HEAVEN SENT CHILD OF SOCCER: CAPTAIN TSUBASA
Your new hero....
Comics aren’t for everyone and once you’ve progressed from short trousers (if you ever really do) it’s unlikely you’ll be rushing out for the latest edition of Whizzer and Chips during your lunch hour at work. But you will be aware of the part that they play in Japanese culture.
You’ve probably encountered Manga comics at some point in your life and will be familiar with the style of artwork used. What you might not be so familiar with is the impact that football has made in the comic/anime genre in Japan via one character in particular. Captain Tsubasa.
Just like the rest of us, Tsubasa Ozora fell deeply in love with football as a child and dreamt of one day winning the World Cup with Japan.....you might have dreamt on winning it with someone else but stick with us here. Invariably Tsubasa attains the tag of ‘Soccer no Moshigo’ - heaven-sent child of soccer, having been almost run over by a bus whilst playing football. At the point of child/bus collision, Tsubasa held a ball in front of him which served as a cushion for most of the impact. The force of the bump threw him away from the oncoming vehicle, but he was able to right himself and escape unharmed. Hence, Tsubasa Ozora's motto became ‘The ball is my friend’.
As Tsubasa grows he becomes a superstar playing club football in his adopted city of Nankatsu, where he meets fictional former Brazilian icon Roberto Hongo, who becomes his mentor. Having won the World U17 Championship as captain of Japan, Tsubasa moves to Brazil and FC Brancos, a side very loosely based on Sáo Paolo.
A move to Europe at the turn of the millennium is next and befitting Tsubasa’s now mythical status, it is to FC Catalunya, where he initially struggles to displace midfield icon Rivaul.....we’ll let you work out who the club and player are based on.
Captain Tsubasa is effectively Japan’s own Roy of the Rovers and just highlights the fascination that the country places on football. Since 1983, CS has been big news in his home nation and as well as the comics and all of their spin offs, a TV series, dozens of games and other items have appeared on shelves featuring the mercurial Tsubasa.
Here’s a feel for the great man, with a little intro into his story.....
Click the images to watch.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Reader Comments (5)
I don't know if you're aware of this but Captain Tsubasa is known in Arabic as Captain Majid. Ask most Arabs of a certain generation and they'll tell you they either wanted to grow up to be Captain Majid or Bassam. I grew up on that stuff. Lunch boxes and everything. It's a really neat instance of football reaching across cultures. It's the popularity of Captain Majid that led to all sorts of Japanese TV making it into the Middle East.
To us Arabs he's known as Captain Majid. He was our childhood hero!
Huge succes in Mexico as well, his name was "Oliver Atton"
I have fond childhood memories of Captain Tsubasa as well. In France, the show was known as Olive & Tom. As a goalie, I favored the cool Genzō Wakabayashi, or Tom in French. I found the original series on dvd some years ago, and happily watched it all over again.
he was very popular in iran too. i forget his name, but we used to take on these characters on the playground.