Captain Tsubasa (2001 TV series)

Captain Tsubasa (キャプテン翼), commonly known by the name Captain Tsubasa: Road to 2002 in Western countries, is a TV anime series originally broadcast by TV Tokyo in Japan from 2001-10-07 to 2002-10-06.

The anime can be streamed on Vudu and Apple TV

Description[]

This series is composed of 52 episodes, divided into three arcs:

Road to Dream (episodes 1-19) - a retelling of the original TV anime
Road to Sky (episodes 20-31) - a retelling of the OVA series.
Road to Victory (episodes 32-52) - new material that combines a few elements from World Youth Hen with the stories from the first half of the Road to 2002 manga.

Originally, it was released to advertise the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Japan and South Korea. The original broadcast of the last episode, June 10th, 2002, was within the already running competition. Japan, which passed the group stage, would be eliminated just 8 days later after losing 0-1 against Turkey in the Round of 16. Parallels to the real world include the International Jr. Youth tournament won by Japan in episodes 21 to 31, which is played in France, just like the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

The series was sponsored by Adidas (for example, the logo can be seen in Genzo's cap, in the footballs, in the stadiums' ad-boards or in Japan's uniform).

In North America, Enoki Films made the English dub and changed the name to Flash Kicker: Road to 2002, until Netflix acquired the rights and broadcast the series as Captain Tsubasa: Road to 2002. Some other countries saw releases at other dates, specifically the German dub of the anime who was renamed as "Super Kickers 2006" and was, as the name implies, produced about four years later for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.

Differences from the manga[]

In the anime, major changes were made to compile the arcs of Kids' Dream, Boys' Fight and J Boys' Challenge so that later arcs could be focused more. Instead of Tsubasa Ozora scoring his first goal by a cross from Roberto Hongo in a challenge where all Nankatsu sports representatives were asked to shoot their ball, Nankatsu Elementary School played a match against Shutetsu Elementary School to recover their field and Tsubasa scored the sole goal. Originally, there was an inter school tournament of just Nankatsu and Shuutetsu playing different sports and deciding winner by overall points. But in the anime, a 4 school Nankatsu Local Tournament was held where Shuutetsu beat Nishigaoka Elementary School to reach the final and Nankatsu beat Yamabuki Elementary School to reach the final where they drew the final with the score 1-1 with Genzo Wakabayashi and Tsubasa scoring, whereas in the manga the score would be 2-2. Originally, Taro Misaki joined Nankatsu for the first time and came in as a substitute for Ryo Ishizaki against Shuutetsu whereas in this anime Misaki is shown to be returning to Nankatsu in the match against Shuutetsu implying he had already studied there.

Tsubasa meets Yayoi Aoba for the first time at the half time break of Nankatsu SC-Musashi FC game in the anime, whereas originally Yayoi was a childhood friend of Tsubasa who had a crush on him. Originally, Yayoi informed Tsubasa of Jun Misugi’s heart condition prior to the game, but in the anime, she informs him only at half time. Some game results were given more 'realistic scores' such as Nankatsu school being beaten 10-0 and not 30-0; the first group match in the 6th All-Japan Boys' Football Tournament, Nankatsu was beaten by Meiwa FC 2-3, whereas in manga it was 6-7; in the semi-finals, Nankatsu beat Musashi 4-3 not 5-4; and Nankatsu beat Meiwa 2-1 (aet) not 4-2 (aet). Hikaru Matsuyama doesn’t even appear in the elementary school tournament and Ken Wakashimazu returns to Meiwa only for the finals even though his father didn’t allow him to play football and rather wanted him to take over his father’s karate dojo whereas in the manga, he returns from his road accident injury and would be the key player in the win against Furano Elementary Soccer Club in the semi-finals.

In the Tokyo Prefectural Finals, Toho Academy Middle School defeats an unknown club named Katsuhoshi FC (克星) 3-0, but originally Toho would beat Musashi Middle School 3-2 in the manga. In the quarter-finals, Nankatsu Middle School beats Hirado Middle School3-2, whereas in the manga it would be 4-3. In the finals Nankatsu - Toho, Tsubasa only played in the second half due to his injury. Even so, there was an episode where Hamburger SV (Grunwald) came to Japan with Genzo and a German physician who gave treatment to Tsubasa.

