Eyeshield 21 is a manga about American football written by Riichiro Inagaki and illustrated by Yusuke Murata. It has been adapted into an anime movie in 2004 (shown at Jump Festa), an anime television series in 2005. The twenty five volumes have collectively sold over 16 million copies in Japan, and the number of children playing American football has almost doubled in the four years since it began. The manga is published in English by VIZ Media. The anime version, produced by NAS and animated by Artland, premiered across Japan on TV Tokyo from 6 April 2005, and is currently airing across Japan on the satellite television network Animax.
The plot of Eyeshield 21 revolves around a physically unassuming and non-assertive boy named Sena Kobayakawa, a freshman in highschool of Deimon Private Senior High School. His only remarkable physical abilities are his running speed and dodging techniques, the result of a school life spent complying with the demands of bullies, quickly catch the eye of the high school's American football team captain Yoichi Hiruma, the most feared person in his school. Sena life changes when Hiruma forces him to join the Football Team as the running back. To protect his identity (on the premise that other school sports teams will try to recruit Sena upon discovering his athletic skill) 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".
Actually the Deimon Devil Bats have a two good player before Sena comes along these two are Ryokan, and Yoichi. Ryokan is a friendly guy who's big, strong and has an infectious enthusiasm for American football. Then there's Yoichi, the devious, scheming quarterback whose skills on the gridiron and knowledge of football strategy is sometimes overshadowed by his fondness for shooting off powerful weapons to convince others to see things his way. Although both Ryokan and Yoichi are talented players, the Deimon Devil Bats are a woefully understaffed team, with only two full-timers and a ragtag bunch of miscellaneous athletes that Yoichi manages to blackmail to convince to play on their team on game day. Other teams write them off as disorganized losers who'll never get their act together enough to win. Now that they have Sena on their side, the Devil Bats finally have a chance to win (if they can ever teach him how to play the game).
The team initially takes part in the Spring football tournament (at the beginning of the Japanese school year) hoping to win with through the strength of their new "secret weapon". But the elimination is quit tough that the weak team early eliminated on by the Ojo White Knights, a powerhouse football team. It is in this game that Sena meets the man he will acknowledge as his ultimate rival, Seijuro Shin, a talented linebacker.After Deimon's defeat, the Spring tournament is revealed as a 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, with the goal of reaching the championship. The series follows the building and growth of the Deimon Devil Bats and its members, as well as various rival teams encountered through their games and tournaments, as they all strive to achieve their goal of playing in the Christmas Bowl. Can Sena's golden legs overcome his lack of knowledge of the game of football, and can this mismatched team turn their dreams into championship reality?
