Eyeshield 21

Introduction: I decided to read Eyeshield 21 just out of my pure love of football (not soccer) and my unending curiosity about how it could be translated to manga form.

Plot Overview: Eyeshield 21 is about a small, perpetual gopher named Sena who through his years of running errands for bullies has developed near super-human speed and cutting ability. Seeing this the twisted and ingenious quarterback, Hiruma, of the Deimon High School American Football team, the Devil Bats, blackmails Sena (and eventually anyone else he finds useful) into joining as the mysterious and anonymous Eyeshield 21. And so begins the unlikely journey of Eyeshield 21 and the high octane Devil Bats as they follow their dream towards playing in the Christmas Bowl.

Review: The first thing that comes to mind when reading Eyeshield 21 is that it does a great job of capturing the fun and excitement of football. The author, Riichiro Inagaki, and the illustrator, Yusuke Murata, show the amount of effort and research they put into Eyeshield 21 by the way the equipment and body movement reflects how actual football players look and move (you know minus the special effects). The games themselves are also very good as where one could get bogged down in play after play, they instead streamline them, focusing on the big plays and interactions while subtly hiding the fact that they are skipping a lot of plays. As for the characters, they are all very well done, with each one having an unique style, personality, and way they hold themselves which makes it easy to tell who is who even with all the football equipment on. Even the football teams have their own personality, plays, and easily distinguishable uniforms, from the tricky high octane Deimon Devil Bats to the stoic defense of the Ojo White Knights to the overpowering gunslinger offense of the Seibu Wild Gunmen. The only real problem with Eyeshield 21 is that it was obviously made for an audience that has limited exposure to football as there is never a penalty called and there are a lot of little things that a person with knowledge of football would spot and say that's not right.

Conclusion: Eyeshield 21 is a fun, energetic, and funny sports manga full of great characters that is easy to enjoy and get addicted to if you can get pass some of the inaccuracies and idiosyncrasies in the way they portray the game.

Guardman's Grade: B

Categories: Shounen, Sports, School Life, Comedy