They Are Called the Devil Bats (Eyeshield 21 #3) (Manga Monday)

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Title: They Are Called the Devil Bats
Series: Eyeshield 21
Author: Riichiro Inagaki
Artist: Yusuke Murata
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 200
Format: Digital Scan

Synopsis:

After a quick jump ahead of the White Knights, the Devil Bats are simply playing a delaying action. Shin is a machine that just mows down all opposition. However, something inside Sena responds and instead of running away, he gets faster. Instead of losing 0-99 like they did last year, they simply lose 12-62.  There is also an incident where Eyeshield 21 takes out the White Knight's quarterback and when he's in the hospital is becomes very apparent that said QB doesn't really want to be playing football.
The second half of the book is based on the football team looking to capitalize on how well they did to attract new players. Sena comes across someone who is playing for the baseball team, can catch anything, but is a terrible all-round baseball player. Insta-friendship :-)

My Thoughts:

There are times where manga is the perfect medium to express an ideal thought. Every excess of emotion that has ever been experienced can be experienced, less painfully and in many cases with great happiness, in this format.  Who doesn't remember that one small triumph in their life? For me, since this is a sports related manga, I can remember one summer camp where I won the 50yard dash, the 100 yard dash and the 1/4mile run. I got 3, plastic, gold medals, and was cheered by everyone. Everyone being about 40 other kids. It meant nothing in the long run and I wasn't suddenly on the path to stardom and track famousness, but it is a little golden point in my memory.

Reading this book was like watching others get their golden points, even if they are fictional characters. Monta, the new receiver, has to give up his dream of being a baseball player but he's encouraged by Sena that the ending of one dream can just be the start of another.

The humor was back up too and had me chuckling several times.
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