Vivi may have broken the c-c-c-combo chain, but that’s not enough to stop this ES train XD.
Eyeshield 21 was a collaborative effort between two mangakas, artist Yuusuke Murata and writer Riichiro Inagaki. Most mangakas have gone through plenty of work previously before finally stumbling on their masterpieces, so this post will take a look at their backgrounds before Eyeshield 21 as well as an interview they conducted during Eyeshield’s serialization. Some of their other works have been good while others were lackluster but that’s just the natural progression of a mangaka’s career. Still, it takes a lot to produce even one major hit so everything they did had served to make Eyeshield that much better.
To start things off, let’s look at each of their backgrounds. Up first is Inagaki Riichiro:
Aside from Eyeshield, Inagaki has had some experience writing manga beforehand. While little is known of his previous work, he does have an accomplished background as he won the 7th “Story King” section in issue 51 of the Weekly Shounen Jump back in 2001. This prize is awarded to the best writers so he does have a lot of pedigree in creating great stories suitable for the Jump demographic. His previous works include Any Number of Times on the 13th of June, Square Freeze and LOVE LOVE Santa, all of which were published in Big Comic Spirits. Sadly, I couldn’t find any info regarding these series so I can’t really give my impressions on any of them.
Source: Wikipedia
Yuusuke Murata however is the more visible of the two, since his works before and after Eyeshield are readily available and scanlated. Like Inagaki, Murata also won awards prior to Eyeshield, as he won multiple prizes with his one shots in Jump (Partner won the 122nd Hop*Step award and Samui Hanashi won the 2nd Prize in the 51st Akatsuka Award). Even before that, at age twelve his designs for a Megaman Villain Design contest won twice, with his final designs adapted to the characters Dust Man from Megaman 4 and Crystal Man from Megaman 5, with an additional thanks credit at the end of Megaman 3. On top of all this, he served as an assistant and an apprentice to Death Note creator Takeshi Obata, so his experience before Es21 is excellent.
After ES21, he has had some hits and misses. He created a lot of oneshots during and after his serialization completed; Madofuki Park in March 2008 for Jump Square, Blust in a 2009 issue of Weekly Jump and Minds for a 2010 issue of Weekly Jump. He is currently serialized in Jump Square, working as the artist for the monthly manga Donten Prism Solar Car with Yasuo Otagaki (I did a first take on the manga earlier this year so you can read up my impressions on the first 4 chapters).
Source: Wikipedia
It’s interesting to see their backgrounds, since it’s really different from my other favorite sport mangaka, Takehiko Inoue from Slam Dunk. Unlike Inoue, these two had no previous experience writing sports manga. Inoue had at least two other serializations relating to basketball, so he has had experience before creating Slam Dunk. Murata and Inagaki however didn’t so it’s pretty neat to see a different take on sport manga succeed the way they did. I guess that’s why Eyeshield has equal amounts of gag and school day life mixed in between the sports, since the two were able to take their experience from other genres and integrate them into ES21.
I’d also like to share this interview I found recently, which gives some sweet insight on the duo’s thoughts on the manga, as well as American Football as a sport. It was surprising to hear some of their revelations, as they talk about their past, their favourite characters etc so this is definitely a must read for ES21 fans. Hit the spoiler for the transcript:
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Q: American football is not a mainstream sport in Japan. Why did you choose American football as the main theme of this manga?
Inagaki (I): I wanted to create a protagonist that was wimpy at the beginning, yet could perform outstandingly in a sports game. With that premise in mind, I decided that American football would be a very suitable material.
Murata (M): After reading Inagaki-sensei’s award-winning storyboards in Shueisha’s “Story King” contest – which had many cool design concepts of uniforms and equipment – I thought it could be turned into a great manga story, and I’d be happy to take the challenge. Fortunately I was chosen by Inagaki-sensei to turn his concepts into a serializing work.
Q: Had you participated in sports back in your high school days e.g. football?
I: Baseball, soccer, basketball, etc.; I played just about any sport back then, but not football.
M: Never played football either, but basically I like all types of sports.
Q: Have you watched the anime version of Eyeshield 21? What do you think of it?
I: I was deeply moved when I saw it animated. However, it was impossible to copy the manga verbatim into anime, so I told the animation studio to produce it as an anime should be. It would be rather boring for watchers anyway if everything is the same to the manga. I think the anime is an excellent adaptation, and I’m grateful to everyone working on it.
M: The still images of manga are now moving and talking; that’s a great driving force for me and my future works. I keep those DVDs right next to my working desk and play them whenever I’m around.
Q: There are so many characters in Eyeshield 21; who is your favorite or the most well-designed character, you think?
I: Well, every character we create is like a child, so I love them all, but if you really want me to pick one – this is like asking a father to pick his favorite child – I’d say Kengo Mizumachi. At the first glance he doesn’t look like an important character, but I think he finishes his duties perfectly in his own way.
M: Seijuro Shin. At first this character is modeled after Bruce Lee and is a cool, handsome character, but with the story progresses he becomes more and more like a real person. Furthermore, he works really hard to increase his skills.
Q: You’ve mentioned that you love some specific scenes of senior mangaka (Inagaki: Slam Dunk, when Hanamichi Sakuragi snagged his opponent’s clothes when the umpire didn’t pay attention, and Murata, the Dragon Ball battles between Goku and Piccolo and Goku and Frieza). What is your favorite scene of your own manga?
I: Now you force me to pick one out of many AGAIN (laugh). Haruto Sakuraba felt his talent in football is limited, although he tried to work hard. When he met Shin, who was both talented and hard-working, Sakuraba suddenly felt himself completely outclassed and knelt on the ground in the rain. This scene gave readers much to think about, plus Murata-sensei put a lot of effort in to illustrate it.
