History YMMV / CaptainTsubasa

** Soccer is big in Latin America and Europe, and this is a show about soccer, so do the math. Even though [[DubNameChange the dub changed all the names]] and the name of the show itself, ask any Latino born in the mid-to-late [=80s=], or European born in the early-to-mid 80s, and he will tell you that one of his favorite shows was this (''Supercampeones'' in Latin America and ''Oliver & Benji'' in Europe). You will likely get the same answer from the next generation or two thanks to re-runs of the shows (especially the old series and ''Road to 2002'') in some of these countries, and even in present time there is a lot of pop culture infection related to the franchise. In fact, many real life soccer players (Andrés Iniesta, Sergio "Kun" Agüero, Fernando Torres, Zinedine Zidane and Neymar being only the main examples) have cited this show as their reason why they played the sport in the first place.
** In the Arab World, where soccer is extremely popular too, many people would tell you fond memories of watching ''Captain Majid'' growing up.

** The entire Japanese often rely too much on Tsubasa. This happens both in the first manga and ''World youth'' where they need to develop as individuals.

* AmericansHateTingle: Well, not ''hate'', per se, but it's nowhere near as explosively popular in English-speaking fandom as it is in Japanese fandom, Latin American fandom, or continental European fandom. Most of the time, it only comes up in terms of some OffModel artwork or when discussing absurd feats as depicted in sports anime.

** Soccer is big in Latin America and Europe, and this is a show about soccer, so do the math. Even though the dub changed all the names and the name of the show itself, ask any Latino born in the mid-to-late [=80s=], or European born in the early-to-mid 80s, and he will tell you that one of his favorite shows was this (''Supercampeones'' in Latin America and ''Oliver & Benji'' in Europe). You will likely get the same answer from the next generation or two thanks to re-runs of the shows (especially the old series and ''Road to 2002'') in some of these countries, and even in present time there is a lot of pop culture infection related to the franchise. In fact, many real life soccer players (Andrés Iniesta, Sergio "Kun" Agüero, Fernando Torres, Zinedine Zidane and Neymar being only the main examples) have cited this show as their reason why they played the sport in the first place.

* HarsherInHindsight: In the first anime TV series's All European Junior filler arc, the Captain of England's team Steve has been contemptuous towards Japan's team as a weak nation who has no place in the league due to Europe's legendary standards of competitive soccer. He openly gives racist remarks and even boasts England will win the game with 20 goals. While Tsubasa ultimately won (even if in a very close match with England that went past the main game's timer), Steve showed to be quite an gentleman who praised Japan's win with complete honorable sportsmanshp. Contrast this with the recent 2020 EUrocup where despite being in a very close game and against Italy which is not only a white nation but one of the traditional superpowers of the entire soccer world beyond Europe where riots, vandalism, assault on foreigners, and other large scale violence took place followed after the immediate result of the game. Members of the black English soccer team faced racial slurs and were scapegoated for the team's defeat. The damage was so terrible that the bid for Wembley as the finale location for an upcoming World Cup has now been flushed down the toilet. Making all the entire situation worse as the fact Steve's trash talk at the start of the game was about showing the backwards Japanese team about the power of England as its the home of Football......... The beloved Football's Coming Home song was the main chant across the 2020 UEFA cup, sung so much during the tournament that it as used at the same rate as the United Kngdom's Natonal Anthem God Sve the Queen. So for all his douche behavior during England VS Japan in the Junior filler, Steve in the end proved to be a true example of Sportsmanship in contrast to how the Brits acted in real life in the 2021 continental cup.

* ValuesDissonance:
** Several of Hyuuga's in-story conflicts cross with extremely Japanese views [[TeamSpirit of teamwork and sportsmanship]], so it's very easy to misjudge either him or the ones he's clashing with. I.e., when [[spoiler:he was "grounded" by Kitazume for having run away from the team to train]], this was supposed to be seen as an example of the very Japanese [[spoiler:"'''never''' put your own interests over the team's, and if you do, you deserve punishment"]] viewpoint. However, Western viewers sided with Hyuuga instead as they believed that [[spoiler:Kitazume was unreasonably severe since Hyuga did everything because he wanted to recover his lost fighting spirit.]] This scene happens mainly in the manga; in the animated adaptations, this was toned down or skipped completely. However, in WYC they call out Hyuuga for STICKING with the team to try and help them, and have to force him to leave to increase his individual abilities. Kind of makes the above seem like a BrokenAesop.

