Eyeshield 21 is definitely one of the best sports manga made. If there’s Slam Dunk in the 1990’s, then there’s Eyeshield 21 in the 2000’s. The anime follows the manga story closely and like Slam Dunk – the anime ending is kinda hanging. It ended when the Devil Deimon Bats defeated the Ojou White Knights for a chance to play for the Christmas Bowl. The last scene was Sena shown entering the American Footbal field wearing the NFL uniform as RB and Hiruma as QB of the opposite team. The last chapter of the manga (333) was finished this October after 7 years of serialization. What happened in the manga? What’s the ending?

Hiruma and Kid made a promise before that they will fight for the Kantou finals but this was not fulfilled due to Seibu Wild Gunmen was defeated by Hakusho DInosaurs. The latter’s dirty tactic of crushing the quarterback made Kid retire to the game As always Hiruma had a secret meeting with the Kid giving him some pointers. This 2 have a special kind of relationship,I think. Everytime each team is in trouble they were always there helping each other. Kid said that he wanted to go where the Deimon is waiting. At the game he realized that it’s alright to have a dream but they were crushed at the last minute.

For the Kantou finals, it’s the Hakusho Dinosaurs. There was a specal training for Devil Bats, the contract was made by Hiruma stating that no matter what team wins over Kantou,the other teams will cooperate for the conquest of the finals.

Pupil – Personal Coach
Sena – Shin
Kurita – Gaou
Monta – Ikyuu
Yukimitsu – Tetsuma
Taki – Akaba
Ishimaru – Riku
Kumusubi – Ootawara
Juumonji – Kakei
Kuroki – Mizumachi
Taganou – Banba

As expected, Hiruma was injured during the Kantou finals by Gaou. But our tactician has lots of startegy in his sleeves, he rested for a while in the game and came back as a “gargoyle”. He can not move his arms but he managed to deceive the opponents that he can still play. In the end he was able to pass one more ball.

Hiruma does not have one as he was healing due to his arms were broke by Gaou in the last match. Kid helped with the training too.

Deimon Devil Bats one by a point against Teikoku Alexanders 45-44. They made a comeback in the 2nd half. Sena defeated the real Eyeshield 21. And Musashi was able to deliver the 60 yards magnum as a kick to gain the winning point.

After winning the X’mas Bowl, Japan was invited to play for the Youth American Football World Cup. There were tryouts and the players were:

Offense -
RB Sena
RB Yamato
QB Kid-Hiruma
SB Tetsuma
WR Sakuraba
OL Yamabushi
OL Heracles
C Kurita
OL Chuubou
OL Banba
WR Monta

Defense -
S Marco
S Riku
CB Taka
LB Kakei
LB Agon
CB Ikyuu
OL Mizumachi
OL Gaou
OL Ootawara
OL Achilles

During the World Cup, Agon tried to blackmail Kid and Hiruma to give the QB position to him. Hiruma declined immediately saying Kid is a lot better than him. He said that they will just give him the $ 300mil cash prize. Agon also asked for the NFL contract but he also declined saying “I will never give you that chance. With my current abilities, I have no chance to enter NFL except that.”

The Dragonfly and Chris Cross was played by Hiruma and Agon. Agon for the first time thought that it was fun. He said to Hiruma “If you only had godlike abilities like mine, we could have been the best tag team partner”. Hiruma replied by “We dont have time to waste asking for things that we don’t have. We can only look for the best way to fight with the things we have for our whole life.”

Another tactic – the Golden Dragonfly by Kid, Hiruma and Agon. The strongest triple play! The strongest trio of quarterbacks!

The Youth American Football World Cup ended in a tie and they all decided to do overtime in an unauthorized match. The winner was not revealed. But Panther was the MVP.

