Sumo Wrestling

Dosukoi~!

They are big and fat, they are strong and resistant, they are almost naked: they are sumo wrestlers!

Before anime and video games became mainstream, Japan was known through popular culture for four things: geisha, Ninja, samurai, and these big fighters known as sumo wrestlers. Big, rotund men whose objective is to throw the other man out of the ring, they are usually cast as Close Range Combatants per excellence in Fighting Games along the Boxing Battler, or as minor characters in different kind of stories.

It's Serious Business in Japan, where it could be described as the national pastime, and it is often interspersed with traditional Shinto rituals. Its rules are rather simple: you win by forcing your opponent out of the circular 4.55 diameter clay ring lined with tighty wrapped straw ropes or forcing him to touch the ground with any part of his body except the soles of his feet. For this reason, matches usually only last a few seconds invested in big explosions of strength, leverage, agility and clever technique, making them short, dramatic and frequently spectacular, just what casual fans need to entertain themselves and keep watching. Also, although in the West it is often called a martial art and piled together with Judo and Karate, sumo wrestling could be much better described as a combat sport with religious undertones. While there are amateur associations in schools and colleges (as well as open circuits abroad), official sumo is a strictly professional competition which one dedicates his life to with several strict rules of conduct and a whole freemason-like dictionary of terms that started in Sumo^note The Japanese term for the cowgirl position is known as Hyakuhei, the "Hundred Forms" that involve all Sumo training methods and finishing moves at the time the original term was coined. Basically, a ton of normal modern-day Japanese words seemingly lack etymology beyond being Sumo terms. (including keeping up an attitude as The Stoic in public, even though wrestlers, when interviewed, very often prove to be Gentle Giants and Friends To All Children).

Contrary to popular belief, actual sumo techniques and training regimes are far more complex than it looks, as the open nature of the ruleset allows for more or less all wrestling moves and judo throws, including those grabbing the opponent's loincloth (which is called mawashi) for leverage. It also contains a rudimentary form of striking, as palm strikes, chops, elbows and forearm blows are legal, so knockouts can and do happen from time to time (they are still comparatively rare, though, because wrestlers are generally tough fellows with Mike Tyson-like neck muscles).^note Also because fully committing to striking with the goal to achieve a knockout is Awesome, but Impractical, as anything done at the expense of wrestling leaves you open to be outwrestled. In fact, kicking is another form of striking technically allowed in sumo, only that is virtually never done because It means giving up your stability and making you easy to push or trip. Most notably, although there are minimum height and weight requirements, there are no weight divisions, meaning David Versus Goliath is an everyday scenario and a big factor on victory. Sumo wrestlers are called sumotori or rikishi, and after a certain level they compete under a shikona, a ring name formed by a given name (usually theirs, if they are native, or a Japanese traditional name if they are foreigners) and a surname with a meaningful, often poetically powerful composition (for instance, famous champion Asashoryu's means "Morning Blue Dragon", while Wakatakakage's means "Young Hawk Shadow").

Fictional sumo can be Big Fun guys or Fat Bastards, depending on their place on the moral spectrum, and tend to be Big Eaters. Almost always Japanese, much like real ones, although a few Brazilian, European, Slavic, Pacific Islander and later Mongolian wrestlers exist.^note The top of the field as of this writing is often dominated by Mongolians, and has been for almost two decades now because Sumo scouts began attending Mongolian Bökh tournaments to find potential trainees, which resulting in an unprecedented era of Mongolian dominance under Asashoryu, Hakuho, Kakuryu and Teronofuji; That's right, of the last five Yokozuna, four have been Mongolians with a Bökh or Judo background. There are also a handful of Caucasian rikishi and they tend to be from Slavic countries where folk wrestling is still popular, with former Bulgarian ozeki Kotooshu noteworthy as the first Caucasian rikishi to become an elder and open his own stable and Georgian rikishi Tochinoshin managing to compete in three different decades despite one of his knees getting compromised by a bad landing during a match in 2013, competing all the way until late 2023. The huge Brazilian Rikishi Kaisei who retired in early 2023 managed to reach ozeki as well and stayed in the top divisions consistently for almost fifteen years. Tend to have their hair tied in topknots and rarely wear much other than a pair of shorts and sandals. Of course, real ones wear other garments when not competing or training.