** Due to a limited budget most dubs use the same voice actor for the matches' commentaries. What is amazing about this is that there are times that two matches are happening at the same time ''and the commentator is the same''. It's even more hilarious when this crosses into having the same VA fall in ''several'' cases of TalkingToHimself. The guy over here? Voiced by this guy. The kid over there? Voiced by him too. And the guy next to the dude over there? ''That's him too''.

** The Latin-American Spanish dub not only had a huge TalkingToHimself problem, but for absolutely unexplained reasons, Munemasa Katagiri has an incredibly idiotic faux-German UnexplainedAccent. Thankfully, it's dropped in ''Road to 2002''.

* WhatMeasureIsANonBadass: Sanae's pluckiness and cheerful disposition is often ignored or handwaved by fangirls, who bash her by falsely accusing her of being "weak", "a stalker" and "a bad example for girls" because she's less tomboyish as time passes. Blame the ValuesDissonance and how the story itself is more centered on the soccer boys than on the other characters between them, not her!

** Many people thought that Albese, the minnow team that Aoi plays for in Italy after Internazionale dismisses him, was fictional. Turns out it's real, and is currently playing at the Piedmont division of Eccellenza (the fifth division of Italian football).

* AmericansHateTingle: Well, not ''hate'', per se, but it's nowhere near as explosively popular in English-speaking fandom as it is in Japanese fandom, Latin American fandom, or continental European fandom. Most of the time, it only comes up in terms of its bafflingly OffModel artwork or when discussing absurd feats as depicted in sports anime.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeArt: One of the main praises of the manga is it's polished and dynamic artwork that depicts the football matches.

* BadassDecay: Wakashimazu/Richard full stop. In his first appearance he stops a Penalty Kick and rivals Wabayashi/Benji. By World Youth he has developed an inferiority complex because they plan to replace him with Wakabayashi.

* DracoInLeatherPants: While he has a pretty good FreudianExcuse, fangirls forget how much of an abusive JerkAss Hyûga was to his rivals at first, as well as how many times his bad temper and arrogance has brought him genuine trouble ''after'' his CharacterDevelopment.

* PeripheryDemographic: The series is marketed towards teenage boys (as a shonen) and, in later years, adult men who grew up reading it (as a seinen). However, [[http://animarchive.tumblr.com/post/109883407076 it has always been]] [[http://animarchive.tumblr.com/post/109884411616 popular with girls and adult women too]].

* ShipsThatPassInTheNight: Though there ''was'' a bit of ShipTease between [[spoiler: Yukari]] and [[spoiler: Ishizaki]] in WYC, it was easy to miss it until [[spoiler: he asked her out while laying on the infirmary during the match against Brazil]]. To be fair, the LastMinuteHookUp scene in itself ''was'' [[Sugarwiki/HeartwarmingMoments really adorable]].
* SpiritualAdaptation: Of VideoGame/KunioKun's Soccer League games.

* UnintentionalUncannyValley: The original manga has a couple of instances where the male characters are depicted with [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-dXj06XkAAWhxg?format=jpg&name=medium extremely]] [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B338mMGCYAAWp3j?format=jpg&name=small tiny heads]], or having massive legs, having almost alien-esque proportions. The anime adaptations tend to avoid this, making the characters have more normal proportions instead.

* UnintentionalUncannyValley: The original manga has a couple of instances where the male characters are depicted with[[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-dXj06XkAAWhxg?format=jpg&name=medium extremely]] [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B338mMGCYAAWp3j?format=jpg&name=small tiny heads]], or having massive legs, having almost alien-esque proportions. The anime adaptations tend to avoid this, making the characters have more normal proportions instead.

