The following is an episode list for the anime Captain Tsubasa. Of the five series: 1983 TV series had 128 episodes and 4 films 1989 OVA series had 13 episodes and 1 other OVA 1994 TV series had 47 episodes 2001 TV series had 52 episodes 2018 TV series will have 52 episodes In total there have been 4 films, 14 OVAs and 227 TV episodes.
It is best to watch the series in the order they where released. Which would be. 1983 1986: Captain Tsubasa (TV Series).1985/07/13: Captain Tsubasa: Europa Daikessen (Movie).1985/12/21: Captain Tsubasa: Ayaushi! Zen Nippon Jr. (Movie).1986/03/15: Captain Tsubasa: Asu ni Mukatte Hashire! (Movie).1986/07/12: Captain Tsubasa: Sekai Daikessen!! World Cup (Movie).1989 1990: Shin Captain Tsubasa (OVA Series).1994: Captain Tsubasa: Saikyou no Teki!
Holland Youth (OVA). 1994 1995: Captain Tsubasa J (TV Series).
2001 2002: Captain Tsubasa: Road to 2002 (TV Series: officially known as simply Captain Tsubasa and Captain Tsubasa: Road to Dream) If you want to watch the series alone without the movies and OVAs, the order would be. Captain Tsubasa (1983-1986).
Captain Tsubasa J. Captain Tsubasa: Road to 2002 (also known as Captain Tsubasa and Captain Tsubasa: Road to Dream). Most movies are set in the continuity of the first anime. I'd watch Europe Daikessen after the end of the Kids' Dream Arc. You can watch the others at the end of the series since they're all set in the Boys' Fight Arc (when they're in middle school). After that, you can watch Shin Captain Tsubasa, which closes the 3 arcs of the first manga.
Captain Tsubasa J is 1994 abridged remake of the first arc until episode 33, in which instead of adapting the middle school arc, they went to the Battle of World Youth manga, adapting until the match between Japan vs Uzbekistan. The series got canceled and there's no actual ending for this version. Captain Tsubasa (2002) is another abridged remake of the first arc (Kids' Dream), a slightly different version of the OVA series/3rd part of the manga) and finally some elements from the Road to 2002 manga. Yeah, it is a crazy quilt but it works somehow. It's just not as good as the others since this version was made to promote the 2002 World Cup which was held by Korea and Japan.
On the other hand, the soundtrack is superb and even Adidas sponsored the show, so some elements (like Genzo/Benji's Adidas cap) were kept. After that, we have Captain Tsubasa (2018), the most faithful adaptation until now, made by the same studio who's adapting JoJo's Bizarre Adventure since 2011. The animation is great, and they're making it 1:1 with the manga, the only differences being that the story is set on the present day, so there are elements like smartphones, tablets and other gadgets that change some not so important plots devices (like Tsubasa's father keeping in contact with his family instead of sending letters not so often to Tsubasa and his mother). My experience with the show was watching Captain Tsubasa J dubbed in Portuguese back when I was a kid and I have some fond memories of it. Six years late they brought the 2002 series, which took me a while to notice it was a different version. As an adult, I started watching both 2018 and the original anime at the same time, while reading the original manga often just for comparison.
It is a great experience for longtime fans and I'd recommend EVERYBODY to watch the original anime and the new one. While the new is 1:1 with the manga, the original show had its own pace, and nothing added to it felt like filler material.
Matches felt more like real games instead of a traditional battle shonen, and more time was spent developing characters. This is a flaw in the other versions, where everybody seems to talk about football 24/7. The animation of the original show isn't perfect BUT it never disappoints.
Captain Tsubasa: Road to 2002 – Tsubasa Oozora loves everything about soccer: the cheer of the crowd, the speed of the ball, the passion of the players, and the excitement that comes from striving to be the best soccer player he can be. His goal is to aim for the World Cup, and to do that, he’s spent countless hours practicing soccer, ever since the moment he could walk on two legs. Now, as he plays for the Barcelona team in a fierce game, it seems as though his dreams are on the verge of coming true.
Captain Tsubasa: Road to 2002 tells the story of how Tsubasa climbed his way through the ranks, featuring his roots in the town of Nankatsu as well as his epic journey to master the art of soccer.