EDICOLA NEWS: THE REVIEWS nr. 160
stickers: 192 (1-168, P1-P24)
starter pack: album + 5 packets € 3.90
packets: € 0.80 (5 stickers – box of 50 packets)
“Don’t call me Holly!”, Forget also about Benji, Landers and Becker, it’s time to get to know the real names in the most loved and followed football cartoon of all time. It is not an absolute novelty, manga readers know the comics that kept the Japanese names even when published in Italy. The album is not a revival but is linked to the recently made reboot, the story is always the same but the graphics are modern and all the characters are also offered in Italy with their original names.
In leafing through the album, Panini rightly makes no mention of English-style names, for some until the sticker is found difficult to understand who the caption is intended for. The older of us will find another way to have fun!
We like the setting of the album very much, the story is the same as the first series, the risk of making an album similar to the previous ones (although it has not been made for many years) is well avoided by Panini by creating a product where in the Captions and titles could almost look like a classic football album were it not for the animation in the stickers.
The first pages feature the top players, Tsubasa (formerly Holly Hutton), Genzo (formerly Benji Price), Taro (formerly Tom Becker) and Hyuga (formerly Mark Lenders). In the many stickers, scenes from the various episodes are re-proposed, but also special glitter, shaped and for some the splendid circular emblems. We admit that we have not yet seen the new version on TV, but a lot of space is given to Roberto (he, being Brazilian, keeps the same name as the classic series), an important character, but less charismatic than the many other young players in the series, the best here summarized on one page.
In the second part of the album the series and the acrobatics of our champions are dealt with, instead of summarizing the salient episodes, the album enjoys involving the collector with a series of captivating “screams” (in action! come on! what a goal and what saves!), plus some focus on moments of glory, not only the final between the two teams (clearly not called Muppet and New Team) but for example the golden couple Tsubasa / Taro with satisfaction of the writer, among the various characters I have always had a soft spot for Taro / Tom Becker.
The idea of interacting with children is also nice, inviting them in the various pages to write their own ideas and passions about football, even better in two specific pages with lots of tests, the first dedicated to attack or defense, the second to how much you know the series. In reality, it is enough to be good and if you have been careful in reading the album captions, you should know all the answers.
Particular mention was made of the double central poster for the P stickers, there was too much curiosity not to detach it from the album and see it in all its grandeur. Side A proposes the Top 11 of the players in the series, the ones we will then all find together in the national team; side B the players in action.
Good quality album, even the paper although not perfect yet, is better than the last Panini albums. The stickers reproduce the moments of the series, the special ones and especially the shaped ones are beautiful. If you really wanted to be tax, you could have given more space to the other characters and less to the protagonist, but in reality we seem to see that, having already opened about twenty packets, even the supporting actors have several appearances. Just a detail, given that the album is CAPTAIN TSUBASA, as you can also read on the cover, why write Capitan (in Italian) inside? Detail, just to be a pain in the ass 🙂
We have just released the TOP TEN 2020 (for albums released from December 1, 2019 to November 30, 2020) and perhaps we already have the 2021 winner in the cartoon category. Being only the first series, the hope of seeing other albums in the future is high, even Panini seems to believe (hope) given the box of 50 packets while lately he has often used the 36 one.
Come on Japan!
(EN)