I've been holding off from posting this long sappy drivel cuz it's supposed to be a fan blog, not one for personal storytime, but...w/e it's still my blog.
I've come to realize, after finishing the Eyeshield 21 manga, that this series is...very nostalgic for me, in that it helped remind me of the very few good memories I had from my middle school years, all revolving around sports. I was never the most physically adept, being a puny slightly overweight asthmatic, but damn if I didn't do my best to prove myself and tell nay-sayers to shove it.
In early middle school, my P.E. class was required to play flag football every Wednesday. Since I knew I could do fuck all except run fast, I resorted to being a sneaky, taunting little shit, making sure the opponents had NO idea where I was gonna take off to until it was too late. It cracked my team up and pissed off a bunch of jerkwad kids I hated, so it was cathartic.
The Ojou game made me distinctly remember the flag football game we played in the rain and mud, and damn near lost until I helped score the winning touchdown by BOOKING IT to the end zone, diving into the mud, nearly passing out from my asthma flaring up... and making my team so genuinely happy and cheer over a game that previously they hated being obligated to play.
Monta's entire character arc also reminded me how much fun I had playing softball. Again, I was kind of terrible at everything except running the bases. The coach had even told me I'd need to put in extra batting practice to catch up to everyone else. But many, many peers and even P.E. teachers were trying to persuade me to join track team after seeing how my running could damn near get home runs every game.
I played volleyball in eighth grade, and it was apparent from the start that almost no-one on my team wanted me there. I couldn't use my sonic legs as freely anymore; I was the weak scrawny little creampuff among fricken beanpoles, and again, the coach told me I'd need extra practice just to teach myself how to bump the ball more firmly with my tiny chicken wrists.
Cue me making one of my best bumps ever and helping score the winning shot of the final tournament of the year, and the one super bitchy tall chick that had taunted me since the beginning giving me genuine thanks/kudos.
So yeah. The characters' absolute passion, team spirit and motivation to be the best despite their own personal shortcomings (pun intended) really got me pumped up. The fact that Hiruma couldn't give less of a fuck about things like height, weight and natural talent, and just wants his team to strive to perform to the best of their ability is really admirable to me. Characters like Yukimitsu - and hell even Hiruma to a degree because he knows he's not the most physically adept but still keeps pushing himself - really hit home for the tiny bookish nerd with bad asthma that had always struggled just to keep up with everyone else even with my higher-than-average-for-a-middle-schooler speed.
This series did something that even Kuroko no Basuke, my favorite sports anime, didn't fully accomplish: It actually made me really miss being in a sports team. After spraining my ankle really badly during my college tennis team, I...pretty much never touched sports again. And I'm sad about that, but I'll forever be grateful to ES21 for reminding me that I did make good memories with my teammates, and that I did prove to others and to myself that I could achieve way more than I gave myself credit for.
