Naomi Osaka’s Coach Went Full ‘Death Note’ To Train Her

When it comes to anime and sports, fans are more likely to think about Haikyu!! than an actual athlete. After all, the medium does have a thing for sports series, but there are plenty of big athletes who draw inspiration from anime. So, all of you tennis lovers will want to know that Naomi Osaka is one of them.

And, yes — this means you can call her The Princess of Tennis now.

Recently, Osaka shot to fame internationally after the 20-year-old won her first Grand Slam this year. The athlete managed to defeat Serena Williams at the US Opens, a fact which stunned millions. Now, Osaka is blazing her a winning streak at the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, and a new report from her coach has outed Osaka’s love for anime.

According to Sascha Bajin, the coach said he struggled at first to train Osaka as she was very shy. The girl is a hard-working athlete, but Bajin believed there was a disconnect between them. So, he decided to get into anime so he could speak with Osaka about it.

“Naomi was shy,” Bajin said in a recent interview. “I watched her favorite anime Death Note to create conversation.”

According to reports, Bajin has become a sort of Ryuk to Osaka. The coach is always there to guide the stellar player with advice, but there is no word on whether he’s obsessed with apples like Ryuk. And, as far as fans know, Osaka does not have an actual Death Note handy.

If you want to check out some of Osaka’s anime loves, all you have to do is head to her Twitter. The girl is rather busy with tennis these days, but she has been known to post about her latest anime binge when she’s got a moment to fangirl.

Do you think Osaka needs a role in her own tennis anime? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!

For those unfamiliar with Death Note, the original series was created by Tsugumi Ohba with illustrations by Takeshi Obata. The series’ synopsis can be read here: “Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects—and he’s bored out of his mind. But all that changes when he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. But will Light succeed in his noble goal, or will the Death Note turn him into the very thing he fights against?“