アイシールド21

EYESHIELD 21

ANIME

STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
145
RELEASE
March 19, 2008
LENGTH
23 min

DESCRIPTION

Welcome To the Gridiron of the Damned! Huge hulking bodies throw themselves at each other, while a tiny lithe body runs between them for the goal! No, it’s not a game of football, it’s Sena Kobayakawa trying to evade the monstrous Ha-Ha brothers down the halls of Deimon High School! But wait! Sena’s incredible skills at not getting caught have been spotted by the devilish (possibly actually demonic) captain of the school’s embryonic American style football team, and when Sena asks to be the teams manager, he gets thrust onto the field as a running back instead! But there are two BIG catches: first, to keep the identity of their new “star” player an absolute secret, Yoichi makes Sena wear an opaque visor on his helmet and gives him the alias of “Eyeshield 21.” And the second catch? Well, in order to hit his fastest “speed of light” running mode, Sena usually has to be absolutely terrified. Not that THAT will be a problem with the monstrous players that he’ll soon find himself running from! The insanity hits the streets when the feet meet the cleats in EYESHIELD 21!

(Source: Sentai Filmworks)

CAST

Youichi Hiruma
Atsushi Tamura
Sena Kobayakawa
Miyu Irino
Mamori Anezaki
Aya Hirano
Tarou Raimon
Kappei Yamaguchi
Ryokan Kurita
Kouichi Nagano
Gen Takekura
Rikiya Koyama
Suzuna Taki
Shouko Nakagawa
Seijuro Shin
Naoya Goumoto
Agon Kongou
Takuya Kirimoto
Kazuki Juumonji
Takanori Hoshino
Haruto Sakuraba
Mamoru Miyano
Patrick Spencer
Kousuke Kujirai
Hayato Akaba
Daisuke Hirakawa
Manabu Yukimitsu
Masaru Hotta
Daikichi Komusubi
Sakaki Hidenori
Shun Kakei
Kousuke Takeuchi
Riku Kaitani
Yuuki Masuda
Shien Mushanokoji
Yuuya Uchida
Rui Habashira
Kouji Yusa
Kengo Mizumachi
Daisuke Ono
Reiji Maruko
Tomokazu Sugita
Cerberos
Masami Iwasaki
Natsuhiko Taki
Kouji Ochiai
Jo Tetsuma
Eiji Takemoto
Koutaro Sasaki
Eiji Moriyama

EPISODES

Dubbed

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RELATED TO EYESHIELD 21

MANGA ComedyEyeshield 21

Cover Art for Eyeshield 21: Maboroshi no Golden Bowl

MOVIE SportsEyeshield 21: Maboroshi no Golden Bowl

Cover Art for Eyeshield 21 Jump Festa 2005

SPECIAL ActionEyeshield 21 Jump Festa 2005

Cover Art for Eyeshield 21: 21st ANNIVERSARY PV

ONA ComedyEyeshield 21: 21st ANNIVERSARY PV

REVIEWS

Pandoras
79/100
American football in Anime wohoooooo there we go again .
Ok, so for a review on this anime. As far as sports-driven themed anime series, Eyeshield 21 does not disappoint its audience. In a nutshell, Eyeshield 21 is the story of Kobayakawa Sena and his rise from a scared little kid to a full-fledged ace running back that looks down linebackers and defensemen 20x (no joke) his size.

The story is pretty simple. Our protagonist team (Deimon) wants to make it to the championship game (in Japan known as the Christmas Bowl) and needs to make it this season because all of the seniors will be retiring the season after. The anime does a good job on giving a lot of background information on each of the characters as well as the characters on the other teams Deimon faces. And the good part is that they don't give it away all at once, but in bits and pieces which wets your appetite a little more each time, in a good way.

Characters: The strongest point of Eyeshield 21, the characters. Every character has something to like, something to hate, or something that will at least make you FEEL for that character. Whether it is a positive or negative feeling, it is much better to feel negative towards a character than to simply not care. You will most likely find one character that you can relate to in every situation. Also, before we go into this any more, Hiruma will end up being your favorite character. You will see why as the show progresses, but just know and be prepared. Anyway, every character has some sort of different trait that makes them different from any other character. Sena, for instance, has the Shonen persistence that every main character seems to have. That always present drive to get better, get stronger, get faster, what ever the situation. Kurita has more compassion than his weight in Valentine's Day chocolates. Mamori has the motherly caring and protective instincts (especially towards Sena). That is why every character in Eyeshield is so great. Every character, from the main character Sena to a supporting character like Taki, has something there. There are no wasted characters. While some shows like Bleach have a large cast but don't do anything with half of them, Eyeshield uses it's large cast perfectly. Just when you think they have forgotten about Taki, he catches a pass for a 13 yard gain. Just when you think the Devil Bats will never throw a pass in this game, they throw a touchdown. Nothing is left wasted, and anyone can put themselves in any other characters shoes.

