FIFA World Cup 2022, hosted at the Khalifa International Stadium in Qatar, witnessed an incredible match between Japan and Germany.
Japan’s Samurai Blue delivered a swift 2 – 1 victory against Germany at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, causing a wave of celebrations throughout Japan. Considering football’s massive popularity in Japan, it’s little wonder why Shibuya’s famous Crossing quickly turned into a rave scene after their victory was announced:
https://twitter.com/jean3107_jean31/status/1595435916075880448
Ever since Lieutenant-Commander Archibald Lucius Douglas of the Royal Navy and his subordinates taught the game and its rules to Japanese navy cadets in 1873, football, or soccer as its more commonly known, has been a major force in Japan, with numerous competitions for spectators to watch, and plenty of anime and manga for fans to purchase and enjoy in their own time. The J1 league alone earned approximately ¥83.2 billion in 2021, more than twice the amount of the other divisions.
It’s reported that the Japanese national football team prepared for the big game in the best way possible: coach Hajime Moriyasu took the team out to watch One Piece Film: Red the night before, as only One Piece can truly get the spirits fired up.
Japanese fans are typically wholesome people, as seen during the Rugby World Cup 2015. As seen after their defeat against Belgium in 2018, after their team defeated Germany at the FIFA World Cup, Japanese fans helped clean up the stadium:
It was reported that ‘hundreds’ of blue bags were handed out by Japanese supporters during the match, and all of them were put to use to make the space cleaner than before they arrived, proving that Japanese people make the best guests. They were also on-site during the opening, despite their side not being involved. They earned their own championship trophy for that alone.
Moroccan fans also cleaned up but were given little fanfare for their efforts.
The Japanese team itself made certain to leave their FIFA dressing room a cleaner and more inviting place as they cleaned up after themselves and created 11 origami cranes:
https://twitter.com/ESPNFC/status/1595700007243489281
The popular soccer manga series Blue Lock, which began serialization in Kodansha in 2018 and has over 10 million copies in circulation, also featured prominently as they collaborated with Adidas to create the Japanese team’s uniforms and equipment:
Blue Lock and Adidas collab with Japan national team equipment pic.twitter.com/8C9kMWkd6K
— Shonen Magazine News (@WSM_manga) August 29, 2022
After their victory, Blue Lock artist Yusuke Nomura posted a drawing of one of the series characters and congratulated the Samurai Blue:
W杯初戦勝利！！おめでとうございます、日本！！！ pic.twitter.com/KlMLILYd9h
— ノ村優介 Yusuke Nomura (@nomnii) November 23, 2022
Blue Lock‘s anime account also posted its congratulations:
うわああああああああー！！！！
すげえええー！！！！
エゴいッ！！！— 「ブルーロック」TVアニメ公式｜劇場版4.19公開！＆TVシリーズ第2期制作決定！ (@BLUELOCK_PR) November 23, 2022
The term ‘Blue Lock’ began to trend on Twitter as fiction and reality began to blend. Numerous comparisons were made to Blue Lock and Captain Tsubasa, another popular soccer manga series that originally ran between 1981 and 1988, likening the Samurai Blue players to their manga character idols, highlighting their bravery, their ‘ego’ in the case of Blue Lock, and their skills as players.
Where many sports fans might cause some destruction after their team’s win, Japanese fans take a more productive approach and leave the stadium a cleaner place, with everyone feeling more hopeful for the future.
