The series takes place in Tokyo, Japan, where the members of Deimon Devil Bats have the ambition to compete at the Christmas Bowl, the most important high school American football championship of the country.
The main character of the series is Sena Kobayakawa, a wimpy boy who was a gofer to avoid being bullied during his childhood; he enters Deimon High School.
[1] Murata said that "due to their heavy protective gear, it would be very difficult to identify personal characteristics in games" and because of this he decided to become more engaged in detailing their clothes, "so the most work on character designs are on their uniforms".
5] At the end of the series, he is shown to be attending Enma University alongside Sena, Monta, Riku, Mizumachi, Unsui and Kotaro.[ch.
[Jp 7] They join the club permanently after passing the test that consists in climbing Tokyo Tower without letting an ice bag melt.[ch.
Contradicting his mother, Yukimitsu decides he wants to have sweet memories of his high school not related to studying, and so he applies for Hiruma's qualification test and enters the Deimon Devil Bats.[ch.
88] He and Ojo's trainer and coach, Gunpei Shoji, were teammates at Sengoku University's American football team, and were known as "The Twin Japanese Blades",[Jp 8] where he played as a tight end.[ch.
He is an incredibly vain and narcissistic person[13] usually dismissed as an idiot by several people, including his sister Suzuna and Hiruma, due to his odd and rather foolish attitude;[ch.
85] After arriving in Japan, he has yet to make the high school entrance exam, and he debuts only in the second match of the Autumn Tokyo Tournament.[ch.
121, 282] The Ojo White Knights (王城ホワイトナイツ, Ōjō Howaito Naitsu) are considered the second best team in Kantō behind Shinryuji Naga at the start of Eyeshield 21.
Three years prior to the series' start, a group of defense-focused Ojo players known as "Golden Generation" manages to get close to defeat the Shinryuji Naga.
Shin only joins an American football club because he is accompanying Haruto Sakuraba on the admission exam when the coach Gunpei Shoji sees his potential.[ch.
13, 91] After getting injured and being hospitalized he meets Torakichi, a boy who admires him only due to his skills, and Sakuraba becomes excited again to play American football.[ch.
Its members include Kid, the quarterback, Jo Tetsuma, the wide receiver, Riku Kaitani, the running back, Buffalo Ushijima,[Jp 10] a lineman and the team's captain,[ch.
After he could not win a championship and thought he disappointed his father, Shien left his home and abandoned his name, adopting the pseudonym "Kid".[ch.
139] He is very quiet and follows all orders given to him in an extreme way; he memorizes a number of different passing routes, and once Kid calls one out, he will almost automatically not falter from the course unless overpowered.[ch.
199] Its members include the Kongo brothers—Agon and Unsui—, Ikkyu Hosokawa, the cornerback, Gondayu Yamabushi, the senior lineman, Sanzo,[Jp 14] an androgynous-looking running back,[ch.
Players who want to move up in the ranks must memorize over one thousand different plays and all of the first string members must be able to run forty yards in under five seconds.[ch.
39] Its members include Banba Mamoru, the captain, Kiminari Harao,[Jp 16] an eccentric quarterback who has his own harem and is considered a below average player,[ch.
He joins and becomes a champion at the swimming club, but he quits due to his teammates lacking the drive to win; he is eventually recruited by Kakei to the American football team.[ch.
One year prior the series' events, most of its members were recruited away by the Teikoku Alexanders after the team achieved the second place in the Tokyo Tournament.[ch.
Because of this last minute change, Akaba is banned from playing for six months due to the school's policy, and during this time he is devoted to studying new tactics to teach his teammates.[ch.
155] After his team is defeated, he officially hands Sena the Eyeshield 21 title and serves as a personal coach for Natsuhiko Taki during the Devil Bats' preparation for the Christmas Bowl.[ch.
333] The Hakushu Dinosaurs (白秋ダイナソーズ, Hakushū Dainosōzu) are a team from the SIC region (Saitama, Ibaraki, and Chiba), participating for the first time in the Kantō Tournament.
Its members include Reiji Maruko, the quarterback and captain, Rikiya Gao, the main lineman, Hiromi Kisaragi[Jp 27] the wide receiver who is considered the team's left arm,[ch.
At the start of the series, Hiruma assigns this name to Sena to frighten his adversaries by claiming he is the running back who came from Notre Dame to Japan.
163] Shun Kakei, however, reveals that he had met the "real" Eyeshield 21 when he was in the United States, and he returned to Japan to search him and denounces Sena as a fraud.[ch.
166] However, the "real" Eyeshield 21 that Akaba previously inherited the title from is revealed to be Takeru Yamato, the true identity of the person Kakei met in the United States.
When he meets Sena, Yamato declares that whoever wins the Christmas Bowl between the Deimon Devil Bats and the Teikoku Alexanders will be the one who deserves the title.[ch.
[28] Christina Koh of The Star asserted "Each character is drawn with a distinct look",[29] while Santos commended their distinguishable physical characteristics,[30] and their design, which, "of course, are a feat of imagination.