Powerful (Eyeshield 21 #5) (Manga Monday)

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Title: Powerful
Series: Eyeshield 21
Author: Riichiro Inagaki
Artist: Yusuke Murata
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 200
Format: Digital Scan

Synopsis:

Now that the Devil Bats have an actual team, Harima takes them to watch a game played by other teams so that the newbies can see at what level more advanced teams play at. Harima also ups their training by making them participate in building the new clubhouse.
After watching the game, Harima signs up the Devil Bats to play a visiting American highschool team. However, the contest was rigged and another, higher profile, team was chosen. Harima hacks into the system and forces a duel between the Devil Bats and the Taiyo Sphinx to determine who will play the Americans.

My Thoughts:

This was a good volume. Seeing the White Knights struggle and their fan favorite QB stuck in the hospital wrestling with doubt, makes them seem that much more worthy as opponents to the Devil Bats.

The beginning of the game against the Sphinx is a good one. The linebackers of the Devil Bats, who we've only seen overcoming everything thrown at them, get flattened by the Pyramid of the Sphinx. Their confidence is shattered and not even Sena/Eyeshield 21 can get their spirits up. Of course, Harima has a plan for even this setback and using the natures of his linemen puts the "oomph" back in them.

Harima also shows his skills as a QB while the weak nature of the Sphinx's QB begins to crack under the pressure. It is rather nice to see Harima actually playing football instead of just whaling on the team and shooting off guns and rockets.

Sena plays a very small part in this volume and I suspect that will be the case from now on. Football being such a team sport, it can't rely on 1 individual to carry the whole story. My only gripe is the fact that Eyeshield 21 is supposedly a Notre Dame vet and Notre Dame is a college, so why would a college kid be in highschool? I know the American version of highschool doesn't exactly correspond to Japanese Highschool but I figured it was still all the same at the end.
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