Weekly Art Blog 5/25-6/1/2025

I finished planning my next zine series, and I’m already a few pages into the first chapter! It is really flowing right now, and I am enjoying it a lot. I secured my next apartment. I am relieved of that stress and will have to deal with moving stuff for a little bit. I also am expecting a raise at work to take effect soon. Overall, it’s been a pretty good week.

I also recently finished Captain Tsubasa, which means I have more thoughts about that series. Specifically, I want to talk about how I would restructure the middle school and international arcs if I were making it. Before I get into it all, I want to say that I do not think I’m better than series author Yoichi Takahashi. I enjoy these kinds of rewriting exercises as a way to practice my own skills. It’s an exercise in finding the things that I liked most, and looking for ways to enhance those aspects of the story. In essence, it’s about finding my voice and considering the things I value most in a comic, which I can take with me to my own work.

So let’s dive right in. Last time I talked about this series, I said that there was a big missed opportunity with the Nankatsu Middle School team. That would be my first big change. Tsubasa, now without Taro, should have spent the past three years practicing combination plays with Mamoru, Hajime, and Teppei. Not only would it be cool to see fancy trick plays – ball stealing and possession-keeping in the midfield with Mamoru, pass plays with Hajime going up to the goal, and complicated shooting strategies with Teppei in front of the goal – but it would also have helped all three of them increase their own skills further. This would be coupled with the whole Nankatsu team vowing to surpass Tsubasa after their run-in with Otomo reminds them that they’ve been relying on Tsubasa too much. They don’t have to get on that level for the story to work, especially since Tsubasa will also be improving, but they should be trying. We also need to see improvement from Yuzo, such that he’s as good as Genzo was before Genzo went to Europe. He’s always reliable, but not very noteworthy, so I think it’s important that we emphasize his growth and how that level is now inferior to Ken’s improvement.

Next, I was so surprised that the story completely ignores the biggest hole in the youth soccer world that Tsubasa created after Yomiuriland. Kojiro, the main rival, was recruited into Toho Academy on a soccer scholarship. The scout had also wanted to recruit Tsubasa, with the goal of having him be the game maker and Kojiro as the ace striker, forming the ultimate duo. It’s the obvious thing that every adult watching this situation would want for the future of Japanese soccer, and it’s also what we would later see glimpses of during the international tournament. Even the scout’s idea of Tsubasa as game maker aligns with Roberto’s advice for Tsubasa to become a midfielder. But Tsubasa didn’t go to Toho, and remained rivals with Kojiro. We should definitely have that be a major point of contention, that Tsubasa selfishly broke up the ultimate golden duo before it could form.

That could go a few ways. Kojiro is probably happy that it didn’t happen, since at that point he was more interested in defeating Tsubasa than forming the best team. At the same time, he knows his own scholarship and soccer future was initially hinged on Tsubasa playing with him. That adds so much tension to Kojiro’s inferiority complex, doesn’t it? He spends the first two years of middle school trying to make Toho a team worthy of defeating Nankatsu and failing each time, and in the third year has a breakdown after barely defeating Musashi after Jun almost turns the game around single-handedly, as Tsubasa could. Kira could have a role there, as the harsh critic telling him that nothing is ever good enough, but I also want a whole different storyline for Kojiro in the middle school tournament.

My idea is pretty elegant: Toho’s coach threatens to remove Kojiro’s scholarship if he loses the tournament after that Musashi game, and that drives Kojiro to work extra hard and improve (the Tiger Shot would be born during the tournament). We would later learn that the coach did this on the advice of Kira, and this would lead to a similar situation for him at the end where he resigns over this; after all, doing something so harsh to one of his best students on the advice of another man breaks his integrity. Kojiro pushing himself to exhaustion on the field and off during the tournament would align him better with Tsubasa slowly destroying his body with injuries, and it would help close the gap at the end, where Kojiro accepts Tsubasa’s skills rather than feel inferior to them. We could also use that as a crux for his mental development: Kojiro’s team play wasn’t working for two years, and his individual skills weren’t cutting it in the third, so he has to learn more balance and push those around him, like Tsubasa does (connecting to the previous point). For Tsubasa’s part, the only thing I think we need to add is that he turned down Toho because he wanted to keep Kojiro in his sights, as only a rival of his caliber can help him unlock the secrets of Roberto’s notebook. It’s kind of boring that Tsubasa is said to have mastered the whole thing already, save the drive shot.

