Childhood and most of adolescence have passed Manabu Yukimitsu by. With his scrawny build, large gleaming forehead, and what appears to be a receding hairline, he looks like the farthest thing from an American football player. Since the first grade, his strict mother has forced him to study excessively and attend cram school. She also forbade him from joining clubs and extracurricular activities. Yukimitsu always yearned to play team sports like his peers, but felt too discouraged—at first by the adults around him, but ultimately by his own inhibitions—to change his situation for the better. However, watching the tiny Eyeshield 21 take on the Zokugaku Chameleons finally empowered him to give sports a try.

Despite failing the Deimon Devil Bats' "Hell Tower" team tryouts, Yukimitsu made the cut after impressing Hiruma with his dogged persistence through numerous obstacles. Because he was too frail and uncoordinated to join his teammates on the field, he stayed on the bench as a reserve player for the first half of the series, cheering and calling plays from the sidelines alongside Mamori, Suzuna, and Coach Doburoku. Once again left to watch sports as others play, Yukimitsu tearfully regrets all of the years he had spent studying instead of exercising, most notably after he was passed over as a starting player for the fall season's Tokyo Tournament. Fully aware of his own limitations, he not only partakes in regular team practices, but does extra workouts boost his endurance, sometimes to the point of exhaustion. While Yukimitsu has a meek personality and lacks confidence in himself, he is very well-read and knowledgeable about a variety of subjects. He'll even give long, detailed explanations when the moment calls for one.

After spending half a year strengthening his body, watching countless plays from the bench, and memorizing a wealth of opponents' defense formations, Yukimitsu becomes a competent wide receiver in his own right. What Yukimitsu lacks in physical abilities, he makes up for with his resilience and sharp intellect, the latter of which coming close to that of Hiruma. His years of studying and test-taking helped him develop a photographic memory, pattern recognition, and calculative thinking. For all of these reasons, Hiruma entrusts him with the Option Route, a play requiring him to predict the route needed to catch a pass based on the opponent's movements. After his long-awaited debut—during which he scored the Devil Bats' first touchdown against the all-powerful Shinryuuji Nagas—Yukimitsu's presence on the field has strengthened the team's passing ability significantly. When he isn't catching passes, he's also instrumental in other plays requiring his contribution.

Yukimitsu remains the Devil Bats' weakest player and can only last half a game before running out of stamina. Nevertheless, he makes the best of his abilities and is a valuable asset to Hiruma's strategies. His unrelenting persistence has pulled the Devil Bats through some truly desperate situations, such as turning their luck around from a near-blowout loss to Shinryuuji and a near-loss during their rematch with the Oujou White Knights. Thanks to Hiruma’s recognition of his strengths and months of painstaking hard work, Yukimitsu is finally growing into the promising young athlete that he has always wanted to be.

Yukimitsu's physique and athletic abilities are the weakest out of all of the Devil Bats, so his Power and Speed stats reflect this. His deficiencies include poor gross motor skills, limited arm strength, and below average running speed. Months of exercising has given him decent endurance for partaking in complex plays, but his stamina only lasts for half a game. If overworked, he collapses from fatigue and is barely able to move.

Unsurprisingly, Intellect is Yukimitsu's highest stat, as he's the only other player that comes close to Hiruma in terms of brainpower and thinking on his feet. This bolsters Technique by helping him carry out more intellectually rigorous plays that his teammates can't handle. His Height stat is also quite exceptional, benefitting his ability to catch passes.

Option Route

The Option Route is a complex pass pattern with numerous possible routes, as opposed to a single, predetermined one. A wide receiver must watch the defense's movements as the quarterback throws the pass, and then choose their route accordingly. A lifetime of test-taking has given Yukimitsu the calculative mind needed to make snap judgments, a talent that this technique requires. He's the only wide receiver on the team that's intellectually capable of figuring out where Hiruma will throw this type of pass.

Man in Motion

A "man in motion" is the one offensive player—usually a wide receiver or running back—permitted to move as the center lineman snaps the ball to the quarterback. According to the rules of American football, this player must only run backwards or parallel to the line of scrimmage. Hiruma has Yukimitsu run this play several times during the Shinryuuji Nagas game. After completing his run, Yukimitsu then joins the Devil Bats' linemen in blocking. While he has very little strength, he can apply just enough pressure to break an opening, allowing Sena to penetrate Shinryuuji's line.

Akari Yukimitsu (mother)	Tsutomu Yukimitsu (father, unseen)	Hotaru Yukimitsu (older sister)	Unnamed turtle (pet, unseen)

Masaru Hotta

In the 2005 anime series, Yukimitsu was voiced by Masaru Hotta. Over the years, Hotta has played in numerous bit roles in various anime series and television dramas.

His other voice acting roles include Guardian Baou in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX; Tony Simmons in Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V; Yoshihiko Koga in Whistle!; and Osamu Abe, Ivan, Enzo, and Leonardo Lippi in Katekyo Hitman Reborn!