Some other events were also changed, which includes a 20-year-old Sanae Nakazawa still being Tsubasa's girlfriend and in charge of the Nakazawa family business, whereas in the manga, both characters are married. Likewise, while most Golden Age Japanese players have contracts in the J-League, Misaki has returned to Paris and is negotiating a contract with an unnamed French club, different from his manga counterpart who was, in fact, a teammate to Ishizaki and Urabe at Jubilo Iwata and was a pillar for the Japanese team due to the absence of both Tsubasa and Hyuga who are now overseas players.

There was also an anime-original story, the Netherlands Arc, where the Final Countdown one-shot was included as tie-in before getting into the real story from Road to 2002, where Tsubasa and Kojiro were already playing in Spain and in Italy, respectively.

In the series, various club teams had their uniforms, logos and names modified, as well some players' names and appearances (most precisely, the ones based on real-life footballers who were active during the series' run) due to the disagreement between FIFA and Shueisha regarding the featuring of the clubs with their real-world logos, stadiums and jerseys, (which could be a reason about why the Road to 2002 manga was not published outside Asia).

Tournaments shown[]

6th All-Japan Boys' Football Tournament
16th National Middle School Soccer Tournament
International Jr. Youth Tournament
Rio Cup Tournament (Brazil)

La Liga
Bundesliga
Italian Serie A
World Youth Cup (final episode)

Episodes[]

#	Original title	American title	Air date
1	Road to Dream	Road to a Dream	2001-10-07
2	Meeting Roberto	Tsubasa meets Roberto	2001-10-14
3	Taro Misaki Returns	Taro Misaki is Back	2001-10-21
4	The Burning Kojiro	Blazing Kojiro	2001-10-28
5	Birth! Captain Tsubasa	Captain Tsubasa is Born!	2001-11-04
6	Opening! Japan National Junior Competition	The Boy's National Soccer Championship Opens!	2001-11-11
7	Ace of Glass		2001-11-18
8	Get up! Misugi Jun	Get Up, Jun Misugi!	2001-11-25
9	Crash! Tsubasa vs. Hyuga		2001-12-02
10	Finals in the Dead Heat!	Sizzling Final Match!	2001-12-09
11	Farewell Roberto	Goodbye, Roberto	2001-12-16
12	Tomorrow's Kick Off	Kickoff for Tomorrow	2001-12-23
13	Fierce Tiger Shot!		2001-12-30
14	A Challenge From Jito		2002-01-06
15	Hot Number 10 From A Snow Country		2002-01-13
16	Upsetting Doctor's Decision		2002-01-20
17	Tournament Final! Nankatsu vs. Toho		2002-01-27
18	Driving Shot of Vengeance		2002-02-03
19	Come Back! Tsubasa!		2002-02-10
20	Go for it! Japan Junior Youth Team!		2002-02-17
21	Humiliating Test Match		2002-02-24
22	Glorious Number 10		2002-03-03
23	Golden Duo Reunites		2002-03-10
24	'God of Defense' of Italy		2002-03-17
25	Genius Juan Diaz!		2002-03-24
26	Elegant Commander		2002-03-31
27	Painful Yellow Card		2002-04-07
28	Respectable Penalty - Tie-Breaker		2002-04-14
29	Grueling Battle! Japan vs. Germany		2002-04-21
30	A Message From Roberto		2002-04-28
31	Shine in Glory! Japan Jr.		2002-05-05
32	To the New Field		2002-05-12
33	A Soccer Cyborg		2002-05-19
34	Santana, The Son of God		2002-06-02
35	The Shine of Rosario		2002-06-09
36	The New Dream Land		2002-06-16
37	Hyuga's Challenge for the Future	Huega's Challenge for the Future	2002-06-23
38	Golden Age of Hope		2002-06-30
39	Shingo Aoi is Here!	Shingo Ao is Here!	2002-07-07
40	The New Japan national team		2002-07-14
41	Break the Dutch Wall		2002-07-21
42	Restart to the World		2002-07-28
43	Catalonia's Eagle	Catalunya's Eagle	2002-08-04
44	Run to the Opening Match!		2002-08-11
45	Harsh Notice		2002-08-18
46	Cross the Bridge of Hope		2002-08-25
47	Italian Debut	Huega's Italian Debut	2002-09-01
48	Striker in Tears		2002-09-08
49	Go for 10 Goals, 10 Assists!		2002-09-15
50	Battle Against the Rival		2002-09-22
51	Dream Pitch		2002-09-29
52	Warriors in the Field		2002-10-06