Inazuma Eleven

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I can’t remember the last time I’ve enjoyed a show as much as Inazuma Eleven. I know that Inazuma Eleven isn’t new and had actually wrapped up in April of 2011, but I’ve been slowly wading into it before diving in about a month or two ago. Inazuma Eleven revolves around the fledgeling soccer (or football for the rest of the world) club of Raimon Junior High and it’s captain/goaltender, Mamoru Endou. Over the course of the series, Raimon Junior High encounters a plethora of plot twists and story arcs in the journey towards both national and international championships and aliens.

Raimon reacts to the arrival of Teikoku Academy
Raimon reacts to the arrival of Teikoku Academy

At first glance, Inazuma Eleven seems childish, but after a while you get hooked on it. I got pulled into Inazuma Eleven because I really enjoyed a number of the characters – a handful of which are core to the series itself. Raimon’s goaltender Mamoru Endou is the energetic and passionate captain. When the club was threatened with dissolution due to a lack of members, Endou petitioned his classmates to join, facing rejection from other, more prominent clubs. Thankfully, Endou’s efforts are not wasted and the necessary remaining players sign up, totalling eleven (giving reasoning to the series name). Almost immediately, the club faces one the mightiest of all teams — Teikoku Academy. Teikoku is lead by the dread-locked, goggle-and-cape-wearing Kidou Yuuto and proves to be as fearsome in person as his team’s reputation.

Kidou’s unique hairstyles and accessories aren’t alone. Some of Kidou’s teammates have similar, or far more questionable styles — Doumen Shuuichirou’s wing-like hair span, blank eyes and facial tattoos. As Raimon’s roster rotates, new players join with even more elaborate ‘doos: Gouenji Shuuya’s hair has looks that are reminiscent of Dragon Ball Z, Fudou Akio’s skunk-like mohawk, Tsunami Jousuke’s pink explosion upon which he props his goggles, and Tobitaka Seiya’s hawk-like hairdo (in which he takes great pride).

Appearance aside, I found that a lot of the characters have developed history that provides a strong base to build on their personality and interactions with their team mates. Gouenji’s background is slightly heart-wrenching, resolving never to play soccer until his younger sister awakes from coma that was caused from a car accident. Because of this, Gouenji is asks for her sister’s forgiveness as he rushes to Endou’s aid after witnessing the goaltender being injured during the match against Teikoku Academy. It’s the depth that provides feeling and emotion to the characters and makes it so compelling to watch.

Gouenji Shuuya's Fire Tornado
Gouenji Shuuya’s Fire Tornado

Instead of the traditional back and forth with the soccer ball, each player in Inazuma Eleven have their own special abilities and attacks, called hissatsu. Being goaltender, Endou’s primary hissatsu, God Hand, allows him to stop almost everything that comes at him. Of course, hissatsu can evolve and new ones can be learned. The techniques can also be combined with those of other players for increased offence and defence. A personal favourite is Kidou Yuuto’s Emperor Penguin No. 2 — Kidou whistles for a flock of the flightless birds to escort the ball as it soars towards the goal. Each hissatsu comes with its own animation sequence and title overlay to elevate the game of soccer to a new level.

I enjoyed the music of Inazuma Eleven so much, I went out and bought the first two soundtrack CDs from CDJapan. Japanese rock/rap group T-Pistonz+KMC performs all of the opening themes for the series and they’re all quite catchy and upbeat. Personal favourites are Tachiagariyo, Maji De Kansha, Tsunagari-yo and Katte Nakou-ze! Japanese pop group Berryz Kobo has composed all of music used during the closing titles, with the exception of the first dozen episodes. This ending sequence was performed by another all-girl band, Twe’lv. The actual music used in the show is composed by Yasunori Mitsuda. You may remember Mitsuda’s music from a number of video game series — Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, and Xenogears, for example. A wide arrangement of orchestral music breathes more life into Inazuma Eleven, from the light and uplifting motif for Raimon Junior High to the energetic Inazuma Run when Tsunami Jousuke first unleashed his Tsunami Boost hissatsu. There’s plenty of CDs from Inazuma Eleven containing singles of the opening and closing themes, remixes, character songs and of course the background music.

Inazuma Eleven actually is based on a series of games developed by Level 5 for the Nintendo DS handheld console. Originally released in Japan, the games made their way to Europe due to soccer’s widespread popularity. However, the games were localized where the character’s names changed to become more English friendly. The anime series followed suit as well. It’s actually kind of relieving Inazuma Eleven hasn’t been picked up in North America where I fear it would be edited and censored to the point of potentially becoming unwatchable.

There is a reason behind the name Inazuma Eleven – Inazuma is Japanese for “the lightning” and since each team has eleven players on the field, you get The Lightning Eleven. This makes sense, given the lightning bolt theme seen at Raimon Junior High and throughout the fictional Inazuma Town.

Inazuma Eleven is a superb series, the animation is quite good and the character development is well rounded and dynamic. It leaves me wanting more, which means I should probably finish watching all 127 episodes.

 

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