History Manga / CaptainTsubasa

Other important characters include his teammates: Ryo Ishizaki, sensitive Taro Misaki and goalkeeper Ace Genzo Wakabayashi. Also, there are his rivals: most notably, Kojiro Hyuga (whose playing style is the opposite of Tsubasa, relaying more on power than on technique), Jun Misugi (a talented, [[IllBoy ill]] strategist) and Hikaru Matsuyama. Later, foreign players like Karl Heinz Schneider are introduced during the FIFA World Youth Cup[[note]]which IRL is the U-20 World Cup[[/note]]. Important support characters are Roberto (Tsubasa's mentor and coach) and Sanae Nakazawa (a female friend of Tsubasa, who has also quite the crush on him and later manages to date him).

** As far as single players go, post-medical treatment!Jun Misugi becomes the very definition of this. Top scorer, excellent strategist, very technically skilled... and absolutely pathetic stamina, due to having been a IllBoy for the first 15 years of his life.

* IllBoy: Jun Misugi, who's prone to {{Hollywood Heart Attack}}s, up until the World Youth saga.
** Since this is a sport series and it requires the characters to be at least in good health aside of the occasional ill guy who still wants to play, the cast plces usually filled by ill girls and guys are often taken by players who get injured in one way or another and whose recovery or not is vital to their teams and their careers. These "ill boys" are: Wakabayashi (elementary school arcs), [[spoiler: Tsubasa himself]] (junior high arcs), [[spoiler: Wakashimazu]] (''Shin''), [[spoiler: Misaki]] and [[spoiler: Cha Inchon from the South Korean team]] (WYC).

* CryCute: Santana. ''Oh God, Santana''. Seeing him open the water works after [[spoiler: he's reunited with his mother]]...

It started being marketed as a {{shonen}} manga, originally being serialized in ''[[Magazine/ShonenJump Weekly Shonen Jump]]'' from 1988 to 1997. While it remains shonen at heart, however, the ''Road to 2002'' saga and sequels have moved to {{Seinen}} magazines, as a good part of its readership is formed by adult men who grew reading up it in ''Shonen Jump''.

It started being marketed as a {{shonen}} manga, published at ''Magazine/ShonenJump'' from the start of its run up until the early 2000's. While it remains shonen at heart, however, the ''Road to 2002'' saga and sequels have moved to {{Seinen}} magazines, as a good part of its readership is formed by adult men who grew reading it on ''Magazine/ShonenJump''.

* TwinsAreSpecial: The Tachibana twins rely on their innate understanding of one another as the basis for their combination attacks. However, this gets deconstructed as Coach Gamo points out that their dependency on each other is a CripplingOverspecialization and borderline [[WonderTwinPowers Wonder Twin Power]] that is ultimately holding them back.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters

* {{Meganekko}}: Machiko from the Furano team, though she's more [[{{Tsundere}} outspoken]] than the standard.

* ''Captain Tsubasa: Kaigai Gekito Hen en La Liga'' ("Overseas Battle Edition en La Liga") (2010-2011)5 volumes

* ''Captain Tsubasa: Memories'' (2018-2021) A series of prequel stories centered on Tsubasa childhood prior to the beginning of the story.

* OneLastJob: Nagatomo in 2018 anime special edition.
** "Tsubasa and Misaki... if they can score with THAT shot, we shall win. I've seen it all. (cue flashback) The one who sends the cross is going to be me."

* OpposingSportsTeam: Averted: the rivals are fairly sympathetic, sometimes bordering on {{Punch Clock Villain}}s. If rivals aren't sympathetic, though, they'll lose ''[[CantGetAwayWithNuthin badly]]'' [[BreakTheHaughty as punishment]].

** Taro Misaki is the only character whose country when he went to play (France) is unchanged, but not the team he actually plays: In the videogames, he plays for many French teams, while in the manga, he is Paris Saint-Germain initial choice, but his injury prevents both sides from signing the contract; he eventually joins Jubilo Iwata in the J-League instead.

