History Headscratchers / Eyeshield21

* All the PositiveDiscrimination Panther gets. I love Panther, I think he's awesome, but really, does people (Sena and Apollo to name two examples) have to start rambling about the superiority of black men in football when it comes to him? I realize Sena has certain physiological limits that Panther doesn't, but...there has to be a better way to say it.
** Even before Panther was introduce people treated the Americans like genetic freak, saying that only Taiyou would stand a chance against the muscle of the american. Plus the world cup arc is ridiculous in how the U.S team are portrayed as born to be perfect player so it's not like Panther stands out that much. Plus you have guys like Gaou, Kakei and Agon who got that same rambling about how their physical ability make them better than everyone else why Panther, who is black but also the guy who ran on rooftops as training, would have no one recognizing that he is a natural sprinter?

*** [[http://mangafox.me/manga/eyeshield_21/c053/11.html that's his first appearance]]

** Sena is canonically bad at English, Mamori translated most of it for him during death march (http://www.mangareader.net/eyeshield-21/83/5), the Gunman coach is an English teacher so he might have taught the team. Not clear why Panther and Sena can understand themselves after being drunk though.

<<|ItJustBugsMe|>>

*** Well yes, narrative convenience is obviously the ''correct'' answer, but that goes for 90% of ''all'' {{Headscratchers}}. In-universe, there's no good reason, you're just [[BellisariosMaxim not supposed to think about it]]. But since the series makes such a big deal of how the Devil Bats' super-offensive style being because they can only ever get 6 points from each touchdown and can't get field goals, it's really just one of the series' bigger {{Plot Hole}}s.

* Something I never quite understood is why Panther's speed is magnified to an extent beyond reason. He's only a tenth of a second faster than Sena over 40 yards, yet he's always portrayed as being [[TheFlash the goddamn Flash]]. A great example- in the Xmas Bowl game, Yamato was able to stop Sena cold in a head to head every time, but in the World Cup Match, despite having the same power as Sena and only a LITTLE BIT more speed, Panther's able to burn past Yamato like he's not even there. I realize the "I can't catch up" factor, but some of it's just ridiculous.

** Sena is canonically bad at English, Mamori translated most of it for him during death march (http://www.mangareader.net/eyeshield-21/83/5), the gunman coach is an English teacher so he might have taught the team. Not clear why Panther and sena can understand themselves after being drunk though.

** His racism toward black is purely because of Morgan but like mr.Don it might be more national racism than Asian with the Japanese.

** Even before Panther was introduce people treated the Americans like genetic freak, saying that only Taiyou would stand a chance against the muscle of the american. Plus the world cup arc is ridiculous in how the U.S team are portrayed as born to be perfect player so it's not like Panther stands out that much.

** His racism toward black is purely because of Morgan but like mr.Don it might be more national racism than asian with the Japanese.

* It's covered in the anime that Hiruma does the kick, it just never goes in. You just see him kicking and missing. And Deimon does not have enough stamina to go two point conversion with the line all up until the christmas Bowl where Kurita can take the whole line down. Otherwise they can just sack hiruma by going through the holes in the line. It's more risky burning Sena for 2 points than keeping him fresh for scoring another touchdown.

** Sena is canonically bad at English, Mamori translated most of it during death march, the gunman coach is an English teacher so he might have taught the team. Not clear why Panther and sena can understand themselves after being drunk though.

* Do the Japanese characters speak English or not? At certain points, Watt has to translate between members of the Devils and the NASA team, but later we see Panther and Sena interact seemingly without a language barrier. Several chapters later, when the Deimon team is in America, the 'Devil's Gunmen' seem to understand that the announcer of the beach contest dubbed them the 'Happy-Go-Lucky Team', and the Kid and another Gunman take offense at her remark about him being old. It's hard to tell whether there's supposed to be any language barrier at all. (Of course, it probably goes without saying that Hiruma understands English pretty well and can speak it- he lived in the US and has several conversations with people who don't know any Japanese. I'm mainly asking about the characters in scenes he's not part of.)

* If Apollo is a racist who seems to resent everybody that isn't white, why does he have no issues with letting the Gonzales brothers play? Perhaps I'm simply reading too much into it, but given that both brothers have tan skin and the last name Gonzales, they are most likely Hispanic, and it seems uncharacteristic of Apollo to let them play with no strings attached.

* It's covered in the anime that Hiruma does the kick, it just never goes in. You just see him kicking and missing. And Deimon does not have enough stamina to go two point conversion with the line all up until the christmas Bowl where kurita can take the whole line down. Otherwise they can just sack hiruma by going through the holes in defense.