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Bandai Namco Announces New Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters Soccer Game

Bandai Namco Entertainment announced during the Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase livestream on Thursday the Captain Tsubasa 2: World Fighters soccer game, based on Yōichi Takahashi's Captain Tsubasa manga, for Nintendo Switch in 2026. The company then revealed in its own announcement trailer that the game will also launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.

The company also streamed a message from original manga creator Takahashi:

The game will feature 22 national teams, and over 110 playable characters.

Takahashi's original 37-volume Captain Tsubasa manga ran in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine from 1981 to 1988, and it inspired four television anime series, four anime films, several OVAs, and a stage play. The manga is available in about 20 countries.

The Captain Tsubasa: Rising Sun manga revolves around Tsubasa as he aims to participate in the Olympics as a representative from Japan. Takahashi launched the manga in Shueisha's Grand Jump magazine in December 2013. The manga then moved to Captain Tsubasa Magazine, Grand Jump's spinoff magazine that focuses on the franchise, when it launched in April 2020.

Captain Tsubasa: Rising Sun The Final, the "final saga" of the overall Captain Tsubasa series, launched in Captain Tsubasa Magazine in April 2023. The manga ended in April 2024 alongside an announcement that Takahashi would retire from serializing manga. A new Captain Tsubasa: Rising Sun Finals manga continues the story in storyboard form on the franchise's website.

Shueisha's MANGA Plus service added all chapters of Takahashi's original Captain Tsubasa manga in English in April 2025. This is the first time the manga got a solo English release. A bilingual edition in Japanese and English was released for the "eOneBook" reader device in September 2020.

Source: Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase livestream