Deimon Devil Bats

“We're gonna kill 'em! YEAH!!

The ragtag underdog team of Sena Kobayakawa, a.k.a. Eyeshield 21.

The Devil Bats were once a fledgling team that its three founders—Youichi Hiruma, Ryoukan Kurita, and Gen "Musashi" Takakura—struggled to get off the ground. Once Musashi dropped out of school under private circumstances, Hiruma and Kurita were left to play and recruit on their own. With the lofty goal of reaching the national Christmas Bowl, they both tirelessly tried to find and keep new players from Deimon High School's student body, but to no avail. Hiruma regularly blackmailed athletes from other sports clubs to act as fill-ins, but this didn't make up for the Devil Bats' lack of well-trained, dedicated players. Thus, bigger and better teams defeated them easily.

But Hiruma’s forcible recruitment of Sena as running back changed the course of the Devil Bats’ history. After that, more players began to join their roster; some willingly, and others either by force or under false pretenses. Many of them are social outcasts, so they find friendship and comradery in one another despite some personality clashes. The Devil Bats' players undergo strenuous, hellish training under Hiruma for months on end. But in the long run, each of them proves to be loyal to one another, as well as resilient. Even after several setbacks and losses, this team can still be counted on to bounce back and keep trying. As the Devil Bats grow stronger and defeat more experienced opponents, the Christmas Bowl draws closer within their reach.

Each of the Devil Bats has their own personal and athletic weaknesses, but they possess their own outstanding talents that make them valuable when working together. Under Hiruma’s shrewd—and often trigger-happy—guidance, they can enact clever trick plays and carefully planned formations that make the best of their collective strengths. As they slowly come together, the Deimon Devil Bats form a cohesive group that are formidable opponents to any team that faces them.



 MEET THE TEAM 

To read about one of these characters, click on their face thumbnail!

 MAIN PLAYERS 

Sena Kobayakawa
Youichi Hiruma
Ryoukan Kurita
Tarou Raimon
Manabu Yukimitsu
Natsuhiko Taki
Gen Takekura
Daikichi Komusubi
Shouzou Toganou, Kouji Kuroki, Kazuki Juumonji
"Hah Brothers"

 FILL-IN PLAYERS 

Tetsuo Ishimaru
Kenta Yamaoka
Youhei Satake
Futoshi Omosadake

 SUPPORT 

Mamori Anezaki
Suzuna Taki
Sakaki Doburoku

 MASCOTS 

Devil Bat
Li'l DB
Cerberus
Piggyberus


 INFO 

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A small, transparent image of Devil Bat flying and grinning. A photo of a Southwestern myotis bat in flight.

The Deimon Devil Bats and their mascots, Devil Bat and his sibling L'il DB, are modeled after bats, or the taxonomic order Chiroptera. With wing membranes attached to all four limbs, they are the only mammals capable of powered flight.

Bats maneuver themselves more flexibly than birds and some smaller species fly as fast as 100 mph, not unlike Sena with his small body, agility, and superspeed. Bats communicate to one another via high-pitched chirping, which produces sonar waves for navigating dark environments and echolocating prey. The Deimon Devil Bats rely on stealthy communication, most notably Hiruma and Mamori's shared sign language, which they use to signal plays to each other from afar. Hiruma also conveys these plays to his teammates through a mix of signals, body language, and doublespeak to avoid rousing their opponents' suspicions.

Many cultures depict bats as supernatural beings. They're featured in the folklore of some North American indigenous tribes; the Navajo tell of them delivering important messages to the gods, and Apache, Cree, and Cherokee fables portray them as clever tricksters. Devil Bat and L'il DB sometimes appear to instruct and give hints about American football to both Sena and the reader, and the team's strategies are centered around Hiruma using trick plays and reverse psychology to outsmart opponents.

In American and European cultures, bats are unclean pests and "creatures of the night," associated with darkness, death, and the demonic. They're commonly found in Halloween decorations and vampire folklore, as a few species suck blood from other mammals to feed themselves. The Devil Bats themselves are mostly misfits, misunderstood or maligned throughout their lives for different reasons. Everything about Hiruma's appearance, personality, and behavior are overtly demonic or devilish, mainly to intimidate and unsettle other people.

In Chinese culture, bats are symbols of good luck, prosperity, and familial bonds, since the written characters for "bat" (蝠) and "happiness" (福) look similar and have the same pronunciation, . All of these values suit this tight-knit underdog team well. Luck and risk-taking are a consistent theme during their games, emphasized further by the recurring appearance of gambling visuals, such as playing cards and slot machines. The Devil Bats' clubhouse even resembles a casino.

Eyeshield 21 and its characters belong to Riichiro Inagaki and Yuusuke Murata, copyrighted under Shueisha Inc. Licensed in the United States by Viz Media, LLC. Credit for layout and tile background go to SadGrl.Online. CC0 Public Domain, 2022.