* ComicBookTime: Either this, AnachronismStew, or AmbiguousTimePeriod. As explained under SocietyMarchesOn, Japan never qualified into World Cup ''was'' a plot point up until ''World Youth'' arc. The next arc, ''Road to 2002'', starts with stating that World Youth was set in the year of "19xx" and it's pretty much stated that this arc is set between 1998 and 2002 to the point that they show the France national team becoming the winner of 1998 World Cup, that Japan qualified into World Cup for the first time in 1998, that several characters stating the next World Cup in 2002 will be set in Japan and South Korea, and that Tsubasa and his friends aimed to be Japan representatives in the 2002 World Cup. Yet the next arc ''Golden 23'' appears to be set in the late 2000s AKA ''after'' 2002 despite the stories are direct sequel of ''Road to 2002''.[[note]]It's worth noting that ''Golden 23'' was published from 2005 to 2008.[[/note]] Also in the ''Rising Sun'', which is direct sequel of ''Golden 23'', Misaki appears to use smartphone while talking to Tsubasa.

* SocietyMarchesOn: The manga is maybe one one the biggest offenders of this: When the original manga was published in 1981, Japan was the ButtMonkey of the soccer world, being in the lowest ranks of this sport and the J-League didn't exist at that time, other than having an amateur league. Soccer was unpopular compared with Baseball and the sole idea of even hosting the World Cup there was laughable in that era and everybody, Tsubasa included, was aware of that fact. Cue the 90s and 2000s, when the J-League was created (1993) and Japan is the World Cup co-host along with South Korea (2002), not to mention the country becoming a soccer powerhouse in Asia (with superstars like Hidetoshi Nakata and Shunsuke Nakamura, and players like Keisuke Honda and Shinji Kagawa putting their skills to test in the European fields) and the author is forced to recognize the existence of all this, when previously all this was just dreams in the 80s. The animated adaptations avoid this [[SettingUpdate as they set the plot at the respective time period when it happens]], especially in the ''Road to 2002'' anime which features DVD's and the Internet, and the 2018 anime even shows several characters using modern smartphones.

* ThoseTwoGuys: Tamotsu and Takai, the two cheerleaders who were often subjected to Sanae's temper tantrums. [[spoiler: They [[TookALevelInBadass level up with time]] and reappear as assistants in the Golden 23 series]]

* CuteSportsClubManager: A number of them in the Junior High arc. Nankatsu has Sanae (the manga UrExample and TropeCodifier) with Yukari and Kumi as [[TheLancer her assistants]]; Furano has Yoshiko, with Machiko as her assistant. Both Sanae and Yoshiko [[OfficialCouple hook up]] with the captains of their respective teams, Tsubasa and Matsuyama; [[spoiler: meanwhile, Yukari hooks up with Tsubasa's Nankatsu Lancer, Ishizaki.]] And Mushashi has Yayoi, who is ship teased ''very heavily'' with Misugi though it's not known if they're more than friends or not.

** Taro Misaki is the only character whose country when he went to play (France) is unchanged, but not the team he actually plays: In the videogames, he plays for many French teams, while in the manga, he plays at first for Paris Saint-Germain and later he went on loan to Jubilo Iwata in the J-League.

* RealityEnsues: Starting from ''Road to 2002'', the series starts to do away with physics-defying moves and becomes more realistic. Examples:
** Tsubasa is forced to play in the satellite B team. This is not uncommon in Spain, where competition for the first team roster is extremely intense and non-EU youth players need time to adapt.
** Hyuga, previously able to steamroll every enemy with his dribble, is found to be lacking in body balance department. He gets pulverized during his debut match in Italy, where the defenders are known to be merciless and extremely physical.
** Wakabayashi sets up an overlap late in the match, intending to score... but defying the coach's instructions to settle for a tie. Instead the enemy defends and counters and scores a goal. He is then benched by the coach.
** In ''Rising Sun'', Tsubasa catches a fever and has to be hospitalized. The team deduces that this happened due to him overworking himself in the last year, both in the Barca and the National Team.

* BoisterousBruiser: Ishizaki, Jito, maybe Tsubasa himself.
* {{Bokukko}} --> {{Shorttank}}: Sanae.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: [[http://mangafox.me/manga/captain_tsubasa_road_to_2002/v07/c066/5.html Aoi.]]

