is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yōichi Takahashi. The series mainly revolves around the sport of association football focusing on Tsubasa Oozora and his relationship with his friends, rivalries with his opponents, training, competition, and the action and outcome of each football match. Across the multiple Captain Tsubasa series, the plot shows Tsubasa's and his friends' growth as they face new rivals.
The Captain Tsubasa manga series was originally serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump between 1981 and 1988, with the chapters collected in 37 volumes. It was followed by various manga sequels. The original manga series was adapted into an anime television series by Tsuchida Production and broadcast on TV Tokyo from 1983 to 1986. Numerous movies and television series have followed with the latest one airing between 2018 and 2019; a second season premiered in 2023.
By 2023, the overall manga had over 90 million copies in circulation worldwide, making it one of the best-selling manga series of all time. Captain Tsubasa became one of the most popular manga and anime series worldwide, most notably in Japan due to how it popularized association football. Multiple real life players have been inspired to become professionals after seeing the series. In a poll conducted by TV Asahi in 2005, the Captain Tsubasa anime series ranked 41st in a list of top 100 anime series.
Plot
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 is known as the Soccer no Moshigo which translates as "heaven-sent child of football". When he was almost a year old, he was almost run over by a rushing bus while playing with a ball. 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's motto of "The ball is my friend". Ever since he was little, he always went out with a ball. His mother concludes that he was indeed born to only play football. At a very young age, Tsubasa already had amazing speed, stamina, dribbling skills and shooting power – 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 fictional town in Shizuoka Prefecture 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), an enthusiastic girl who also loves football and helps cheer the Nankatsu high school 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 School 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 friends, forming a partnership known as the "Golden Duo" or "Dynamic Duo" of Nankatsu. Tsubasa and his Nankatsu team start taking on other elementary school football teams, meeting players such as Kojiro Hyuga and Ken Wakashimazu from the Toho Academy, Jun Misugi from the Musashi school, and Hikaru Matsuyama from the Furano school in Hokkaido. Tsubasa's Nankatsu squad wins numerous Youth National Championships and he wins the FIFA U-16 World Championship for Japan by defeating goalkeeper Gino Hernandez's Italy 2–1, Juan Diaz and Alan Pascal's Argentina 5–4 in the group stages, Elle Sid Pierre's France 4–4 in the semifinals and defeating Karl-Heinz Schneider's West Germany 3–2 in the finals before leaving the country to play in Brazil.
World Youth Tsubasa leaves Japan for Brazil and starts playing, with his mentor Roberto as the manager, for São Paulo (FC Brancos in the anime), in Brazil's premier professional championship, Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, winning the finals against Flamengo (FC Domingos in the anime) 4–3. While in Brazil, Tsubasa gets to meet several talented Brazilian players, such as his teammate and roommate Pepe, who comes from a humble background, as well Flamengo star striker Carlos Santana, a prodigious yet emotionless talent.
Enthusiastic football-loving youngster Shingo Aoi, whom Tsubasa once played against while in the High School National Championship, leaves Japan to play football in Italy, where he hopes to play for a major Italian professional team. After arriving in Italy, however, Shingo gets tricked by a man who gives him fraudulent promises of getting him selected for an Italian team. After Shingo is taken to a badly furnished field, the man runs away, stealing all his money. Shingo realizes that he is swindled and tries hard to get his money back, doing such jobs as shoe-shining, until his enthusiastic attitude catches the eye of one of the coaches of Inter Milan (Intina in the 1994 anime, Lombardia in the 2001 anime), who sign him to play for their squad as an attacking midfielder.
The Japan's youth side plays the first phase of AFC Youth Championship without Taro Misaki, Makoto Soda, Hiroshi Jito, Shun Nitta, the Tachibana brothers Masao and Kazuo and Kojiro Hyuga. After Tsubasa, Wakabayashi and Shingo join the team, it defeats Thailand 5–4 after being 4–1 down at one stage. In the second phase, Japan beats Uzbekistan 8–1, China 6–3 and Saudi Arabia 4–1. In the semifinals, Japan beats Iraq 3–0. The Japanese win the Asia Youth title beating South Korea 2–0 and qualifying for the FIFA World Youth Championship.
In the group stage, Japan defeats arrogant goalkeeper Ricardo Espadas' Mexico 2–1, skillful striker Ramon Victorino's Uruguay 6–5 and Italy 4–0. In the quarterfinals, they beat the nihilistic striker Stefan Levin's Sweden 1–0 and Netherlands 1–0 in the semifinal, paying back a harsh defeat in a friendly match months before. The Japanese win in the "Great Final" of the FIFA World Youth Championship, defeating Brazil 3–2 after extra time with Tsubasa scoring a hat-trick and the golden goal despite the fact that Brazil used a new player in extra time called Natureza, who became the third person to score a goal on Wakabayashi from outside the goal area – the first being Schneider and second being Xiao Jungguang of China.
