The invasion of anime in our country in the mid-1990s was held on four fundamental pillars that defined much of that generation: Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, The Zodiac Knights and Super Champions, three series pitting super-powered mythological beings in battles in which the fate of the world was decided and one, Super Champions, starring a group of young people whose greatest longing — like our own Diego – was to win a world football. The series created by Yoichi Takahashi featured a roster of identifiable characters and a clear message: not everyone can be world football stars, but in one team all players are important and each, regardless of their ability, will have a moment to Shine. Oliver Atom (or Tsubasa Ozora for purists) was the vivid representation of the perfect, skilled, motivating and aspirational leader. His fate as a footballer was marked from the moment, at the age of a year, a ball saved his life and went on to become his best friend — the classic phrase “the ball is your friend” that we repeated for years.
As he has told me on several occasions, Takahashi as a child was a big fan of baseball (a very popular sport in Japan) but in 1978, while he was still in high school, it was the World Cup matches in our country that made him interested in football. Three years later the first chapter of Captain Tsubasa (the original super-champion) and Oliver Atom would perform to the world. Although in Argentina we only saw the original animated adaptation, which reviews the first 25 tomos (out of 37) of the manga finished in 1988, the story of Oliver Atom continues today. During these four decades the author was based on several real players for character development and the rest of the cast (including Andrés Iniesta and Lionel Messi), but the original inspiration was Kazuyoshi Miura, the Japanese player who in 1982 traveled to Brazil with only fifteen years to try his luck there and signed his first professional contract with Santos four years later. It is no coincidence that Oliver’s dream in the first arc was to travel to Brazil with his mentor Roberto Zedinho (Robert Hongo in the original) to join the squad of the Club San Pablo.
Oliver and some of his first rivals
The first two story arcs (identified as “The Dream of a Child” and “The Fight of the Young), adapted by the 128 episodes of the original series, feature the vast majority of Oliver Atom’s rivals, many of whom would later accompany him as companions in Japan’s world team and would be known as the Golden Generation. From the hard and upsanded Steve Hyuga (Kojiro Hyuga in the original) to Andy Johnson (Jun Misugi), a great footballer who suffered from heart failure and could not play the full game, and the unforgettable Koryoto brothers (Masao and Kazuo Tachibana).
Juan “Diego Maradona” Diaz
But Oliver’s adventures would extend far beyond regional tournaments. Together with the Japanese youth team he toured the world that led him to face German teams and the teams of France, Germany, Italy and Argentina, led by Juan Diaz, clearly inspired by the figure of Diego Maradona. After the tour the protagonist fulfilled his dream of joining the ranks of The San Pablo and eventually, in the series called Road to 2002, he would sign contract with Barcelona and find a new nemesis in the figure of Natureza, the star of Real Madrid.
Today Oliver, already married to his primary sweetheart Patty (Sanae) and waiting for his first child, is part of the team that is competing in the Madrid Olympics. And in between he found time to along with other icons of Japanese popular culture, such as Doraemon, Hello Kitty and Mario himself, to be part of the promotion of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. In addition, in March of this year the new decoration was presented for Yotsugi station in Tokyo set in the saga in a ceremony in which creator Yoichi Takahashi and Vissel Kobe player Andrés Iniesta, a renowned fan of the series, participated.
After so long my only longing in this world is to read Oliver’s saga as a bomb-throwing commentator on some small-time sports program on a cable channel. In the meantime, keep the ball spinning. In this note:
