Eyeshield 21 21

So the battle with the Nagas continues.  I’m not entirely sure if I expected it to end with this volume or not.  I mean, I think every time I join a game in progress, I assume about 1/4 of the way through that it will have concluded at the end of the volume, but it is the way of shounen manga to leave cliffhangers, so I should probably never be surprised when things carry over into yet another volume.  But don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t feel like anything’s being drug out.  The pacing here is absolutely perfect, and even with just the one game, the chapters are filled with a ton of action and tight moments.

There was quite a cliffhanger at the end of the last volume, with Hiruma basically telling absolutely everybody that they were giving up because there was less than 1% of a chance of winning.  But with Hiruma, it’s a trick.  It’s always a trick.  I’m pretty sure that the team wasn’t going to lose to the Nagas (only because I can’t imagine what the series would be about without this tournament and without Hiruma), so I was certain they weren’t giving up.  Still, those were some strong words at the end of the last volume.

They do a good job tricking the Nagas throughout the volume, and eventually it comes down to the need to out-play them.  Can Sena and Monta outplay the two aces on the Nagas?  They’ll have to, of course, but it seems like it will take a physical toll on them.  Injury hasn’t really been addressed in the series so far, but it’s come up here with the possibility of Sena’s knees giving out on him.

Also, Yukimitsu!  Yukimitsu gets to play, and it’s really great.  If shounen sports manga can do anything right, they can make you really feel for the underdog.  Yukimitsu isn’t nearly as good as Agon, or ANYBODY, but he can outplay them in the right situations, and when he makes a key play and breaks down in tears while everybody cheers for him, the benchwarmer, as one of the new key players, it… just gets to you.

That’s not to say that the volume lacks comedy.  I died towards the end when even Hiruma reacts poorly to a bad and/or blunt idea Monta has.  Hiruma’s normal disappointed reactions involve guns, but this time, he’s just drawn with a comically blank face.  Hiruma’s never, EVER has a blank expression on his face, and it’s an absolutely perfect visual gag when it shows up here.  It’s like the artist was saving that expression up for a rainy day, when he knew the volume would need an extra laugh at the end.

Also, hey!  Who put a Moto Hagio reference in my Eyeshield 21?  I actually had to check, because I wanted to see if it was something that was in the Japanese edition too, that there was actually a chapter called “They Were 11.”  There was.  Now the question is, is it really a Moto Hagio reference, or just a coincidence?  Maybe a little of both?  They are spelled slightly differently in Japanese, but maybe it’s a common enough Japanese phrase that it’s a coincidence.  It seems like there could be more than one way to translate the phrase into English though, so maybe the link is intentional in the English version.  If that’s the case, congratulations are in order for me and the one other person who’s read English translations of both Moto Hagio and Eyeshield 21, because that’s a true “nary the twain shall meet” situation.

Eyeshield 21 20

Really, the best thing about this volume is the interview between Hiruma and Agon in the first chapter.  Both of them are so evil that they make the questions the high school girl asks them very entertaining.  The interview continues in the between chapter segments for the rest of the volume.  The answers for the star players from the other teams in the tournaents are also displayed… usually they’re all pretty amusing, but Hiruma often takes the cake.  The best question is something like “what was the most amount of money you ever spent on something,” and while most answers were along the lines of different amounts for shoes and workout equipment, Hiruma just said “an island.”  For some reason, that just struck my funny bone the right way.

After just a little bit of preliminary buildup, the game between the Devil Bats and the Nagas commences.  It’s decided that Yukimitsu will play in this game, which made me feel great since he’s so often shoved to the side and just WANTS IT so bad.  The Nagas make light of both him and Natsuhiko before the game starts, and it would please me greatly if both of them wound up being key to the defeat as opposed to the more standard Monta and Sena approach.

The Naga’s defeat is not looking so likely at this point, though.  Their star player, Agon, is just too good.  He’s got a history with Sena and Kurita, and is extremely arrogant and also just has god-given talent for any physical activity.  He seems to be defeating Deimon rather soundly through the entire first half of the game.  He even gets a few hits in on Hiruma, which is sort of amazing.

Things leave off on a not-too-reassuring note from Hiruma at the end of the volume.  But I’m still looking forward to what Yukimitsu will get to do, so maybe good things will happen.

Eyeshield 21 19

Holy crap guys.  This volume had an entire chapter IN COLOR in the middle.  Like, real color pages!  When I started reading it and noticed some of the pages had red and blue borders, I thought it was a trim error for some reason.  I was totally pleased with that, and I hope that it happens more often in other series as well.

