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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Unevaluated | Jan-Chan | # | ||||||
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Why do I feel like I am watching an AFL/NFL propaganda piece, intent on teaching the ‘joys’ of American football to Japanese youth? In telling a story of a much-abused high school student, who has a hidden gift of sprinting and spinning (the skills that mark a great running back), Sena comes under the influence of a rabid-maniacal football captain desperate to recruit a minimum of eleven players that are required to field a team. The captain and quarterback of the ‘Devil Bats’, Hiruma is an extreme character, both in his tendency for violent SD (super deformed) behavior and in his willingness to either pull out an oversized side-arm or a black book of personal secrets to coerce those about him to share in his rabid enthusiasm of this very un-Japanese sport. Punctuating the series are small vignettes (or interruptions) devoted to explaining to the un-initiated the strange rules pig-skin-play. Fortunately, the series does focus on Sena’s exceptional ability in running, so he does not have to be bothered all of the details of the rules or game play to participate in his first American football game – his instructions are ..take ball, run like heck and don’t let anyone stop you!! Having had been partnered to a rabid 49ers fan, I can follow along with this series and appreciate some of the difficulties of trying to generate enthusiasm in a novice, and not bore them with the strange and cryptic rules of this very American pastime. And it mostly works very well. The viewer gets to root for the underdog main character, laugh at the funny rabid football fanatics, while learning about the game along the way. This series is OK and I will admit to being amused by the different characters, who are (mostly) interesting and understandable. If you are a true sports fan, then you might find more joy in this series than I, (but I still think that the “H2” baseball or the “Prince of Tennis” anime series are still a better bet in terms of sport anime.) Update on 4/15/06 - episode 42 has just been released as a fansub!! Last updated Saturday, April 15 2006. Created Sunday, May 08 2005. | ||||||||
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Other Sites
| Name | URL |
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| Japanese Broadcast TV Series Web Site | http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/anime/eyeshield21 |
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