M: To me it’s also a raining scene. Sena Kobayakawa found himself not practicing enough before a game, so he kept practicing in the rain without protective gear, while Hiruma was watching like a hawk. A great individual stands up immediately whenever he falls to the ground, so I’m inspired by Sena’s spirit to encourage myself.
Q: Is this your first time visiting Taiwan? How do you feel when you see your works being translated to other languages?
I: I’ve been to Taiwan once before but it was just a typical tour for travelers; I’d like to visit something different this time. I’m very proud to see the manga being translated; when I flipped through the overseas edition I can still feel the atmosphere, even though I can’t read the text.
M: This is the first time for me and I expect to see something exotic and Taiwan-exclusive. While different countries have different acceptance levels for American football, but Kobayakawa is a person who knows where his limit lies and knows how to do his best in order to play as a team. If a reader can realize it then s/he can enjoy the book regardless of his/her cultural background.
Q: There are many, many players in Eyeshield 21; each of them has their unique character traits; they almost have their own stories. How did you find ideas and inspiration when creating such a large cast?
I: Each team has its own style, such as Shin and his team are serious and well-organized. However, it’s not like I’ve set up teams and then design players; rather, it is the other way around. I decide what kind of character should appear in the story before assigning him a team.
M: Due to their heavy protective gear, it would be very difficult to identify personal characteristics in games, so the most work on character designs are on their uniforms.
Q: What is your favorite team logo?
I: Other than Deimon Devil Bats, all others were solely designed by Murata-sensei. At first Murata-sensei created six prototypes for Deimon Devil Bats, and the one we see today.
M: Because Deimon Devil Bats would be the strongest and more prominent team in the entire book, I spent a lot of work on designing the logo, which bears a strong resemblance to Hiruma.
Q: Do you have any favorite sports gear? By the way, there’s a dog and a pig in the book; do you own pet(s) in real life?
I: I like Sakuraba’s sneakers; I’ve got a dog.
M: Had a cat in the past. I jog because I would gain weight if I just sit and draw manga. My favorite gear is Nike Free, which follows the shape of my feet very well and are very comfortable.
Q: Why did you choose comedian Jun Tamura to voice Hiruma?
I: The animation studio is in charge of casting, but they did ask our opinions. We thought that Mr. Tamura is a perfect fit, both his voice and his style.
M: I agree with what Inagaki-sensei said; furthermore, it would be great if Hiruma could have a devil-like appearance (laugh).
Q: Please say a few words to the survivors of the flood to cheer them up.
I: It is difficult to say something easily after witnessing such a terrible natural disaster. There are many typhoons and earthquakes in Japan as well so I more or less understand the depressing feel. I hope all survivors can be back to their normal lives as soon as possible.
M: I haven’t been following news lately so I’m not very familiar with the detailed extent of the disaster. However my parents live in Kyushu and have experienced severe natural disasters as well. I also hope people can get well soon.
Source: ANN
Neither of them mentioned Hiruma as their favorite character. He doesn’t exactly fit the typical Japanese mannerism, so it wasn’t all that surprising but as such a unique character, I would’ve thought that he would be on one of their lists. Kengo was a good choice though. Not many people would have him as a fav, but I like him for the exact same reasons Riichiro mentioned. Shin was Murata’s and he is a hugely popular character so no surprises there. I’ll reveal my favorites in the future so stay tuned for that.
Their choices in favorite scenes were really good too, since I like both of their picks a lot as well. Thing is, the manga has so many powerful moments that it’s kinda hard to pick just one. The fact that they both chose the more emotional scenes show that this manga has a serious side in addition to all the gag, a testament to Riichiro’s awesome writing. I’ll release my favorite scenes later on in the week as well, but maybe I’ll chicken out and not rank them. It’s just that hard to pick a definitive favourite haha.
There’s quite a lot more that I could comment on from the interview, but I think it’s best to leave some of my other thoughts for future posts. So this about covers it for now. It was great to do the research and reading up on them both, since I learned quite a lot about them and Eyeshield 21 in the process. For fans of Eyeshield 21, this interview was a great way to understand the manga more.
It's always n ice to know a little more behind the Manga's and Anime's, i know me personally i don't know the authors or studios behind my favorite series as its easy just to skip over.
I recently read a similar interview in Tekonkinkreet and really does help you respect the creators more.
Yea same here, I tend to fall into that category as well. Even for my favorite anime, I usually have no clue who the studios or creators are. Maybe the music, but never the studios. I try to learn it, but I keep forgetting it eventually.
For manga it's different, I know the mangakas behind the stuff that I read, but rarely do I try and seek extra material like interviews etc. Eyeshield is just the exception
Thanks for the interview; I really enjoyed it. I was a little surprised that Mizumachi was Inagaki's favourite character, but after thinking about it more, he's a great character and had a really different back story than the other characters. I loved the little exploration of how he came to be on the football team and the huge difference of attitude between the swim team and the football team. Plus (if you remember) how he got Agon to "high five" with Sena and Shin… I loved that scene, haha.
Hmm… I'm really interested to know who your favourite character is now, Bass.
Oh yea, I forgot that Mizumachi actually had a pretty fleshed out background behind him. Guess that's what I love about ES, the characters are so well developed.
You will be surprised with my top pick, since I doubt many even consider him in their top 10 at all :P
Always so neat to know more about one of your favorite manga (disliked the anime a bit) – the interview was great. Inagaki and I have the same favorite, ain't that neat?
Huh, I didn't see that "commentluv" something – did I just like my own comment? XD