Yoichi Takahashi in Poland
Pyrkon 2025 (Poznań city)
14 June 2025
(photos published with permission from the author).
(recorded from: https://x.com/i/status/1917552540788392447)
The Q&A part:
Q: What was the most difficult part of the journey to becoming a mangaka?
YT: The manga market in Japan is very large and saturated, and many people want to become mangakas. The competition is high, so it is correspondingly harder than anywhere else to become a significnt part of this market. Comics is the kind of medium, where you not only need to be able to draw well, but also to come up with a storyline. It all has to come together well.
Q: Which character in "Captain Tsubasa" is your favorite?
YT: Of course, the favorite character is Tsubasa, the title character, but I also have a particular soft spot for Ishizaki.
Q: Which character was the most difficult to design?
YT: All characters are created in such a way, that they correspond (cooperate or compete) with Tsubasa. It is difficult to point to one character, because always at the center is the protagonist.
Q: Which manga was the most important inspiration for you?
YT: The most important was manga about baseball. I got most of my inspiration from Shinji Mizushima.
Q: Were you involved in the creation of the anime "Captain Tsubasa", and do you think it raised interest in the manga?
YT: The first anime was the most significant, as it had the greatest impact on the popularity of the manga "Captain Tsubasa" in Japan and around the world. The manga also began to sell better.
Q: How did you feel, when you heard about the idea of creating a Yotsugi Station, dedicated to the Captain Tsubasa anime?
YT: I found it hard to believe, that the station I used when I was a child, was singled out this way. I was very happy, it was a great honor.
Q: Why did Tsubasa want to play in the Brazilian league from a young age, and not in the European league, when he was a child?
YT: It's a return to Tsubasa's roots, the World Cup in Argentina. Then and now, we could distinguish between two styles of soccer: European and South American. I preferred the latter. That's why the Brazilian league was important for Tsubasa.
Q: If you were to choose your team, who would stand in goal: Wakabayashi or Wakashimazu?
YT: Both goalkeepers would be great. It's hard to choose between them.
Q: What was the inspiration for the creation of the characters Kazuo and Masao?
YT: The twins can cooperate well and communicate without words, so I thought they would be a good opponent for Tsubasa.
Q: When creating the first Tsubasa series, did you expect it to be so successful? And except Nankatsu, do you support any European team?
YT: I didn't expect Tsubasa to be so successful. I had hoped, that it would become popular in Japan, but that it would become a global phenomenon, no. And I support Barcelona, where Lewandowski plays.
Q: Are you familiar with European comics, maybe you know some authors?
YT: I have not read, so I do not know much about them.
Q: Were you involved in creating video games "Captain Tsubasa"?
YT: I wasn't so much involved in the creation process, but checked out the finished product.
Q: Where did the idea come from for Matsuyama to be a born leader? Will his role increase further?
YT: I create characters in terms of how they will contrast with Tsubasa, what kind of relationship they will have with him. A strong-willed leader with a strong character will be a great rival for Tsubasa. It happens, that when I create characters, they take on a life of their own a bit. Matsuyama's character developed that way.
Q: Did you play the Captain Tsubasa Famicon video game?
YT: I am not one of the very committed players. I played the first game, that came out. After that, my role was limited to checking out the moves, characters, storyline.
Q (asked by the person, who posted this transcript): Will Tsubasa finally realize his dream and win the World Cup with Japan?
YT laughs: I would very much like to draw such a development, but I think it will still take some more time.
Q: What do you find more satisfying in the process of creating manga: creating the storyline or drawing it?
YT: Both. It is impossible to separate the two. They are two coherent parts of one process.
Q: Is there any other genre of manga you would like to create?
YT: I would like to try to create an adventure manga about a pilot. But unfortunately there is not enough time.
Q: Which memory in your autobiography is the most important, the most significant for you?
YT: I guess it would be a memory from my school days, when I was just choosing my path, what I was going to do in the future, it was the art teacher who inspired, initiated the idea of becoming a mangaka.
Q (asked by the person, who posted this transcript): At the Japan Expo in Marseille, you mentioned, that after "Rising Sun" you have plans, to draw the Champions League. However, we are currently following the events of the champions league in CTDT Next Dream series. Will this new series, which is yet to be created, relate to the events of the Next Dream series?
YT: The Next Dream story will become the basis of the plot thread, however it will be modified and reworked. It is to be expected, that it will not be the same.
Q: What is the biggest value, you would like readers to learn from "Captain Tsubasa"?
YT: It is important to have dreams, to believe in them and to fulfil them, even if they are much more mundane and not as big as a Tsubasa's dream of winning the World Cup. This is the message coming from this manga.
(source: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/projetsshinji/viewtopic.php?p=59678#p59678)
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