Shoot! (manga)
Shoot! is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tsukasa Ōshima. It was published in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine between 1990 and 2003. The story revolves around a boy named Toshihiko Tanaka, who had just started at Kakegawa High School in order to play association football with his idol, Yoshiharu Kubo. Toshi's friends were not interested in playing football again until he convinces them to join the team and soon the team would enter the All-Japan High School Championship.
A 58-episode anime television series adaptation titled Aoki Densetsu Shoot! was produced by Toei Animation and broadcast between November 7, 1993, and December 25, 1994, on Fuji Television. A brand-new original anime television series by EMT Squared and Magic Bus titled Shoot! Goal to the Future aired from July 2 to September 24, 2022, on AT-X, Tokyo MX, TV Shizuoka, ytv, BS NTV, and BS Fuji. Noriyuki Nakamura directed the series alongside Junichi Kitamura serving as assistant director, Mitsutaka Hirota writing the scripts, and Yukiko Akiyama designing the characters. Crunchyroll streamed the series.
A side story volume centered around Yoshiharu Kubo was released in 1994.
Shoot! won the 1994 Kodansha Manga Award for the shōnen category.
Story
Toshihiko "Toshi" Tanaka joined the same soccer club that his idol, Yoshiharu Kubo, plays for at Kakegawa High School. When Toshi played in junior high with two of his friends Kenji Shiraishi and Kazuhiro Hiramatsu, they were known as the Kakenishi golden trio. However, in high school, his friends do not want or cannot play soccer anymore. Hiramatsu is forced to study by his father so that he would become a respectable adult. However, Hiramatsu loves soccer and wants to play so he confronts his father and says that he wants to play soccer with his friends and that he would never understand his love for soccer. As it turns out, his father played soccer during his youth and, remembering how much he loved it, decides to let Hiramatsu play soccer but under the condition that he will keep his grades up as well. Shiraishi on the other hand quit soccer because he lost his temper and got into a fight that ended up disqualifying their team. He eventually joins the Kakegawa High School soccer club because he loves soccer and playing in the golden trio.Tragedy struck Kake-High soccer club when they lost their captain and ace striker Yoshiharu Kubo. During the semifinal match against Kakekita, they were down 1–2 with less than ten minutes left. Kubo was on defense helping Kenji defend the goal against Hirose's Knuckle Shoot, when he decided to make an effort to tie the game. Kubo took the ball from his own side of the pitch, passed every Kakekita player, and scored the tying goal. Kubo collapsed and died after the game. Toshi scored the last and winning goal for Kake-High with the result 2–3.
The team could not get over Kubo's death and lost to Fujita East before they got to the Nationals. Soon after, Mahori, a Brazilian-Japanese student appears. He decides to join their team after making a bit of mayhem. The whole team decides to follow Kubo's example and play fun soccer, vowing to get to the Nationals in his name.
Characters
''Aoki Densetsu Shoot!''
;Toshihiko Tanaka;Kazuhiro Hiramatsu
;Kenji Shiraishi
;Kazumi Endo
;Atsushi Kamiya
;Yoshiharu Kubo
;Keigo Mahori
;Yutaka Sasaki
;Shinichi Nitta
;Shigeki Otsuka
;Tsuyoshi Akahori
''Shoot! Goal to the Future''
;Hideto Tsuji;Subaru Kurokawa
;Jō Kazama
;Kōhei Kokubo
;Atsushi Kamiya
;Yoshiharu Kubo
;Ryū Sahara
;Takumi Sonoda
;Tsubasa Namioka
;Ryūji Amagai
;Sōma Hayashi
;Hinata Tatsunami
;Kei Matsuhashi
;Kazuki Yamaguchi
;Tōya Nakano
Music
''Aoki Densetsu Shoot!''
;Opening theme: "Keep Going until Reaching your Dream"～ " by WENDY;Ending themes
- "Sunao de Itai" by WENDY
- "Watashi Datte" by Noriko Hidaka
''Shoot! Goal to the Future''
;Opening theme: "Aoreido" by Airi Miyakawa;Ending theme: "Rivals" by All at Once