Believe it or not, sumo wrestlers were not always fat. Older sumo wrestlers, while large, were far leaner with more traditionally athletic builds. This began to change around the 80s, when heavier wrestlers became the norm due to their weight making them harder to throw and their fat and mass making them more resilient to impact. Even modern sumo wrestlers are less fat than they appear. Most sumo wrestlers only have around 15-20% body fat^note While not impressive for most professional athletes, this is actually considered fit to average for men by the American Council on Exercise. and under that outer layer of blubber is an astoundingly muscular physique. Many wrestlers that aren't particular tall tend to look like fairly ordinary and muscular people after retiring, while coaches (almost always former top division Rikishi or outright champions) tend to look both huge and dapper at once.

This Trope is almost Always Male. Traditional and religious customs prevent women from participating in Real Life sumo, and a fictitious Distaff Counterpart would likely look pretty silly. This has been challenged occasionally in modern times by some like Governor Fusae Ohta of Okinawa, but is unlikely to change in the near future, though amateur women's sumo also exists in Japan and some Western countries.

The sport is Older Than They Think, with the current ruleset having undergone very little adjustment since the Edo period. Unfortunately also in terms of health standards; Sumo's adherence to "warrior spirit", "dignity in defeat" etc, and having to walk off your match and give a bow to your opponent has meant that several wrestlers have aggravated their injuries being forced to comply to this tradition by officials, even in visible distress. Some have been permanently paralyzed or outright died as recently as April 2021 from a lack of paramedical responders present at the venue or them simply responding not fast enough. The bout before the emperor in 23BC between one Nomi no Sukune and one Taima no Kehaya is considered the Ur-Example of a "sumo" bout on record, though it was radically different from today's sumo (indeed, before the Sengoku period, "sumo" was instead known as kakuriki); no holds were barred, all techniques save for biting were allowed and fights were occasionally fought to the death. Nomi no Sukune supposedly crushed Kehaya's spine and killed him with a stomp.

This trope is about characters that are designed about the concept and sumo wrestling in general.

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Examples

Advertising

• In a "How Do They Cram All That Graham" Golden Grahams commercial, one speculation was two sumos, carrying a graham cracker and a box of the cereal, slamming into each other.
• A commercial for Ritz S'Mores had two crackers, one with chocolate and the other with marshmallow, portrayed similar to these, getting stuck together when they collide.
• An advertisement for the Mitsubishi Fuso Canter truck showed off its size by having three sumo wrestlers cram into the cabin. After they get out the cabin tilts forward to show the engine underneath. The sumo wrestlers think it's bowing to them and do likewise.
• An old italian advertisment for the Duplo chocolate bars has a Sumoka asking for a bite of the titular snack from a spectator as he's going on the ring. When he clashes against his opponent, he has become so light the latter can lift him in the air effortlessly and even toss him upwards like a balloon, much to his and the referee's surprise.

