Tsubasa@Tokyo 2020: Failure & Faith
The newly released manga, Tsubasa: Searching for Wings, has been providentially timed for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympic Games season. Many athletes will be able to identify with the characters in the manga – seeking success and significance, fame and glory in winning (tsubasa is wings). Ultimately, however, one’s true joy can only be found in knowing Jesus Christ as the Saviour and realising one’s identity as God’s beloved.
The manga is based on a story of Reina, a reporter who is herself once a figure skating competitor who had to retire due to an ankle injury in her younger days. She had to interview three real life Christian Olympians and “research key to mental toughness” among these athletes – Brazil’s Paralympian Daniel Dias, American Sprinter and Bobsledder Lauryn Williams, and Japanese Taekwondo Athlete Yoriko Okamoto.