Okay, ES21.

[prillalar]

After avoiding it for nearly a year, I have started to consume Eyeshield 21. (I really need a good verb that means "reading the manga and watching the anime at the same time".) It's a highschool sports series, about American football (amefuto). I actually did give it a try before, but the character design kind of put me off the manga and I was bitter, oh so bitter, that the anime took Prince of Tennis's timeslot.

But I'm in such a sports anime/manga mood right now that I took a break from the usual toku (more about that another time) and dove in. I have watched 10 episodes and read 30 issues. So far, so good. Are there more than 26 episodes subbed in English yet? That was all I could find. And 80 issues of the manga.

It will surprise no one at all that I've been fathoms deep in love with Shin from the moment I laid eyes on him. I have two icons of him already. I deleted an icon of Inui to fit them both in!

Not shipping anyone much so far except for Hiruma/Mamori which seems like it would be an awesome pair along the lines of Xander/Cordelia. What are the usual ships? I don't want to go looking for fic until I've caught up with the canon, so I won't be spoiled.

I like Eyeshield 21. I'm not super-crazy about it and so far it's not quite scratching my shounen sports itch like I'd hoped it would. (God, after Slam Dunk, what could?) And I'm used to Canadian football, not American. (Four downs? Come on!) But it's still good. And very fun.

And there's Shin.

Comments

[lynnmonster.livejournal.com]

Huh. I've been interested in dl-ing the series, but both Baka and BoxTorrents seem to be failing me with the active links. Any hints on where to find this? (I *need* some more sports-oriented anime SOON.)

Desperately yours,
Lynnmonster

[akatonbo.livejournal.com]

http://a.scarywater.net/saizen/

[prillalar]

anime: http://a.scarywater.net/saizen/
manga: http://www.stoptazmo.com/eyeshield21/

What else have you seen? I would recommend, obviously, Slam Dunk. (God, the manga is so good, so very, very good.) Dear Boys is another basketball anime, only 26 episodes, and very lovely. (I never did manage to get hold of the manga.) Other than Whistle! and Prince of Tennis, that's all I've watched so far.

[debchan.livejournal.com]

(I *need* some more sports-oriented anime SOON.)

That would be my cue to plug Initial D. I don't know if I would call it sports-oriented, unless you consider racing your car down a mountain a sport. However, it's a shounen series full of lovely boys, it's long and it's still ongoing.

The hero of the series is Takumi, a solitary, quiet boy who lives with his dad above their tofu shop. Unbeknownest to anyone, he's been delivering tofu to the hotel at the top of Mt. Akina since he was in junior high (highly illegal, since you can't get your license in Japan until you're 18). He hates it; hates waking up early, hates driving, and sort of hates his father for making him do it. He gets pulled into street racing (against his will) and slowly discovers that not only is he good at it, but that he loves it.

Initial D has 4 "stages" so far. Stage 1 is the first season (26 episodes), Stage 2 is the second season (13 episodes), Stage 3 is the movie, Stage 4 is still ongoing (raws for 21-22 just landed) and Live-Evil is subbing it.

First and second stage are licensed by Tokyopop (both manga and anime), but you can still find torrents on isohunt.com. I also have DVDs of everything that I'd be happy send.

[octopedingenue]

YAAAAAAAAY EYESHIELD 21. (Why do I have no icons?) I...cannot explain my love for "Eyeshield 21", other than that everyone is so charming and fun, and half the time I read it I was battling my deeply-engrained-from-living-in-a-football-town Football Haaaaaaaaate in order to read it. And now I actually care about some of the football games sometimes! And I can pretend I know what "four downs" means! (Future icon: "Everything I know about American sports, I learned from Japanese comic books.")

I know nothing about popular ships. I ship everybody! Football orgy! Although yes, darn it, there must be more snarky Hiruma/Mamori with the dramatic random violin strings fluke kiss in the basement.

Shin is hot love. I want to hug him every time I see him*. So stoic and honorable and badass and generous to people who deserve so it means more, and everyone admires him from afar. Very far.