Anime & Manga

• Hinomaru Zumou resolves around the concept, being a shonen fighting series about sumo wrestling.
• Aah! Harimanada is one of the earliest Seinen manga and anime series dedicated to the subject, starring a polarizing new yokuzuna (both in universe and out) who fashions himself as something of a wrestling heel, acting out as rebelliously and arrogantly as possible, while declaring if he loses even once before surpassing the real life legend Futabayama's 69-win streak, he will immediately retire from sumo.
• Dragon Ball has involved at least two fighters designed after sumo wrestlers, both in Tournaments:
  • Minor contestant Doskoi from the 9th movie, Dragon Ball Z: Bojack Unbound, who was the only person outside the Z fighters to go very far in the Tournament. He is sadly killed by one of Bojack's henchmen.
  • Dragon Ball Super: One of the Universe 10 fighters for the Tournament of Power is Napapa, a giant pink sumo wrestler with pig attributes. He is called the "magician of the edge ring", and is surprisingly tough, managing to avoid a ring out by Basil, another contestant from Universe 9. Ultimately, his run comes to an end when he, along with another fighter from Universe 10, decide to torment Kale, and he is promptly taken out by Caulifla.
• Android Moscov from EDENS ZERO is built to resemble a Sumoka and fights like one. Heck, he can even fly by palm-pushing the air above him... somehow...
• Fairy Tail, the obese, child-like Kain Hiraku, of the Seven Kin of Purgatory, fights with Sumo moves when not employing his Ushi no Koku Mairi magic. and is nearly unstoppable, easily defeating several Celestial Spirits unleashed against him.
• Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple has Thor, one of the members of Ragnarok, the 7th fist, who specializes in competitive Sumo wrestling and challenges Kenichi to a Sumo match, intending to make him embrace Sumo if he wins. However, Kenichi is able to overpower him and Defeat Means Friendship follows.
• Notari Matsutarou is about a grown up man in the middle school who has the strength of a gorilla, who after defeat some Sumo fighters in a tour, quickly becomes a new star in sumo wrestling.
• One Piece: a few characters in the story actually employ Sumo-like moves, namely:
  • In the Water Seven arc, the crew meet Yokozuna, a Sumo Toad who wears a Rikishi clothes and attacks Sea Trains with palm strikes, damaging them. He later proves to be a force to be reckoned with when he guards a breach from enemies and keeps them at bay for some time.
  • Shichibukai Kuma uses Sumo palm-stikes and pose in conjunction with the powers of his Devil Fruit (which allows him to deviate anything and make air bullets) to launch a barrage of unstoppable air blasts.
  • Sentomaru has the built of a Sumoka, and in spite of his gargantuan axe, his main fighting style involves sumo moves, which allows him to kick pre-Timeskip Luffy's ass with no effort. His technique contains a stealth pun on the traditional Sumo kiai Dosukoi.
  • In the Wano Arc, as expected, we meet a Sumo wrestler in the form of the jerkass supreme Urashima, who eventually Luffy fights in a regular match. As noted by Luffy, he's not above using dirty tricks such as aiming for the ears or eyes.
• In an Older Than Television example, there's the 1931 animated short movie Doubutsu Sumo Taikai, in which Funny Animals fight to be the best in this sport.
• In a manga-only arc of Rurouni Kenshin, Sanosuke has to deal with a local crime lord who's a former Sumoka strong enough to leave an imprint in stone with his hand strikes. Sano kicks his ass in a few punches.
• Averted and Played for Laughs in Soul Eater: Kirikou is confronted by an artificial soldier who boasts about the hundreds of fighting styles and techniques programmed into him. Unfortunately, he alternates all attacks with the nearly-useless Sumo technique "Nekodamashi" ^note  (clapping your hands right in front of your opponent to distract him) . After the third one, Kirikou just slugs him in the face and scolds him for considering "Two fatasses hugging each other" as a fighting style.
• An episode of Yatterman has the Doronbo Gang using tricked Sumo Matches to gather money for their Robot of the week. Later on, the heroes add the Sumo-themed Yatta Mecha to the roster.
• Averted in an episode of Lupin III: Part II: the massive crime boss Tatsumaki is being pummeled by Jigen, so as soon as he gets some breath, he unrobes himself, assumes a Sumo pose, bellows "Dosukoi!"... and promptly falls unconscious for the beating.
• Bear Brute Jerome from Killing Bites is a former sumo wrestler who used to be quite successful if ostracized because he wasn't Japanese. One day, a lunatic hater tried to kill him with a knife, but Jerome killed him in self defense with a single slap. He then abandoned the ring, not because he felt guilty but because he enjoyed the feeling of killing someone with his bare hands. After being turned into a bear-man he's gifted with incredibly powerful arms which allow him to hit like a truck.
• Kengan Ashura competitor Kiozan Takeru is a champion sumo wrestler who makes his fortune as a Kengan fighter. He's considered something of an outcast in the community due to his espousing what he calls "ancient sumo"—that is to say, a form of sumo wrestling that does not bar moves like punches and kicks. He's a powerful fighter, but ultimately loses to Jun Sekibayashi, a professional wrestler who, despite operating in a much less respected field, still sticks to the rules of his style and makes them work. It's revealed that Kiozan's "ancient sumo" is actually Awesome, but Impractical, since he doesn't have the stamina for it (sumo being designed around bursts of strength and short matches), which causes him to lose the edge to Sekibayashi, whose style is all about soaking up punishment and standing strong.
• Wolfman/Rikishiman from Kinnikuman is a Chojin based on a sumo wrestler who challenges Kinnikuman to take his place as the Chojin representative of Japan, and uses sumo-slaps in combat with great efficiency. He's however defeated by Kinnikuman in a sumo match and Defeat Equals Friendship ensues.
• In one episode of Pokémon: The Series, Ash and his friends arrive in a town where sumo wrestling using large Pokémon is popular and meet a trainer whose Feraligatr competes in the sport and is training for an upcoming tournament. Ash then decides to enter using his Snorlax.
• Fujiwara from Kaguya-sama: Love Is War is shown to be a big fan of sumo on several occasions. She even states in her final focus chapter that a sumo wrestler would be her ideal husband, though it's unclear just how serious she was being at he time.

