Genzo Wakabayashi

Genzo Wakabayashi
若林源三

RS
RT
BWY
JBC
HAM
KD

Nationality

Japanese

Birthday

December 7

Height

183cm; 182cm (BWY); 170cm(JBC); 161cm(KD)

Weight

77kg; 74kg (BWY); 63kg (JBC); 55kg (KD)

Blood type

O

Position

Goalkeeper

Other names

SGGK (Super Great Goal Keeper), Genius Keeper, Guardian Deity

Relationships

Wakabayashi's parents; Wakabayashi's brothers; Tatsuo Mikami (mentor); John (mascot)

First appearance

Captain Tsubasa (1981) ch. 1 "Soar Toward the Great Sky!"

Current career

Level

Team

Olympic

Olympic Japan

Club

Hamburger SV

Past career

Level

Team

U-22

U-22 Japan

Youth

All Japan Youth

Jr. Youth

All Japan Jr. Youth

Club

Hamburger SV Jr. Youth

Elementary school

Nankatsu SC

Elementary school

Shutetsu institute

Genzo Wakabayashi (若林源三) is a major character in Captain Tsubasa. He was Tsubasa's main opponent in the first part of the series then both had a friendship due to their dream of making Japan' football conquer the world.

Description

Genzo is a prodigious soccer player like Tsubasa Ozora, finding in him his equal and eternal rival. He is also one of the best goalkeepers in the series. Since the beginning of the series he has greatly supported Tsubasa in order to fulfill both their dreams of making Japan winning the World Cup and the Olympics. His personal dream is to finally beat Tsubasa in the UEFA Champions final match both leading their respective teams from their clubs in Spain and Germany.

Appearance

As recently shown in the 2018 anime stats, he is shorter than Ken Wakashimazu which means he relies on punching bullet shots from inside the PK area rather than catching the ball.

History

Kids' Dream arc

Genzo is an extraordinary keeper who can catch almost anything thrown at him. Not many shots can come past Genzo. A charismatic guy, Genzo is also loyal to his friends and he is firm with his decisions. Genzo always keeps his feelings to himself and people close to him. From early childhood, he has aimed to be the best goalkeeper in the world. In the beginning, Genzo's attitude tended to be selfish and brag about his own skills against others (even if they were his seniors in grade school), before he met and played a couple of games against Tsubasa. He was berated by Mr. Mikami, his personal goalkeeping coach after he lost to Tsubasa when he scored, and Genzo refused to play at extra time.

Even later on, he still keeps some of his old characteristics though, as at times he can be a bit impulsive and even get into a brawl.^[1] Still, after his draw against the young and then ace striker Tsubasa, he has learned to enjoy the game with his other teammates. He came back to settle a score between him and Hyuga from Meiwa FC at the finals of the 6th National elementary school championship in Yomiuri Land.

J Boys' Challenge arc

At his 12, he went to Hamburg city in West Germany with his trainer Tatsuo Mikami. In the training camp, he met Karl Heinz Schneider, and from then on their rivalry started. Three years later, the Japanese Jr. soccer team came to West Germany, then the match of the Hamburger SV and All Japan Jr. started. Hamburg started with Wakabayashi and Schneider, while Japan had Hyuga as the captain and without Tsubasa there was 100% no chance they could win.

At the beginning the defense of Hamburg Jr. seemed too lazy, but later Wakabayashi said that he was just testing the shots. Schneider scored 3 goals against Wakashimazu, and the power of his Fire Shot had resulted in Wakashimazu's left arm injured and bleeding. Schneider got disappointed by that. Then Morisaki entered and conceded 2 more goals. The result, Hamburg won 5-1. Wakabayashi told Hyuga that the last goal was just a present for All Japan Jr., and as long as All Japan had such a faint hearted man like Hyuga as their captain, All Japan Jr. wouldn't win a single match during their campaign. This ended in a brawl between Genzo and Hyuga. Afterwards Hyuga resigned as team captain conceding the role to Matsuyama.

After that, Mikami saw a sad Wakabayashi. Mikami said that he was sorry for making him get the Evil role, but Wakabayashi said that Mikami didn't have to be sorry and he was happy for watching a new Hyuga in that field. And, he also asked if he could be a member of the Japan Team. Mikami accepted it and he became the second goalkeeper of the team, using the number 22, he was on the bench until the match against West Germany Jr., since Wakashimazu's right hand was injured. Wakashimazu said that if his hand was all right he wouldn't allow Wakabayashi to play, but he had to play this time. All Japan won 3:2 against West Germany Jr.

Battle of World Youth saga

In World Youth, both of his arms were injured because of previous encounters with Brian Cruyfford and Stefan Levin. For the World Youth, his arms were getting recovered as the Final Tournament started. However, he still managed to protect All Japan's goal in the Asian Preliminaries of the World Youth, against strong opponents such as Thailand Youth, Saudi Arabia Youth and China Youth (where Shunko Sho was the first one to score him a goal outside the P.K. area with his handou Shuu Soku Jin Hou). Due to his injuries, he could play no other game of Asian qualification more, but since Wakashimazu had traveled from Japan and joined the team, the Japanese goal was safe.