I have a lovely Shin/Sena doujinshi (no sex, just hugging and pretty art with pretty boys) if you want it. (I don't know chapter numbers, but it's spoilery for The Big First Game With Shin, I say vaguely.) I did not ship them before but now I am very much considering it. Because. Football orgy!



I also want to hug Hiruma and Sena and Monta and Mamori every time I see them, so perhaps this is not as exclusive a special category as it should be.

[prillalar]

It really caught me in a way I wasn't expecting! It's so bizarre but touching at the same time. And everyone's love is making me love it more.

Shin is just ... I think he pushes every button I have. (Well, except the "Drew Barrymore" button.)

I have a lovely Shin/Sena doujinshi (no sex, just hugging and pretty art with pretty boys) if you want it.

I would love scans if you have them. I'm not actually shipping yet, but Shin/Sena and Shin/Sakuraba are both potential ships for me. I've seen/read the first game against the White Knights (the team names slay me), so that should be fine.

Future icon: "Everything I know about American sports, I learned from Japanese comic books."

You are so, so funny. Be sure to make that.

[akatonbo.livejournal.com]

Himura/Mamori is indeed popular. Hiruma/anyone is popular, but I'm waiting ever so patiently for the Musashi/Hiruma subtext I know is coming. Shin/Sakuraba would probably be fun if I could ever find anyone who could do it well; it's popular enough but the fandom hasn't attracted many folks who're writing anything I want to read yet. (I'm very fond of Sakuraba, and not because of his idol prettiness. It's the personality that makes me go '<3'.) Uh... the person who dragged me likes Toganou/Kuroki, and I do have a soft spot for the Haha trio myself, but that's not a usual ship. XD And no, there aren't more than 26 eps and 80 chapters translated. Raw anime episodes (and, for that matter, raw manga chapters) are available, and the raw anime is hovering somewhere around where the manga translations stop. Not much in the way of manga summaries until you get to really recent stuff, either, sadly.

[octopedingenue]

(I knew I left someone out of my "must hug when I see them" list. Sakuraba goes there too.)

Musashi/Hiruma is going to be AWESOME when it explodes. That is all.

[prillalar]

I've only heard hints about Musashi so far. I can't wait to read more.

I could go for Shin/Sakuraba. I think I need to see them a bit more first, though. And maybe Shin/Sena too, though in some ways, that seems a bit too easy.

Is there much manga past the scanalations? I see the raw anime is up to 37 now. Do you usually watch/read the raws?

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

animang is totally the verb you should use. "Yo, i'm animanging the shit out of Eyeshield 21."

or NO, it should be "animangling!"

*amuses self copiously*

[prillalar]

Animangling! *gurgles*

[airairo.livejournal.com]

Shin!! *_* I love Eyeshield 21. I avoided it for a while too because of how much I haaaate American Football. XD But it's so *good* and the art is lovely and some of the characters are just... love. Like Shin. XD And Sena and Sakuraba grow on me more and more. ♥

(and I want someone to write crossover fic where Shin and Sanada are cousins so bad. XD)

By the way, I just recently friended you after fangirling you from afar for a while. I guess I worked up the nerve to fangirl up close. XD So hello!

[prillalar]

Shin, god, I can hardly articulate how much I love him. If I had only known, I would have been watching/reading all along. And I love your icon.

I want someone to write crossover fic where Shin and Sanada are cousins

LOL! And fight crime together?

And I'm glad you're here. :) I hope I'm not too unnerving. *g*

[disutansu.livejournal.com]

OMG ES21!! So much crack. So much violence (courtesy of Hiruma). So much (Shin) love!!! The only reason I picked it up was because of Naoya but now, even if he wasn't in there, I wouldn't regret watching this 'cause it's so much love. Although he's a major plus.

Aside from all the crack, violence, and love, it's also really touching about how (usually) Sena grows as a person. *pets him* I found myself holding my breath and praying desperately, "OMGRUNYOU!!!"

