This one throws you back to a kind of sports anime that was already supposed to be extinct by 2002: talking animals in full kit, chasing a ball with total sincerity. Hidemaru is a fox with more attitude than size, and his squad is a zoo roster of bunnies, dogs, horses and two hefty hippo girls who exist to bully the penalty box. It landed the same year Japan and South Korea hosted the World Cup, so the whole thing runs on that specific national sugar rush, aimed squarely at kids too young to know these tropes were vintage. Makoto Mizobuchi's CoroCoro roots show in every frame, all broad faces and shameless energy, no tragic backstories, no weight, just the game. If you grew up thinking soccer was something a fox could be great at, this is the show that told you so.

Hidemaru is a feisty young soccer player in a world of animals dressed in sports gear, and his circle of friends includes rabbits, dogs, horses and a pair of hefty hippo girls. He sets out to rescue a small local football club, and he looks up to real-life player Hidetoshi Nakata, whose career in Italy the series follows. Adapted from Makoto Mizobuchi's manga Hidemaru the Soccer Boy, which ran in CoroCoro Comics, the TV sports anime aired in 2002, the year Japan and South Korea hosted the World Cup, and was aimed at a very young audience.