This Popular Sports Manga Will Try a Unique New Style for Upcoming Arc

Sports anime and manga remain one of the most popular genres, with new ones coming out every season. That doesn't mean the classics are not popular now, however, and one manga is continuing to be published more than forty years after it first debuted. After more than forty years, though, it is going to try something really new to keep fans interested, and keep the manga alive.

The story in question is none other than the famous soccer manga series Captain Tsubasa. The publisher, Shueisha, confirmed this past week that the next chapters of the Captain Tsubasa: Rising Sun manga will be done in an all-new format, unlike anything in other manga right now. Instead of the usual style of manga panels, the story will be told in storyboard format.

The Captain Tsubasa manga was first published in 1981, running initially until 1988, with 37 volumes. Since that first series, there have been several manga sequels, along with several anime series as well. The most recent of these anime adaptations aired from 2018 to 2019, and was followed by a second season in 2023. Captain Tsubasa has also inspired a few video game spin-offs, too.

By 2023, more than 90 million copies of the Captain Tsubasa manga have sold around the world, making it one of the most successful manga series of all time. That alone shows how relevant the manga remains even today, more than forty years later. And that doesn't even touch on the fact that it is still getting adapted into anime as well. According to Al Jazeera, the series has been so influential that some professional soccer players have even cited it as their inspiration to start playing the sport.

These days, the current manga for Captain Tsubasa is called Captain Tsubasa: Rising Sun. The newest arc will be titled Captain Tsubasa: Rising Sun Finals, and the first 27-page chapter was released on Shueisha's website this past week. The chapter is done in a unique storyboard style, which looks different from the usual manga style that fans are accustomed