Music

• The music video for Duran Duran's Girls on Film, directed by Lol Creme, featured a sumo wrestler getting bested by a rare female counterpart.

Film — Animation

• Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank has the aptly-named "Sumo", a downright huge sumo cat whom Hank fights at the tavern.
• Rugrats in Paris: There is a scene where the characters are in a restaurant being served by sumo wrestlers who sing karaoke. The rugrats mistake them for giant babies.

Film — Live-Action

• In Austin Powers in Goldmember, Fat Bastard is in Tokyo as sumo wrestler.
  Fat Bastard: You know what my favorite Helen Hunt movie is? Twister! [twists the wrestlers testicles]
• The Bud Spencer movie Piedone A Hong Kong features a Sumotori named "Yamada" as a friend of a woman involved in a drug-smuggling organization; Yamada attacks the hero thinking he was responsible for her death but, when things are cleared, helps him and shields him with his body from a hitman. Notably enough, he was the only guy in the movie capable of manhandling Bud around... for a while at least.
• The Japanese movie Sumo Do Sumo Dont, about the travails of an amateur university sumo club.
• The Taiwanese martial arts film, The Big Fight, set in WW-II Japan-occupied China has the Japanese setting a martial arts tournament in an attempt to prove their superiority over the local Chinese, with their fighters including a champion sumo wrestler. Said wrestler defeats a challenger by lifting him over his head and smashing the challenger's spine, but later on the sumo champion get his ass whooped by the Action Girl heroine who eventually breaks his temple via Waif-Fu.
• The Hong Kong film Dr. Wai in "The Scripture with No Words" had the titular doctor fighting two Giant Mook opponents, which are sumo wrestlers.
• The Quest is a movie about an international martial arts tournament where fighters from all corners of the world gathers to a mysterious island to fight each other for championship. The representative for Japan is a sumo wrestler, and also one of the longest-lasting fighters in the contest due to his Kevlard abilities.
• In Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno and Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends, Iwanbou of the Ten Swords is changed from a gigantic fat brute with a massive grin to a large, bald man with facial tattoos and the build of a sumoka. The one time he's seen fighting Kenshin he's rushing at him with all his weight, an effective move against someone as light as Kenshin.
• Sumolah! is a Malaysian sports-comedy revolving around the sport of Sumo wrestling. The protagonist is a slacker who ends up being conned into partaking in a Sumo tournament, and Hilarity Ensues.
• The Man with the Golden Gun: Thai tycoon Hai Fat has two statues of them on his manor grounds; when Bond comes at night on a dinner invitation, the statues are replaced with real ones whom he has to deal with.

