ruining the Sumo Club for Ozeki for two years became a heavy weight on him.
- Chihiro can be considered this as well when it comes to wrestling.
- Babies Ever After: Chihiro is a single dad after the time skip.
- Became Their Own Antithesis: For a short period, Hinomaru, who was consumed by a single minded devotion to defeating the Yokozuna to the point of only feeling bloodlust and desperation. It was only after getting handed a defeat by the man himself and having an intimate talk with Reina that he goes back on the right path. He had also lost his fighting style, and thus his philosophy of sumo, to injury and anxiety before snapping out of that as well.
- The Berserker:
- As discussed above, Hinomaru, starting around the time he faced Tonbokiri in a regional exhibition bout. He's said to fight like he has a death wish, punishing his own body and risking severe injury for the sake of winning.
- Okanehira (the former Kano Akihira) became one around the same time and went on a tear in the September tournament. He can get away with the vicious reckless style because of physical gifts Hinomaru lacks.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Ozeki is a very nice and genuinely forgiving person, but his resolute devotion to Sumo eventually makes him a scary opponent to fight in battle.
- Big Eater: How much sumo wrestlers eat is mentioned directly only a time or two. Learning how to eat a lot is part of the training Tsuji put the club through; it got them banned from a buffet restaurant and left the owner traumatized.
- Blessed with Suck: Tsuji Kirihito is just as strong as his friend Hinomaru in middle school, but a lung condition limits his full potential as a wrestler to just 20 seconds before he can't breathe anymore. He manages to become a pro anyway.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Jirou, the current Yokozuna, who often falls asleep mid-sentence while drunk, gets into childish rants when he gets overly emotional, and often has inner discussions in his own head with other parts of his psyche. None of this matters in the ring where he's an undisputed king.
- Career-Ending Injury: Daikeishou retired when he didn't recover well from a knee injury. During the time skip Kariya Shun had been plagued with injuries until he had no choice but to quit sumo.
- Character Title
- Combat Commentator: Who does this depends on the match, but it's usually either Ozeki, the coaches, or the people gathering information for magazine articles.
- Combat Pragmatist: Mitsuhashi Kei isn't a physically capable person by default, and thus needs to rely on his speed and guile to even last more than a few seconds in the ring against any opponent.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Pretty much how they get Chihiro to join the club when they're desperate for members.
- Fanservice: If you like men (of all shapes and sizes) wearing little to no clothing, this is the manga for you.
- Reina also provides this post-time skip, in during her time at a hotel with Hinomaru.
- Fat and Skinny: Terahara and Okouchi, two low-ranking stablemates of Hinomaru. Shibakiyama demands that Terahara lose weight and Okouchi gain it, cuz they've each been doing way too much of the opposite.
- Fire-Forged Friends: The Oodachi High Sumo Club by the time they hit the Inter-High Tournament, which incidentally contains the timid captain and the delinquent bully that actively disrespected his hobby for years beforehand.
- Fourth-Date Marriage: High on adrenaline from a major win, Hinomaru proposes to Reina on television during the September tournament. They've only technically dated for a few months, despite knowing each other since high school.
- Friendly Enemy: A common occurrence outside the ring, though the sensible standard as helping the people who defeated you defeat the team you wanted to beat to begin with gives you much more data in the long run.
- Game-Breaking Injury: Hinomaru suffered this in an incident back in middle school, after which he spent 3 years training himself up to make a high school debut.
- Hinomaru suffered a broken arm post-timeskip, having to heal for a considerable amount of time and his rank plummeting as a result before his comeback. He had to drastically change his fighting style for some time even after it had completely healed; the trauma of the injury had built a mental block preventing him from using any of his best moves.
- Gentle Giant: Juzumaru, one of the Five Heavenly Swords, is the heaviest Japanese wrestler and very good with kids. He seems to be quite sensitive and Hinomaru calls him an unbelievably good person.
- The Gift: Kuze is considered to have this, with commentators remarking that he's basically on his way to be an even bigger and stronger version of his father Yamatokuni, a venerable Yokozuna.
- Girlish Pigtails: Reina, though she lets her hair down after graduation.
- Gonk: Otegine, the singing sekiwake, looks... odd.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Yuuma and Reina, funny considering they're siblings.
- Hard Head: A big plus for a wrestler, as the initial charge can easily result with skull-on-skull contact.
- Yamatogo is stated to have the best/hardest headbutts of the top division; he once defeated Hinomaru as soon as the bout began with his initial charge. Hinomaru returns the favor in the next tournament.
