Eyeshield 21

Eyeshield 21 is a sports manga that focuses on high school students and American football. That fact alone often turns people away usually because they are not interested in sports and understandably assume a manga about sports would be uninteresting. This is far from the truth. Eyeshield 21 has such a wonderful story, good pacing and length, well developed and in depth characters, and fantastic art style that whether or not the viewer likes football is irrelevant. Those who dive into Eyeshield 21 and stick with it will most certainly have a nice payoff and will remember the series for years to come. The focal pointof the series is the Deimon Devil Bats team as a whole. Technically Sena Kobayakawa is the main character however almost all of the other team members are treated equally in level of importance of development. The writer, Riichiro Inagaki, also takes the time to show the other rival teams, their back stories, and what they're all about. Aside from the Deimon Devil Bats, rival teams usually only have 1-4 characters that will be named and have any sort of dialogue or back story. Throughout the series' course it introduces a wide array of characters but not too fast or too numerous that you would be overwhelmed. Eyeshield 21 is a mixture of drama, action, and comedy. This series generally avoids ecchi, fan service, and romance. The story is deep but also simple. It's centered around a tournament and the characters walk you through it as well as walk you through each individual football match so you'll be able to moderately follow even if you're not football savvy. There are many unexpected turns and twists not just during the matches but also with the characters themselves. Riichiro Inagaki does a fantastic job at delivering a completely believable cast and world. The pacing and overall length of the series is excellent. It's not too long or too short. It gives you everything it has and doesn't overstay it's welcome. The ending is satisfactory and even gives you some bonus pages that tell you the fates of the characters. The artist of Eyeshield 21 is Yusuke Murata. His art style starts off a bit rough and sketchy but still pleasant. Throughout the course of the series it evolves and becomes more cleaner and sharp. Murata is skilled in being able to draw different faces and body types and is able to create memorable and unique designs making the world of Eyeshield 21 all the more believable. Murata's art really makes the comedic scenes pop out and is able to so skillfully illustrate different emotions that can range from downright silly to dead serious or anything required of him. His color spreads are absolutely breath taking. Full of detail and life. He always puts all his effort into every panel of Eyeshield 21. A possible way to describe his style is "pretty shounen" or maybe "cute shounen". There's enough for those who desire a shounen look as well as those who are drawn to a sort of shojo style. Eyeshield 21's strongest attribute is probably it's colorful characters. They come from all different walks of life all with their own goals, weaknesses, and strengths, some of which you may even be able to understand on a personal level. Some characters that you may have thought were one dimensional and easy to read will end up having more depth than you first assumed. Eyeshield 21 tackles on many different types of personalities and mindsets. You'll see examples of inferiority complexes, egotistical monsters, a strong desire to achieve, and much more. Some characters have more depth than others who sometimes just serve as support but they are just as likable as any of the fleshed out ones. The entire cast is likable and even the most cold hearted villains you'll learn to love for one reason or another. Watching these characters grow and having different kinds of people come into contact with one another and seeing who triumphs is one of the great joys of the series. I think this series will be a nice surprise to anyone who gives it a fair shot. It provides so many desirable attributes for a manga that I wonder how someone couldn't possibly enjoy it. Great art, good story, fantastic and memorable characters, what more could you want? In comparison to every other manga I've read this has made the greatest impact on me. It will always be in my mind. I simply cannot ever forget what this series has given me. I've re-read it several times already and I will continue to do so. Most manga I don't care if I physically own or not but with this series I simply need it in physical form. Eyeshield 21 will always be that manga I recommend to all my friends and consistently praise above all else. I don't personally like football....but Eyeshield 21 managed to become my favorite manga of all time and it always will be.