[prillalar]

crack, violence, and love

You know, that's it's right there. :) Crack, violence, love, and Shin.

I'm glad Sena is so likeable. Sometimes that type of main character can be annoying, but he's lovely.

[histoirede.livejournal.com]

*happy dance*
Believe me you will succomb more on the long term X3

Popular ships are :
- Well, HiruMamo is one of them ^-^
- HirumaSena is popular (even if I don't like it)
- Hiruma is in fact popular with everyone... You can find a bit of MusashiHiruma and RuiHiruma, too... and totally crack things like SakurabaHiruma *you know, Japanese fangirls...* As for Hiruma, what I like more is HiruMamo and MusashiKuritaHiruma OT3 <3
- Shin x Sakuraba is quite popular... but I don't like it.
- Because Sakuraba's true love is White Knights own bespectacled dataman, Takami. But you don't really see that until a good way in the series. Takami x Sakuraba is... not minor... but not as major as ShinSaku. Oh, and Takami => Sakuraba => Shin is quite common, too.
- Shin x Sena is kinda popular, but not really major... I can't really understand why because they so obsess over one another...
- More recent teams that you don't know yet are quite popular, especially Poseidon.
- You can always ship things like the huh-huh san-kyôdai OT3. Which is nearly canon but totally neglected.

Oh, and don't read my posts on Eyeshield 21. They're totally spoilerish ^^;

I'd like the anime to suck less and the manga to be more easy to find. It's hard to make people like a series when you can't tell them where to find it except a Japanese bookstore...

[prillalar]

I feel myself getting drawn in more just by people's enthusiasm! (I'm easily swayed like that. *g*)

I remember Takami -- I thought he was cool. And I'll avoid your spoiler posts until I'm ready to be spoiled.

I'm just so curious about Musashi now. I'll probably finished the manga scanlations this weekend, if I get through my yuletide writing okay.

I have a feeling that I'll be waffling between Shin/Sakuraba and Shin/Sena, but we'll see how it goes.

shounen sports recs based only on popularity

[cellia.livejournal.com]

Hiruma is my favorite, but I do like Shin because he seems to work so hard to be so good. And I like the ones who seem a little grumpy.

To scratch your shounen sports itch (uh)... it's gonna be *tough* to beat Slam Dunk. It seems to have no fandom here, but it was huge in Japan in the 90s for good reason.

Other famous shounen sports series (I haven't read/watched any of these, but they were very popular, and still make top 100 lists, mentioned in books on anime etc etc)

Touch by Mitsuru Adachi (1980s, baseball with twins) His "Short Program" has been commercially translated. His style seems to me to be simple, understated and poignant.

Ashita no Joe (aka Tomorrow's Joe) (1970s, boxing)
(anime features Dezaki anime direction... if one cares about such things...)

and, of course...

Captain Tsubasa (1980s, soccer/football) The series that seems to be what opened the floodgates of yaoi doujinshi. (Ozaki's ZetsuAi is really only a hop, skip, and a jump away from her Capt Tsubasa dj.) Personally, I'd direct you to this one, as it obviously reached something in a ton of female fans.

And, for balance:

Ace wo Nerae! (aka Aim for the Ace!), shoujo tennis fr the 1970s! All I can find listed on animesuki are subs of the live action remake, but I know technogirls (http://www.quixium.com/technogirls/ace.htm) has done oldskool tape fansubs of the original anime. (ultra!geek fun fact: Gainex's Gunbuster is a bit of a parody of Ace wo Nerae!)

Re: shounen sports recs based only on popularity

[prillalar]

I was so surprised by how much I ended up liking Hiruma. I guess it's that's usual sports manga thing -- nobody who is so dedicated to his sport can be all bad.

I've got Touch and I've watched the first series of it. (At that point I had to take a break from it, but not because I didn't like it.) Touch is actually so good I have trouble talking about it and so I haven't really posted about it, except tangentially.

Even though baseball is a key part of the story, I wouldn't call it a sports anime. The main focus is the relationship between the three main characters -- the twins and the girl next door. I would highly recommend it, especially for the portrayal of the twins's relationship. And now I'm getting too emotional to keep typing about it.

