Eyeshield 21

Shy, reserved, and small-statured, Deimon High School student Sena Kobayakawa is the perfect target for bullies. However, as a result of running errands throughout his life, Sena has become agile and developed a skill for avoiding crowds of people. After the cunning Youichi Hiruma—captain of the Deimon Devil Bats football team—witnesses Sena's rapid legs in motion, he coerces the timid boy into joining his squad.

As Hiruma wants to conceal Sena's identity from other clubs, Sena is forced to hide under the visored helmet of "Eyeshield 21," a mysterious running back wearing the number 21 jersey. The legendary Eyeshield 21 can supposedly run at the speed of light and has achieved remarkable feats in the United States during his time at the Notre Dame College.

Accustomed to avoiding his problems in the past, Sena's specialty might just help him become the new secret weapon of the Deimon Devil Bats. As he interacts with his teammates, Sena gradually gains more self-confidence and forges valuable bonds along the way.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Hiruma, Youichi Main

Tamura, Atsushi Japanese

Kobayakawa, Sena Main

Irino, Miyu Japanese

Kurita, Ryokan Main

Nagano, Kouichi Japanese

Raimon, Tarou Main

Yamaguchi, Kappei Japanese

Anezaki, Mamori Main

Hirano, Aya Japanese

Shin, Seijuurou Supporting

Gomoto, Naoya Japanese

Kongo, Agon Supporting

Kirimoto, Takuya Japanese

Taki, Suzuna Supporting

Nakagawa, Shoko Japanese

Akaba, Hayato Supporting

Hirakawa, Daisuke Japanese

Juumonji, Kazuki Supporting

Hoshino, Takanori Japanese

Miyake, Masanori Producer

Simone, Jamie Producer

Azuma, Fukashi Producer

Jitsumatsu, Teruaki Assistant Producer

Reviews

Feb 18, 2009

Poparteeb

Recommended

How long is it? 145 episodes. What’s it about? American Football. All of it? Yes. (And if you liked this series but found it either too long, or a bit childish, definitely check out Cross Game, a highly underrated sports series that is on a whole different maturity and story level.)

Eyeshield 21 is definite shonen sports anime. Heck, its even sponsored by the Japanese NFL and received backing in the United States as a football series on a sports channel. And now,…don’t get turned off. Because if you do, you’re missing out on one of the most entertaining series people disregard just because of its ... non-traditional anime content.

Review:

Please, please, don’t dump this series just because its football. I cannot but regret that I did put off watching this and suffered my way through crap series like Blade of the Immortal. My 2 cents on why you should watch (if you don’t want to slog your way through the rest of this):
• Typical plot (yet this works perfectly fine for this series), interspersed with drama, comedy, and laugh your head off antics of its marvelous characters.
• Marvelous characters (I said it but I will say it again), You will love the characters of Eyeshield, because even Sena isn’t as annoying as it seems. And…Hiruma will send you to hell if you don’t watch this.
Now that you’re here:

Characters: To put it simply, there is nothing bland about Eyeshield’s cast. From Sena’s traditional shonen perserverance, to Hiruma’s demonic avarice (and he will become your favorite as well), Eyeshield 21 does a masterful job of designing to characters to both appeal to viewers and to transition their interactions with each other smoothly. The rivalry between Sena and Shin is also nonclichedly carried out, and all the supporting characters get their own backstory as well. To tell the truth, I don’t even think that the supporting characters were even ‘technically 2nd tier’. You cannot but feel for the other characters such as the quarterback of the Zokugaku Chameleons whose delinquent team cannot hold themselves together. And so yes, the characters of Eyeshield are not just comedic, but serious, dramatic, and all the time flawed in some way or another. There’s not fun in watching perfect characters now is there?

Plot: Well, its straightforward enough: team has a dream, team wants to go to Christmas Bowl, team must defeat rival teams, team must work together, team must train, then team must win. But this is all you need to watch Eyeshield. It’s 145 episodes does more than enough to advance the adrenaline pumping scenes of the matches. Between moments of drama and football action is raucous comedy which borderlines on the absurd (cough Hiruma gun toting blackmailer), yet makes it more funny all the same. Now come to think of it, you don’t watch a sports series too much for the plot as more for the character development and anime action.

Sound and Graphics: Nothing too shabby here. The BGMs were great, the Ops and EDs were equally great. Eyeshield does a decent job of fitting its sound to its action scenes. The animation is more than adequate for the heart pumping football action scenes. Of course its NOT realistic. Who would want to watch realistic football for 145 episodes? Nah, this is where you see special moves like those in DBZ like Sena’s Devil Bat Ghost, Kid’s Rapid Fire Throw. (No fantastical equipment, mind but enough specialty to make you want to continue watching.) That said, animation is definitely decent for this series.

Entertainment/Replay Value : This is something I wouldn’t mind watching more than once. The one bone I have to pick with the series is its sometimes slightly traditional fillers, which it has to have in its 145 episodes. But even with that, Eyeshield 21 is hilarious, action packed, and a touchdown for us viewers.

Poptart’s Rating: 8/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jan 2, 2009

ladyxzeus

Mixed Feelings

Eyeshield 21 is an essay in 145 episodes about... American Football! A game that I don't know, like or understand, portrayed in anime! A game that we always believed that was only played in America... In anime! Conclusion: Must Watch.

The story is as simple as "sports anime": a team and its players, represented by the Speed-Light Running Back Kobayakawa Sena as main character, must overcome stronger teams and players by evoluting physically and spiritually in way to get to the ultimate victory (participating in the Christmas Bowl). However, this team is not like your average! They are below the average! In the end, this is ... the fight of an underdog team composed by untalented members that had to generate their talent through train and hard work. Very heart warming for people that, like me, don't have talent and have to do everything through hard work.

Adding to this, the characters are pretty much... Brilliant. Each character design is a caricature from the corresponding personality. With this fashion, characters that had not much of a content, turned into people that you are willing to support and even identify with. You find all the stereotypes, but you also discover that they are real and have their reasons.

The animation is quite good, as well as the art overall, but this series suffers of a disease common to most long anime: repeated animation sequences and loss of detail quality through the series. Of course that if you watch an episode a week like you should and not 15 a day like I did, you will most likely never notice this. However, the slow paced games hook you up to the point of wanting to watch them as soon as possible. Even the filler episodes held enough fun.

A great comedy, with its inspirational and touching moments, and above all a tribute to American Football.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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May 16, 2024

ArcticKnave

Not Recommended

Honestly I found this anime extremely tedious to watch. After every bit of momentum the show gained, it immediately killed it with completely unnecessary filler. The same jokes are constantly reused to worse and worse effect, and the characters have no growth, constantly having to relearn lesson after lesson in every single match.

I have read that the manga is apparently better regarding the pacing, but have yet to be able to check it out for myself. The ordering of opponents throughout the tournaments was very odd, and felt quite anti-climactic but that might just be due to the pacing issues.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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