Iconic Manga Character Allows Youths to Dream
For generations of teenagers in the 80s and 90s, football media was quite limited and restricted to a few live games every so often and of course, listening to the radio. Decades ago when compared to modern times which is a social media and sensory overload, football fans could still retreat into books and comics to wile away the hours.
One such cartoon character which has endured for decades is the famed 'Captain Tsubasa'; a popular Japanese manga series created by Yoichi Takahashi. The manga cartoon has spawned a billion dollar industry and centers on a player named Tsubasa Oozora. When we first meet the protagonist, he is an aspiring player who lives and dreams of becoming a professional soccer player.
As the comics and cartoons continue, we see Captain Tsubasa become a player who then plays for Japan and leads Japan to some famous victories in the World Cup. As the manga was first published in 1981 and this was way before Japan finally qualified for the world cup, the cartoon which morphed into an anime series, video games and movies, actually predicted the future.
There are always morale lessons and conundrums to solve and the rise of the J.League made the series even more popular.
The cartoon will continue to inspire young fans to achieve their dreams.