There are smaller things I would like to tweak here and there. The Tachibana brothers were cool in elementary school, but are boring in middle school. Their big thing was flashy acrobatic moves, so their improvement should have been greater individual skills so they can play and score without relying on trick plays. That’s not only my preference for their middle school arc, but essential for their participation in the international tournament. They’re not very good separated and working with a team of other strong players, and they frequently injure themselves doing flashy moves, so they’re kind of a waste. They need to improve their own standard soccer play on their own, so that they can contribute and further open up their combination repertoire. I want something different done with Hiroshi’s team, but I’m not entirely sure what. They were hyped as the ultimate dark horse, but they were kinda pushovers once Tsubasa mastered the drive shot. Takeshi was wanting to be more like Tsubasa as a game maker, and we don’t really get closure on that storyline. I’m actually not looking to change that in middle school, but I do think we should stick with that more.

The first French International Junior Youth tournament is where things can get really interesting. My first major change there is to have Taro and Genzo stay off All Japan. I’m not saying I don’t get why they were brought back, or that it was the wrong choice for them as characters or anything, it’s just so much more interesting to have them be enemies. Tsubasa literally says he’s most looking forward to playing against Taro, and then he plays with Taro? Boring. No, All Japan is where Tsubasa forms the New golden duo with Kojiro. Taro plays with the French team, forcing the two of them to overcome a French golden duo of Taro and Elle. The finals against West Germany are where Kojiro and Tsubasa finally score on Genzo from outside the penalty area. That’s the obvious thing to do in that storyline. Why else spread them apart like that in middle school? It also would give us something to look forward to, whether in an even longer version of the series or in our imaginations of what a truly united All Japan will be like in the World Cup, when Taro and Genzo can rejoin.

This would open up the rest of the team in interesting ways. In Taro’s place, Takeshi should stay in as the second game maker after Tsubasa, so we can continue his development. Since Jun ultimately doesn’t get to do his cool Jun stuff during the tournament, with his heart condition holding him back, I’m more interested in seeing Jun coach Takeshi personally. They make for an interesting pairing, and it would help both of them tremendously. Jun would get to see his surrogate play for him, and we would see direct development of his coaching skills, the thing he’s there to do. Takeshi would get to take a few steps closer to Tsubasa’s level, like he wants to be in the midfield. It’s also a good thing to have for a team centered around Tsubasa and Kojiro, right? Takeshi is Kojiro’s classic partner, so if Tsubasa is held up by the opponent, you want Takeshi backing Kojiro up.

With Genzo staying in West Germany, the storyline with the goalies would change a bit. Ken would stay out of the tournament for a while after their first practice match against West Germany, due to his unknown and baffling hand injury. Yuzo would then step in for most of the tournament and do his best, performing about as well as we see Ken in this arc (I mean, Ken lets in so many points, it’s crazy and more fitting for Yuzo). Ken would then heal up by the finals and show off that he’s figured out how to stop Karl’s Fire Shot, getting better at it as the game goes on.