Literature

• Interesting Times, being set in the Disc's Imperial China / Wutai, features Tsimo wrestlers, ginormous, ogre-like humans with ravenous appetites and maybe a few neurons each. Rincewind uses them in a Give Chase with Angry Natives moment by claiming one of their handlers has a sandwich, causing a stampede that destroys a small garden and a pagoda.
• Dave Barry, in his book Dave Barry Does Japan writes about watching a sumo match. Afterward, one of the wrestlers drinks a a Diet Coke and belches hard enough to send a "surfable wave" of fat across his belly.
• "Man-Mountain Gentian" by Howard Waldrop revolves around the sport of zen-sumo wrestling, where psychic attacks and mind games have taken the place of physical exertion. Many of the traditional trappings of the sport remain, and zen-sumotori are still huge men dressed in mawashi.
• Judge Dee: While most of the martial arts is "Chinese boxing" (kung-fu), one book features Miss Violet Liang, a six-foot-tall Mongolian wrestler who singlehandedly curbstomps three attempted kidnappers who once performed for the Court.

Live-Action TV

• An episode of Jackass had Johnny Knoxville getting rocked by a sumo wrestler. With his foot still in a brace from the "Roller Jump" stunt in a different episode.
• A few heroes in the Super Sentai franchise, usually The Big Guys, have used sumo moves in their repertoire. Of note is Sōtarō Ushigome from Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger, who is a retired sumo wrestler.
• Ultra Series:
  • The Ultraman 80 episode "The Mountain Sumo Boy", in which a sumo child youkai named Jihibikiran comes down to civilization to do what he must every few years — defeat 100 opponents in sumo wrestling. Hilarity Ensues, but it soon climaxes in Jihibikiran Hulking Out to a kaiju form that Ultraman 80 must placate with a good ol'-fashioned sumo match.
  • Ultraman Cosmos has a Monster of the Week, a usually-peaceful Kappa called Kawanoji who, unfortunately, ends up agitated after being shot at by a policeman and growing kaiju-sized. Ultraman Cosmos, the Badass Pacifist he is, challenged Kawanoji to a sumo wrestling match instead of choosing to kill the monster outright, and it worked - the moment Cosmos wins the wrestling match, Kawanoji then reverts back to normal size and leaves.
  • Ultraman Trigger: New Generation Tiga has an impromptu sumo wrestling match between Ultraman Trigger and the monster Barriguiller, with a construction site as an improvised ring. And like the two other instances above, once more this one ends without either kaiju or Ultra getting killed.

Professional Wrestling

• Naturally, many professional wrestlers in Japan have been former sumo wrestlers, not only low-ranked ones (like Genichiro Tenryu, John Tenta, Nobutaka Araya, Toru Owashi and Ryota Hama) or amateur (like Kiyoshi Tamura and CIMA), but also grand champions (most famously Hiroshi Wajima, Koji Kitao and Akebono). Even the man credited in popularizing professional wrestling in Japan, Rikidozan, used to be a sumo wrestler.
• Similarly, some American wrestlers have used sumo-themed gimmicks. The appropriately named Yokozuna and Rikishi are the best known.
• Amateur sumo champion and Guinness recordman Emmanuel Yarbrough also competed in Catch Wrestling Association in Germany.
• Wakashoyo, Takatoriki and Takatoriki's son Yukio are all sumo wrestlers who made the jump to pro wrestling in more recent times.
• In 2005, The Big Show made a sumo match against Akebono in WrestleMania 21 in a kayfabe version of sumo made in a wrestling ring with sumo rules, being Akebono the winner. This was also his first time as a wrestler, appearing few times before and after Wrestlemania, to few months later started as a proper wrestler in All Japan Pro Wrestling.

Toys

• The toyline for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) had Tattoo, an ally of the Turtles who had tried to be a Ninja, only to be "heckled for being humongous", and later join a society of Ninja Sumos. He eventually made it into one episode of the cartoon, where he was recast as a mutated hamster (who still looked like a human sumo).
  • Amusingly, this character's tattoos would have made him unable to compete in sumo, as, in Japan, tattoos are usually a sign of Yakuza and are banned.