After graduation, Hiruma, Musashi and Kurita decided to go to different universities. It’s like building 3 empires and their goal is to meet at the Rice Bowl. The participating teams are as follows:

1. Saikyoudai University – rumored to be the #1 team of the college league lead by Hiruma. Members are a powerhouse team – Agon, Takeru, Taka,Ikyuu, Akaba Mamori is the team manager
2. Kurita, Sena, Riku
3. Musashi, Kid, Tetsuma, Gaou the worst team of semi pro, also a strong team
4. Oujou University – Shin,Ootawara, Sakuraba
5. Shuuei Medical College – Takami, Yukimitsu and Aiso
6. Zokuto University – Bashira Rui
7. Enma University – Kurita, Monta, Sena, Riku, Mizumachi, Kotaro

Riku could have joined Saikyoudai but he wanted to fight against Hiruma

There was also a character popularity poll and it was Hiruma who was voted as the most popular J Ya-ha! He is my fave character after all! (My next fave is Kid and then Kakei, Musashi and Taka)

It made me wonder, Sena like Mamori since the beginning of the manga right? But there was no conclusion about it in the manga.

It was sad that the manga ended. I hope there will be a manga about Hiruma. Ima made, Arigatou Gozaimasu Riichiro Inagaki sensei and Yusuke Murata sensei!

Tate Eiji throws his magic punch – HEARTBREAK SHOT!!!

Eiji vs Ricardo battle has finally started! The former being flashy and made the first hit.

The WBC Champion is in Japan for the match against Date-san. He chose Ippo as his sparing partner. Ippo came in confident but the 3 rounds was not finished and Ippo was standing unconcious. Takamura told him to say sorry for the old man but when he arrived at the gym, guess what he saw? Date san was on a sparring match. And his partner? The newly crowned OBPF Champ Miyata. He was as usual, starstrucked to see Miyata. They realized that they still have a long way to go to be world champions.

Finally, Miyata has won the matched and has become a champion in his own right as OBPF champion. The Japanese boxing scene has created quite a stir since a lot of matches were won by Japanese. Takamura was seeded #2 in a title match and Date Eiji will be up for a WBC title match as well.

As Aoki have said it, my heart stopped while watching the fight.

Round 2, 3 &4 of the fight. In round 2, Miyata almost got down 2x. Good thing the ref decided that it was just a “slip”. Aoki said that his heart almost stop and Ippo’s soul can be seen coming out. Haha. Miyata got angry on the secound round when he’s counter was defeated, he was not able to think clearly and instead choose to fight until the last second. Arnie saw his determination and was impressed by his courage. He even fired his manager for only thinking about business and the only good thing he did was choosing the best challenger for him which was Miyata. The episode ended with a hard counter from Miyata.

In one word – BREATH TAKING!!!

Miayata’s fight with Arnie started and as expected, it didn’t turned out to be easy. It was Miyata who lead the first round but it was in the 2nd round when he experienced the Bloody Cross!!!

Ippo’s back! Along with the gang – Takamura, Aoki, Kimura and of course, Miyata

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this blog and since I watched an anime and what better way to start other than watching Ippo? The second season seems to focused more on where Ippo and Miyata left off. Ippo successfully defended his belt for the first time while Miyata is up to face Arnie, the current OBPF champion.

Next week is Golden Week in Japan. With that in mind, Oricon conducted a survey of a thousand people, asking them a series of leisure-related questions.

When asked which actress they would want to go to an amusement park with, the respondents chose Aya Ueto as the #1 answer. Yui Aragaki, Masami Nagasawa, Maki Horikita, and Aoi Miyazaki were the next most popular choices.

Given the same question but with actors instead, the survey takers favored Yusuke Kamiji, who is currently popular for his character on “Quiz! Hexagon II” and as part of that show’s male trio Shuchishin. Hiroshi Tamaki ranked 2nd, followed by Ryuta Sato, Shun Oguri, and Yusuke Yamamoto.

Not surprisingly, the answers were similar for the next pair of questions, which asked “who would you want to go on a drive with?” For actresses, Yui Aragaki came out on top this time, putting Aya Ueto at #2. Haruka Ayase made the list at #3, ahead of Maki Horikita and Masami Nagasawa. Meanwhile, Hiroshi Tamaki was at the top of the actors’ list, again followed by Ryuta Sato and Shun Oguri. Yuta Hiraoka and Kenichi Matsuyama also made the cut.

The last question on the survey asked which song they would want to listen to during a drive. The top five were L’Arc~en~Ciel’s “Driver’s High,” Ketsumeishi’s “Drive,” Porno Graffiti’s “Haneuma Rider,” Judy and Mary’s “Over Drive,” and Yuzu’s “Story.”