Eyeshield 21 Review: Typical Shonen Sports Manga

Eyeshield 21 tells us a story about Sena Kobayakawa who is good at running because of always running away from other kids bullying him. After couple of twists he becomes drafted for his schools Football team and that's how a certainly entertaining tale begins..

Eyeshield 21 is as generic sports/shonen/growth story as it gets. Generic doesn't mean bad, it just means that the idea can't be described as original: when executed well, even generic story can be an amazing one.

Art of Eyeshield 21 is good enough and actually the artist Yusuke Murata is the same one who is currently working on the amazing Onepunch-man. Compared to that however Eyeshield 21 falls behind considerably even though you can notice the similarities between them.  The art can mostly be described as something what you would expect to find from sports shonen.

Characters of Eyeshield 21 are it's definite strength and it does rely on them pretty much. Main character Sena is a pussy and only shows his determination and good sides on the football matches. He reminds me a bit of Ippo, but I like Ippo a bit more. Side characters of the series vary from decent to very good. Ie. Hiruma is definitely one of my favorite side characters in this series.

Story of Eyeshield 21 is obviously it's weakest side, but that's relatively obvious: the story basically consists of getting to the top facing all the hardships along the way. The way how the story in between the beginning and the top is portrayed is the important part and in that way Eyeshield 21 succeeds with good grades. The growth element is present and is imaginative enough, the matches against other teams are also enjoyable that along over 300 chapters I didn't really feel boredom. That is a sign of something of quality in my opinion.