With the Tachibana brothers better set up, they can remain on the field more often and separated into different parts of the field. They could get more effective plays in. That said, my vision for them is that they fall back on their flashy and dangerous acrobatic plays when they feel the game slipping, which shows how they’re still not good at integrating themselves on a larger team; All Japan isn’t the Tachibana show, and so they can’t perform there if that’s all they have. Instead, I would give more play time to Mamoru in the midfield and Teppei as a forward. My version of the story would see them improved quite a bit, so they should be who All Japan reaches for. Hajime should be the first switch in before Kazuki. I would keep Kazuki on the bench, as a character we barely know and don’t care about, and Shun wouldn’t be on the team at all. He didn’t even make it out of regionals. That would leave the last midfielder position to Mitsuru, who did pretty well. It’s kind of crazy to me how many forwards All Japan had, you know? I realize it’s not impossible for a forward to play as a midfielder, but you’d think that would be something to consider when most of your midfielders are hastily retrained forwards. I’m not even thinking about moving Hikaru up from defender, either – I like him as a defender, and he can’t be in the midfield with Tsubasa. Maybe this would be a good time to have Tsubasa mentor Mitsuru and the Tachibana brothers, since he was a forward who switched to midfield. It would be a continued, concrete way to show how Tsubasa lifts everyone around him up.

All of this, of course, is to set up the story better. We’ve been following Mamoru, Hajime, and Teppei for a long time, so it’s much more meaningful to continue with them on the world stage. It also frees up Tsubasa to continue working with Kojiro, as their partnership would become the center point of the arc. Tsubasa can trust the rest of the field to them when he and Kojiro take a risk, and a Mamoru-Teppei or Mamoru-Hajime silver duo would be a strong back-up for the team. Finally, having the three of them go up against Genzo, their former captain from Shutetsu, in the final game would be extremely powerful. Combining the victory on the world stage with Tsubasa and Kojiro proving their skills by finally scoring on Genzo from outside the penalty area would be a lot more meaningful than the sudden entrance of Deuter. Takeshi working with Jun to strive to be Tsubasa to better support Kojiro is a real rollercoaster as he sees the Tsubasa-Kojiro duo take form. He has to struggle to improve for his own ambition while also supporting his friends and wanting to hold onto his past relationship. The previously described Tachibana arc can reflect on Takeshi, as he learns that relying on Kojiro to succeed is holding him back. Maybe we could sometimes see Takeshi do combo plays with Teppei, as a full Toho-Nankatsu tradeoff. Spending more time on the Tsubasa-Kojiro duo would also give us more time to see Kojiro be the ace striker and aim for scoring champion, rather than the team fall back on Tsubasa and Taro running up from midfield to get most of their points. On the other side, Tsubasa would be forced to realize that being the best player and a midfielder who can score doesn’t mean he has to score all the time; that’s what he has Kojiro for, and the rest of his team, who he can better support with more strategic drive shots.

Outside the field, I would have Sanae retain her Boss traits, and simply learn to play it cool when appropriate. Have her be boisterous and expressive, and then collect herself to pretend she’s a nice young lady. There should also be more hints throughout that Tsubasa is actually interested in her, so that the eventual bittersweet confession has more weight to it. He held back because he was planning to go to Brazil right after middle school, so it wouldn’t be fair to Sanae to go out. That’s ultimately where we land, but we don’t get enough setup for it. Kanda wouldn’t factor in at all, since he’s a boring waste of space character. He’s not even a soccer player, I can’t think of a way to make him more involved. All this said, I’m more interested in Sanae moving forward for herself, so she’s not just Tsubasa’s ship. This is where I start thinking about Sanae studying to be a coach, and as the epilogue chapters conclude, we see Sanae leading the girls’ soccer team at Nankatsu Prefectural High (assuming such a team exists; we never hear mention of girls’ sports, and I don’t know how Japanese school sports clubs worked in the late 80s/early 90s). It would be something.

That’s my pitch. My focus would be on relationships driving and shaping people. Simply putting in raw effort isn’t enough, in most cases. You have to recognize what you can and can’t do, see others in a similar way, and know how you can best contribute to and collaborate with them. These relationships are an important driving factor in why you want to improve, and allow you to see yourself more clearly than you can on your own. The specific relationships would also highlight how strong animosity can become the bedrock of trust, and how a once close relationship can become very tense and a source of grief. Basically, in a team sport, learning to work smart instead of hard requires social intelligence.