In September 2021, the Japanese women’s soccer world will be reborn. Japan’s first women’s professional soccer league “WE League” starts.
The WE League supports the animation of the women’s soccer manga “Farewell, My Duck” (published by Kodansha, based on Naoshi Arakawa). From April, the TV version of the high school days will be broadcast on “TOKYO MX” and “BS Nippon Television”, and from June 11th, the movie “Farewell, My Duckler First”, which focused on the junior high school days, will be broadcast. Touch ”has been released.
Speaking of soccer cartoons, “Captain Tsubasa” (published by Shueisha, original: Yoichi Takahashi) is said to be the best player in football history as well as in Japan. Argentine forward Lionel Messi (Barcelona) and former Italian striker Francesco Totti. As you all know, Totti and former French striker Lionel Messi have influenced OBs regardless of age, east or west. For that reason, “Farewell, My Duck” has high expectations.
Related article: The popularity of Captain Tsubasa is roaring around the world.Podolski, Messi, Henri … 10 star players who fell in love with Captain Tsubasa
Success of B League led by “Slam Dunk” and improvement of competitiveness of Japanese basketball
By the way, when asked “What is the standard for sports manga and anime?”, The author in his thirties now always mentions “Slam Dunk” (published by Shueisha, original by Takehiko Inoue). This is a very popular and bible-like work that features Japanese high school basketball, and 25 years have already passed since the work was announced. Despite this, the popularity is still so strong that the original author Inoue announced in January this year that he plans to make it into a movie on his Twitter account and attracted a lot of attention.
This “Slam Dunk” should have had a great influence on the Japanese professional basketball league “B League”, which makes you feel the upgrade every year with its solid popularity and ability even in the corona disaster.
Inoue said he played high school basketball and aspired to become a manga artist around that time. Because I believed in both the fun of playing and the fun of watching, I was serialized while being told many times by the editorial department of “Weekly Shonen Jump” (Shueisha) that “basketball manga would not be a hit”. That continues to support the current improvement in competitiveness and popularity of Japanese basketball, which I never dreamed of playing in the world’s highest basketball league “NBA” at the same time, with Rui Hachimura and Yuta Watanabe playing at the same time.
When “Slam Dunk” was being broadcast on TV anime (1993-1996), the basketball boom was terrifying. In junior high schools and high schools all over the country, the basketball club before that was as large as 20 people in the third grade, but it has developed into a social phenomenon in which the number of basketball clubs with more than 50 people increases rapidly.
The influence is now being seen by soccer players in their thirties and related parties, and many people are fans of “Slam Dunk” even though they have never read or seen “Captain Tsubasa.”
