Eye-Shield 21 Image via Wikipedia

Introduction

There was a time when I thought that American Football sucks. Why?? It was simply because I never understood the game. It all looked so boring until one day I read a manga which totally changed my view and made me see American Football in a new light.

The name of that manga is “Eye Shield 21”. When I heard the name for the first time I had no idea that it is a sports manga related to American Football. I actually thought it was some kind of assassin related manga, eye shield 21 being the code name (me and my imagination). Later I found out what it was all about and out of curiosity decided to read few chapters. Before I knew I was already hooked with it and announced it to be one of my favorite sports manga.

The Shonen Jump manga Eye shield 21 is written by Riichiro Inagaki and illustrated by Yusuke Murata. The manga is published in English by Viz Media. The manga got so popular that it was turned into anime movie, anime series (145 episodes in total), several video and trading card game.

According to Wikipedia the 25 volumes of manga was actually sold over 16 million copies in Japan and the number of children playing American football doubled over the 4 year course when the manga was being published. The anime version, produced by NAS and animated by Studio Gallop, premiered across Japan on TV Tokyo from April 6, 2005, and ended March 19, 2008 with episode 145. The anime is sponsored by NFL Japan.

Anyways, this is not important. I just wanted you to know that this manga is not a no-named boring manga but a very famous one.

Content

The story of Eye shield 21 revolves around our main character Sena Kobayakawa, a physically weak and mentally not-very-confident guy. After his middle school he gets chance in Deimon Private Senior High School. There he for the first time joins (by force from the evil genius Yoichi Hiruma) a sporting club. Apparently he was chosen because over the years while he was completing errands for bullies he had developed extraordinary speed. This gets spotted by the captain of football team (Yoichi Hiruma) and thus he gets recruited.

But the origin of eye shield 21 is a bit more complicated. Since Sena has such good speed it is natural that other clubs would want him to join their clubs. In order to prevent that Sena becomes the manger of the team in public while he secretly helps out the team wearing the green-colored tinted helmet to hide his identity. His position becomes the running back because of his speed and gets a shirt number of 21. And so their captain names him eye shield 21 from Notre Dom (the last part was to scare people, since Notre Dom is actually a pretty famous American school).

Yoichi Hiruma Image via Wikipedia

Later when they time Sena’s run they find out that he can run 40 yard in 4.2 seconds. The high school record in Japan is 4.4 seconds (by Shin from Ouja Knights). This gives their captain a new hope to win the nationals. So they aim for the Christmas bowl ( the once in a year occasion where the east Japan champion clashes with west Japan champion). But unfortunately they lose in their first spring tournament against the Ouja Knights (that’s right, Shin plays for them).

Luckily, the spring tournament was not that important. The fall tournament is the one that decides who goes to Christmas Bowl. And so within the short amount of time they undergo special training in order to build a strong team.

I am not going to tell you what will happen next. You have to read the manga to find out. But I will tell you the twists.

In all the matches that they play, they are always against the odds. Their opponents will always be stronger than them or they will have some kind of trouble. In this kind of situation it’s not only the speed of Sena that saves them (or else it would turn super boring), it is their captain and his tactics that turns around the tide of the game. I could never predict what would happen next. It is that kind of manga.

The Eye-shield 21 is not just a fake name made by Hiruma. Instead it is a shadow of a true story. There really was a guy in Notre Dom who was Japanese and so strong that he was passed down with the legendary title of Eye-shield 21. Fake boasting never works so Hiruma used this to scare down opponents. But later Sena finds out that the real Eye-shield 21 is in Japan now and he wants his name back. But Sena can’t back down now, can he??

Another interesting twist is when his childhood friend comes in the story. This is no ordinary friend but the one who taught Sena how to “run”. Now he is in opposing team. Can Sena show the ultimate respect to his teacher by surpassing him??

There are lots of other twists but I can’t possibly tell you every single one of them. And Sena is not the only hero here. All the members of the team has special ability with their own dream and history. Their side story is also truly one of a kind.

Conclusion

This manga is very educational. When I started to read this manga I had no idea about American Football. But by the time I finished it I was well informed about it. So even if you don’t know anything about American Football you can still read it.

The manga is also completed so you don’t have to wait for chapters and worry in anticipation.  It’s also extremely funny and there is a bit of mixture of emotions. You know love, friendship and stuff.

But the thing I love the most about eye-shield is the flow of the story. Its totally unpredictable. Power and speed is important but what won them games was tactics. And I am amazed by that, so unpredictable and exciting. Just read it. Its only 333 chapters long (that’s why its so fast pace).

You can read it from One manga.com:

http://www.onemanga.com/Eyeshield_21/

Let me know of your reactions about the manga. I am sure you will like it. Its awesome!!!

Image via Wikipedia