pencil: Mitsuyoshi Sonoda

story: Ikki Kajiwara

Classic soccer manga series, originally published in the Japanese magazine “Shonen King”.
The story was written by Ikki Kajiwara (1936-1987) and drawn by Mitsuyoshi Sonoda (1940-1997).
An animated series was also drawn from the manga, proposed in Japan between 1970 and 1971 and in Italy by "Italia 1" from 1980.
Based on the story of Urawa Minami High School, a multiple winner of Japanese high school tournaments in the 1950s.
Shingo Tamai finds himself in a newly built high school, but he acts like a rebel.
He immediately finds himself clashing with another bully, Yosuke Ohira, who is so big that Shingo immediately calls him "Hippo".
When the clash between the two is about to begin, the new gym teacher arrives, Matsuki, former goalkeeper of the Japanese national team.
Matsuki sets up a soccer team, but initially shuts out the two bullies.
Shingo also attracts the attention of a classmate, Ryoko Asuka, the only one to stand up to him as a character.
Shingo and Yosuke finally decide to make a second soccer team, to challenge the first and humiliate the coach.
In a match organized by the students, without informing Matsuki, the second team wins, but by playing violently and erratically.
Ryoko filmed the match and uses the video to humiliate Shingo in front of the whole school.
When Matsuki finds out, he decides to play a new game in a week, after his boys complete fundamentals training.
When I was a kid, Shingo Tamai was my favorite series.
Much more violent and serious than its heir "Holly & Benji" (or as it is currently proposed: "Capitan Tsubasa"), it was an inspiration for us kids to imitate the various champions on the playground.
In particular, since I was playing in goal, I was very fond of Shingo's opposing goalkeeper Kamioka Go!