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Japan's Women's Soccer World Cup Champion Inspires Manga
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Nahomi Kawasumi, the 26-year-old goal-scoring member of Japan's World Cup-winning women's soccer team, will star in her own manga series in Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine next year. The manga series is tentatively titled Kawasumi Nahomi Monogatari (The Nahomi Kawasumi Story).
In addition, Kawasumi will appear on the cover, the opening pages, and the pin-up poster in the magazine's combined 5th/6th issue, which will ship on January 4. According to the Nikkan Sports newspaper, it will be the first time that Shogakukan, which is celebrating its 90th anniversary next year, has put a female athlete on the cover of a manga magazine. The same issue will have an interview with Kawasumi.
Captain Tsubasa soccer manga creator Yōichi Takahashi revealed in September that he received an offer to create an anime inspired by Japan's first Women's World Cup winners. Takahashi's Soccer Shōjo Kaede comic novel already drew inspiration from three other members of the team. The "Nadeshiko Japan" nickname for the team (coined after the cultural ideal of a Japanese woman) ranked #2 on the Net Ryūkōgo Taishō 2011 (Net Buzzword Awards 2011) list, right above Puella Magi Madoka Magica's catchprase "Boku to keiyaku shite, _____ ni natte yo!"
Source: Nikkan Sports via My Game News Flash
