I'm not a sports fan, but apparently am an addict of sports animé! I'm slowly working my way through fansubs of this excellent show, and only regret that it's not available for sale. Or at least not yet.

The wonderful appeal of Eyeshield 21 is the number of likeable and very individual characters, nearly all of whom have their own personal crisis at some point in the series, and who still shine even when not in the spotlight. Hiruma, the team captain, is evil, vicious and gleefully sadistic, but totally focussed on the good of the team. (Apparently unusually for Japan, Hiruma is the most popular character, rather than the protagonist, Sena. I can see why, and he's my favorite, too...amusingly evil, and deliciously drawn that way. Sena, on the other hand, is a wimp with funky hair.) He and Kurito are the original members of the team: they and a friend who quit on them in the past, and for whom they are still carrying a torch.

Sena joins at the urging of his girlfriend/protector Mamori, in the hope of making some friends (instead of just being a gofer for bullies, as he was in the past.)

Hiruma blackmails the bullies who pick on Sena into joining the team. Originally just a trio of thugs, before long, their individual personalities begin to show, and soon they're struggling to prove that they're more than just trash.

Monta, his dreams of being a baseball star crushed when he is cut from the team, accepts football as a substitute.

Huge, sweet Kurita is the heart of the team, and it's his dream to play at the Christmas Bowl that infects everyone else.

Kasamatsu is a pencil-necked scholar who wants--just ONCE--to be a part of something besides study group. He has heart and unfailing determnation, but he's spent his life sitting at a desk and it shows. Can he get it together in time to be part of the team's victory at all?

And more players keep being added.

Each player struggles in his own way to make himself stronger for the team.

The opposing teams are intimidating, and often bizarre: The Amino Cyborgs, a team trained by the most scientific and modern methods...the Wild Gunmans, a cowboy-themed team: the Taiy? Sphinx, and Egyptian-themed team: the Zokugaku Chameleons, whose players have long, flicking tongues: and the Oujo White Knights, the noble and excellent team who the Devil Bats dream of beating.

The only criticism I can make of this addicting series is the artwork: Sena has the kind of Astro-Boy anime hair that makes him look like someone set up a pup tent on his head. There's not much of the usual fluctuations in style/deformation expected in an anime in Eyeshield 21, but Hiruma often looks drastically different from scene to scene: pointy chin to squared chin, etc. Kurita and his sidekick (can't remember the name) are drawn so cartoony that they barely blend in with the realistic characters. In fact, many of the charcters are drawn in completely differnet styles: teh Hah brothers are realistic, Sena, Hiruma and Mamori are typical anime style, Monta is cartoony, and Kurita's head is practically a big balloon with a face painted on it. Still, I suppose it helps to tell them apart.

Aside from that, I find their idea of what America is like to be amusing. (Full of obnoxious people trying to pick fights, with open public auditions to join pro football teams, amateur football games on the beach, and everybdy speaks Japanese.)

In any case, if you like football, or just like stories of people struggling to attain a dream, with drama, comedy, teary moments, and charming, demonic, gun-wielding sadist quarterbacks, this show should be high on your animé-release wish list.