- Ozeki/Taroutachi has a big nasty scar on his forehead after the timeskip; a flashback shows he got it by doing headbutt drills against a hard wooden beam.
- Hard Work Hardly Works: Averted, especially on Hinomaru's part. Kuze also has The Gift for Sumo, but wouldn't be as strong as he is if he didn't spend day in and day out doing Sumo drills, even if he doesn't spar (which is considered very weird by both his stablemates and other Sumo clubs). It took Hinomaru years of effort to get where he is now. Mizuki, on the other hand...
- Relatively applies to Chihiro and Yuuma, who mostly trained as an MMA wrestler and a karateka, performing sumo at a national level after only a few months.
- Hopeless with Tech: Hinomaru is very behind on technology, to the point where he didn't know how use a phone to text someone until he was 20.
- Hot-Blooded: Most of the main cast, but especially Chihiro. The manga visually illustrates this in sumo matches as a blazing battle aura.
- In-Series Nickname: 'Onimaru' for Hinomaru. This becomes his ring name as a pro.
- 'Oozeki'note for Ozeki.
- 'Mikazuki Munechika' for Mizuki.
- Insult of Endearment: Reina's use of the term midget becomes this for Hinomaru.
- Japanese Delinquents: Yuuma was considered the King of Oodachi High before he reformed after his defeat to Hinomaru. Other prominent wrestlers in the story were also former delinquents.
- Large Ham: Chihiro, Hyoudou, Otegine
- Lethal Chef: Hinomaru's chanko doesn't get a very positive response from most people.
- Love Revelation Epiphany: While Hinomaru agreed to be Reina's boyfriend, he didn't understand the scope of his feelings until their heart-to-heart in Chapter 203.
- Official Couple: Hinomaru and Reina finally start dating in Chapter 174.
- Parental Abandonment: Hinomaru, whose parents died before the beginning of the plot.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse:
- Hinomaru is 152cm, about 5' even, but bursting with enormous muscles and capable of throwing wrestlers twice his size with ease. During the high school part of the series it's often mentioned that Hinomaru doesn't meet professional sumo's minimum height reguirement and needs to win a special exemption in an individual tournament to go pro.note
- Tennoji used to be this, and was a major source of inspiration for Hinomaru because of it, but by the time of the serious it's subverted as he had a huge growth spurt in highschool and now has the build of a full-grown wrestler, power belly aside, as a highschool senior.
- Power Copying: Chihiro's incredibly adaptive fighting style allows him to instinctively perform moves already done to him in the heat of battle, catching his opponents off guard.
- Pretty Boy: Mizuki has a good number of fangirls, or at least he's shown having them before joining the sumo club.
- The Resenter: As a pro, Kano (now Okanehira) became very bitter about being overlooked in favor of the other National Treasures, especially being seen as the Lesser Star to his old teammate Tennoji/Dojikiri.
- Stout Strength: Given that this is sumo, par for the course. Though the protagonists are not so stout in their highschool arc, with some of them being downright fit or slender. After the timeskip and they've reach adult age, they've trained up their sizes considerably as they are now professionals.
- Strong and Skilled: Tennoji is both because he used to be a Pintsized Powerhouse like Hinomaru who had to work with what he got, giving him the technical finesse to be an absolute demon in the dohyo by the present day. He utterly mollywhoops Hinomaru when they first meet in the individual brackets because he knows all the tricks a smaller man can play on a larger one, though he does admit that he thinks Hinomaru is really cool and made him work for that win.
- Time Skip: The manga skips to three years after the high school interstate, with some of the chapters catching the reader up on what's happened since then.
- Training from Hell: What Hinomaru puts himself through constantly in order to be the strongest. Some could also consider regular sumo practice to be this as well, like Mitsuhashi.
- Trickster Mentor: Ogawa Tokio, who makes his students solve his 100-yen riddles without questioning his methodology.
- Wild Hair: Hinomaru's unkept hair was his signature look in high school. After going pro, he promptly got it tied back.
- Window Watcher: Reina's habit of watching the Sumo Club practice from outside their classroom. Initially she was only checking on Yuuma, but she ended up staying to watching Hinomaru as well.
- Video Will: Not necessarily a will, but Hinomaru's mother recorded a message for Hinomaru's bride before she died, thanking her for taking care of him and for accepting him.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Hinomaru delivers one of these to Ozeki, who didn't have much confidence in his abilities or talent.