I would really love to get my hands on Captain Tsubasa, but haven't looked for it yet. It's so hard to get older stuff!

[leviosa8.livejournal.com]

I like Hiruma x Mamori >D
But I am all for Shin x Sena. I love how they push themselves so far just to keep pace with one another. And they are obsessed!
But really, I like all the characters, and the manga is both touching and hilarious :D
You need to meet Taki...

[prillalar]

Obsession is a beautiful thing. :) And the manga is really great. I'm going to try to finish the scanlations this weekend.

[jaebi-lit.livejournal.com]

I deleted an icon of Inui to fit them both in!

*stares* Whoa. That is true love.

[prillalar]

Well, it was one I didn't like much and which was really a topical joke for an episode that aired nearly a year ago, but it was a bit of a wrench all the same.

Obviously, I wouldn't delete a Kaidoh icon for Shin! But I could forsee a future where I have 50 icons of one and 50 of the other. *g*

[biggersandwich.livejournal.com]

ES21 is crazy (but fantastic).

Hiruma/Mamori would be awesome. (And I desperately want fic in which he casually refers to her as "fucking girlfriend" and CHAOS ENSUES...)

[octopedingenue]

fic in which he casually refers to her as "fucking girlfriend" and CHAOS ENSUES

The beauty and perfection of that scenario warms my SOUL.

I have not seen the licensed Viz ES21 releases, and I wonder if they left any of the "fucking"s in at all!

[kylandra.livejournal.com]

I am loving the hell out of Eyeshield 21. So much love for pretty much the entire cast, even Mamori! And I'm even shipping Mamori/Sena and Mamori/Hiruma! Generally speaking I hate the token female character in shonen shows, and generally hate het pairings in shonen shows as well, but I can't help myself. Everyone in that series is so...<3.

[prillalar]

Everyone is great, I agree! Mamori/Hiruma is so my het OTP.

Another basketball series

[sansei555.livejournal.com]

Hope you'll excuse the late comment (agh! all the holiday preparations are driving me crazy -- who has time to go online?).

Shin -- ah, yes. What is it about those brooding, taciturn and intense types that's so appealing?

I don't think anyone's mentioned Asada Hiroyuki's I'll CKBC aka I'll Generation Basketball. I enjoyed it, but then I don't know how it compares to Slam Dunk or Dear Boys since I haven't had time to read/view those two series yet. There are 14 volumes of the manga (it ended in 2004) and one OAV. I think the latter has been commericially released in English but I'll stick with my HK subs (especially since Miki Shinichirou is one of the seiyuu). The anime art is very pretty (see icon). A summary courtesy of wikipedia:

"Akane Tachibana, a star basketball player, has become disillusioned with the sport. He's great at it, but he feels that there's more out there for him.

Hiiragi is the son of an elite basketball family. His older brother is a pro, his father is a well known coach. While Hiiragi has great skills, his temper and the pressure from his family to do well makes him a very tempermental player.

Both of them decide they don't want to play the sport anymore. But Tachibana discovers that there really isn't anything else out there that interests him, and he can't get Hiiragi's skills out of his head. He makes being better than Hiiragi his primary concern. Hiiragi winds up going to Tachibana's school rather than the school where his father coaches in order to escape his father's control which he finds stifling.

They wind up pulling each other into the high school basketball team, where they discover they work incredibly well together."

Mangascreener has a torrent for the zip of volumes 1-7.

Re: Another basketball series

[prillalar]

Thanks for the rec! I've downloaded the scanlations and I'll read them as soon as I'm through H2.

Slam Dunk is now the gold standard to which I will compare any sports series. The manga is just amazingly good, especially later on. Dear Boys is sweet and lovely. I've only seen the anime; I'd like to read the manga, since it goes on beyond the anime.

I sometimes wonder why I've come to love sports manga so much. I'm not a real sports fan IRL, besides a bit of hockey and soccer.