Introduction

Our story begins here...

A manga panel of Mamori, a brunette with a bob haircut, leaning over Sena, a short teenage boy with messy, spiky black hair. She straightens Sena's tie as he yelps in surprise. 'Hey, that's too loose!' she says.

Short, wimpy teenager Sena Kobayakawa has started his first day at Deimon High School. For him it's a much-needed fresh start, especially after spending years playing gofer for schoolyard bullies. Sena's doting childhood friend, Mamori Anezaki, has always tried to protect him from harm. But now that he's older, he wants to be more independent and stop relying on her.

Bleach-blond delinquent Juumonji sits on a trash can in an alley, with a cigarette between his fingers. He orders a sweating, frightened Sena, 'Sena, go get me a sweet roll.' His friend Togano, a spiky blond in tinted sunglasses, squats on the ground behind him while he reads a manga magazine. Juumonji's other friend Kuroki, tall and with shaggy black hair, leans on the wall beside him with a cigarette between his lips.

Almost immediately, a trio of delinquents corner Sena and boss him around. When he fails to meet their demands, they drag him into a rundown shed to beat him up. But they're interrupted by a burly upperclassman named Ryokan Kurita, who's a lineman for Deimon High's American football club. He mistakenly thinks that Sena's tormentors are there for tryouts, so he demonstrates a lineman's throw on them and promptly scares them off. Sena learns that Kurita is very kindhearted despite his massive size and strength, and that the shed is the clubhouse of his struggling team, the Deimon Devil Bats.

As Sena hears the roar of a football stadium, Kurita clenches his fist and passionately tells him, 'With all of us united towards a common goal, we utterly collide against our opponents! The moment is ablaze with passion!' As steam wafts from his tea, Sena smiles in curious fascination as he listens.

Kurita serves Sena cake and tea while introducing him to American football. The Devil Bats only have two players: him and his captain. Despite their best recruitment efforts, they still depend on fill-ins from other sports clubs and never win any games. Despite this, Kurita holds out hope that the Devil Bats will someday compete in the Christmas Bowl, Japan's national championship for high school teams. Although Sena is too afraid to play such a violent sport, Kurita's passion moves him and piques his curiosity. So Sena asks to join as the Devil Bats' team manager, much to Kurita's joy, and the two become friends.

'OOF!' Sena is suddenly slapped in the face, drawing blood from one nostril. On the floor of the bridge, Sena holds a hand to his injured cheek and looks up to find the delinquent trio--Juumonji, Togano, and Kuroki--standing over him and glaring. 'We've been waiting for you,' Juumonji tells him.

On his way home, Sena gets jumped by the same three delinquents from before and they interrogate him on Kurita's whereabouts. As payback for throwing them, they plan to pick a fight with Kurita, frame him for assault, and get him banned from school sports. In the heat of the moment, Sena angrily stands up to them, breaks free, and escapes. As the trio chase him through the town, Sena soon faces a dense crowd with nowhere else to run. Once his persuers closes in, Sena unleashes a skill developed from his childhood as a bullies' gofer: superhuman speed and agility. He takes off in a flash and nimbly zips his way through, leaving the trio gaping in the dust.

With a loud SWOOSH, Sena starts running, taking off at top speed. Juumonji and Kuroki nearly trip in a cloud of dust; they both stare, mouths agape. With a FWOOM, Sena speeds past Hiruma, another Deimon student, with demonic features and spiky blond hair. Hiruma's visibly stunned by the sudden zip past him, the convenience store bag around his wrist rustling in the wind.

This incredible spectacle is witnessed by Youichi Hiruma, Deimon High's diabolical shadow tyrant, whom Mamori warned Sena to stay away from. He also happens to be Kurita's best friend...as well as the Devil Bats' captain and quarterback. Hiruma excitedly follows Sena and the delinquents, while imagining a speedy running back making the same agile moves down a gridiron field. Sena successfully escapes by diving into a subway car, sending the delinquent trio tumbling down onto the subway's empty platform and into Hiruma's clutches.

As the three delinquents lie in a disorganized heap on the empty subway platform, Hiruma sits on Juumonji's face. With a wide, demonic smile and both fingers pointing in triumph, Hiruma shouts, 'TOUCHDOWN! YA-HA!'

The next day, a terrified Sena finds himself bound, gagged and dodging Hiruma's gunfire inside the Devil Bats' clubhouse. He forces Sena to suit up in full player's gear, including a number 21 jersey and a helmet with a tinted visor. Hiruma tells Sena that he will be playing in the Devil Bats' games as the team's new running back. But to prevent other sports clubs from scouting him, he must keep his identity a secret.

Sena is forced to dress in full American football gear, including a helmet equipped with a visor and a jersey with the number 21. Hiruma taps his gun on a desk, eyes downcast and his expression serious. 'During games, you aren't gonna use your own name, Sena Kobayakawa, got it?' Hiruma tells him. 'Your codename will be...' Hiruma looks up and points to Sena with a fanged grin. 'EYESHIELD 21!'

Hiruma then christens Sena with a mysterious codename:

Eyeshield 21!

As we'll soon see, Sena is just one of a growing group of misfits that will join Hiruma and Kurita on a coming-of-age journey into Japan's world of American football. Along the way, they will face down strong and fearsome opponents, all while growing stronger as athletes and as people.

To learn more about the characters, check out the Characters page. To learn more about the story, check out the Manga page. Be warned though: these pages will contain unmarked spoilers!