Cultural Notes

Eyeshield 21 primarily takes place in Japan, and most of its characters are Japanese. While its everyday cultural references are familiar to Japanese readers, they may be a little confusing if you're unfamiliar with Japan's culture. So this page will serve as a small encyclopedia for cultural elements—both big and small, Japanese and non-Japanese—that bear relevance to Eyeshield 21's story and characters.

Many of these are not exclusive to Japan, but are still meaningful within a Japanese cultural context, so those will will have an English equivalent next to them. Japanese-originated loan words—which may not mean the same thing in the original language as they do in English—may also be used since they're more recognizeable.

In-progress entries are indicated in bold.