* CallingYourAttacks

** El Si Pierre is the son of a French nobleman and tycoon [[http://mangafox.me/manga/captain_tsubasa/v32/c099/103.html who used to be either bullied or sucked up to for his family's riches and prestige.]] He began practising soccer to avert this problem, since in his vew soccer rules are the same for everyone, and this let him forge real friendships with time.

* LoveMakesYouCrazy: Or emotionally dead, like in Stefan Levin's case.

* TheWorfEffect: Good Christ, [[http://mangafox.me/manga/captain_tsubasa_kaigai_kekidou_hen_en_la_liga/v06/c058/15.html Michael.]] He isn't just a guy who manages to defeat Natureza. He is the guy who has marked Natureza so tightly that Natureza ''cannot make shot at all during a game.''

** The most recently released videogame ''Rise of New Champions'' features a brand new story mode, ''Episode of New Hero'', where the World Youth Championship is cancelled, and a new tournament is to be held at the USA.

In December 2017, a third animated series has been announced. It's slated to start in April 2018, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh8czMsFjX0 and here is a trailer]]].

Pretty much one of the most famous and popular sport manga/anime created by Yoichi Takahashi. It was insanely popular and translated to many languages to the point where it inspired many talented players to take on UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball (soccer) as a career, such as Alessandro del Piero, Zinedine Zidane, Francesco Totti, and Fernando Torres. This led the Japanese soccer association to assist in the development of the manga/anime to promote the sport in Japan, which inspired players like Hidetoshi Nakata and Seigo Narazaki.

** Same thing in Latinamerica, only that instead of Mark Lenders, is Steve Hyuga. And those are only some examples.

* ChasteHero: Tsubasa is so MarriedToTheJob that he fails to see Sanae's interest in him for quite a while. The manga shows him as being slightly more aware of it, to the point of [[spoiler: standing up for Sanae against her StalkerWithACrush despite clearly knowing how it could put his career in jeopardy]]; the anime is more subtle.
* ChekhovsGun:
** World Youth. Before the tournament goes, Japanese coaches happen to come across a video of a fantastic football player. He's described so good that no Japanese players are allowed to watch it for fear that their morale sink. [[spoiler: He is Natureza, and he only shows up in the end]]
** World Youth again. Tomeya Akai first shows up in a bonus section, pre-Asian Youth. On the second time they meet, Aoi recruits him to Japan Youth because he has good marking skill and Aoi feels he will be important later on. [[spoiler: He is later tasked to mark Levin of Sweden Youth, a job he does well.]]

** A very tragic example, but [[spoiler: Levin and Karen were also childhood friends who were very much in love and even about to marry each other until the latter was killed in a car accident.]]

* SocietyMarchesOn: The manga is maybe one one the biggest offenders of this: When the original manga was published in 1981, Japan was the ButtMonkey of the soccer world, being in the lowest ranks of this sport and the J-League didn't exist at that time, other than having an amateur league. Soccer was unpopular compared with Baseball and the sole idea of even hosting the World Cup there was laughable in that era and everybody, Tsubasa included, was aware of that fact. Cue the 90s and 2000s, when the J-League was created (1993) and Japan is the World Cup co-host along with South Korea (2002), not to mention the country becoming a soccer powerhouse in Asia (with superstars like Hidetoshi Nakata and Shunsuke Nakamura, and players like Keisuke Honda and Shinji Kagawa putting their skills to test in the European fields) and the author is forced to recognize the existence of all this, when previously all this was just dreams in the 80s. The animated adaptations avoid this [[SettingUpdate as they set the plot at the respective time period when it happens]], especially in the ''Road to 2002'' anime which features DVD's and the Internet.

* TryingNotToCry: Yoshiko [[spoiler: when she chooses to leave without a word]], Kumi [[spoiler: after being rejected by Tsubasa]].

* VitriolicBestBuds: Ishizaki and Urabe.

*** On World Youth, the twins get injured as Pancho Garcia (from Mexico) takes them both down out of frustration, [[TakingYouWithMe getting himself ejected and earning Japan a key one-man advantage]].
*** On Golden 23, the twins get injured as they perform an acrobatic move to seal Japan's Olympics presense in a qualifier against Australia. Interestingly, this was a moment where [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief]] was subverted, as they got injured because their bodies "couldn't cope anymore" with the [[RuleofCool over-the-top acrobatics they displayed in earlier chapters]].