The Eyeshield 21 manga has come to an end.
Finally, after 333 chapters, this hilarious, exciting and all-around great manga has made its’ final touchdown, with a great ending to boot. Eyeshield 21 has been a blast to read from the beginning to the end, and is one of the only two sports mangas that I always looked forward to read every week. Riichiro Inagaki (writer) and Yusuke Murata (artist) have really done an excellent job, and I hope they will continue to collaborate and produce another good manga like this in the future.
The story follows a young freshman in high school, Kobayakawa Sena, who is small, weak and constanly being bullied by others. Because of that, however, he has developed an amazing footspeed, running errands as a gofer. When Hiruma Youichi, the quarterback and captain of the Deimon High Devilbats, spots Sena, he uses various tactics to forcibly recruit him into the American Football club, including blackmail and physical threats. To use his speed as a secret weapon, Hiruma devises a cover scheme – putting an eyeshield in Sena’s helment to hide his face, and proclaiming him as “Eyeshield 21″, a super running genius who came back to Japan from the University of Notre Dame to play for the Devilbats. With that, Sena begins a double life as a bullied weakling on one side, and the mysterious star runner back of the Deimon Devilbats football team. And throughout the course of the manga, they slowly gain more and more reliable teammates, each with their own specialties – and the Deimon Devilbats set off towards the Christmas Bowl, where the finals of the National High school tournament are held.
Eyeshield 21 is unique in my memory, because it manages to succesfully mix the extremities of the battle manga style of storytelling (where everyone has a special ability and they team up to fight against each other) with the solid grounding of real sports action. Who knew that the world of American Football could be full of such crazy people and wacky stunts? The funny thing is, it could really happen. Admittedly, the characterizations are all totally exaggerated, but nevertheless, there is a core of solid football knowledge and tactics behind the manga. I think it just happens to be one of those subjects that translates well into manga, because of American Football’s tendency to have a team of specialists in each dedicated position.
The Deimon Devilbats are a team of specialists, running towards the championship!
Plus, the character dynamics play off each other very well. Honestly, although Sena is touted as the eponymous star of the show, the real attraction of Eyeshield 21 comes from Hiruma Youichi, the demonic quarterback who would use any sort of tactic to win and get what he wants. He’s completely maniacal, using weaponry, intelligence, blackmail and spies, and psychological warfare of every kind to win. And yet, despite it all, you can sense that he’s a good person underneath – every team needs a reliable leader, and Hiruma does that very well for the Deimon Devilbats. He’s insane and terrifying, but you trust that his insanity is going to be unleashed on your enemies, when you follow him. He’s like the epitome of “Evil Genius Leader”. And that’s what makes him so entertaining to watch – while Sena and the rest of the team are mostly pure and straightforward, their leader is as devious and twisty as they come. Watching him keep them all in line, and out-violent the hoodlums who try to rebel against his authority, is sometimes more fun than watching the games themselves. Plus, there’s those little tender-maybe-romantic moments with Mamori (the female manager, who acts like Sena’s big sister) that come up every now and then. ^^
If he can’t frighten you with guns, he’ll use blackmail instead.
I recommend this manga to anyone who wants to read an interesting and funny sports manga. Read it now! (or watch the anime…) Viz has released up to Volume 27, and OneManga has all the scans online.
