Eyeshield 21

Hey folks,

Like most people, I never honestly thought that sports could honestly translate into comics all to well. Sports always seemed to be the type of content that you needed to watch on a television due to all the action, announcing and atmosphere that goes along with watching sports. I think due to this, not to many manga out there are sports manga and honestly that is probably a good thing really. I say that because instead of having tons of sports manga to pick from, there are only a select few to really choose from and most are pretty good surprisingly enough. Plus this makes sure the market isn't flooded and people get tired of to many sports manga which could turn many of from the genre.

The current sports manga I am reading thought is the only American football manga out there right now that goes by the name of Eyeshield 21. The series is written by Riichiro Inagaki and drawn by the assistant and apprentice of Takeshi Obata (Death Note artist), Yusuke Murata. There series first started off in Shonen Jump in Japan back in 2002 and has since become one of SJ's more popular series spinning off a anime series and several video games.

As for the series itself, it starts off as the typical shonen, comedy series. Weak highschool student Sena Kobayakawa had spent most his life running around for others doing their chores and fetching things for them. One day though, he pissed off some bullies and was forced to run from them. While on the run, the highschool's American football quaterback, Yoichi Hiruma, sees how fast Sena can run as well as jump and now is on a mission to recruit him to become the team's running back. The big reason for this is that the football team only has 2 real members right now while Hiruma ends up having to blackmail other sports clubs to get players for each game. So seeing Sena, who is fast as hell and on no sports tream, is pretty much a wet dream come true for the QB.

So of course, Sena does end up joining the football team, called the Deimon Devilbats, and starts off as both the running back and manager for the teams. Of course since Hiruma is a strategy genius, he makes sure that Sena wears a eyeshield and gives him the number 21 while playing so that no other sports team tries to recruit him as well as use the eyeshield and 21 number as a way to scare other teams since Eyeshield 21 is a legendary player from Notre Dame in America. So of course Hiruma tells everyone that Sena is the highschool equivalent of the legendary Eyeshield 21 and that Sena is from America as well. Like I said, Hiruma is a strategy master since this causes many people to be scared of Sena and it builds him up as a legend. Of course since Sena can run the 40 yard dash in 4.2 seconds, which makes him faster then almost anyone else, many are scared of him as well.

Once you get past the intro to the series, it sort of turns into any other sports manga of course in the sense that the Devilbats start off as the underdogs, gain new and interesting team mates and have a goal of going to the national sports event called the Christmas Bowl. Even though these are all very common elements in many sports mangas, they do it really well in Eyeshield 21. There are a lot of good, cool characters in Eyeshield 21 and many actually come from the opposing teams. Unlike some other mangas where other teams are usually a bunch of bad guys or bullies, most of the other teams in Eyeshield actually have some really good back stories and characters that have real reasons for wanting to win instead of the classic "must beat the weak people" or "we want to win cause we are evil" type reasons.

The general story arcs usually go team training with some insight on a Devilbats team member, background on opposing teams and then the long actual game matche. Thankfully the matches are the majority of the series and are all very good, long and well done. So there isn't a huge amount of buildup to a match that lasts like 2 chapters. All the real matches are nice and long with some having some good twists to them.

Of course though what really drives the series are the characters. As I said before, there are a good amount of characters in Eyeshield and many of them all have great backgrounds and personalities. The characters don't feel repetitive and you almost feel yourself rooting for the opposite team from time to time since Inagaki makes sure that each major team has a interesting background. There is a lot of good character development in this series and many of the characters evolve and change as the series goes on instead of always staying the same throughout the entire series which would make the characters stale. So instead of just having the normal good guy team which all readers root for and like, you actually have a huge amount of other characters you will wish you could see more of which really shows how good of a writer Inagaki is.

Things can still be a little formulaic of course, but there are very few series now a days that don't follow some sort of manga formula anyway. The real key though is taking the formula, adding your own touches to it and producing something that makes you see past the formula and actually enjoy reading a series instead of trying to predict it. Throw in the fact that Murata's artwork is some of the cleanest and crispest I have seen in a manga series , and Eyeshield really makes for a great read.

Eyeshield 21 definitely does that I would say and I would really recommend the series to any manga fan who doesn't care if the main subject of a series is about football. Football is definitely one of the main subjects of the series though, but I think the comedy and the characters are what really drive it and make people come back for more. Right now there are about 20 books out here in the US and you can hit the link below to check out the series over at One Manga. Give it a read and enjoy!

Eyeshield 21!

-P. Knight

When doing evil means doing good

Hey kids,

Have you ever gotten tired of the good guys in manga and anime always being to wimpy when to defeating the bad guys. Don't you always wish that the good guy would just take out the bad guy already because of everything he has ever done instead of letting him go, try to change him or let the guy get taken away by the cops? Don't you wish these good guys would stop being such goody goodies and grow a pair? Yeah, I wish that to.