First time writing a review but since this manga didn't have that many I thought I could try Story I think this is quite a realistic manga. Of course it's not that realistic in comedy and with what happens to the characters, but the focus, American football, is realistic. At least I think. It's hid under the veil of shounen, where all attention is given to single persons or groups at a time, where time seems to stop as people discuss about what's happening and sometimes seem to read each others thoughts while doing that. Even with all that the game is not supernatural or anything. Butsometimes it's hard to remember what's REALLY happening, as in if the reader could zoom out and see the field like it's seen on television. Especially the formations get a bit too little attention since you can't help but sometime think "where the hell did he come from?", "what was happening in the center?". But I believe the writer knew what was happening, he just did a conscious decision to not share everything in order to make it more shounen like. But boy does the shounen bring out some of the most epic moments. Sometimes the despair in front of practically certain loss makes you want to just give up and check how it's really going to end. Every point the enemy makes feels like someone is pulling YOUR stomach and you start to question "it's just football. It's not like you're gonna die." But that's just a fleeting thought before you remember that emotions really are powerful in sports if you're playing seriously. The power-ups are a bit unrealistic in the sense that there is a quite strict weak-strong scale between some people. And even when it isn't that strict it's hard to notice, since those many "normal" plays aren't shown. Nevertheless, no one can change physical attributes like muscle strength with some super training overnight, often it's all about mind, will and technique. What one can do when it's just impossible to win in physical prowess. On a side note I was a bit disappointed the hints of relationships and drama never bore any fruit. Art The art is very clean and good. I guess it sometimes feels bland since it's not that unique, but the quality is unyielding. The action scenes burst with athlete's anatomy and speed, and the comedy is highlighted well with different stylizations Character The characters are different and there are quite many of them. Everyone have their own struggles and motives when playing football. And it's not just the protagonist's team members, Deimon Devil Bats, but other teams as well. And even those supporting characters whose stories aren't told stay true to themselves. Especially Devil Bats' quarterback Hiruma uses in a genius way his team mates and enemies personalities in his unbelievable schemes. That wouldn't work if the characters' personalities didn't work. The Devil Bats, who are a hastily collected ragtag team, face more and more fierce enemies often so they mostly try to cope with their own weaknesses and become stronger. But still the these personal struggles often times manage to be unique and even tearjerking. And with the other characters included they'e stories are nicely versatile. Enjoyment In one or two matches the switching from hope to despair happened so many times it was starting to get a bit too agitating. And I thought this manga might have given more if I had played football, since it was sometimes hard to get the whole picture. Other than that it was very enjoyable and I wanted to keep on reading. Overall The ending made it clear that these people will keep on playing astonishing and unbelievable matches in their universe. It's not like it ended midway but you just can't help but have a bittersweet, heartrending feeling when you think that you can never hear those stories. And that is a testimony of a fantastic manga.

Eyeshield 21 is basically about a timid boy who is forced to join the high school football team by a devilish bully and a gentle giant. At first, I didn't really want to read this manga because it was about football, which I don't really enjoy. But then, I just decided to give it a try. From the very beginning, I really enjoyed it. Eyeshield 21's characters are lovable and unique. I thought this manga was great right from the start. Story: I thought the story was very enjoyable. At some points, the most unexpected thing happened which made me have to keep on reading. Some things mademe laugh so hard I started crying. When something bad happened, I started actually crying. Although the plot isn't the most original for a sports manga, I thought it was still great, so I give it a 9/10. Art: The artist does a good job drawing the characters, but nothing really stands out to me that much. I think the art is better than other sports manga, but compared to other shounen manga, it's quite basic, but still good. 8/10. Characters: Eyeshield 21 has a diverse group of characters. I can't help but love all the characters and the things they bring to the manga. The characters are what I love most about Eyeshield 21. A couple of them are a bit cliche, but are still great. The part about the characters that amazed me the most was how much they grew throughout the series. I give the characters 10/10 Enjoyment: I thought this series was very enjoyable. Re-reading it is still fun after 2 times around. I thought every aspect of this manga was enjoyable: the characters, the jokes, the story...10/10 I highly suggest this manga to pretty much everyone. It's great, so just give it a try even though it is about football. Who knows? This manga may be better than you think it is. That's what happened to me.

Eyeshied 21 is an American Football themed manga where a few hopefuls try to recruit and mature a team together for their joint goal of becoming the national champions. [10] : Art Thankfully the art of Eyeshield 21 is at the top of it's genre. Amazing action sequences, along with detailed shading and unique characters. The art will keep you reading long enough to appreciate the series even if a football-themed manga didn't initially appeal to you. Being a shounen series naturally there are "special moves," which are brought to life in an imaginative manner with this great art style. [9] : Character I feel likein the Eyeshield 21 universe, each character comes across as unique. The design for each character is well done, and overall very impressive. Where the character department starts to earn more of an 9, as opposed to a 10, is lack of development for certain characters (main characters not on the football team). The motivations for the characters although straight forward are well represented, and there isn't much room for criticism. There are certain areas that could have been expanded on, but despite it's length the series remains very on-task and I feel like some character backgrounds were left short deliberately, which didn't take away from the story as a whole. I felt one well-done and essential element to the characters was how they were introduced. In order for it to feel believable, there was often set-up before they faced each new team. The preview of characters talents or given examples of their notoriety in a natural sensible way, before they came into contact with the main cast, made it so you as a reader could be accepting of their power level (a level you identify that the main characters have worked so hard to achieve). [9] : Story The story for Eyeshield 21 is superb. The primary goal for the main characters is to become national champions, and in order to accomplish it they need to assemble a football team. The story follows the characters as they at first merely try to find fillers so they themselves can participate and carry their team. However, it develops as they find individuals with specific talents to compliment a certain role of the team. With each of the characters coming on board for their own reasons in this well-known "join up" style of story building (used in other manga such as One Piece, or Yu-Yu Hakusho) the team is finally given shape. More than just any of the characters individual dreams or motivations alone, they give their all for the sake of each other and the team as they innovate, train, and face opponents on and off the field. If this style of storyline progression appeals to you as it does to me, you're in for a real treat as Eyeshield 21 executes it in impressive and compelling fashion. [10] : Overall All in all, Eyeshield 21 is a very well drawn manga that goes far beyond it's underestimated sports-anime genre. It's compelling storytelling coupled with all the bad-ass shounen elements readers have come to love ingrained into these unique characters keeps the series in my personal top 5.