Most of this volume is just the end of the game with the Bando Spiders.  Once the main conflict of a game has been laid out (in this case, Bando has great special teams, which makes for an annoyingly hard game), if the solution to the problem is too long in coming, I start to lose interest.  There was an additional conflict introduced when high winds started blowing in the middle of the game, but I was kind of disappointed with the impact this had on game play.  This is the last game before Nationals, so the game is really built up and stretched out, but ends halfway through the volume.

I mean, I can’t talk about the next part without spoiling that outcome, but I feel like the series spoils it itself since it’s still running TO THIS DAY in Japan and Hiruma’s still in it (who is set to retire after this season).  The celebrations are legendary after the game, though.  I feel like the could have been exaggerated a little more comically, but I was still pretty happy with them.  The color chapter in the middle contains several 1 and 2 page gag comics (which are always very funny in this series), then the first chapter of what I assume is going to be the Kanto tournament arc, where all the best players gather for the lottery to determine team placement.  The next game is against the guy who’s been talked up as a real jerk for the past several volumes, and I like that the end of the volume introduces a conflict along the lines of… who’s more evil, this guy or Hiruma.  The difference between the two is that Hiruma’s a funny kind of evil and the other guy is a “I’m going to literally gouge your eye out of your head” kind of evil.  I’m excited to see where that goes.

Eyeshield 21 18

Well, the big thing in this volume seems to be that Sena finally revealed himself.  The scene where the Devil Bats were being introduced on the field before the game with the Bando Spiders was the best.  Mamori’s reaction (and the subtle Hiruma/Mamori hint thrown in for good measure) was worth the wait, and I’m glad she dealt with things the way she did.

The best reaction was from his parents, though.  That just made me laugh.  I also like that Suzuna seems to be able to get away with calling Hiruma “Elf Boy” or something like that (part of me hopes that it was actually “elf friend,” but I don’t think that was the case).

The game itself is intense, as you can probably imagine.  The complication this time is that Bando is extremely good at special teams, so they always take possession of the ball and score a touchdown, and there’s just not much the other team can do about it.  I liked that the star player on the other team, the one who was not constantly coming his hair and talking about how cool he was, always related everything to music and nobody else seemed to like this very much.  In fact, he was constantly being called out because music just doesn’t have anything to do with football.

Most of all, I just feel genuinely good when I read this series.  Even with this volume, where Deimon is being totally stomped, the characters are just so good it’s just gratifying to read.  I love this series.

Eyeshield 21 17

This volume was AGONIZING.  The entire thing is the game with Seibu, and they swing so wildly between dominating and losing horribly that you just can’t read fast enough.  You want them to win so bad that you have to know right now whether or not some trick or other will succeed.

The end of the game was by far some of the most intense storytelling in the series yet.  Without spoiling much, there are two things that contribute to this.  One is a situation where, if a few plays don’t go as intended, Seibu may win the game by just letting the clock run out, which is always a strategy that bugs me in football.  Another tense moment comes when Monta is trying to make a catch.

If you follow this series, this volume is what you’ve been waiting for.  As good as everything else has been so far, this blows all of that totally out of the water.  It’s wonderful.

Eyeshield 21 16

And why not throw in a volume of Eyeshield 21 for the road?  I’ve been reading a lot lately, and I’m a bit behind in writing these (I still have the last three volumes of 3×3 Eyes from over a month ago to talk about), so I may as well sneak one last review in before bed.

So in case you were wondering, yes, after sixteen volumes of nothing but football, featuring solid volumes like this one where only about half or less of a game is played, this series is amazing.  We get the first half of the game with Seibu Wild Gunman, and there is a lot of focus on Yoichi Hiruma and how he plays the game.  Seibu is revealed to be a team that isn’t easily outsmarted, and Hiruma has a number of angles to play against them.  He genuinely fails a couple times, but never gives up in true Shounen Jump style.

Also, a new teammate for Deimon!  Hooray!

Eyeshield 21 15

I’m a bit behind on this series, which is sad because it’s still really good, unlike other, more popular Shounen Jump series which sucked after they’d run this long.  Really, this could be a veiled reference to many series, but since Bleach pissed me off lately and hasn’t been good in a long time, I’m thinking of that one in particular.

We get the end of the game with the Poseidons,  which is predictably epic.  I had forgotten about the rivalry between two of the players, and I was really pleased that it wound up being the deciding factor in the game, especially since it was a Devil Bat who is often overlooked.

Things are wound up for the next game when a character for Sena’s past is introduced and just happens to play on the Football team of the school Deimon’s up against next.  This is the kid who taught Sena how to run, so they’re going to have a little run-off.  We’ll see how that goes.

