Instead of talking about football after he joined the New Orleans Saints, Jamaal Williams introduced himself to reporters last year with a dialogue on “Pokémon,” prompted by the foxlike character Eevee perched on his head.
In homage to “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” the mixed-martial artist Israel Adesanya has boldly nicknamed himself the Last Stylebender.
And the sprinter Noah Lyles, to celebrate his Olympic gold medal in the 100-meter dash this summer, cupped his hands forward as if generating the “Kamehameha,” an energy-blast attack from “Dragon Ball Z.”
High-profile athletes are increasingly broadcasting their fascination with anime, creating a fraternity inside locker rooms as they lovingly dissect favorite animated Japanese shows and films. In the process, they are upending preconceptions about different kinds of fandom and outdated labels that seek to define and divide jocks and geeks.
“There’s more nerds out here that can ball out and like anime,” said Williams, 29, who has worn an anime helmet visor and gently corrected a reporter who mispronounced “Pokèmon.” “You don’t have to be the stereotype where all we do is rap or play ball.”
Anime often derives from the Japanese graphic novels known as manga, and its popularity in the United States ballooned in the late 1990s with shows like “Dragon Ball Z,” “Pokémon” and “One Piece.”
Although outsiders often consider the art form a niche interest, it is a touchstone for younger generations, including athletes who have earned their fame by breaking tackles or slugging home runs.
“Every time you find somebody that likes it, your eyes just light up,” said Julio Rodriguez, 23, who leads the Seattle Mariners in hits this season and said watching anime was therapeutic when rehabilitating injuries.
The N.B.A. star Joel Embiid, 30, has been seen watching “Dragon Ball GT” while getting treatment on the massage table before a playoff game. After Coco Gauff, 20, won her U.S. Open semifinal last year, she acknowledged watching four or five episodes of “My Hero Academia” beforehand; this summer, a UPS advertisement turned her into an anime character.
Myles Garrett, a defensive end and one of the most physically intimidating players in the N.F.L., brings manga with him to the Cleveland Browns facility each day in hopes of sneaking in a chapter.
“It took years for it to happen, but it was a young generation that was open to exploring new things” said Garrett, 28, who won the Defensive Player of the Year award last season. “They got us while we were young and impressionable and stayed up way too late, and we just continued to be more exposed.”
Garrett is now watching “Jujutsu Kaisen” and “Trigun,” and estimated that about 60 percent of N.F.L. players were casual anime fans; Zion Williamson, 24, told GQ a few years ago that the N.B.A. number was even greater.
Williams said he related to the adversity that anime characters overcome whenever he was battered during football games. While growing up, he was inspired by Naruto, a lonely reject who became a superpowered ninja.
“It’s not that drastic as it is in anime where they be in life-or-death-type situations, but when I’m on the field, it feels like that because it’s that important to me,” Williams said.
Williams said he waited until his second N.F.L. season to showcase his anime frenzy. He first wanted to establish himself to teammates and coaches. “It can catch people off-guard sometimes,” he said. “I just tried to be more business up front.”
When Kobie Turner, a 25-year-old defensive lineman for the Los Angeles Rams, saw Williams refer to Naruto during a nationally televised game, it helped reassure him it was safe to vocalize his interests.
“To see guys fully show who you are has been extremely encouraging,” Turner said.
As athletes have publicized their love of anime, some teams have joined in. Last month the Mariners gave fans a Naruto-themed headband in honor of Rodriguez. In a TikTok video last year, the Browns portrayed Garrett as a “Super Saiyan,” a physical transformation from “Dragon Ball Z” where characters become stronger.
The Rams teamed up with the video game company Bandai Namco to distribute “One Piece”-themed bags and towels, and also displayed animations from the series on the stadium video board.
Jennifer Prince, the chief commercial officer for the Rams, said that she noticed how athletes connected with anime when she was an executive at Twitter and that she believed collaborations could help the team recruit fans in Japan and South Korea.
“It captures creativity and sound and color and motion in a really different way than possibly we’re used to seeing, and I think that our fans were really drawn to it,” she said.
The anime industry is also trying to capitalize on the interest from athletes. Crunchyroll, a streaming service dedicated to anime, enlisted the N.F.L. player Aidan Hutchinson to serve as an awards show presenter and teamed with the N.B.A. on clothing.
Rahul Purini, the president of Crunchyroll, said athletes with large followings were great ambassadors for the genre as it continued to push into the mainstream.
“All of those old myths and concerns about, ‘What will people think if I tell them that I watch anime?’ go away because if this person that is a celebrity and really famous athlete is talking about it, then it’s OK for every one of us to talk about it,” Purini said. “It’s a very important thing for the medium.”
While Turner was a rookie with the Rams last year, he watched anime on team flights and proudly wore “Jujutsu Kaisen” shirts. Although it is rare for defensive linemen to reach the end zone, he is still planning additional ways to celebrate his off-field interests.
“The ones that know it, they’ll pick up on it and it’ll be super-cool,” said Turner, who plans to act out Naruto’s “shadow clone jutsu” if he ever scores a touchdown. After he makes a cross signal with his fingers, two teammates will pop out behind him, mimicking the character’s mystical ability to spawn doppelgängers.
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