With 23 episodes in, I thought i'd do a little review of what I've seen from this reboot so far.
I wouldn't say I'm over the moon with it, but Captain Tsubasa is to be fair, a rather accurate depiction of Yoichi Takahashi's 1981 Shonen Jump manga albeit with a few caveats. I know these might sound nitpicky, because I'm actually a huge Captain Tsubasa fan, and sort of a manga purist, so when this anime disappoints, it's usually in relation to the manga.
Animation
First and foremost, the animation does falter at times. Stills are used quite often even in big matches. I'm not particularly against the use of stills. After all, Studio David Pro already committed themselves to not one, but two seasons of this adaptation, which is no small feat. The stills from the earlier episodes were great. They would be well drawn, and the team would add some nice effects to them. But then as the show went on, the amount of stills increased, and the lack of filters were noticeable. Also, stock footage of Tsubasa's overhead is used way too often, and even for Misugi. Fair enough, at this point, David Pro has more on its plate to handle with Cell at Works and the new JoJo. It's a bit of a shame though, especially when the animators who worked on the earlier episodes would go the extra mile to bring their own personality to the show.
Cut Content (Dialogues)
Second, there's a fair amount of content from the source material, that are entirely missing from this new adaptation. I understand some of these decisions, but not all. Sometimes, the heavy dialogue is put right in the middle of the match, and I get why they would want to remove them, but at least, David Pro should have tried to incorporate them later on, or before the match. One glaring omission that I do remember is that in the manga, Nankatsu players were given some instructions from their coach at the beginning of their match against Musashi. It never happened in this anime. The other Musashi players that weren't Misugi weren't properly introduced to the viewers either.
Cut Content (Action scenes)
Furthermore, many action scenes that did not involve the main characters that are Tsubasa, Misaki and Ishizaki are sometimes cut. Small actions from other Nankatsu players are also cut. If they're not involved in a major soccer play, then their action is simply not shown. One tiny example of that is when Urabe passed the ball to Tsubasa in the Elementary school finals in the manga. In the anime, it only shows Tsubasa after he has received the pass. Urabe was nowhere to be found. Small things like that are detrimental to the development of minor characters who too have their own fan support for decades. The manga already had some criticism of focusing too much on Tsubasa. This reboot only made it worse.
Music
My last complaint applies to the fans of the previous anime series. Whether it was the 1983 version, the J version, or the Road to 2002 version, the soundtrack was always top notch. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for this one. I know it all boils down to preference, but while there's nothing inherently wrong with the tracks of the 2018 version, they're simply not as good. The opening is alright, but it sounds a bit too much out of something like Pokemon and Digimon. I hope when the next arc comes, it gets replaced with something a little less childish. Although I do have one praise for it. I like the fact that they reused the opening of the 1983 as the ending of this version. which was the opening of the original 1983 anime. I really enjoyed it especially when they had different voice actors and actresses singing it.
Pacing
Now on to the things that I liked, but then liked a little less. I enjoyed the pacing at the beginning of the series. The characters were being properly introduced, and there was proper build up to the game between Nankatsu and Shutetsu. Some complained that it was going too slow. I didn't. I thought the pacing was perfect, and not too slow like the original 1983 anime. But unfortunately as the episodes went by, the pacing increased. I guess they found out they only had an x number of episodes to adapt the manga. The cut content I talked above is the result of the faster pacing.
Creativity
Other aspects that I really like is the way the shots are done; they're extra flashy. The manner in which the 3D is utilised to show us an overview of the field is a sight to behold. The tactics that manga fans would know like the bird cage, the offside trap, the purple colors denoting Wakabayashi's wall were all superbly done in this adaptation in my opinion.
Conclusion
I can't say if I ultimately prefer this version over Captain Tsubasa J although I'm leaning towards saying that, but I definitely prefer it over Captain Tsubasa Road to 2002. The animation is more fluid. The content is being properly adapted, albeit with some cuts here and there, but this is still way better than the condensed summary of the events that the Road to 2002 version gave us. In many ways, the 2018 anime version is just better than its predecessors simply for sticking to the manga more closely. The original anime while good, was also way too bloated for anyone nowadays to bother checking it out. Therefore, even with all my complaints, I will still recommend the 2018 anime as the ultimate adaptation of Captain Tsubasa.