Video Games

• Arm Champs: One of the strongest opponents in II is a sumo wrestler named Shibayama.
• One of the earliest examples of sumo in video games was in Epyx's World Games from 1986.
• Spyro Reignited Trilogy: Magnus has attire resembling what a sumo might wear, has the girth to back it up, and even does some sumo poses when he's freed.
• The character of Edmund Honda, from Street Fighter II, a big and fast fighter who is inspired by the sumo wrestling sport. Currently, this trope picture and the Trope Maker for Fighting Games. Ironically, E. Honda's recurring character goal is to promote sumo as a valid martial art, but the style Honda uses is so divergent from the established canon of sumo that no traditionalist would consider him a sumo wrestler, which is a side effect of the changes Honda had to make in order to compete on equal footing in the Street Fighter tournaments.
• A popular archetype in Fighting Games, inspired by E. Honda:
  • Ganryu from Tekken series.
  • Taka-Arashi from Virtua Fighter series.
  • Akatsuki-Maru from Buriki One.
  • Gan Isurugi from Rival Schools series, who's also a Japanese Delinquent.
  • Bo Rai Cho uses it as one of his styles in Mortal Kombat: Deception.
  • In Psikyo's Battle K-Road, there're Mitsuji Tanimachi and Harimaoh (a half-Japanese half-Brazilian wrestler).
• Also in Fighting Games, there are some fighters that are out of the ordinary using this martial art:
  • Hinako Shijo from The King of Fighters series is a petite schoolgirl practicing this sport (she wears weighted boots to compensate for her physique). Being mocked in her school for wanting to start a sumo club, Hinako joined the Women Fighters Team in one of KOF tournaments to demonstrate her strength.
  • In ClayFighter 63 1/3 and its sequel Sculptor's Cut, there's Sumo Santa, a Bad Santa that uses sumo as his fighting style as well as being one of the Big Bads and Final Bosses of the game.
  • Mainohana from the SD Hiryu no Ken series. Also the robot sumo wrestler Robo-no-Hana from the Super Chinese series, who would move to the Hiryu no Ken series to replace Mainohana.
  • Ballz has Tsunami, the fighter of the game that is a sumo wrestler. If by "fighters" you think in spherical characters, of course.
• Mystical Fighter have sumo wrestlers as mooks in several stages.
• Ninja: Shadow of Darkness: The Boss from the beach level is a chubby mercenary dressed like a stereotypical sumo fighter. He's surprisingly Acrofatic for his size though.
• In Super Mario World, the sumo brother is a large, fat Koopa that has the ability to stomp the ground and create columns of fire.
• Samurai Goroh from F-Zero has some shades of this, on account of being fat-yet-ripped. In fact, one of his idle animations in GX has him do some sumo stomps and palm-striking techniques.
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess has a sumo wrestling mini-game. It's a sport of honor for the Gorons of the era; Link has to best the acting leader, Gor Coron, to be allowed into the second dungeon. Bo, the mayor of Ordon Village, teaches him the sport in advance (and gives him a pair of Iron Boots to put him on even footing with the rock-men).
• In Pokémon, Makuhita and Hariyama, both named after sumo rankings, are bulky Fighting-types that possess high HP and attack. The latter's appearance draws heavily from sumo culture, with large, open palms and sumo shorts and waist coat.
• From Monster Hunter: Rise, we get Tetranodon, a mix between a Platypus, frog, and turtle designed to evoke the image of the Kappa, a yōkai known to enjoy sumo wrestling. It attacks with a number of slaps and throws that wouldn't be out-of-place in a sumo match.
• Ninja Commando have a pair of sumo wrestlers as a Dual Boss. They're both surprisingly acrofatic and soaks up a lot of your projectile attacks before dying.
• There are a few Fighting Games entirely dedicated to this martial art, mostly seen in Japan only. The website Spritted compiled the most famous games about sumo wrestling in this article. Also Hardcore Gaming 101 has their own article about sumo video games in its old website.
• The third boss of Rising Zan: The Samurai Gunman is a hulking Sumo wrestler who can breathe fireballs.
• And about sumo video games, there's Sumo Fighter, a Platform Game for Game Boy that rarely was exported to Western audiences. In the game, there's a sumo wrestler named Bon-chan (aka Bontaro Heiseiyama) on his quest to rescue a beautiful Damsel in Distress. Fittingly, most of Bon-chan's moves are based on actual sumo techniques.
