Eyeshield 21

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Eyeshield21

Japanese: アイシールド21

Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 145

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Apr 6, 2005 to Mar 19, 2008

Premiered: Spring 2005

Broadcast: Wednesdays at 19:00 (JST)

Producers: TV Tokyo, Nihon Ad Systems, TV Tokyo Music, Shueisha

Licensors: VIZ Media, Sentai Filmworks

Studios: Gallop

Source: Manga

Genre: Sports

Theme: Team Sports

Demographic: Shounen

Duration: 23 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 7.92¹ (scored by 89,026 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #753²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #1300

Members: 183,554

Favorites: 2,054

Available At

Official Site

Resources

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ANN

Streaming Platforms

Crunchyroll

7.92

Ranked #753Popularity #1300Members 183,554

Spring 2005TVGallop

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Episodes: /145

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Synopsis

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]

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Background

Eyeshield 21 was original scheduled to stream in North America on Toonami Jetstream and NFL Rush in collaboration with the National Football League, but the plan fell through and the anime made its debut only on Toonami Jetstream, which later dropped the series. It would then become available in its entirety on Crunchyroll. Sentai Filmworks later licensed and released the first 52 episodes on DVD from 2010 to 2011.

Episode Videos

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Eyeshield 21
Side story:	Eyeshield 21: Maboroshi no Golden Bowl, Eyeshield 21: Jump Festa 2005 Special
Other:	Eyeshield 21: 21st Anniversary PV

Hoshino, Takanori
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Miyake, Masanori

Producer

Simone, Jamie

Producer

Nishita, Masayoshi

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

Katagai, Shin

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Edit

Opening Theme

	1: "Breakthrough" by Coming Century (eps 1-35)
	2: "Innocence" by 20th Century (eps 36-64)
	3: "Dang Dang" by ZZ (eps 65-103)
	4: "BLAZE LINE" by BACK-ON (eps 104-126)
	5: "Hanno no Runningback" by SHORT LEG SUMMER (eps 127-145)

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Ending Theme

	1: "Be Free" by Rikken'z (eps 1-13)
	2: "Blaze Away" by TRAX (eps 14-35)
	3: "Goal" by Arashiro Beni (eps 36-64)
	4: "Run to Win" by Mamori (Aya Hirano), Sena (Miyu Irino), Kurita (Koichi Nagano), Rimon (Kappei Yamaguchi) (eps 65-100)
	5: "A day dreaming..." by BACK-ON (eps 101-116)
	6: "Flower" by BACK-ON (eps 117-126)
	7: "Song of Power" by SHORT LEG SUMMER (eps 127-144)
	8: "Dang Dang" by ZZ (eps 145)

Reviews

Aug 31, 2022

PixelB

Recommended

American Football in Japan. Like, really? You never cease to amaze me. Of all the random sports to pick, football isn’t the least popular by any means, but it is surprising that, well, Japanese people play American football. There isn’t even a national Japanese Football League. In fact, I had to actually do a double take when Eyeshield 21 was based on a real competition. People in Japan actually play American football in high school, and the Christmas Bowl is an actual football competition. Regardless, I doubt most people who are not native to or living in the US are familiar with Football, and that ... goes for more Japanese people as well.

Beyond just the strange sport, which is almost never a bad thing when it comes to sports anime, the show is not bad at all. There are 13 or so characters that matter in the show, 11 of which are part of the football team, and 2 are cheerleaders/managers of the team. That’s a lot of people for me to care about. And Eyeshield 21 does indeed manage to create a team where each character has their distinct personality without archetyping to an extreme degree. Still, most of these characters aren’t super deep. Hiruma, however, does carry the show as the most expressive character. He’s the cornerstone of the entire show, being the leader of the team, making all the verbal jabs that make the story propel itself forward. He’s hard on the team and equally hard on himself. He’s got an arrogant and scheming personality to fit his demonic visage and laugh, yet he’s also cold and calculating on almost every play that he makes. He trains the members of the team, calls the shots, and is the leader as the QB. He’ll do anything it takes for victory, and also is the one making crazy decisions for the team to make things interesting. He’s the reason why Deimon Devil bats, his team, can pull off crazy strategies, and can make comeback victories. Then comes the other characters. Wide receiver 1, Monta’s appearance and personality are characterized like a monkey. He likes bananas, and he looks like one too. His goal? To be the ultimate catcher. The ace, Eyeshield 21. He’s the typical pushover MC that’s amazingly talented, but also doesn’t come across as having much of a personality outside of being kind to his teammates and his drive to win the Christmas bowl. Eyeshield 21 having a very bland personality is exactly why Hiruma’s more bombastic and explosive personality is needed to make the team interesting to watch. I could list the others, but they really can be said off in one liners. Delinquents, manager, idiot tight end, cheerleader, the small lineman, track team RB2, and a couple of others. Kurita and Musashi have more characterization since they’re part of the original Deimon Devil Bats along with Hiruma, with their own backstories and drama that gets explored more than the other characters do.