The good news is that I recently started a new manga series by the name of Akumetsu that actually has a good guy who is willing to go all out against the bad guys and isn't afraid to get blood on his hands. To do evil to better the world.

The general plot of the series is about a high school student named Shou Hazama who has the ability to "clone" himself. Using this new ability, he has decided to hunt and seek out the evil in Japan to try to help save the world from greed and destruction. Taking on the name Akumetsu and having all his clones wear a black demon like mask he made himself, he sets off to find these bad guys and bring them to justice.

The bad guys though are not your typical mad scientists or corny bank robbers, but more your industrial thieves and bank owners who rob people of their money. So off the bat, Akumetsu is looking to punish real bad guys and not your normal villains. These are the sort of guys who do actually exist in the real world and the sort of evil things they do have happened to people in the real world as well. The one catch though to having more realistic type bad guys like this is that there tends to be a lot of explanation of why these guys are bad and why they need to die. So be prepared for a bit of reading as well.

Now instead of doing the usual superhero bit and using his clones to bring the bad guys in, Akumetsu actually kills off the bad guys and usually ends up killing himself as well. But since all these guys are clones, killing themselves means nothing really. The way he tends to kills these bad guys is indeed a bit brutal, but even I found myself cheering for their deaths. Just as a example, the very first bad guy he takes out he uses a axe to split the guys head open. So like I said, not your typical heroic way to take care of bad guys.

There is definitely a bit of a social message in this series so far (only a little over 30 chapters have been translated into English so far while the series is done in Japan), and its nice to actually see a series tackle a few real world issues even though its all fictional. In a way, this series is a bit like Death Note where a single person wants to change the world by killing off all the evil in it. The real difference is that Akumetsu isn't in it for himself like Light was in Death Note and Akumetsu has a bit more comedy and explains more about how evil these bad guys are.

Art wise, Akumetsu has some amazing artwork and a very slick look. The art is done by newcomer Yuki Yogo with the story done by Yoshiaki Tabata. Yogo does an amazing job with the art of the series with the art style looking a little bit like Frank Miller mixed with the manga Berserk series. So it has a bit of a realistic comic feel to it. Its not your typical manga look and it really makes the series pop a bit and gives it a more adult feel.

Anyway, for anyone who wants a good solid series that has a bit of action, some really funny comedy (odd for a series with this much killing and blood I know), and actually tackles some real issues, give Akumtesu a try. To check the series out in English, just hit the link below to read the mass amount of chapters that are out now online. Enjoy!

Akumetsu!

-P. Knight

Invincible

Hey folks,

I wanted to get some posts going under the subject of what I am currently reading. Since I am reading a lot both American comic and manga wise, I thought this would be a good idea to let people see what I am checking out right now and even throw in my two cents on what it is I am reading at the moment. These posts will come at a pretty good rate since I am usually reading something new every few days or so depending on what comes out.

First up though is the American comic series from Image Comics, Invincible. The series is written/created by Walking Dead writer Robert Kirkman and since issue #8, has been drawn by artist Ryan Ottley.

The series is a good mix of action, comedy, and a decent amount of teen angst and drama oddly enough.

Story wise, the series starts of pretty basic with main character, Mark Grayson, finally getting superhero powers in his mid-teens. Mark is the son of the worlds most famous superhero, Omni-Man, so he has been waiting for these powers for some time. After finally getting them, the story really picks up as we see Mark learn how to use his powers, find out where to get a superhero costume, fight some zany badguys, deal with friends who wonder where he keeps going as well as deal with other superheros he runs into.

I don't wanna go into full detail of the story so far since there are a lot of twists and turns that people should read about and not be spoiled to. Kirkman does a great job even setting up side stories that don't come into full effect until many issues later on. Overall though, the writing for the series is very good and despite a few corny moments and some weird heroes and villains. There are some very deep moments in the series as well and things do get a little depressing and sad later on. So despite mainly being a bit of fun and adventurous series, there are some really good serious moments as well that pop up a lot more as the series continues on. But those moments are done with a light hand, so you don't feel totally weighted down when reading them.

In general though, this is just a great series for pretty much any comic book fan out there who loves the idea of superheroes and wants something solid to read that has lots of good humor, some real life issues, as well as a few dark moments. Since Kirkman is going full steam with Walking Dead at the moment, Invincible has been slowing down a bit lately release wise. Thankfully the first 9 books are out right now and easily buyable at any bookstore. So give the series a chance I would say since it will definitely grow on you.

-P. Knight