One of the more notable things in this volume, though, is the field day event which Hiruma exploits as a training session for the football team.  Hiruma, Baldy, and Manager wind up on the team against everyone else on the football team, and somehow Hiruma convinces the two mild-mannered characters to be totally scary for the duration of the field day.  It was one of those hilarious character situations which so few authors can pull off well, and just goes to prove once again that this series not only has great characters, but an awesome sense of humor.  Well, for the most part.  I… wish it were more sympathetic sometimes.  Especially… you know.  It’s really bad at some things.

At the very end, we get more Musashi stuff.  I hope he’s finally drug into things after 15 volumes.

Eyeshield 21 14

I was a little put off by this volume because it was JUST a football game.  The Poseidon game takes up the entire volume, with none of the cute inbetween stuff I like so much.  It was annoying too, because the volume ends without you knowing the outcome.  Argh.

On the other hand, it still does a fair job of spotlighting the characters while they play.  Of course Fatty Jr. gets the most spotlight, and much of the first half of the volume is spent on his struggle to break through the Poseidon techniques and height advantage et al.  We also get to see a lot of technique evolution from Monta and Sena, more Sena than Monta, but these three were spotlighted in particular to show that “size doesn’t matter,” since they are all three pretty short.  The Hah Brothers get a brief moment where we see them using the delinquent murder method in the background, but the thing that shocked me was that Hiruma was praised.  Hiruma NEVER gets praised, even though he more than anyone else deserves it.  It was kind of a weird moment.  Kurita never gets praised either though he probably deserves it, and we see almost none of him this time around.   We also only get one scene with Natsuhiko, who’s one of my new favorites.  I missed him.

The best scene in the volume was when Mamori tried to signal to the field about how to deal with one of the Poseidon’s strategies, and everyone thought she was just cheering for them.  Plus, we get another covert Mamori/Hiruma moment, which are still really weird and welcome.

Even with a somewhat boring volume, I STILL can’t wait for the next one.  What a great series.

Eyeshield 21 13

Too much time spent inbetween games here, and too much time spent talking technique with the Poseidons.  I wonder about this fake Eyeshield 21 business.  Part of me hopes that the Eyeshield 21 of Notre Dame fame is actually Hiruma, which would make this series totally awesome.  Part of me also thinks that it won’t really be anything substantial.  We’ll see.

I felt bad for Fatty Jr.  He’s a good character, and he seemed above criticism until the tall guy beat him up with words.  It was cute when absolutely everyone was out looking for him, even Hiruma.  What got to me the most, though, was the language of strong men.  His note, which just said something like “so gone” Kurita interpreted into a rather eloquent and heartfelt goodbye.

Though he’s pretty annoying and bigheaded, I like the braggart from the Poseidons.  He doesn’t seem like that bad a guy, he just is certain that he’ll win because he’s tall.  What should’ve happened is having this team play Ojo, who’s got the tallest passers.  That would have been cool.  But we have tall guys up against Fatty Jr now.  We’ll see how sumo technique works.

Eyeshield 21 12

There was an awesome scene in this volume where they realized that they had to get Chin Fuzz to pass the entrance exam so he could play.  Actually, I don’t remember if this was in this volume or the last… I think it was this one, because they mention that he wasn’t going to be playing in the Amino Cyborg game anyway since he wasn’t actually a student.  Anyway, he’s as dumb as a post.  Baldy and Mamori have to teach him many things, with a football theme, in order to make it okay for him to play on the football team.  He’s… real funny.  I like him.

His sister the cheerleader is a bit more annoying than him, but I still kinda like her.  I hate how it’s sorta-kinda being set up so she’s some sort of romantic interest for Sena (or maybe not, this could just be speculation on my part), because I would rather see Mamori with Sena.  But on the other hand, I live for Mamori/Hiruma moments, so I’d have to give those up, too.  In either case, this series does not aknowledge anything like romance exists, so none of the above is likely, but still.

Actually, the coach assumes Mamori is Hiruma’s girlfriend at one point.  The face Mamori made was priceless.

What else… we get one of the quickest Devil Bats games in history, but also one of the saddest.  I kinda felt bad for the opponents.  Something tells me we’re in for a lot of watching unrelated football games, which I am not a fan of, but we get a really short one at the end of this volume involving their supposed future opponent.  Hm.

One interesting thing about this volume: in the 100th chapter, the 2-page spreads are all a collection of 3 4-koma strips per spread based around different themes.  All are hilarious.  I love this series SO HARD.  I hate football, but I love this all the same.