At the end of 2017, during a press conference, the news fell, to the delight of fans. Olive and Tom, the cult anime, launched in 1983 on TV Tokyo, is back! Captain Tsubasa (the original title of the cartoon) will therefore put on the crampons. Olive and Tom is almost a social phenomenon.
The daily L'Équipe once asked Italian footballer Fabio Cannavaro for the Ballon d'Or who was his favourite player. He replied… Olivier Aton! As if inspired by him, Japanese footballers appeared in the major European football leagues. Hidetoshi Nakata, the first of them, was succeeded by Celtic Glasgow star left-hander Shunsuke Nakamura. The craze for this cartoon provoked the craze for manga and Asian culture in general. A craze that was found a few years later with video games, when Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier became the first professional French player in the field, pulverizing his opponents on StarCraft.
To sum up, Olive and Tom is the meeting of kids gifted at football in Japan in the 1980s. Olivier Aton, the striker, confronts Thomas Price, the goalkeeper who does not let any ball pass. A big villain, Marc Landers, captain flayed alive of the Muppets team, will quickly appear and become the great opponent of Olivier Aton. The cartoon will follow the emergence and career of each in the biggest clubs. Olivier, after a stopover in Brazil (championship in which he had always dreamed of playing), was recruited by FC Barcelona. Marc Landers became the star striker of Juventus Turin and Thomas Price the goalkeeper of Hamburg. The shooting of Olivier's eagle, the ascents of the ground during four episodes are all strong characteristics of this cartoon.
Then they come back! Well, not really. They had already returned in a sequel. They were then professionals and the cartoon ended with the final of the 2002 World Cup in Japan. Guessing the winner of the competition in the cartoon is not very complicated…
According to the press conference, it is a remake that we will be entitled to. Olivier Aton and Marc Landers will always be the heroes of the series. But they will start all over again, since childhood. It still seems conceivable that the end of their adventures will result in a victory in the World Cup. Little information has filtered on the other characters, such as Marc Landers, Ben Baker or the mythical Julian Ross, whose illness was a brake on the explosion of his immense talent. The only real announcement that has been made is that this version will be a remake. The rumors that gave Christiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi an appearance therefore seem unfounded. Even if this is not incompatible with a story that would resume from the beginning.
If this announcement makes your mouth water, know that a trailer in Japanese is already available. Aficionados can already download the mobile game Captain Tsubasa: Dream Team, available since December 5.
Now fingers crossed that this new opus is successful. The sequels to Saint Seiya (Knights of the Zodiac in English) were of real beauty and great scriptwriting power in series. The film, which chronicles the Battle of the Sanctuary against the twelve Golden Knights, received a much more mixed reception. The older ones will be able to see the possible enthusiasm of the youngest and will experience a real good regressive moment. Because it seems that this new opus is intended to conquer the hearts of those who were not in front of La Cinq in the years 1980-1990.