* UnintentionalUncannyValley: The original manga has a couple of instances where the male characters are depicted with
[[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-dXj06XkAAWhxg?format=jpg&name=medium extremely]] [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B338mMGCYAAWp3j?format=jpg&name=small tiny heads]], or having massive legs, having almost alien-esque proportions. The anime adaptations tend to avoid this, making the characters have more normal proportions instead.

* CriticalResearchFailure:
** One episode of 1983 anime series shows Tsubasa (Nankatsu's identified penalty taker) running past the ball and letting Ishizaki execute the penalty, which is a violation against [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penalty_kick_(association_football) Laws of the Game]].[[note]]During a penalty kick, all players except for the identified penalty taker and the defending goalkeeper must stand outside the penalty area, and at least 10 yards (9.15 m) from the ball[[/note]] Ishizaki ended up missing his spot kick and the match was restarted quickly, but according to the rules, since it was a teammate of the identified kicker who kicked the ball instead, Ishizaki should be booked with yellow card and the opposing team should get an indirect free kick.
** ''Road to 2002'' infamously treats Catalonia as if it was an independent country separate from Spain (sure, there's plenty of Catalonian citizens who desire for [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan_independence_movement independence]] in real life, but they're not there yet). Also, in a much more glaring error, they often show the '''[[UsefulNotes/FranciscoFranco Francoist]]''' Spanish flag of all things as if it was the country's current official flag, which was a source of both laughs and cringe in Spain when it was noticed (to explain it if you are not Spanish, try to imagine the swastika flag being shown as the flag of current Germany).

** Many jokes are done that Japan would never beat teams like Germany outside this manga. Come the 2022 World Cup happened, Japan defeated Germany 2-1 on their very first match.

** In ''Rising Sun''. [[spoiler:The Japanese team [[CurbStompBattle wiped the floor with the Mexican team]] at 8-0]]. In RealLife, [[spoiler: Mexico suffered a crushing defeat against Chile in Copa America with only one goal less (7-0). The main difference is, while the real life ream was defeated abroad, in the manga the Japanese team defeated the Mexicans ''at home, and in the Azteca Stadium, no less''.[[note]]In RealLife, Mexico has hardly ever been defeated at home in the Azteca. Had either the manga Mexicans or the real life team been defeated in such a way in such place in RealLife, the consequences would've been '''nasty''', to put it mildly (this kind of fallout has happened in real life with more believable scores; look up "Aztecazo" on Google and you'll see what we mean)[[/note]]]].

** The original series' opening ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32tgVmsxxCM Moete Hero]]'' is considered ''the'' theme for the franchise as a whole. It's popular enough to the point of making a return [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQYKwv5t2BY as the 2018 series ending theme]] (and the soundtrack includes different versions sung by several characters including Tsubasa, Hyuga, Wakabayashi, among others), and the ''Rise of New Champions'' videogame also includes [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us_2Jjpw0Ds a quite epic orchestra version]].

** The original series' opening ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32tgVmsxxCM Moete Hero]]'' is considered ''the'' theme for the franchise as a whole. It's popular enough to the point of making a return [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQYKwv5t2BY as the 2018 series ending theme]] (and the soundtrack includes different versions sung by several characters including Tsubasa, Hyuga, Wakabayashi, among others), and the ''Rise of New Champions'' videogame also includes [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmebY4YHgyw a quite epic orchestra version]].

** Another Latinamerican meme comes from the dub of the first series, where Mr. Ozora claims that his son was "saved by the Virgin of Guadalupe" in one scene, leading to many sarcastic Youtube comments mentioning the Mexican soap opera ''Series/LaRosaDeGuadalupe''.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Many old episodes and even story arcs in the series which feature outdated soccer rules such as two players kick-off[[note]]which was changed into one player kick-off starting from 2016[[/note]] and golden goal[[note]]which was abolished with extra time being restored back to normal 2 x 15 minutes starting from August 2004[[/note]] will probably look weird for the newer fans