Tsubasa moves from São Paulo to FC Barcelona (FC Catalunya in the anime), in the Spanish La Liga, after the end of the FIFA World Youth Championship Finals, taking his girlfriend and now wife, Sanae. He asked her out before moving to Brazil and the couple maintained a long-distance relationship before he proposed to her after the FIFA World Youth Championship.
Road to 2002 While Tsubasa moves from São Paulo (Brancos in the anime) to Barcelona (Catalunya in the anime), Kojiro Hyuga is bought by Juventus FC (FC Piemonte in the anime). Tsubasa plays very well in training, displaying all his skills, but the Dutch coach Van Saal (Edward in the anime, inspired by Louis van Gaal, who coached Barcelona at the time) demotes him to FC Barcelona B, the reserve team that plays in the second division, because Tsubasa and Rivaul (inspired by Rivaldo) cannot play together whilst Rivaul holds a key position for playmaking, and also to give Tsubasa experience in the Spanish football.
Meanwhile, Kojiro Hyuga plays for his first game for Juventus (Piemonte in the anime) against Parma (Emilia in the anime version) in the Italian Serie A, but does not score because his physical imbalance is exposed by Parma defender Thoram (inspired by Lilian Thuram). Juventus coach Carlo Monetti replaces him with David Trezeguet (David Tresaga in the anime), who scores the winning goal as Juventus beat Parma 1–0.
In Germany, Genzo Wakabayashi and his Bundesliga team, Hamburger SV (Grunwald in the anime version), play against FC Bayern Munich (Routburg in the anime version), led by Karl-Heinz Schneider. Wakabayashi makes many great saves, impressing players and coaches from both teams, but in an attempt to win at the final moment despite the coach's decision to aim for a draw, Wakabayashi left the goal area to take a free kick shot that was stopped at the last second, which gave Bayern a chance to counterattack on an undefended goal, allowing them to win 2–1.
In Spain, La Liga begins and the match between Barcelona (led by Rivaul) and Valencia CF (San Jose in the anime) (who have just bought Tsubasa's old rival Carlos Santana) ends 2–2. Tsubasa watches the match from the tribune (in the anime version, Tsubasa plays as a substitute in the match and scores a goal).
In the second stage of the Japanese J.League, Júbilo Iwata, led by Misaki, Gon Nakayama (inspired by real player Masashi Nakayama), Ishizaki and Urabe, defeat the Urawa Red Diamonds led by Hayato Igawa and Sawada, 2–1. In other J.League matches, FC Tokyo, led by Misugi, draws 1–1 with Consadole Sapporo, led by Matsuyama. In Italy, Hyuga and Aoi are bought respectively by A.C. Reggiana and A.S.D. Albese.
In Spain, Tsubasa plays three matches with FC Barcelona B and he records 12 goals and 11 assists in three matches. Tsubasa is inserted in the Barcelona lineup because of an injury of his rival Rivaul as well as the disastrous results of the Barcelona (one point in four matches) and plays the Súper Clásico against Real Madrid C.F., who have just bought his old rival Natureza. Tsubasa ends the match with three goals and three assists and Barcelona wins 6–5.
Go for 2006 This is the epilogue of Captain Tsubasa Road to 2002 and it is composed of five chapters. This manga follows Kojiro Hyuga and Shingo Aoi in Italy. In this manga, Kojiro Hyuga was loaned out to Reggiana while Shingo Aoi was loaned out to Albese. Kojiro Hyuga makes a hard training and he makes his debut scoring a hat-trick.
Golden-23 While Tsubasa plays for Barcelona against Real Valladolid, recording a goal and an assist in a 2–0 win, the 23 players of Japan's U-22 national team ("The Golden-23") are convoked to play two friendly matches against Denmark and Nigeria in preparation for the Summer Olympics. Two futsal players, Kazami and Furukawa, who previously played for Japan national futsal team, join the national U-22 football team and display great skills, scoring two goals in a training match. Meanwhile, the Japan U-20 side led by Takeshi Sawada win the AFC Youth Championship, defeating South Korea 6–5 on penalty kicks in the final. In Brazil, Minato Gamo, the former coach of the U-20 national team, tries unsuccessfully to convince Soga, a Japanese player who plays in CR Vasco da Gama, to join the national team. Meanwhile, Tsubasa's wife Sanae informs him that she is pregnant. In Japan, the match with Denmark ends 4–2 with the following scorers: Misaki (J), Haas (D), Nitta (J), Nitta (J), Matsuyama (J) and Haas (D). In Germany, Hamburger SV plays a Bundesliga match and Genzo Wakabayashi is not in the line up because of the bad relationship with the coach Zeeman, starting rumors that Wakabayashi would leave Hamburger SV. A lot of teams were interested in signing Wakabayashi such as ACF Fiorentina, A.S. Roma, Bayern Munich and SV Werder Bremen.