All about Eyeshield 21 by: Inagakiri Ichirou and Murata Yuusuke

I still can't believe it! A manga about American Football! Woot! My other favorite sport. In Japanese it's called "Amefuto" and I have to say that this story is hilarious! I thought I'll was one of the funniest sports manga I've read so far but... Eyeshield 21 made me laugh out loud.

Eyeshield 21 came out in early 2002 in Weekly Shonen Jump. And the manga came out in the December 2002 published by Jump Comics. The creators, Inagakiri Ichirou and Murata Yuusuke, like Katsura Masakazu before them, were the winners of the contest Jump holds every year for aspiring mangakas.

Eyeshield is of course, their winning story... And so what is Eyeshield about? Well, it's about this boy named Kobayakawa Sena, who is rather small and weak and gets treated as a "Pashin" by his so called Friends. A "Pashin" is basically someone that does things for someone else. Sena's "friends" treat him as a slave and would always order him to do things for them. Sena of course, does everything for them because he doesn't want to get beat up.

Then one day, when one of his "friends" took his cellphone away from him, Sena got mad. After all, the cell phone contained the number of the girl he likes and a new friend he met named Kurita Ryokan, who is rather large and is in the Amefuto Club. Sena was not going to let them have his cell phone. So, for the first time ever, he took a bold move and took it back and ran away as fast as he can. His friends tried to catch up with him but like Forrest Gump before him, Sena can RUN! And he left them all behind.

Hiruma Youchi saw this whole display while he was walking around and immediately sought after Sena after he saw how fast he can run. And knew immediately that Sena was the key to their hapless two member Amefuto Club. The other much nicer member of the club, Kurita, tried to talk to Sena about joining but once Sena saw how "Dangerous" American Football is, he refused. To quote him: No way in HELL, will I ever do that... Sena, though spoke too soon. Hiruma, you see, is widely known in their highschool, for scaring the shit out of people. If you don't do what he wants he has a spare machine gun to scare you, a vicious dog named Keroberos to bite you, and a handy dandy, black book to black mail you. And so, armed with those three things, Sena had no choice but to join the Deimon Devil Bats football club. Thinking that he can just be the manager. But Hiruma had other intentions because he knew that Sena, the one with the "Golden Legs", who can only bench press 10 pounds! Was their "secret" to finally win the football tournament...

Since Eyeshield 21 is still new, Akatsuki Manga's IRC channel only translated up to 11 chapters so far. If you do want to check it out though, this is their IRC address #akatsuki-manga @ irc.mircx.com and visit their website at http://www.akatsukimanga.com. Read it! I assure you, you'd laugh your ass off. Hiruma is hilarious. How can you not go wrong with "FUCKIN' KILL THEM!!" as your motivation to beat your opponent? To Hiruma winning is the most important and if you don't win, well, he'll fuckin' kick your ass! Yeah! Woot! I like that personality. Hiruma sort of looks like Tasuki with fangs and everyting. Kurita looks like a Top. Yes, a Top. You know that toy. And Sena, well, Sena looks like your average weak and skinny boy that becomes great in the end. I'll definately keep reading this manga and if there will be an anime in the future, I would totally watch it.

Well I love football, if you don't know that already. It's right up there with basketball. I guess it's because I'm from Wisconsin and being from Wisconsin you almost instantly have to be a Green Bay Packer fan.. (That's why the layout is green!) I remember when I was in 8th grade, our English tacher who was a baseball and football fanatic took all of us to a Brewers baseball game and most importantly, he took us to the legendary Lambeau Field, the Packer Stadium where the tour guide told us NOT to touch the sacred grass of the football field when we were there. Of course, being 8th graders and being told NOT to touch it, we had to touch it and pick the grass right? It was great though. I know many people aren't football fans but WOW... I love it maybe because when I lived there, and when the Packers had a winning season everyone seemed so happy and friendly. And the Packers are always great even when they suck. Yes, I am contradicting myself. They better win the Superbowl again. I mean, the legendary NFL throphy is named after Vince Lombardi. The legendary coach of the Packers! Woot!

Anyway, back to Eyeshield 21, since like I mentioned, the story is still new... I decided to scan images of the three main characters from my Shonen Weekly comic. Yeah, as you can tell, unlike the English Shonen Jump the Japanese version is printed in different paper. That's probably why it's cheaper. So here is, Hiruma "Fang Boy with the machine gun" Youchi, Kobayakawa "Eyeshield 21" Sena, and Kurita "spin me around" Ryokan. Just click on them for a larger image.


Hiruma and Sena

Kurita

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