Shingo Aoi arrives in Italy already a finished player, the first time the series lets you watch a rival who doesn't need rescuing. The World Cup opens up past Japan, Sweden, Thailand, Uzbekistan, and suddenly Captain Tsubasa stops being about one kid's dream and becomes about soccer as a language everyone speaks. The show ends mid-tournament, which stings, but that's the point: it leaves you hungry for more the way real sports do.

Captain Tsubasa J is a sports series told in two parts. Most of its episodes, the first 33 or 34 depending on the source, recap the earlier series. The new material opens by introducing Shingo Aoi, a newcomer who plays in Italy. After that a world cup gets underway, featuring unusual national teams such as Sweden, Thailand and Uzbekistan, and Japan takes on Uzbekistan.