On Captain Tsubasa, aka The Reason
First of all, I have to pimp the Golden Pair Fortnight, which is a labor of fanlove that cannot be appreciated with enough words. I might try to find some once I have read it all. I link it here so as not to forget. Now...
Don't you dare think that Takeshi Konomi coined the "Golden Pair" concept. I am 99% sure he got it from one of the most popular sport manganime of all times and my absolute favorite in the world, Captain Tsubasa. The main character, Tsubasa, an individualist player by nature, met a friend with whom he was able to get an understanding and synchronization close to perfect. At 12 they were separated for a period of three years, after which they had a heart-wrenching re-encounter in front of Eiffel Tower before an international soccer tournament in Paris, which a teammate had previously called "the city of love". Three years of developing their own styles in Japan and France respectively hadn't altered the perfect understanding and affection existing between the two of them.
La canción decía "Oliver, Benji", y entre esos dos también hay mucha miga, pero la Pareja de Oro del New Team es indiscutible, en especial en su partido contra el Hot Dog (Pfff...en su país, el Hanawa).
And we had also the Silver Pair.
Only, they were in the same team. They openly came out to their teammates with such a self-named title after the Golden Combi had gone separate ways (that's what happens when your dad is a painter that travels around Japan...and then the World).
Of course, the most famous pairing in Captain Tsubasa was not the Golden Combi whatsoever. It is VERY DIFFICULT to find doujinshi on them. Or on any other pairing, to tell the truth. Because.
Because 97% of the doujinshi and the anthologies corresponds to this pairing:
Their names are Kojiro Hyuga (Striker) and Ken Wakashimazu (Keeper), from team TOHO, the eternal rival. To them you owe Zetsuai, Bronze, all of Minami Ozaki works and some of the works of the most famous doujinka and yaoi mangaka up to these days. There was also Saint Seiya on those days, and then a similar thing happened to Rukawa and Hanamichi, from Slam Dunk. But still. Try to find CT doujinshi, and it will be overwhelming. The bishonen factor, I guess. They made such a visual difference when they first showed up!
Keep an eye on the small kid next to Hyuga on that pic, Takeshi Sawada, because one day I will tell you how Akazawa and Kaneda, from Saint Rudolph, and their famous confrontation during their doubles game against the GP was taken almost word-by-word, given how one thing is tennis and another, soccer, from the game between Hyuga's team and Nankatsu in the final match ofthe Nationals. Now he doesn't look like Kaneda, but he will do three years later.
Needless to say, there are other famous minor pairings, like the one between the team-play representative, Hikaru Matsuyama and Kojiro Hyuga, the lonely tiger.
Fandom, specially the Spanish one ; ) (and the Japanese too!) prefers to pair Matsuyama with Jun Misugi, the captain to a prestigious team from Tokyo in which the players have been chosen from around 100 to 1000 boys (the translation said a different thing each time) *coughHyouteicough*.
He is such a fabulous player that is called the Prince of the field, has a fan club that follows him around. He doesn't say "Oresama da!", but stands in the field with the wind blowing his hair in a kind of royal manner that reminds you of Atobe. However, he has a mortal secret: he has a heart disease and can only play for a few minutes in every game. People think it is because his team is good enough without him, but the truth will put tsubasa, the main character, in quite a dilemma, in a game with loads of angst and overdramatic scenes of a battle for life and death. Honestly, you wouldn't think it was a game between 12-year olds! He later spends a lot of time in hospital, but comes back to kick Hyuga's ass in Jr High and make him realize he is weak now, like "a toothless tiger", so that Hyuga goes off to regain his aggressiveness with an ultra hard training in Okinawa while typhoons blow over him (true!). That will become later a source of so much angst and team love and rivals love aaaaaaaaw *ahem*
The thing is, later on Misugi becomes a kind of a second coach to the Japan team (he will end up playing too, we all knew it from the start, because the heart-sickness factor is so good to create drama during a game under the rain, again and again!) and got closer to Matsuyama, with whom he had started talking more after Matsuyama's girlfriend (?) moved to New york, during the final game between Tsubasa and Hyuga.
Anyway, there is so much gay in this series too, that it's not surprising to find shocked reactions among the public...
Captain Tsubasa rules, 26 years after!
I only wish the author wouldn't continue the manga to infinity and beyond. I am an old' seriers lover.