Kick into the metaverse! Captain Tsubasa is on The Sandbox!

《Captain Tsubasa is coming to The Sandbox as GameFI!

This time, "Captain Tsubasa Tsubasa" was co-produced by Minto and publicly unveiled at The Sandbox. This time, GameFi's "Captain Tsubasa Tsubasa" is not their first IP licensing.

Today, let us introduce this popular comic book with a global circulation of over 80 million copies, and how its IP is used!

The story of Captain Tsubasa

"Captain Tsubasa" (Japanese: キャプテン翼, English: Captain Tsubasa), also translated as "Captain Tsubasa" or "Captain Tsubasa", is a Japanese manga created by Yoichi Takahashi. It is widely known in Japan and non-Japanese circles.

The work began serialization in 1981, and the story is mainly divided into four chapters.

Chapter 1: The original Captain Tsubasa

It mainly tells the story of the protagonist, Tsubasa Ozora, who joined the football team in elementary school, grew up to junior high school and became a member of the Japanese youth team, and traveled to Europe to participate in the International Youth Football Tournament and compete with the world's top teams.

Chapter 2: Captain Tsubasa's fight for the World Youth Cup

The story revolves around the Japanese team participating in the World Youth Cup under the leadership of Ozora Tsubasa.

This chapter has two prologues, introducing two new characters, the Sun King andThe appearance of "Son of God" Aoi Shingo and "Son of God" Shandana.

Part 3: Captain Tsubasa ROAD TO 2002

It mainly describes how Tsubasa Ozora was promoted from Barcelona B team to A team after joining the Spanish La Liga team Barcelona, ​​and then won the opportunity to play from the captain Livar.

In this chapter, the story ends with Barcelona's battle against Real Madrid led by Nadal.

Part 4: Captain Tsubasa Golden-23 strives for the Olympic championship

The story is based on the Japanese Olympic team's goal of entering the Olympics, and the wonderful performances of Ozora Tsubasa, Wakabayashi Genzo, Nadal, Santana and others run through the whole story. In the end, the Japanese team defeated their opponents 4-1 in the final stage and successfully entered the Madrid Olympics.

In addition, "Captain Tsubasa" also has many short stories and spin-offs, some of which are included in long or short story collections.

IP licensing of Captain Tsubasa

The team-first and self-improvement spirit of Captain Tsubasa has contributed to the global sales of 80 million copies.

This set of comics has also formed an entire commercial chain, appearing in front of the public in the form of comic books, animations, and licensed products.

It was first made into a television animation in 1983, and was broadcast from October 13 of that year to March 27 three years later, with a total of 128 episodes. The story covers Ozora Tsubasa's growth from elementary school to junior high school.

From the first animation that appeared on TV in 1983 to 2019, "Captain Tsubasa" has been adapted into animation works one after another.

In addition to animation, in the summer of 2018, Japan's GMO GP, Inc. also launched a new football battle strategy game "Captain Tsubasa Zero - Go!" on mobile platforms such as iOS/Android, based on the popular animation "Captain Tsubasa" currently being broadcast in Japan. Miracle Shot~" (キャプテン Wing ZERO～Jue めろ! Miracle Shot～, Chinese name is tentative).

Image source: Google Play

This shows the popularity of "Captain Tsubasa".

The IP of “Captain Tsubasa” is “authorized” by China for NFT?

In June of this year, the official Twitter account of Captain Tsubasa suddenly released an urgent message, mentioning an NFT issued by FOOTBALL METAVERSE and MANGAVERSE, claiming that it had obtained the exclusive authorization of Captain Tsubasa.

The Japanese government has not authorized them in any way. Fans are asked to spread the word and not to buy the NFT.。

Image source: Twitter

However, FOOTBALL METAVERSE from Singapore stated on Twitter that it had obtained authorization and published the authorization document on Twitter. However, sharp-eyed netizens immediately discovered that this authorization did not come from TSUBASA Co., Ltd., which manages the Japanese copyright of "Captain Tsubasa", but from a Chinese company "Xinhua Investment Co., Ltd."

As the incident developed and the original author came out to clarify, FOOTBALL METAVERSE tweeted again, saying, "We understand the community's concerns about intellectual property rights. The author of Captain Tsubasa, Yoichi Takahashi, explained this. Issues related to intellectual property rights are always complicated. We are clarifying this issue with the author and hope that the community can wait patiently.」

Image source: Twitter

Our take

NFT uses blockchain technology to generate a certificate of virtual assets. Its application area is not limited to encrypted digital artworks. All "digital IP licensed products" can become NFT creations.

However, despite this, we may still see counterfeit works on NFTs, but whether it is the authorization from Web2 to Web3 or the authorization from Web3 back to Web2, there will be unscrupulous people who will steal it.

What we should do is not to feel pessimistic about the way those unscrupulous people use new technologies, but to increase our ability to identify so that truly good works can have more possibilities because of new technologies!

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