Today I have the pleasure to tell you about my favorite manga (yes, favorite): Eyeshield 21. Those of you who don't know it will think it's a common manga about sports - American football, specifically. But this manga is much, much more than that... It's a story of growth.
When I started reading it, I had no interest in American football. I knew this work because I saw some episodes of the anime adaptation that I liked very much, but unfortunately that adaptation never reached the end of the story. I never imagined that the manga would hide an incredible story, full of emotions and endearing characters (so, sadly, the anime adaptation is very poor in comparison, both in the story and in the artistic part).
The authors of this manga are the great Riichiro Inagaki (writer) and Yusuke Murata (illustrator) whose style you can recognize thanks to One Punch Man, because Murata is the mangaka of this work, successfully adapted to anime by Madhouse Studio in 2015.
Back to Eyeshield 21, the protagonist of this story is a young man named Sena Kobayakawa, who is entering Deimon High School and happily discovers that he was accepted into the institution. Sena is shy, fearful, a victim of bullying, and he's used as the "errand boy;" he has a submissive personality and is not capable of taking initiative: he lets others make decisions for him.
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By the end of this manga, Sena will have evolved into a young man with great confidence in himself (and his friends). He is aware of his abilities and makes the most of them. He is determined and does not let himself be bowed down. But how is a character able to change so much? I'll tell you all about it here.
The first determining factor in Sena's transformation is one of the most important characters in this story: Yoichi Hiruma. This man is described as a demon (which Yusuke Murata highlighted with his design), a man who is capable of anything to achieve his goals. Brilliant strategist, firearms, gambling and American football enthusiast. Hiruma has in his possession a notebook in which he writes down people's darkest secrets and then blackmails them and uses them for his own convenience. What most people don't know is that behind that "evil" façade, Hiruma really is a good-hearted man who would go to any extreme for the sake of his friends.
He is not the fastest man, nor the strongest, but his physical disadvantages are compensated by his brain; he is the man whose effort manages to defeat natural talent: Hiruma plays with the cards he has been dealt and makes sure he wins with them.
Yoichi Hiruma is the captain and quarterback of the Deimon High School American football team: the Deimon Devil Bats. His dream is to play in the Christmas Bowl (the most important high school American football championship in Japan) with his two best friends, Musashi and Kurita.
In order to achieve this dream, Hiruma needs more players in his team. At the beginning, he bribes members of other clubs in the school to play the games; however, with time, valuable members with great hidden talents are added, who thanks to Hiruma's direction and the experience of each game, manage to form a great team that goes from "always losing" to being the Christmas Bowl champion. This was not achieved without much effort and, literally, much blood, sweat and tears. The message the Devil Bats leave us is that those who have tasted defeat and are able to learn and grow from it, become the greatest winners.
And the key element for Hiruma, with whom he begins to turn his dream into reality, is the discovery of Sena Kobayakawa. Hiruma tries to recruit him when he joins Deimon (like all the new students), and finally Sena decides to be the secretary of the team, thanks to Kurita.
However, Hiruma accidentally discovers Sena's great ability to run at high speeds. Forces him to be the team's running back under a secret identity (so other teams won't recruit him): Eyeshield 21. What began as an obligation for Sena, who was filled with terror at the thought of the tackles he would be the victim of during the matches, evolves into a love of sport and confidence in his own abilities.
Sena starts training and striving to win. He begins to have confidence in his line of defense to protect him from tackles, in his quarterback to follow his lead (and his implausible plans) and win the game. In short, Sena learns to have self-confidence based on trust in his friends; he learns what it means to belong to a team and for everyone to work towards a common goal.
I want to talk about another character who is essential for Sena's growth: Mamori Anezaki. This young woman is a friend of Sena since they were children and has always overprotected him. She defends him from bullies and advises him not to hurt himself and to be careful. When Sena joins the Devil Bats' team as "secretary," Mamori is filled with concern and decides (once again, thanks to Hiruma's manipulations) to join the team as manager.
Little by little, Sena becomes less dependent on Mamori, "lets go of her hand," and faces everything on his own. Mamori ignores that Eyeshield 21's identity is that of her childhood friend, and it is at the moment when he decides to tell her that both he and she become mature. Mamori understands, finally, that her friend is not a weak child who needs to be protected, and that her excessive concern was bad for him.
One of the most important relationships in this story is that between Hiruma and Mamori. The two characters are very different; the opposite of each other. For this reason, they fight constantly. However, as the story progresses we can see that the relationship between these characters changes.
As the team manager, Mamori is in constant contact with Hiruma and is his right hand. They both analyze the strategies, the opponents' plays, they take care of the Devil Bats; in short, they are like the parents of the team. Mamori develops a secret sign language that only she and Hiruma can understand, so that she can communicate with him from the bench.
As time goes by, Mamori begins to understand Hiruma: what his personality is like, why he does what he does, and even his feelings. She knows how to approach and care for him, and Hiruma trusts her and makes sure to keep her close at all times. Just as they are the opposite of each other, they fit together like two pieces of a puzzle.
In the end, Mamori decides to enter the same university that Hiruma attends to continue working together. This couple is not "canon," but the authors of the manga made sure that the feelings between them were evident throughout the story; they also reinforced this in the anime.
Eyeshield 21 is a manga that is full of stories and characters that evolve in an incredible way; not only Sena, Hiruma and Mamori: but all the characters in this manga have an impressive growth.
Would you like to know more? Read this wonderful manga!
