Reality caught up with the comics, and then surpassed the comics
On the evening of June 22, Yoichi Takahashi, author of the Japanese national comic "Football Boys", announced on his personal social media that he was elected to the 19th Japan Football Hall of Fame at the board of directors of the Japan Football Association held on the same day.
Other inductees to the Hall of Fame are: Hero Osawa, the first director of the Japan Football Coaches Association, Kuniya Ojin, former president of the Japan Football Association, Sergio Echigo, a former Brazilian national team reserve player and well-known commentator of mixed descent, and the 2011 Women's World Cup winner of the Japan Women's Soccer Team (specially selected), and the selection ceremony will be held on September 10.
"Football Boy" tells the story of football prodigy Dakong Yi and a group of friends who started from the school football club and helped Japan win the U17 World Cup step by step. The manga was launched in 1981 in Shueisha weekly magazine Shonen Jump magazine. The manga changed the course of Japanese football, igniting enthusiasm for the sport during that winter of Japanese football. Today, Japan is a regular in World Cup finals, and the sight of its star players playing in Europe's top leagues is commonplace.
In fact, in the beginning, football was not the subject of Takahashi Yoichi's painting. In 1978, there was only one national sport in Japan - baseball, and Takahashi Yoichi himself was a baseball fan, so the original manuscripts he sent to Shueisha were all baseball-themed comics, but the baseball comics at that time had been occupied by Shinji Mizushima early on the market, and it was easy to start later.
By chance, Yoichi Takahashi found inspiration in a televised football match and began to experiment with the football theme, and finally the birth of "Football Boy".
"In June of my senior year of high school, Argentina hosted the World Cup, and there were no computers, so I didn't have as easy access to video materials as I do now. At that time, NHK broadcast a few football games, and I accidentally watched the football game, and I thought football was really interesting. So, the idea of drawing football cartoons came to my mind. ”
The match mentioned by Yoichi Takahashi was the World Cup in Argentina in June 1978. Argentina won the World Cup 3-1 against the Netherlands, while Japan did not even qualify from the qualifying group. In the group stage of the 1977 World Qualifiers, South Korea, Japan, Israel and North Korea were grouped together, and with North Korea abstaining, Japan was eliminated by scoring 4 wins, 3 losses, 1 draw, 0 goals and 4 goals conceded.
But this is not the worst time for Japanese football, the first international event Japan participated in was the football program of the 1917 Far East Games, the host team Japan first lost 0-5 to China, and then lost 2-15 to the Philippines, it can be said that football has not been hot in Japan since then.
It wasn't until 1981 that the birth of "Football Boy" changed everything, and according to statistics, when the manga first began to be serialized, there were about 100,000 elementary school students in Japan who were registered with the Football Association playing soccer. By the end of the manga in 1988, that number had more than doubled to about 240,000.
The explosion of football led to the Japan Football Association in the late 1980s, and in 1993, the Japan Football League was born, officially entering the era of professionalism. In 1996, the "Japan Centennial Football Plan" was born. Japan made its World Cup debut in 1998 and has since qualified seven times in a row, becoming a regular in the World Cup, and the women's team won the World Cup in 2011. Today, Japanese football gives the impression of the world not only because of its obvious progress and good play, but also because it is rooted in society and deeply cultivated by youth training.
Well-known Japanese football players Hidetoshi Nakata and Noh Kawaguchi said in an interview: ""Football Boy" has given Japanese football teenagers unimaginable dreams. ”
As a result, Yoichi Takahashi interacted with the two in the creation of "Football Player GOLDEN23", in the first episode of the work, in the 2006 World Cup in Germany Japan and Germany, Oku Tsubasa, Wakabayashi Genzo and others replaced Hidetoshi Nakata, Shunsuke Nakamura and Nohko Kawaguchi in the second half of the 2006 World Cup in Germany, helping the Japanese team to eventually tie the world powerhouse Germany 2-2. After generations of unremitting efforts, at the recent World Cup in Qatar, Japan defeated Germany 2-1, bringing the plot of the manga into reality.
The influence of "Football Boy" extends far beyond Japan, after the manga was adapted into animation in 1983, Tele5 TV in Spain introduced the anime and broadcast it every night in prime time, according to the Spanish newspaper El País, "Football Boy" peaked with a rating of 26.3%. The editor-in-chief of the article recalled: "When we were kids, if you didn't watch 'Soccer Kids' the night before, you couldn't go to school with us the next day. ”
In the 1990s, China also introduced this animation, and it instantly became popular all over the country, becoming a generation of football enlightenment. How many Chinese children imitate the movements of the big empty wing, chasing their football dreams with Hinata Kojiro's "tiger-style shot" in their mouths.
Many international superstars, including Zidane, Messi, Fernando Torres, Andres Iniesta, Neymar, etc., have also said that "Football Youngster" has had a great influence on him. Even Real Madrid president Sans "complained" about why Yoichi Takahashi let the big wing join Barcelona in "Football Player Road to 2002".
So what kind of belief does "Football Boy" convey? In the last volume of the manga wrote this poem:
“
Everywhere my heart goes, the sun always shines
Flashing with my love, my dreams,
When we cry, when we smile, when we are proud,
All are the most gentle and warm moments;
My dream,
Spread your wings and fly high in the vast sky,
Boundless;
Walking on a long road,
My heart, constantly pursuing, never giving up,
The heart that sways with the wind, wet by the rain,
Whatever the outcome, I believe tomorrow will be better.