He could not dispute the group matches of the World Youth Cup, so he could continue to focus on his recovery under the eyes of his trainer from Germany Hans Kleiman himself, whom Gamo had hired. Gamo set him up for the quarter-final against Sweden Youth, where he was able to settle his previous score with Levin. Japan will move into the semi-final against Netherlands Youth with a golden goal (1:0). There, Genzo settled his score with Cruyford.

Against Brazil Youth

In the first half, the All Japan Youth defended their goal successfully, whereupon they were 0:0 until half-time break, but they were exhausted by the continuous offensive attacks of the Brazilians. Genzo could block Carlos Santana's Rolling Overhead Kick and the Sky Wing Shoot. However, in the 14th minute of the 2nd half, he was beating by Santana, scoring 1:0 for Brazil. Shortly thereafter, he again holds one of Santana's slippers with both fists, which he again injured himself and was still having medical attention during the game. Even so, he managed send the ball to Tsubasa to score the tying goal and then Japan Youth won the upper hand with a 2:1 thanks to Misaki. When the countdown (from 60 seconds) ended, Natureza entered the field, which shortly afterwards could switch off Tsubasa and beat him (again, from outside the P.K. area!). The decision to win should therefore bring another golden goal in extra time. When Santana and Natureza attacked once more, Genzo was able to block Natureza Volley shoot, and was injured again and finally replaced by Ken Wakashimazu. As a result of his team efforts, Japan Youth won the World Youth Cup with a 3:2 victory against Brazil.

Road to 2002 saga

In Road to 2002, FC Bayern Munich, with Schneider, Levin and Sho, won 2-1 against Hamburg. Because of Wakabayashi's "unnecessary" overlap near the end of that match, Hamburg's coach held a grudge towards Wakabayashi, and he ended up not being able to play anymore. Thus, in Golden 23, he joined U-22 Japan. He perfectly defended Japan's goal in the beginning of the Asian preliminaries, giving a feeling of safety to the team. However, being severely injured to the eye in the match against Australia, he became unable to play the rest of the preliminaries.

Rising Sun saga

In Rising Sun, his eye was healed, and he completely defended Japan's goal during all the practice matches that he played against Olympic New Zealand, Olympic Mexico and Olympic Argentina. He later made it into the final 23 members of the Japanese Olympic team.

To be updated as series progresses.

Other appearances

1983 anime series

Genzo was appointed in U-13 Japan for the U-13 International Tournament in Europe. He wears the number 1. This tournament occurs in a fever dream of Tsubasa shortly before the 16th National middle school finals against Toho, were he faced Steve Robson and Schneider (1983 anime), famous for his "Telepathy saving" technique, and is mentioned only in the anime.

Genzo - All Japan Jr — Genzo in (Movie 2).

Apperance in movies

Captain Tsubasa: The great European showdown: Genzo was U-13 Japan main keeper and used the #1 jersey, but still he only played for the second half time of the gamr against All Japan Jr. Youth in order to stop all shots from the German ace striker Schneider by using his parrying shot stops, and his Sixth Sense abilities.
Captain Tsubasa: The most powerful opponent! Holland Youth: It was mentioned that he, as main goalkeeper of Hamburger SV, played against Brian Cruyfford in the Netherlands Youth campaign in Germany and lost, being injured from one of his hands in the process. He soon travels to Japan to cheer for his team, specially Wakashimazu at the third and final match against the Dutch team.

In Captain Tsubasa specials

Boku wa Misaki Taro (1984): Short appearance in the newspaper article showing the win of Nankatsu SC at the 6th National elementary school tournament in Yomiuri Land.

Techniques and abilities

Main article: Genzo Wakabayashi/Techniques

Trivia

He has a big guard dog named John in the Wakabayashi mansion.
Along with Ryo Ishizaki, he is one of only two characters who originally appeared in the 1980 oneshot pilot Captain Tsubasa that continued to appear in the regular series.
His name is Benji (Benjamin) Price in the Latin American and European dubs, Benji Wakabayashi in the Brazilian dub, Waleed in the Arabic dub and Thomas Price in French.
His Brazilian voice actor is Marcelo Campos, who also voiced popular anime characters such as Yugi Muto/Yami Yugi (Atem) in Yu-Gi-Oh!, Future/Adult Trunks in Dragon Ball Z/GT, Shurato in Tenkuu Seiki Shurato, Edward Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist, Artemis in Sailor Moon, Clef in Magic Knight Rayearth, Zoro in One Piece and Terry Bogard in Fatal Fury OVAs.
Genzo is currently the only rival that hasn't lose against Tsubasa in an official match.
Genzo admires the German goalkeeper Sepp Maier and Toni Schumacher.
In the 2018 version, he saved a rugby ball, baseball, handball, volleyball, basketball, ice hockey puck, tennis ball and javelin during the turf war, while in the original version, only the first three were shown.
Also, in the 2018 version, Genzo's gloves are green with black trims with yellow palms, while Ken's gloves are red with black trims with white palms.
He gets injured due to an accident on a match against Mizukoshi. A player stepped on his left calf after Genzo landed on the green to brace for a catch. Due to his injury, he was never able to stop Hyuga's bullet shot. Only in the 2001 anime, the events turned different (Genzo with great difficulty was able to stop Hyuga's same shot^[2]).