That being said, characters are fine, but the most important things are obviously the games. The anime does make intense matches involving the life or death of Deimon Devil Bat’s chance to go to the Christmas Bowl. This is what makes the show good. The fact that the opponents aren’t just nameless nobodies, but actual characters that have their own backstories and strengths, and you see them clash against the Devil Bats. Whether it is a strong line, defense, running backs, kickers, QBs, or WRs, each team has their own specialization, just like in regular football. Each team has their own ace, and each ace, along with a couple of other important members of the opponent’s team, are always introduced to the viewer before the game starts. Then, there’s the interaction and clashing between Deimon Devil bats and the other team.

Football’s a fairly varied game when it comes to strategies and rules, and the anime illustrates that perfectly. There’s a multitude of strategies and formations that are all viable to use, and each game’s always different. Each touchdown or point is painstakingly gained, and it’s not just “he ran down the center and scored” sort of deal. Honestly, even though I’m pretty familiar with American Football, some of the strategies, even I’m not familiar with. Man in motion, or onside kick, I had no idea they even existed. I mean, the NFL doesn’t even really permit onside kicks anymore like they did in the anime because the rules changed in 2018. Of course, with these strategies and clashing of teams with characters that have personality, games become nail biters and you’re curious as to what happens and who wins. The show does a good job of creating that tension that a close match should have.

Of course, Eyeshield 21 is good, but there are a fair bit of bad points. First comes the art and animation. It’s by no means the worst, but clearly, Eyeshield 21 isn’t amazing in terms of animation quality. It’s probably around average, probably even below. Animations are reused, people moving in place with some background SFX, or the background is just white. Not too many choreographed plays where you actually get to see players move smoothly like you would in other well-budgeted sports shows. The one and only time I thought something was animated well was when Kurita did his final play against Shinryuji.

There’s also filler. While filler episodes are easy to skip, there’s a lot of “half-filler” BS that the show implements, like adding completely unnecessary melodrama to certain episodes that are there to just fill up time and waste your time. Dialogue is drawn out and the same things basically get repeated. People act more immaturely and are more prone to anger, and more one dimensional than the source material for there to be more content. This is especially bad in the relationship between Sena and Riku. There’s this whole backstory that no one cares about that was dragged on and on with Sena, Mamori, and Riku that never happened in the manga. Also, despite Riku getting 10x more screen time than the manga, they decide to also make him doubly more immature. He loses his cool when playing against Sena in a match and is put on the bench to settle down. This never happens in the manga, because in the manga, Riku’s not an idiot who can’t reign his emotions in. Of course, the moments between matches are where the filler mostly resides. Again, random events that get prolonged just a bit too long or dialogue that’s extremely pointless and rehashed over and over again in order to fill in those precious minutes of complete nothingness.

So, do I recommend the manga over the anime? Eh, up to you. I think all of the changes that the anime made were way worse, and the pacing is a lot slower than it should be at times. But, when it matters the most, the matches and the clashes between teams shown in animation to me, feel a lot more exciting in the anime. Plus, Hiruma’s voice acting is just way too good to pass up. Please do, however, pick up the manga where the anime left off after finishing this 145 episode run.

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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 ...

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Sep 3, 2021

UltraReviewShow

Not Recommended

Preliminary (14/145 eps)

I would strongly recommend reading the manga instead of watching the anime. The anime, for some reason, changed a lot of the early stuff, making the bully characters way more over the top and irredeemable, which causes some problems later on. It also goes too hard on making the main character seem like a generic helpless victim early on.

If you do end up enjoying it, the anime doesn't go to the end, so you'd have to switch to the manga at that point anyway. I find the story, characters, and art better in the manga. The series is enjoyable even though I'm not a big ...

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Eyeshield 21

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