Shella's World

Eyeshield 21 (アイシールド21, Aishīrudo Nijūichi^?) is a Japanese manga series written by Riichiro Inagaki and illustrated by Yusuke Murata. The series tells the story of Sena Kobayakawa, a introvert boy who joined the American football club. He initially joined the club as secretary, but after being coerced by Hiruma, turns out to play wearing an eyeshield and the number 21, under the pseudonym of "Eyeshield 21". Riichiro Inagaki chose American football as a central theme for Eyeshield 21 after realizing that it fit perfectly with the idea he had in mind for the series.
The manga was originally serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump from July 2002 to June 2009. The series consists of 333 chapters collected in 37 tankōbon volumes. In North America, the manga was released for Viz Media from April 2005 to October 2011. An anime adaptation consisting of 145 television episodes was directed by Masayoshi Nishida and Shin Katagai, and co-produced by TV Tokyo, NAS, and Gallop. The television series originally aired on Japan's TV Tokyo network from April 6, 2005 to March 19, 2008. It was later licensed in North America by Toonami Jetstream as a joint effort with NFL Rush and aired on December 17, 2007, but no more episodes was dubbed, as the Toonami Jetstream video-streaming service shut down. The anime series was streamed in English by Crunchyroll. The Eyeshield 21 franchise has spawned two original video animations (OVAs), audio albums, video games, and other merchandise.
In Japan, the Eyeshield 21 manga has been popular, selling over 20 million volumes as of June 2009. The manga and anime have been featured, at various time, in Top Ten of their respective media. The Eyeshield 21 anime has been watched by a large number of television viewers in Japan. Publications for manga, anime and others have commented on Eyeshield 21 manga. Positive response have focused on the artwork and characters from the series, while negative responses concern the non-football scenes.

PLOT

The plot of Eyeshield 21 revolves around a weak and non-assertive boy named Sena Kobayakawa who enters the high school of his choice, Deimon Private Senior High School, where his childhood friend Mamori Anezaki attended school the year before. His only remarkable physical abilities are his running speed and intense agility, the result of a school life spent complying with the demands of bullies. It was revealed later that a friend, Riku, taught him how to run fast to help him against bullies. His abilities quickly catch the eye of the high school's American football team captain Yoichi Hiruma, who forces Sena to join the Deimon Devil Bats as its running back.
To protect his identity from other teams who want to recruit him, Sena is forced to publicly assume the role of team secretary and enter the field wearing a helmet equipped with a green-tinted eyeshield in order to hide his features under the pseudonym of "Eyeshield 21." The makeshift team initially takes part in the spring football tournament hoping to win with through the strength of their new "secret weapon." However, the extremely weak team is eliminated early on by the Ojo White Knights, a powerhouse football team that focuses on defense.
After Deimon's defeat, the spring tournament is revealed as secondary in importance to the fall tournament, where the teams compete for the chance to play in the "Christmas Bowl," the high school football league championship. Hiruma, Kurita, and Sena regroup and slowly build a real team from other misfits and students looking to define themselves, such as Tarō "Monta" Raimon, a baseball player who can only catch, and the Ha-Ha Brothers. Other characters slowly join the team, and the series follows the building and growth of the Deimon Devil Bats and its members as well as various rival teams as they all strive to achieve their goal of playing in the Christmas Bowl.
Following the Christmas Bowl, Japan begins to gather the best football players to form a team that will represent Japan at the American Football Youth World Championship, where an MVP will be rewarded an NFL contract and $3 million. Team Japan manages to make it to the final against Team America. The result is that a final touchdown by Sena at the buzzer ties the score, and both teams are declared winners, since no one expected anyone to win against America; however, the two teams are unsatisfied with this and tear straight back onto the field for their own improvised "overtime," causing chaos with officials. It is unclear which teams won the unofficial extra period but Panther of Team America won the MVP trophy aloft, winning the pro contract with the San Antonio Armadillos.
The series concludes with Sena becoming the captain of the Devil Bats when Hiruma and Kurita go off to college. In his final year of high school, Sena is invited to Notre Dame High School by Clifford, therefore fulfilling Hiruma's proclamation at the beginning of the series: the famous Eyeshield 21 of Notre Dame High has been born. All of the main characters are shown in the final chapter to be in college or playing amateur-league football while maintaining a job.

Production

Before the series starts to be published regularly in the Weekly Shōnen Jump, Inagaki and Murata published two one-shots, called Eyeshield Part 1 (前編, Zenpen^?) and Part 2 (後編, Kōhen^?) for 14th and 15th issue of the magazine.^[1] Despite having never played American football, Riichiro Inagaki chose this theme after deciding that he wanted to create "a protagonist that was wimpy at the beginning, yet could perform outstandingly in a sports game" and with this premise in mind he decided that American football would be "a very suitable material."^[2] When originally creating Eyeshield 21 he said he was wary because he didn't want that his manga becoming "a simulator of football".^[3] Inagaki said that Eyeshield 21 is set in Tokyo, specifically, "but perhaps not in the center of the city—more in the suburbs." He added that this is "not very significant" and that aspects of the hometowns of the two creators are reflected in the setting.^[4]
During the Eyeshield 21's original run in the Weekly Shōnen Jump, Inagaki went several times to the United States. He went to see college football matches;^[5] he went to a space center for some reference materials that would serve as the basis for creating the Nasa Aliens.^[6] He went also too a military base as he needed to draw one when the Hiruma's background is revelead^[7] and watching a NFL game he noted that the players "passed an intimidating and powerful sensation" and said that they "were facing dinosaurs", and created Rikiya Gao.^[8]
Before being asked to work in Eyeshield 21 manga, Yusuke Murata had read some Inagaki's manga and noted that "had many cool design concepts of uniforms and equipment" and he stated "it could be turned into a great manga story", and he will "be happy to take the challenge"; eventually he was chosen.^[2] While illustrated chapters, Murata was used to make a lot of mistakes and his pollen allergy used to hurt him because whenever he made a mistake he inhaled dust from eraser.^[9][10] To drawn the characters' sketchs before sending them to the publisher, he used a mechanical pencil, which he considered special because it was given to him by Masanori Morita.^[11]