Eyeshield 21
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| Eyeshield 21 | |
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| アイシールド21; (Eyeshield 21) |
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| Genre | Sports, Gag, Shōnen |
| Manga | |
| Authored by | Riichiro Inagaki (story) Yusuke Murata (art) |
| Publisher |  Jump Comics  VIZ Media Elex Media Komputindo |
| Serialized in | Weekly Shonen Jump Shonen Jump |
| Original run | 2002 – |
| No. of volumes | 24 volumes with 225 chapters (current) |
| Movie: Eyeshield 21 (Jump Festa) | |
| Directed by | Tamaki Nakatsu |
| Studio | Production I.G. |
| Released | 2004 |
| Runtime | 30 min |
| TV anime | |
| Directed by | Masayoshi Nishida |
| Studio | NAS, Studio Gallop |
| Network | Animax, TV Tokyo |
| Original run | 6 April 2005 – |
| No. of episodes | 99 (current) |
Eyeshield 21 (アイシールド21 Aishīrudo nijūichi?) is a manga about American football written by Riichiro Inagaki and illustrated by Yusuke Murata. It has been adapted into an anime movie in 2004 (shown at Jump Festa), an anime television series in 2005, several video games and a trading card game from Konami.
The manga started in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump. The manga is published in English by VIZ Media. The anime version, produced by NAS and animated my Artland, premiered across Japan on TV Tokyo from 6 April 2005, and is currently airing across Japan on the satellite television network Animax. The anime is sponsored by NFL Japan.
Contents |
[edit] Story
The plot of Eyeshield 21 revolves around a physically unassuming and non-assertive boy named Sena Kobayakawa (小早川瀬那 Kobayakawa Sena?) who enters the high school of his choice, Deimon Private Senior High School (泥門高等学校 Deimon Kōtōgakkō?), where his childhood friend Mamori Anezaki (姉崎まもり Anezaki Mamori?), one year older than Sena, already attends. His only remarkable physical abilities are his running speed and dodging techniques, which catches the eye of the high school's American football team captain Yoichi Hiruma (蛭魔 妖一 Hiruma Yōichi?). Sena was then forced into playing as the team's running back by Yoichi.
To protect his identity (on the basis that other teams will try to lure Sena to their school teams) Sena is forced to assume the role of team secretary, and enter the field with a helmet featuring a green-tinted eyeshield to hide his features. The anime revolves around the adventures and misadventures of the football team as they acquire other characters and compete in local tournaments leading up to the "Christmas Bowl", the high school football championship.
The series concludes the initial manga story arc (with the first loss by the Deimon Devil Bats to the Ojo White Knights) after Episode 8, and began introducing the rest of the football team starting with catching specialist Taro Raimon (aka "Monta-kun") as of Episode 9.
Deimon Devil Bats (泥門デビルバッツ?)
- Logo: Red Devil Bat, a nonexistent breed that bears a striking resemblance to Yoichi Hiruma.
- The protagonist team of the manga and anime series, this team represents the Deimon High School. At first, there were only three members in the Deimon American Football Club. However, after its inaugural year, there were only two members (Yoichi Hiruma and Ryokan Kurita) after Gen "Musashi" Takekura left. This remained so until Hiruma found Sena Kobayakawa and his amazing running ability. Their team's chant is "Kill 'em! YA-HA!"(ブッツバス! YA-HA!! Buttsubasu! YA-HA!!)
[edit] Characters
- Sena Kobayakawa (小早川瀬那 Kobayakawa Sena?)
Sena is the main character of the series. He is a running back. He is an amazing runner, his jersey number is 21, and he wears an eyeshield to hide his identity, hence the nickname "Eyeshield 21". It is possible this character was inspired by current NFL star running back LaDainian Tomlinson, who wears #21 and also likes to sport a visor. It happens that LT also has "Sena's Foresight", or the ability to see running paths. Throughout the games, Sena develops new techniques, including some fake handoff plays and the Devil Bat Dive. This involves him running at full speed toward the goal line, then jumping high over the defending linemen in a corkscrewing motion. Sena cannot sustain running at high speeds for very long, and may even faint if he overextends himself as it shown during the match against the NASA Aliens.
