This effectively splits up screentime among a truly massive cast in a way which neither weakens the mains nor benches the non-mains. We get lots of different individual, small group, and large group confrontations throughout any given game, which makes up for the fact that a game may go on for 20-30 chapters.

22 players, though, are a bit much to focus on at one time, and this manga acknowledges that, focusing only on small portions of the playing field at any given time. As a result, you always have characters other than just the mains in play, being far from useless. Football is a large sport, requiring 11 players on each side, each with a different distinct role. I have a lot of praise for the way the sport being played is used in ES21. The American Football played in Eyeshield 21 is an interesting and ultimately successful combination of the two formulas, mixing the group dynamics of a genuine team with lots of hard-on action. The downside with teamwork sports manga is that it can sometimes feel like competition-lite, and it lacks the quantity of guts displayed in martial sports. At the very least, the main team of a team sports manga will haveĪ lot of fleshed-out players. The teamwork sports manga (featuring baseball, basketball, etc.) usually sport a large, well-developed cast. This type of sports manga also often suffers from overemphasis of the main character and weak side characters who only serve to show how awesome the lead is by comparison. The martial sports manga (featuring boxing, judo, etc.) usually sport characters with grit and guts struggling against one another. Sports manga in general (with a few notable exceptions) branch off into two main groups - the martial group and the teamwork group.

Eyeshield 21 episode 1 animeultima