Captain Tsubasa

Captain Tsubasa

Tsubasa Oozora is an 11-year-old elementary school student who is deeply in love with football and dreams of one day winning the FIFA World Cup for Japan. He lives together with his mother in Japan, while his father is a seafaring captain who travels around the world.

Tsubasa Oozora is known as the Soccer no Moshigo which translates as "heaven-sent child of football". When he was only barely a year old, he was almost run over by a rushing bus while playing with a football. However, Tsubasa held the ball in front of him which served as a cushion for most of the impact. The force of the bump blew him away, but he was able to right himself with the ball. Hence, Tsubasa Oozora's motto of "The ball is my friend". Ever since he was little, he always went out with a football. His mother concludes that he was indeed born to only play football. At a very young age, Tsubasa Oozora already had amazing speed, stamina, dribbling skills and shotpower - he astounded anyone who saw him play.

At the beginning of the story, Tsubasa and his mom both move to the city of Nankatsu, a town well known for their talented elementary school football teams and where Tsubasa meets Ryo Ishizaki, a football-loving young student who often sneaks out from his mother's public bath houses and chores to play football. He meets Sanae Nakazawa (also known as Anego), his future wife, an enthusiastic girl who also loves football and helps cheer the Nankatsu High team on, and Genzo Wakabayashi, a highly talented young goalkeeper whom he soon challenges to a game in Nankatsu's annual Sports Festival. He also meets Roberto Hongo, one of the best Brazilian footballers in the world who is a friend of Tsubasa's father and who starts living with Tsubasa and his mother in order to train Tsubasa. Roberto becomes a mentor to Tsubasa and helps him to harness his football skills, convincing him to join Nankatsu Elementary and its fledgling elementary school football team, which Roberto later coaches as he passes his techniques onto Tsubasa.

Tsubasa meets Taro Misaki, who has travelled around Japan due to his father's job and soon joins Nankatsu. The two become the best of friends on the pitch and real life, forming a partnership soon to be renowned as the "Golden Duo" or "dynamic duo" of Nankatsu. Soon Tsubasa and his Nankatsu team start taking on the best of elementary school football, meeting such talented players as Kojiro Hyuga, Ken Wakashimazu, Jun Misugi, Hikaru Matsuyama, and many others. Tsubasa's Nankatsu squad wins numerous youth national championships, and he wins the U-17 World Championships for Japan, before leaving the country to play in Brazil...

Manga

Anime

The original Captain Tsubasa manga series was quickly adapted into an TV animation series, produced by Tsuchida Production, whose first season premiered in Japan on the TV Tokyo network between October 10, 1983 and March 27, 1986. This first series tells only the synopsis of the first 25 volumes. Four animated movies followed soon after, between 1985 and 1986, continuing the storyline. In 1989 a new animation series, Shin Captain Tsubasa, was produced by Shueisha and CBS Sony Group, Inc. and spanned 13 original video animations (OVAs). Shin Captain Tsubasa tells the comic book's synopsis from volume 25 to volume 36. The animation series was followed soon after into a second sequel, entitled Captain Tsubasa J, produced by Studio Comet, which aired between October 21, 1994 and December 22, 1995 in Japan on the Fuji Television network and spanned 47 episodes, as well an OVA series, Captain Tsubasa: Holland Youth, which was published in 1994. The animated series was continued on further into a third sequel, Captain Tsubasa: Road to Dream, also known as Captain Tsubasa ~ Road to 2002, the latest animated adaptation of the series, animated by Group TAC, which aired in Japan between October 7, 2001 and October 6, 2002, with music published by Avex Mode.

All of the versions of the Captain Tsubasa animated series have been broadcast by the animation satellite television network Animax across its original network in Japan and later across its respective networks worldwide, including East Asia, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and other regions. English dubs of all series have aired on Animax Asia and some episodes of the English dub were released on VCDs by Speedy Video Malaysia. It has been broadcast across several other regions around the world, including South America, Europe and the Middle East.

Reception and legacy

In 2001, the Captain Tsubasa anime series was ranked forty-ninth in Animage's "Top 100" anime productions list. The anime adaptation has also been very popular in Japan. In 2005, Japanese television network TV Asahi conducted a "Top 100" online web poll and nationwide survey; Captain Tsubasa placed forty-first in the online poll and thirtieth in the survey. In 2006, TV Asahi conducted another online poll for the top one hundred anime, and Captain Tsubasa placed sixteenth on the "The Celebrity List".

Captain Tsubasa has inspired prominent footballers such as Hidetoshi Nakata, Fernando Torres, Alexis Sánchez, Lionel Messi, Andrés Iniesta and Alessandro Del Piero to play football and choose it as a career, and also influenced Stephen Chow's film Shaolin Soccer and a line of Adidas running shoes. A bronze statue of Tsubasa Oozora will be erected in the neighborhood of the anime's creator in Katsushika, Tokyo in spring 2013. Tsubasa and Misaki appear in the video for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics at the closing ceremony for the 2016 Rio Olympics. Tsubasa and Misaki performed their twin shot in one scene and Tsubasa appeared on his own later with his signature overhead kick.