- Character Statistics:
- 40-yard-dash Record: 4.2 seconds (High School Record). His ability for "Change of Pace" makes his speed very erratic to measure.
- Bench Press: 10 kg (Lowest High School Record), 40 kg in vol. 5, and 45 kg in vol. 10
- Position: Halfback / Tailback / Free Safety / Club Secretary
- Jersey: 21
- 1st Year Student (Grade 10)
- Yoichi Hiruma (蛭魔 妖一 Hiruma Yōichi?)
Yoichi Hiruma is the Deimon's team captain who has pointy ears and sharp teeth, and looks and acts like a demon. Hiruma is usually carrying some kind of firearm. Hiruma lies, cheats, bullies and manipulates people to do his bidding. His most potent weapon is probably his "Book of Threats" (originally "Devil's Handbook"), a small black notebook filled with everyone's darkest secrets, which allows him to blackmail anyone into doing what he demands of them. Although portrayed as a cruel slave-driver and an inhumane captain at times, his passion for football (and winning) is unrivaled, and he is known to goad, tempt, bribe, force and inspire the team to victory. Although very stubborn, it is evident that Hiruma loves his team, occasionally showing a sly content smile in times of happiness involving his team. Also, to show he his proud with his teammates he began to kick them and make a some what positive comment afterwards, this is picked up by Sena during the match between the Zokugaku Chameleons. He has a vast knowledge of football, this includes not only the rules, plays, formations etc but a lot of knowledge of famous NFL players. This is how Monta's nickname was created, Hiruma named it after football legand Joe Montana. As well as this, it has been discovered that Hiruma collects comics about football involving a hero with the number 21, whether this is an attempt to break the 4th wall or the reason Hiruma gave Sena that particular number is unknown. Hiruma is considered by many as the best quarterback in Japan. His ability to think and react are not on the quarterback level but more like on the running back and linebacker level. Hiruma developed this ability due to the fact that he was always surrounded by amateurs, especially his Linemen. This remark was first revealed in a "Japan Representative Match" with the Taiyo Sphinx.
- Hiruma had been extremely frustrated when he had not been able to pass during games, as it could be assumed that Hiruma's speciallty is passing judging by Monta's surprise at how powerfully Hiruma threw the ball and how much he loved to practice passing, and though he doesn't really show it, he is quite happy that he has a wide receiver in Monta. He gives nicknames to many people, usually, in the English-language version using the prefix "damn." His family ties and where he lives are unknown, but most readers assume that he lives in the clubhouse, as this was the room featured in the 'bedroom inspection' special in Volume 1 of the manga. This also leads readers to assume he probably uses the school's restrooms, the locker room's shower, and lives off of the groceries from the Son-Son market, but he seems to be on bad terms with his father. He's been known to chew excessive amounts of gum (sugarless of course), even during games. Never seen opening a door with his hands, he seems to prefer slamming them open with his feet, as he always has his hands in his pockets. Despite his what may be considered inappropriate nicknames for his fellow teammates, Hiruma is very much respected and liked by the team because of his sheer passion and commitment to the game. It is evident though that the teammate closest to Hiruma is Kurita as they have struggled together to gather a proper football team for quite some time. Hiruma also shows a bit of a friendly liking to Sena, defending him from the Hah brothers and other dangers, but this may just be because of Sena's talents as Eyeshield 21. He also shows a bit of kindness to Manabu Yukimitsu (2nd year) in Volume 4, Tower of Hell Part 2 as he helps Manabu pass the try-outs. This is most likely because of his display of determination.
