【Eyeshield 21】 A comedy/sports manga series about American football!!

Eyeshield 21 is a sports manga series written by Riichiro Inagaki and illustrated by Yusuke Murata. It was originally serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump by Shueisha from July 2002 to June 2009, with a total of 37 volumes. In Japan, Eyeshield 21 has sold more than 20 million copies, with some volumes often ranked on top ten lists of best-selling manga. It was largely praised for the dynamic artwork, well-written characters and a good mix of comedy, action and drama. The manga is credited with increasing the number of Japanese teenagers playing American football.

From 2005 to March 2008, a 145-episode TV anime series adapted from Eyeshield 21 was co-produced by TV Tokyo, NAS and Gallop, and aired on TV Tokyo. Director Masayoshi Nishida worked on the series until episode 103 and Director Shin Katagai took over from episode 104 to 145. Two OVAs based on Eyeshield 21 were also developed and later released in DVD format. The first OVA developed by Production I.G was named “Eyeshield 21: The Phantom Golden Bowl” (2003) and the second OVA developed by Gallop was named “Eyeshield 21: The road to Christmas Bowl” (2005).

The Eyeshield 21 franchise also spawned numerous audio CDs, video games, art books, light novels and other merchandises.

The story of Eyeshield 21 started with the main protagonist Sena Kobayakawa running at max speed to his chosen high school Deimon High. He met up with childhood friend Mamori Anezaki, who was already waiting at the school entrance.

Sena was afraid to look for his test number on the entrance exam result announcement board but Mamori calmed him down. When they found Sena’s number on the board, he busted out crying and Mamori congratulated him for passing.

Lurking around the corner, a senior student with spiky blonde hair named Yoichi Hiruma was scouting for new recruits. He and another member of the school’s American Football Club rushed over to Sena and lifted him up in the air. Then, Hiruma pretended to lend Sena his phone so he could call home and tell his parents the good news.

It turned out that was only a trick to get Sena’s home number and his address. After the gullible Sena got tricked without even knowing what just happened, Hiruma already moved on to another innocent first year student.

When Sena arrived home that afternoon, his mailbox was flooded with flyers and his home phone was constantly ringing with recruitment calls from the American Football Club.

The next morning, Sena put on his new uniform and headed to school. He had to get a new cell phone due to the incident with the football club and on his phone book, there was only Mamori’s number. When Sena got to school, Mamori greeted him and told Sena to try and meet new friends. All through grade school and middle school, Sena was harassed and ordered around by a bunch of delinquents. Hearing that, Sena agreed to try. Mamori also warned Sena about a dangerous guy named Hiruma and that his name alone brought fear to everyone around them.

Later in class, Sena received a text message from his “old friends” demanding for something. When Sena told them that he can’t get what they want, the delinquents dragged Sena to the American Football club room, intending to beat him up.

A big guy named Ryokan Kurita came in not long after them. He mistook the delinquents and Sena for new recruits aspiring to join the club. In an enthusiastic attempt of showing the new recruits what a linebacker should do, Kurita accidently threw all three of the delinquents into a wall.

Sena was the only one left after the other three got scared and ran away. Kurita was over the moon and invited Sena for tea. At first, Sena declined the offer to join but after hearing Kurita talked about his dream of entering the Christmas Bowl, Sena agreed to become the team’s manager instead.

The club only had two members before Sena joined – Kurita and his best friend Hiruma. They needed to have at least 11 members to save the club from being shut down and to make it to the Christmas Bowl. “It’s the ultimate battlefield for war!”, Kurita excitedly said. The game was played only once a year on Christmas at the Tokyo Stadium, where the strongest of all teams had a final showdown.

On his way home, Sena was caught by the group of delinquents earlier. They wanted to beat up Sena and pass the blame onto Kurita in order to shut down the football club. Sena ended up running away and got to a crowded shopping street.

There, Hiruma stepped out of a convenient store and spotted Sena from afar. When the delinquents almost caught up with him, Sena thought of his friends and how he wanted to protect them. He finally got the resolve and planned out an escape route with just a glance.

Then, he ran at an amazing speed with impossible maneuvers through the crowding street.

As Sena was running away, he demonstrated a lot of potential for a football player and Hiruma watched him with excitement. Sena got onto a train and finally be able to shake the delinquents. Hiruma got to them and punished the bullies with an evil grin on his face as he said, “Touchdown!”.

The next day at school, Hiruma forced Sena to tried out the American Football uniform with the number 21 and an unusual eyeshield. Hiruma wanted Sena to hid his appearance during the game so Sena could showcase his skills without the other athletic clubs discovering his identity and steal him away.

From that moment on, Sena became the football club’s manager and official player. On the field, his name wouldn’t be “Sena Kobayakawa”, but “Eyeshield 21”!