The second season of Captain Tsubasa adapts the Junior Youth Arc into 39 episodes. It takes place soon after the last season, where the next goal for Tsubasa, as well as for all the other players, is going international. It’s explained that there is an International Journal Youth Competition taking place in Europe, and a selection of characters we already know, has been selected to become the national team representing Japan. It’s a good way to select more unique characters from the first season and put them into one team, so that it can keep them in focus.
The season starts off weird in that Tsubasa is recovering from injury. The national team was picked after a short training camp, and Tsubasa, being clearly the one with the most skills, you would naturally think has a guaranteed slot. Instead, there is some friction between various players of the team in including him, which is a bit of a filler as we know Tsubasa will be in there anyway. It’s an odd choice and something that feels against his character, since Tsubasa already knows the other players well and is well regarded.
Anyway, while they may be handpicked from the best that Japan has to offer at their age group, the team gets a reality check when playing some friendly matches against the European teams. Simply put, they are thrashed given their opponents are on a whole other level. This serves to further idolize and glorify Tsubasa, so the point that he’s a one-man team and that the Japanese team cannot win without him. While that may be true, it’s a bit rich and overdoes it.
The anime naturally exaggerates the sport of soccer, sometimes to its detriment. While its target audience is one of younger ages, the constant naming of shots (basically the soccer equivalent and naming your attacks) is cringey and cheesy. You fully expect at least five to ten “nani?!” (“what?!”) being shouted by the characters each episode, but it still gets you at how often that happens. Characters are surprised or impressed too easily, and while it is supposed to showcase how impressive some of their opponents are, again, it is a bit rich and overdone.
The first season didn’t have amazing animation, but it was passable and did enough to keep the momentum going. This second season significantly drops the animation quality. For a sport with frequent fluid motions and movement, there is limited animation. It tries to compensate by adding commentary and streaking lines, but it cannot hide the fact that viewers are being told something has happened, rather than showing that it happened. It makes for some boring scenes.
The first part of the season sets up matches and it takes almost one third of the season before we finally have the tournament starting. Whie this provides crucial background information and gives us a better understanding of the characters; you can’t help but be a bit impatient. Given that you’re here to watch the matches and see Tsubasa overcomes the odds and outplay all his opponents, this wait can be excruciating.
Once the tournament starts, the fun begins. Understandably, the anime focuses a lot on Tsubasa to the detriment of the rest of the team. Sometimes, despite the lessons learned by Tsubasa, he can still make mistakes. The scenes where the crowds cheer for Tsubasa, or when he is unashamedly praised as being the “savior of Japanese soccer” can be cheesy and cringeworthy.
Similarly to the first season, most of the opposite teams have one or two really good players that makes them a tough opponent. This contrasts with the Tsubasa’s team where there are several other characters that are focused on and are shown to be formidable. The main one being Hyuga, but Misaki and Wakabayashi make frequent appearances too. This causes all of Tsubasa’s opponents to seem like one trick ponies. You can’t blame the anime too much on this given that there is not enough time to make you care about all 11 players of the opposing team in every match.
Given that this is an anime, and there needs to be excitement, there are a lot of contrived situations. These can include one where the other team may hold a three-point lead but Tsubasa and team Japan will be able to find a way to overcome it and win. Or when the match is down to penalty kicks and the two teams are tied down to their last kicks. Characters also manage to randomly show up when they are most needed to take control of the ball and shoot. To be fair, this is a wholesome series and one that shows the right message of sportsmanship, grit, determination and belief. When the characters work together as a team and then score a goal, it is a great feeling.
The earlier games in the season are faster, whereas the semi-finals and finals take longer, spanning multiple episodes to the point where it can drag out. The surprise is not Japan winning, but more so how they win and how they grow as a team. After the finals, the final few episodes focus on Tsubasa and his future, as he moves onto the next goal of becoming a professional player.
Overall, the second season of Captain Tsubasa may not be the most realistic, but it provides plenty of thrills and excitement. It’s a wholesome series, even though there are way too many contrived situations, and the skill difference between Tsubasa and everyone else can be too big a gap to be believable. The development during each match is interesting enough to even overcome the drop in animation quality.
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