• Penny's Big Breakaway: Emperor Eddie's boss fights have him doing this, as he wears sumo attire, and tries to push Penny out of the ring.
• From the Pushmo series, there's the protagonist Mallo, a little Cartoon Creature akin to a sumo wrestler, who pulls and pushes on blocks to create platforms which he then climbs onto in order to progress through the level.
• Geekwad Series: In Wacky Funsters: A Geekwad's Guide To Gaming, the first opponent faced in Ping, Tsunami Tso Tsume, looks like a sumo wrestler and uses Gratuitous Japanese.
• For Honor: The Shugoki class of fighters are heavily based on Sumo Wrestler. While they do use Kanabō, a giant wooden club with metal studs on it, everything else fits Sumo Wrestling to a T. They are large, Japanese warriors, who are are slow but hit like a truck. They have three moves (the most of any class) related to positioning the enemy fighter, making them the best class for pushing the enemy off ledges. They have the option to have a Genko style chonmage and use sumo wrestling moves as emotes.
• The Powder Keg Cannoneers from Battle Realms are sumo wrestlers conscripted to battle. Unlike most VG examples above, they are Long-Range Fighter Glass Cannon, as they are the only people with enough girth to handle the powder keg cannons. The lore mentions how the enemy would laugh at these fat, lumbering 'soldiers' making their way to the field — right until their massive cannons start ripping apart the enemy's lines.
• The arcade Ninja Gaiden (Arcade): One sumo as the boss of the first stage, and two in the fourth.
• The third boss from Rising Zan: The Samurai Gunman is an armoured sumo wrestler who can soak up plenty of blows from Zan's katana, while smashing the hero with his bare hands.
• Juzou the Drunkard from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice was a former sumotori whose career was ruined by alcohol and became a ruthless bandit. Not only is he enormous and obese, but aside from his giant sword he also employs sumo-like attacks, including a deadly grab in which he grabs Wolf with one hand, slam him into the ground them uses the classical sumo stomp to crush his spine. Two other enemies share the same model, namely Tokujiro the Glutton and Shigekichi of the Red Guard.
• Samurai Warriors features actual Sumo fighters (in some translations "Assault Ninjas") as Elite Mooks, being noticeably bigger than most mooks and able to perform surprisingly deadly attacks on players, including a charge of palm strikes, powerful stomps and grabs, which can make them a pain to deal with if you're already busy fighting other enemies. In the second game you can hire them as Bodyguards, all carrying the names of famous Sumo wrestlers of old such as Mataichiro Namasue, who was said to be admired by Oda Nobunaga himself. The games also have "Miscreants" depicted as Strike Ninjas with more health and name displayed over their heads.
• Genji, the third chapter features grotesque, pot-bellied green monsters in Heiankyo's Palace, which are meant to evoke sumoka: they attack with powerful stomps or palm strikes and when engaged with Kamui they jump to perform a Belly Flop Crushing.
• MadWorld twigs around with this archetype with Yokozuna (no, not that one). Rather than an immovable pillar of flab, Yokozuna is astonishingly ripped, posing an impressive fight with just his bare hands, and possessing one move where he leaps fifty feet into the air and grab a helicopter to slam back down onto Jack. Unlike most battles that involve slugging it out with Jack's chainsaw arm, the fight against Yokozuna is built around knocking him out of the arena, the border of which is lined with increasingly deadly implements.
• Shadow Warrior (1997) has a demonic sumo wrestler as the boss of the Sumo Sky Palace level. Beware when defeating him though, for he'll leave a... parting gift as he dies.
• The Takeover has a dojo stage containing sumo wrestlers as Giant Mook enemies. They later reappear in the final stage guarding Freya's quarters.
• Yokai Hunter Shintaro features a massive King Mook Oni boss who fights you in a sumo wrestling stance, constantly using his feet to pound the floor sending a Shockwave Stomp that deals heavy damage if hit.
• Glitch Busters: Stuck On You: Lan King is one of the bosses the player will face, and he is a sumo wrestler in the arena, compared to the player, they’re like ants.
• Final Fantasy XIV: Where recurring summon Titan is usually depicted with a Heroic Build, his XIV incarnation is instead built like a sumo wrestler, using sumo-based animations and even focusing on inflicting Ring Out to defeat the party.