ART: The art was done wonderfully. Yes, it could have been better - but for an anime about a sport that most people assume isn't played in Japan, it's very good. I don't know who the animators are, but they did a very good job with this series.

SOUND: I loved all of the OPs and EDs, well except for the two songs used in the last match against Oujou - but the themes were very well done, for the most part. My personal favorite, lyric-wise, would be "Blaze Away," and I have to admit that it's probably the best ED ever in terms of lyrics because you can hear the emotion behind them. In terms of actual sound and melody, I'd prefer "A Day Dreaming..." any day. However, all the themes were wonderfully performed - even if they wouldn't all fit everyone's taste, anyone who watches the series and actually listens to the theme music will be able to pick at least one that they like. The BGM was beautifully done too, although it's a shame you never hear the lyrics to "Midnight Sunshine" in the actual series because the vocalists (the seiyuus for Sakuraba, Shin, Takami, Otowara, and Wakana - I believe, although I'm not sure if Wakana was really featured) did an amazing job on it, but "Be Survivor" and the other songs featured throughout the series were quite entertaining as well.

Teams - Yes, they're getting their own section. The Deimon Devil Bats are the main team in this series, and the most developed one. You see their growth from the original two (Kurita and Hiruma) to almost full team. You can't help but sympathize with them most of the time, and the producers made it hard for fans to not side with them for each and every game. The second most-developed team is obviously the Oujou White Knights. It's clear, throughout the whole series, that the creators intend for most, if not all, of the viewers to fall in love with both Oujou and Deimon - possibly because they knew the anime series would end where it did and wanted to make it a bit more climactic. Kyoshin Poseidon were there mostly to raise the self-confidence of the "Deimon Chibis" since almost all of the starters were 2 meters tall. Shinryuji was there to show how a hard-working team like Deimon can beat even the 'strongest' team in Kanto by focusing all of their strength on winning. Bando was there mostly to show how Musashi was necessary for Deimon to actually guarantee any kind of winning game; they also helped Sena gain the confidence to tell everyone who's behind the Eyeshield 21 mask. The other teams mainly helped Sena to grow as a football player

Overall this anime, just hearing that this anime is a sport anime about football, don't let that put you off! This is an incredible anime, having everything an entertaining anime of this genre needs. I HIGHLY recommend anyone and everyone to watch this anime, even if you are not a big fan of anime of this genre (in case you have no options.)
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atomicqwark
93/100
A great show, a must watch
I am not a fan of American football, or rather I never even tried to watch one single match, let's just say I wasn't interested. I started the serie because I was curious and wow what a slap! I ended up watching some "all you need to know about football" youtube videos just to be sure I am catching up and able to understand everything that is going on in the field.

Within 3 episodes I was already, completely addicted... (so addicted in fact that right after finishing the anime, who doesn't cover the entire manga, I started from the beginning and read it all.

Everything has been done perfectly in that manga, from the omnipresent ridiculous humour that, if it doesn't make you laugh will put you on a good euphoric mood, to making vibrate your sensitive cord and make you cry, all characters are so attaching that we don't follow their adventure we LIVE the adventure with them, I think I was more excited/panicked than a real player at the end of most of their matchs, that always manage to brings a climax so strong and even if following the shonen codes, you will have some surprises.

The also dosed perfectly the courage, the strength of friendship and the supremacy of self without making it cringe (yes, I am pointing my finger at you naruto), really a magical recipe that make it an unforgettable experience.

The main character Sena, make me think of Ippo from another excellent manga I recommend about boxing (Hajime no Ippo):
- shy and introverted in life...
- ... demon once he's got his sport dress on
- having good skills for the sport practiced based on event that happened through his life
Another character that I love is Hiruma, the quarterback of the team, who is an evil (yet nice), clever and calculating person, who's got matter to blackmail almost anybody on the country in order to get what he needs, he is motivated by victory and will do whatever is needed, he is very difficult to surprise and just like for a chess game always got 3 plays of advance on the enemy.

A brilliant aspect of that serie is the rivalry between Sena and Shin, Sena is small and fast but Shin is a warmachine, he is almost as fast as Sena, almost as strong as the strongest of their team, a kind of mister perfect, so it's very early on the manga that Sena realise that he won't be able to beat Shin on everything and be a better player, he can only be quicker than him and that's his goal... for the rest, he will have to rely on his team and that team spirit, the way they work, the way they learn to know each other is really one of the strongest point of the manga.

Doesn't matter if you don't like sport mangas, or American football, give it a try, you won't regret it and I am weighting my words wisely when I say that it is the ONE F****G PIECE of the sport mangas.
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