Captain Tsubasa is based on arguably one of the most iconic soccer manga that helped popularize the sports genre. It tells the story from the very beginning, effectively remaking the original anime series and distilling the story from 128 episodes down to 52. Despite being based on a 40 year old manga, the story and the pacing all holds up well.
It starts Oozora Tsubasa who is an elementary school student. Ever since he was young, has been fascinated with soccer and has incredible natural talent for the sport. When he moves to a new town, he meets his heated rival Wakabayashi Genzo on his first day. Wakabayashi is also a soccer prodigy who is an amazing goalkeeper. In the last national tournament, his school won due to him never letting in a goal. On the flipside, while Wakayabashi and the rest of Shutetsu are great players, their success has made them too proud. One goal shocks them and completely crumbles their composure making them seem like sore losers.
Coincidentally, Roberto Hongo, a famous soccer player who had played on the Brazilian national team, is also in town. After seeing Tsubasa’s potential, he decides to coach him. He truly cares for Tsubasa and is selfless, reflecting on how his actions affect Tsubasa and his family. Tsubasa attends Nankatsu Elementary and joins their soccer team, the team is pretty weak. It takes a while before the first soccer match actually begins. That delay is understandable since time has to be spent showing how the team of Nankatsu has improved to the point of being able to battle against Shutetsu. Once it begins, the match spans over the course of several episodes and is exciting to watch.
Tsubasa is a naturally charismatic boy but he doesn’t let his own talent go to his head. He manages to boost morale and help allow everything to be involved and play their best. He encourages his team mates and takes losses in stride as an opportunity to get better. While Nankatsu would be tempted to heavily rely on their one star player, it tries to follow the spirit that soccer is a team game and one person cannot carry the whole team. Thus we will get tense moments as the opposing team tries to corner Tsubasa but Nankatsu’s other players are able to pull through.
After the rivalry of Nankatsu and Shutetus is settled, it then focuses on their battle to becoming the national champions. This is definitely where the anime shines in terms of competitiveness and excitement. The anime does a good job at fleshing out even the one-off opponents that Nankatsu faces. Instead of just something to beat in order to progress, it gives motivation to the other team and their reasons for trying to win. It makes it easier to care for both teams and while you feel elated at Nankatsu winning, you also feel sad that the other team couldn’t realize their dreams as well.
The anime focuses a lot on Tsubasa, as expected, so it is a shame that it doesn’t allow some of the other forwards to shine a bit more. They are more than capable as demonstrated by the fact that they were a part of the team that won last year’s nationals. However, the characters that do get their one-off spotlight give a lot of meaning to their actions.
Perhaps it is a byproduct of its origins but several of the character designs are very similar to each other, to the point where you can confuse them for each other at first glance. Nevertheless, the anime has that great upbeat exciting atmosphere. From the blurring backgrounds to emphasize speed, the commentary and dramatization of the sport, it’s a great package. It likes to exceed your expectations. Think this is too important a character to not focus on? They get removed. Thinking that it is setting up a rival for the final climactic match? They get paired almost immediately.
In order to make each match feel different, the anime tries some creative plot points such as deliberately kicking a ball at a person’s face to make them scared of the ball, or have polar opposite play styles in order to spark an intense rivalry. While you do expect Nankatsu to win, you can’t help but feel that it is not a given and you watch every advance with anticipation and worry.
It is not all positive because opponents often use unfair tactics and outright cheating that affects the performance of Nankatsu. It’s annoying and frustrating when the opponents don’t get the punishment that they deserve. Doubly so when they are smug about it, boast about it and antagonist Nankatsu over it. It’s satisfying when this fires up Tsubasa and the rest of the team as they destroy their opponent. It gets more improbable during the later matches as their opponents display excessive aggressiveness but no fouls are called. There are impossible, dangerous and risky moves that border on stunts. Perhaps the most annoying is the prevalence of injuries to characters that prevent them from playing at their best.
While the anime has shortened each match compared to the original, the final match of the first half is still quite long. Yes, it is the climax of the first half but it felt like it dragged on towards the end as it threw a lot of contrived problems that Nankatsu has to face. The sheer amount of injuries that handicaps them is outrageous.
Due to having such a big climax in the middle of the anime, and then watching it all end, you will feel a bit burnt out once the second half begins. The second half focuses on the middle school portion of Tsubasa’s soccer life. There are a lot of returning characters and it turns a few things around on its head, allowing it to quickly gain momentum. However, if you thought some of the moves in the first half were way too exaggerated, then the second half is even more so and with higher frequency. This does dial up the dramatic factor though. Unfortunately, it falls into the trap of having each of Tsubasa’s “rivals” to have their own gimmicks, as well as their unique attacks complete with calling out its attack name every time they use it, it’s quite cheesy.
A good thing to see in this arc is how everyone has improved. There were definitely a few characters who were either useless most of the time, were one-trick ponies, or just stood in the background as a filler character. Nankatsu as a team feels weaker than they were at the primary level and so they heavily rely on Tsubasa to win. Despite the lessons already learnt back in the elementary arc, Tsubasa has to learn time and again that teamwork is key.
It’s frustrating to see that while the second half pushes harder on what made the first half fun to watch, it does the same with the bad stuff too. It is tiring to constantly see that because Tsubasa’s skills in soccer, the anime goes for the cheap option of just having brute force character. s It constantly ignores the poor sportsmanship shown during the matches. Opponents would deliberately foul, cheat, physically injure and in general, be a jerk, towards Nankatsu. The amount of tackles thrown is ridiculous, this is soccer, not rugby! Then when their opponents lose, they say “oh what a great match, you’ve shown your true strength and defeated me” and everyone makes it seem like it was all okay.
It is tiring to constantly see that because Tsubasa’s skills in soccer, the anime goes for the cheap option of just having brute force characters. The final match of the anime, which is supposed to be the ultimate climax and challenge of Nankatsu thus far, feels like it drags on for far too long. It relies on too many ridiculous gimmicks in order to drum up the urgency and close calls. However, many of its attempts feel contrived and just when the whole season goes along with overlooking physical attacks, it calls in a foul. Due to the build up over the course of the whole anime, it is very hard to give us a satisfying conclusion. What we got in the end, while it tries to please everyone, can be disappointing when you first realize what had just happened.
Overall, Captain Tsubasa is a good remake but it leans more towards relying on nostalgia than being a great standalone anime. Don’t be mistaken, this is still a fun anime even if you have no interest in the sport, as long as you keep in mind that this is not supposed to be realistic. The first half feels a lot more fun and genuine, thanks to the chemistry between the characters. The second half has left Nankatsu with a weaker team and a weaker motivation for all the characters, so can feel much more highly focused on Tsubasa himself and how he is the sole reason that Nankatsu is able to keep winning, which isn’t the best message to send around.
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