Webcomics

• In El Goonish Shive, Tedd and Elliot play a card game based on sumo wrestling. In The Rant, Dan reveals the game they're playing is an actual playable game that he invented and posts the rules.

Web Video

• SuperMarioLogan: In "Fat Junior!", Junior wins a year's worth of free food from McDonald's and becomes fat after a month of eating it. When his teacher, Jackie Chu finds out, he decides to enter Junior in a sumo wrestling match against Whoa He Big, the ten-ton ten-time champion, promising him no homework for the entire school year if he wins. On the night of the tournament, Junior loses to Whoa He Big, and to add insult to injury, he finds out from Dr. Brooklyn T. Guy that he has contracted Type 2 diabetes as a result of his overeating, and gets the rest of his McDonald's food taken away.

Western Animation

• The Show Within a Show in the Ben 10 franchise, "Sumo Slammers", is our titular protagonist's favorite franchise series. In one episode, Ben travels inside a video game to meet the game's protagonist, Ishiyama, who has the ability to increase his size, durability, and strength.
• In Ed, Edd n Eddy, one episode is devoted to the Eds trying to make Jimmy famous by making him a sumo wrestler. They succeed in making him fit for the position, but sadly, sumo wrestlers only exist in Japan, making the plan completely pointless.
• In Avatar: The Last Airbender, one of the Earthbenders participating in Earth Rumble VI, using the Stage Name "The Big Bad Hippo", is a large, fat man dressed in nothing but a pair of shorts and a belt that resembles a sumo wrestler's.
• The infamous cartoon Super Duper Sumos is about three big fat sumo fighters that fight Kaijus with their butts. They even have a Super Mode called "Sumo-Sizing" in which they grow even larger.
• The villain of Hanna-Barbera's Jonny Quest episode "Dragons of Ashida" has a hulking manservant named Sumi, who is quite corpulent and wears only a loincloth supported by a steel belt with rivets. Sumi is the only one powerful enough to keep the Mad Scientist's oversize komodo dragons leashed and controlled.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987): a sumo was one of the crooks the Turtles had to deal with in a martial arts themed Bad Guy Bar.
• Jackie Chan Adventures:
  • Tohru is a Stout Strength fighter who claims he turned to crime because he was "too small for Sumo", although his stated weight of 480 pounds is actually typical for the sport. He actually does participate in a sumo match in the Season 3 opener, and his opponent is shown to be much bigger than him, sardonically calling Tohru "Tiny". The opposing sumo and his fellows later join Tohru in fighting the allies of the episode's main villain.
  • Season 4 introduces eight new tribes of Shadowkhan, including one based on sumo wrestlers, which are featured in the episode "Black Magic".
• Kim Possible Movie: So the Drama features a sumo ninja.
• Xiaolin Showdown had the episode Dreamscape, where the heroes had to face off against their greatest fears in one-on-one sumo matches. This caused them to all bloat up to larger sizes. Notably, Kimiko was included, providing a Rare Female Example.
• In the Dennis the Menace episode, "So Sorry!", Mr. and Mrs. Wilson go to a Japanese village, and Dennis tags along. While there, Mr. Wilson gets stripped down to his underwear after Dennis gets his clothes wet as a result of chasing after a kite that snagged his wallet. Mr. Wilson then gets roped into a sumo wrestling match. He loses, but when Mrs. Wilson finds out from Dennis, she single-handedly defeats the Sumo Wrestler and wins the championship Sumo wrestling belt.

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