The Manga Artist that Risked it All

Have a private Christmas & a safe New Year with Atlas VPN Premium! Get it for just $1.70/mo + 6 months extra. Limited-time offer! https://get.atlasvpn.com/HitReg One of the biggest moments the internet took from the 2022 Qatar FIFA World Cup was Japan's 2nd goal against Spain that had an eerily similar playout to a scene already drawn in a manga over 3 years earlier - In Blue Lock, by Muneyuki Kaneshiro, a group of high schoolers are pitted in a facility to engineer Japan's best striker. The main character (Yoichi Isagi) is accompanied by Meguru Bachira, Rensuke Kunigami, Hyoma Chigiri, and many others as they all compete with each other to become Japan's best striker. At the end of chapter 12, Isagi misses a goal - a miss that becomes the pass for a hit as his teammate Gin Gagamaru sprints into the goalpost to ricochet the ball into the goal - which is eerily similar to what happened in that final goal against Spain. Kaneshiro's Blue Lock and Yoichi Isagi are not the first ones to do the World Cup or football/soccer in manga and get it big - 40 years ago Yoichi Takahashi had written Captain Tsubasa, a story about an elementary schooler (Tsubasa Ozora) and his dream to become the World Cup chamption. Captain Tsubasa was not only a big hit, but also effectively made Japan play soccer, influencing the entire country and then the people outside of Japan like Torres, Messi, Zidane, Del Piero, and many more. Tsubasa Ozora of Captain Tsubasa and Yoichi Isagi of Blue Lock may have come out decades apart, but they mirror each other's strides. Blue Lock's Isagi and Captain Tsubasa's Tsubasa both ultimately want the same goal: The FIFA World Cup. But the path they take are vastly different, and spin up an interesting picture of the development of the Japanese soccer scene and context around their entrances into the world cup