Captain Tsubasa, known as a monumental soccer manga and gaining worldwide popularity, ended its 43-year run in a magazine released on the 4th.
The rest of the story will be published on a new website in the form of pencil sketches.
table of contents
The main character is a young soccer genius. Serialization began in 1981.
Former Japan representative Junichi Inamoto: ``He definitely influenced me''
Loved by the world's top athletes
How did you decide to end the series?
Yoichi Takahashi exclusive interview
Open table of contents
table of contents
table of contents
The main character is a young soccer genius. Serialization began in 1981.
Former Japan representative Junichi Inamoto: ``He definitely influenced me''
Loved by the world's top athletes
How did you decide to end the series?
Yoichi Takahashi exclusive interview
The main character is a young soccer genius. Serialization began in 1981.
"Captain Tsubasa" was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1981 by manga artist Yoichi Takahashi (63).
The story depicts the main character, Tsubasa Ozora, a young soccer genius, creating many famous scenes in dramatic matches with his unique teammates and rivals, and growing while fostering friendships.
Mr. Takahashi announced in January this year that he would end the series due to declining physical strength and changes in his writing environment, and the last magazine for the series was released on the 4th.
A special sales area was set up at a bookstore in Shinjuku, Tokyo, and some people were seen buying it right away.
A 19-year-old man said, ``I play soccer myself, and I've been reading this book ever since my parents bought it for me.There are some techniques that I wouldn't be able to do in real life, but there are many scenes that make me dream, which makes it appealing.'' A man in his 40s said, ``I've been reading it for a long time and I've enjoyed it.It's a shame, but I would like to say ``Thank you.''''
Cumulative circulation of comics exceeds 90 million copies both domestically and internationally.
"Captain Tsubasa" has been published in more than 50 countries and regions, and the cumulative circulation of comics has exceeded 90 million copies both domestically and internationally.
It is known as a monumental soccer manga, and top players from overseas, including the Japanese national team, have declared themselves fans.
At the beginning of the series, Tsubasa was 11 years old, but now she is 22 years old, and the story has reached a turning point as she competes in the Olympic games as a representative of Japan.
According to the author, Mr. Takahashi, there are plans to draw Tsubasa's activities in the World Cup, including the Olympic version, so he has launched a new site and will be posting so-called pencil sketches from this summer onwards. It means that the continuation of the story will be revealed in "name format".
Former Japan representative Junichi Inamoto: ``He definitely influenced me''
Junichi Inamoto, a former Japanese national soccer player who participated in three consecutive World Cups, currently plays for an adult team with the same name as Nankatsu SC, to which the main character of Captain Tsubasa belonged. When the series ended, he said in an interview, ``The players of my generation were definitely influenced by Captain Tsubasa, and I think many of them started playing soccer because of this work.Thank you to Mr. Takahashi for your hard work.'' I want to say thank you for giving birth to Captain Tsubasa."
The serialization of the manga ``Captain Tsubasa'' began when Inamoto was one year old, and the TV anime began airing when he was four years old.``When I was a child, I imitated the play of Tsubasa-kun and the other players who appeared in the work. I think the saying ``The ball is my friend'' is a great saying.I imitated Tsubasa-kun, who is always touching the ball, and I also touched the ball at home.Let's imitate him dribbling to school. "There were times when my parents stopped me because they thought it was dangerous. From Captain Tsubasa, I learned the importance of valuing your teammates, believing in them, and seeing it through to the end without giving up."
He added, ``I wanted to be Tsubasa-kun, who could score points, make assists, and do everything offensively.At a time when soccer wasn't that popular yet, Tsubasa-kun's plays had a strong impact and were very memorable.'' I think other players of my generation were also greatly influenced by him."
Furthermore, based on his experience playing in overseas leagues, he said, ``I think the world's top level players are also influenced by Captain Tsubasa.When I was in France, it was being broadcast on TV, and I had a tattoo of the character that appears in it.'' There were some players who were into it.I think I watched top players like Neymar and Messi when I was a kid, and I'm sure they tried to imitate their plays.''
Loved by the world's top athletes
"Captain Tsubasa" has been loved and influenced by the world's top players who have participated in the World Cup.
Of these, Fernando Torres, a former Spain representative and known as a world-class striker, wrote on the official website, ``Soccer became important to me from the age of 6. It was because of watching Captain Tsubasa on TV. "I liked imagining myself as a professional player," he wrote.
When Mr. Torres transferred to J1 side Sagan Tosu in 2018, he received his own illustration from the creator Yoichi Takahashi, and he posted on social media expressing his gratitude, saying, ``It was a truly wonderful gift.''
In addition, Argentina national team player Lionel Messi, who played for the Spanish powerhouse FC Barcelona, to which the main character of Captain Tsubasa, Tsubasa Ozora, belonged in the story, is also known as a fan, and Argentine media reported, ``The young genius Tsubasa Ozora... He has given legends such as Messi and Mbappé the courage to take to the field."
