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Captain Tsubasa (2018)
“I will score a goal but first let me remember my entire life”
-Tsubasa Ozora
Some of the criticism I’ve seen up to now about Captain Tsubasa is how unrealistic it is. As a person who has grown up watching and playing football, it’s obvious I’ve never seen –and will never see- some of the skills certain characters display on the show. Still, it is because of these that the show is exciting.
Based on the manga by Takahashi Yoichi, Captain Tsubasa displays the intriguingly addictive story of Tsubasa’s football career while in elementary and middle school, first stone in he’s odyssey pursuing the dream of playing in Japan’s national team and becoming the best footballer in the world.
And it is in Nankatsu city, place which hosts some of the best elementary schools of the country, where our leading characters’ journey, Tsubasa (also known as Oliver or Majid), starts.
The pace, while not being as slow as in the original series, also takes its time, circumstance which makes possible the introduction of most of the characters, letting them show their different skills and motivations for playing football and making the viewer become really attached to some of them; moreover, this scorching pace, contrary to what one might expect, doesn’t sacrifice any momentum during games, making some iconic matches as thrilling as on the original series. This does not imply that, as it occurred in the original series, there are some times that one might actually think they are dedicating too much time to something that they do not have to.
At the same time, one might expect a huge improvement in terms of the paragraph artistic and sound section of the show (compared to the previous ones) and, despite its evident improvement, its quite lackluster. Repetitive character designs, poor setting/scenery development, “not-as-fluent-as-you-would-expect” animation, besides a quite unappealing OST, do nothing to help the show.
However, not everything is going to be bad at this segment, as voice acting and sound effects are quite on point, doing their job of keeping the viewer immersed in the action.
To make things simple, “CT” is a fun anime to watch even if you are not into football. The common recipe of the underdog team going for the top and exceeding expectations, the main character that surpasses himself in order to overcome the problematic situations and the thrilling games full of incredible goals, saves and spectacular skills does not disappoint.
Last, but not least, if you were introduce to the Captain Tsubasa franchise when you were a kid, you will probably enjoy it even more, as it might bring some memories from childhood back.

I have watched every episode with much gusto, and this is the best adaptation of Captain Tsubasa, even though there were some areas that David Pro could have done differently.
Many people do comment on how the soundtrack isn't as good as the previous adaptations, and while I can agree partly, it's definitely also not the complete bore that people are making it out to be. The music in the second arc (29 to 52) greatly improves the dramatic flair. The tracks aren't as present, but on the whole, they complemented the animation pretty well. Also, every time Hyuga had the ball, they played a particular track that I'm in complete love with.
Other areas of contention include cutting dialogue content and a few scenes in order to fit the first 25 volumes of the manga in 52 episodes. For example, they had to cut Kanda out, the boxing dude who falls in love with Sanae. More importantly, the Boku ha Misaki Taro one shot which gave important character development to one of the main characters (Misaki) was also missing, which is a shame.
The other big issue with this series is the reuse of animation. I think I've noticed too many times where David Pro reused the animation, but I think I can forgive them for it, because those new animation pieces are frankly the best of the franchise yet. For the first time ever, the special shots look as good as they were in the manga.
Which brings me to another point. Tsubasa 2018 is the only adaptation that has been able to bring Takahashi's dynamic and intense art style into animation. Maybe Tsubasa doesn't have 'fluid animation' all the time, but it gladly made up for it with a lot of really well-drawn shots. Even the stills that often match those in the manga look like there was a lot of effort put into them. You can pause the series at any point, and you will simply not find a lot of 'QUALITY'. It's just great to look at.
To be honest, I'm quite satisfied with this series. It doesn't have the super amazing soundtrack of the original or Road to 2002, but is it honestly that important especially when you consider the fact that Takahashi's vision (story and art) has been successfully transcribed to anime format? It's all there without the useless extra baggage of the other adaptations.
The final episode teases us for a future adaptation of the third and final arc of Captain Tsubasa which was sadly missing here. If it doesn't happen, it'll be the biggest blueball in anime history, especially after the last 2 failed remakes.

I wasn't sure what to think about new Tsubasa series when I first heard about it. But then when first episode aired it bring so many memories from my childhood that I'm more than happy to watch it. Even if I know the story I'm enjoying all of it and I like that creators choosed original path and they gave us one more time all characters that we love. Tsubasa, Wakabayashi, Roberto, let's just wait for Misaki and Kojiro then I bet all fans even the young ones will fall in love with this anime. If I should rate it as an hardcore anime fan I will rate it with 8 maybe 9, but because of all memories, because of characters that I remember from time when I was a kid I rate it with highest 10!

From Hunter X Hunter, Digimon Adventure, Dragon Ball and now it's Captain Tsubasa's turn. Feels old yet? All of our childhood-happiness become new series again in the mid of our life but they make us feels like never get old. Captain Tsubasa, being an inspirational football series for worlds-best footballer like Zinedine Zidane, Alessandro Del Piero, Andres Iniesta, Neymar Jr, and many more.
The story start from Tsubasa's (main character) story since he was child to explain the reason why he was attached to football and continue to Tsubasa's football-career from elementary school. Tsubasa is a talented small kid footballer (his presence remind me a lot of Lionel Messi), by meeting Ishizaki (support character), a character who can make you laugh easily and the best friend material, his football-chapter start from there. The first rival who makes appearance is Wakabayashi, genius goalkeeper who has so much confidence in his skill.
The legend-scene from Captain Tsubasa is still as good as ever, Tsubasa's inhuman shoot to send challange-ball to Wakabayashi will give you goosebumps like good old-days.
Looks like it takes original-story route, my adrenaline go wild because of nostalgic feel, but I'm pretty sure for the new watcher, it's still an enjoyable series especially for the sport-genre fan in general. Starting to wonder what kind of story which can inspire legends and one of the best footballer in the world? Try watching this, I'm sure it will give you a lot of fun.