Ever since Real Madrid defeated Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League final in May, a lot of debates have taken place over which league is really the best in the world. The Premier League is widely regarded as the best in the world, mostly because of the competitiveness and quality of players involved. But, Real Madrid proving itself as the best team in Europe automatically adds more leverage to La Liga fans claiming it to be the best.
There could be a never-ending debate over which league is truly superior to the other because of many factors involved.
That being said, this Premier League vs La Liga battle has even been depicted in a brand new Japanese anime called Aoashi. The TV series (based on a popular Manga) launched earlier this year, follows the story of Ashito Aoi – a fictional character who is also an extremely talented footballer.
Aoi tries to keep his talent hidden but plays for his school team, being showcased as an amazing footballer who can change the Japanese football scene. During an episode of the anime, La Liga is particularly name-checked in a scene. While speaking about a character on the show, it’s narrated: “Went onto play in La Liga in Spain, the best league in the world.”
La Liga is quite a popular league in Asia, including Japan, mostly because Real Madrid and Barcelona gaining a lot of fans over the last few decades. Indeed, there are millions of fans in the country of Spanish football, so it’s hardly surprising that the writers used La Liga as a referencing point for the very pinnacle of domestic football.
This also indicates a general feeling among many football fans in Japan that La Liga is indeed a superior league to the Premier League.
The manga has also made more references to La Liga and the influence of Spanish footballers in general over the anime as well as the source material. Fans pointed these out, posting some interesting takes from the manga concerning La Liga and its footballers.
The manga depicts the character’s memories of watching Barcelona at Camp Nou. It shows how he got inspired by watching Andres Iniesta and learned from his trickery of going past players with ease. It also shows how the tactics of the character’s team were inspired by Barca’s tiki-taka style as well, particularly from Pep Guardiola’s side.
Another picture from the pages of the Manga shows just how inspired the writer is by Pep Guardiola. The character can be heard being explained about full-backs like Joao Cancelo, Philip Lahm and Takehiro Tomiyasu. In particular how Guardiola allows his full-backs to move centrally to help his side’s style and the manga’s character even hinting that Ashito can be inspired by a similar kind of freedom.
