Eyeshield 21
Japanese Title: Eyeshield 21
English Title: Eyeshield 21
Length: 145 episodes (hilariously, I stopped at 21)
AniDB Listing: Link
AnimeNewsNetwork: Link
Production Studio: Studio Gallop
MEYDAY Rating: Awful-dropped
Sexual Rating: E for everyone
Violence Rating: E for everyone
Genre(s): Action, slice-of-life
Setting(s): High school
Theme(s): Sports
Target Audience: Shounen
Production Vintage: 2005
First Viewed Vintage: 2007
Number of Rewatches: 0
Review:
Before anyone accuses me of being "that girl who doesn't like sports anime," please allow me to point out that I really like Ookiku Furikabutte and LOVE Hajime no Ippo (so much that I've seen it all the way through twice). I like sports anime where the sport is at least kind of realistic, where the characters are well-developed, and where the story ... well, exists.
Which it doesn't in ES21.
Like so much shounen-shit series, ES21 is too long, has too goddamn many characters, none of the characters are more than cardboard cut-outs, the plots are lame, the art style is stupid (not ugly - Ippo art is ugly), and the outcome of each match is painfully predictable. I lost interest in ES21 maybe 10 eps before I stopped watching (I figured I'd give it a chance to redeem itself) and by the time I completely gave up, I was disgusted with myself for wasting time on such a crappy show.
Here's a good litmus test for sports anime: if you watch the anime and find a sudden interest in the sport, the anime did a good job. If you watch the anime and suddenly want absolutely nothing to do with the sport in any way shape or form ... the anime is probably ES21.
List of all series I've watched can be found here.