There's Reportedly a Pokemon Easter Egg in 'Captain Tsubasa'

Captain Tsubasa, the 2018 soccer-based anime series remake of the 1980s anime series which itself was a manga adaptation, appears to have included a rather blatant Pokemon Easter egg in a recent episode.

More specifically, the show included a shot of what appears to be the one and only Ash Ketchum from the Pokemon anime. Barring a couple facial doodles, it's almost an exact replica of the pocket monster-collecting protagonist as he appears in the recent Sun & Moon anime series.

Check it out for yourself in the Imgur embed below:

Ash makes a cameo in Captain Tsubasa

Though it's heavily watermarked, it's easy enough to make out Ketchum in the crowd shot there. There's a possibility that the cameo's been faked, but we're betting on it being real. The only reason it likely hasn't been shared more widely is that the only English release of the Captain Tsubasa is currently airing on Primo TV, a channel specifically targeted at Hispanic markets and not widely available. Though Viz Media has streaming rights, it has apparently yet to use them.

Chances are good, however, that it will eventually appear on one of the more popular streaming services like Crunchyroll or Funimation, or even Netflix, but given how things have gone so far, that might not be until the current series has finished airing. That's pure speculation, of course, but a distinct possibility.

Captain Tsubasa airs on TV Tokyo in Japan, and is animated by David Production, the studio best known for the anime adaptation of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. The show follows 11-year-old Tsubasa Oozora as he pursues his dream of being a soccer star and participating in international championships.

What do you think? Is that Ash there in the stands, or is this just a coincidence? Let us know in the comments!

[H/T Reddit]