Furthermore, Andres Iniesta, a former Spanish national team player who played for J1 side Vissel Kobe, is also an avid fan of Captain Tsubasa, and in 2019 he visited Mr. Takahashi's workplace at his own request.
How did you decide to end the series?
Before the serialization of Captain Tsubasa ended, author Yoichi Takahashi wrote a four-page message in a magazine released in January this year, saying, ``I've been thinking about my decision to become a manga artist for the past few years.'' and revealed the circumstances behind his decision to end the series.
In this, he said, ``I think I am still in good health,'' but the speed at which I draw manga has slowed down due to my age, and when I was younger, I was writing a weekly series of about 80 pages a month. However, I am now feeling flustered by the 50-page bimonthly series, my presbyopia has made it difficult to focus when drawing lines on manuscript paper, and I suffer from a benign condition that causes dizziness when I change the angle of my head. He frankly wrote that he had been diagnosed with "paroxysmal positional vertigo" and said that he could no longer hide his physical decline.
He also cited changes in the writing environment as a reason, and predicts that it will be difficult to secure the necessary art materials, citing for example that as digitalization progresses, the screentones used to finish the paintings are being discontinued one after another. In addition, the number of staff who specialize in drawing analog drawings using pen and ink on manuscript paper has decreased, and since the coronavirus pandemic, it has become difficult to have a work system where staff gather together in a room to intensively finish drawings. It also mentions that.
Furthermore, the manga artist Shinji Mizushima, who was known for his work on the baseball manga ``Dokaben'' and whom he admired the most, passed away a year ago, and he began to rethink how he should conduct himself as a manga artist.
On top of that, Takahashi wrote that it may take 30 years to draw up the plans in his head up to the final episode, including the ongoing Olympic edition.
For this reason, he thought it would be possible to preserve the story by concentrating only on the pencil sketches, the so-called ``name format.''
In addition, even if he cannot draw himself, he made this decision because he thought that in the future, AI could create a manga based on this name, other manga artists could draw it, and it could also be made into an animation. .
Yoichi Takahashi exclusive interview
Yoichi Takahashi, the creator of Captain Tsubasa, is currently 63 years old.
At the end of the series, he gave an individual interview to NHK.
First of all, regarding the end of the series that has spanned more than 40 years, he said, ``When I turned 60, I had a vague idea of how long I would be able to continue drawing.Osamu Tezuka, Shotaro Ishinomori, Fujiko F. Fujio. Having witnessed the death of great manga artists such as my teacher at such a young age, I thought that it was a hard job and that my limit was until that age. However, I have no regrets about the decision."
Mr. Takahashi has always loved baseball.
When the series began in 1981, there was no professional soccer team in Japan, and they were still a long way off from participating in the World Cup, but he fell in love with soccer after watching the World Cup overseas, so he talks about those days. Soccer wasn't that popular in Japan, but I thought that one day it would be on this stage, or that it would become even more popular, so I wanted to help the development of Japanese soccer, or rather, let the Japanese people know the wonders of soccer. There were parts of it that I started drawing just because I wanted it," he said.
He cited the unique characters, which are one of the charms of the work, as one of the driving forces behind the serialization, saying, ``The basic premise is that I like drawing pictures and creating stories, and at the same time, I also like Tsubasa. It was also fun to see the characters moving so vividly.Every week, I felt like I was being pulled by the characters and I could hear their voice saying, ``Teacher, please draw more of our activities.'' Tsubasa was sitting at his desk. Tsubasa was a young boy who had big dreams of becoming the world's best soccer player and helping Japan win the World Cup, so I hope readers can see him working hard towards those dreams. I thought it was good," he said.
Although the serialization of ``Captain Tsubasa'' has ended, Mr. Takahashi plans to draw the continuation of the story in pencil sketches, so-called ``name format,'' and publish them on a new site.
Although he will be stepping back from the front line as a manga artist, he says, ``I'm 63 years old now, and even if I live to be 80 and continue drawing, I don't think I'll be able to continue working as much as I used to in another 20 years.'' Then, I can barely draw up to the finals of the Olympic series that I am serializing, and there is a possibility that I will die before that, and I will not be able to finish drawing the World Cup that Tsubasa was aiming for. I thought I would have a lot of regrets in my life.If I had a name, I might have been able to depict the scene where Japan wins the World Cup and Tsubasa makes her dreams come true. I might be able to turn it into a manga in the future, so I'm thinking of taking on an unknown challenge that includes various possibilities.''
He added, ``There's a part of me that feels really sad that my book won't be released into the world anymore because I no longer have to work with the staff that I used to do to finish the manuscript properly, but if I feel like it, I can still use my pen to draw Tsubasa and the other characters.'' You can also leave it as an illustration.I feel like I can express what I think more freely in that part.I try to draw what I want to draw at that time, I feel like I can become a more free artist, or rather be able to engage in creative activities more freely."