- Character Statistics:
- 40-yard-dash record: 5.1 seconds
- Bench Press: 75 kg
- Position: Quarterback / Strong Safety
- Jersey: 1
- 3rd Year Student (Grade 12)
[edit] Manga
[edit] Anime
[edit] Music
- Composer - Ko Otani
- Opening
- Break Through by Coming Century (Episodes 1-35)
- Innocence by 20th Century (Episodes 36-64)
- Dang Dang by ZZ (Episodes 65-)
- Ending
- Be Free by Rikkenzu (Episodes 1-14)
- Blaze Away by The TRAX (Episodes 15-35)
- Goal by Beni Arashiro (Episodes 36-64)
- Run to Win by Sena, Mamori, Monta, Kurita (Episodes 65-)
- Insert songs
- Be SURVIVOR by ZZ
- Chain Of Power by V6
- MIDNIGHT SUNSHINE by Ojo White Knights
- Chain of Power by Deimon Devil Bats
[edit] Games
Konami appears to have the rights to produce Eyeshield 21 games for Sony video game systems. They have released Eyeshield 21: Portable Edition for the Playstation Portable and Eyeshield 21: AmeFoot Yarouze! Ya! Ha! for the Playstation 2.
Nintendo secured the rights to the Eyeshield 21 video game license for their systems in December 2004. They have released Eyeshield 21: MAX Devil Power for the Nintendo DS and Eyeshield 21: Devilbats Devildays for the Game Boy Advance. There was going to be a Gamecube game but Nintendo pulled the plug(likely for the Wii Game)
Nintendo published an Eyeshield 21 game for the Wii, entitled Eyeshield 21: Field no Saikyou Senshi Tachi. It was released in Japan on March 8, 2007. [1]
[edit] Trivia
- During the first episode of the anime, as Sena is pondering which school club to join, the audience can see Monta (Taro Raimon) in the background.
- A few of Eyeshield 21's members appear as support characters in the game Jump Superstars and its sequel Jump Ultimate Stars for the Nintendo DS including Mamori, Cerberus, Hiruma, Sena, Monta, and Kurita.
- In fan polls, Hiruma is usually voted the most popular character. This is unusual because typically in Weekly Shonen Jump polls the protagonist of a given manga always places first, such as Monkey D. Luffy in One Piece and Son Goku in Dragon Ball, In Eyeshield 21, the main character, Sena, is usually in second, behind Hiruma.
- In Volume 4, at the first glimpse of Zokugaku High, graffitied on the wall is a character (Nikochan Kong the Space Pirate) from Akira Toriyama's "Dr. Slump".
- It is said that LaDainian Tomlinson also possesses "Sena's Foresight", or the ability to see running paths (said during an interview with TIMES magazine)
- Various Jump Stars have appeared on Togano's tokubans. In the anime, Jotaro Kujo is on one of the covers.
- During the episode where team deimon devil bat picks their tournament, Mamori, Musashi, Yukimitsu and Ishimaru changed their hair style.
- TV Asahi releases Top 100 Anime of All Time around the end of the year. Eyeshield 21 has made to 47th.
- Ironically, the 2005 American Bowl, held in Tokyo, was between the Atlanta Falcons and Indianapolis Colts - teams with uniforms identical in colour to the Deimon DevilBats and Oujou White Knights. It is unknown whether this is pure coincidence, or a deliberate choice of teams intended to help push the series.
[edit] See also
- Eyeshield 21 characters
- Manga Summary of Eyeshield 21
- Autumn Tokyo Tournament
- Autumn Kantou Tournament
| Eyeshield 21 |
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| Media: Manga volumes | Anime episodes and OVA's |
| Characters: Deimon Devil Bats |
| Tournaments: Golden Bowl | Autumn Kantou Tournament | Autumn Tokyo Tournament |
| Games: MAX Devil Power (NDS) | Devilbats Devildays (GBA) | AmeFoot Yarouze! Ya! Ha! (PS2) | Eyeshield 21: Portable Edition (PSP) | Eyeshield 21: Field no Saikyou Senshi Tachi (Wii) |
[edit] External links
- Eyeshield - official site (Japanese)
- TV Tokyo's Official Eyeshield 21 site (Japanese)
- Animax's official Eyeshield 21 website (Japanese)
- Anime News Network's Eyeshield 21 Profile (English)
