I did not expect this nugget of awesome character review today :) I think we do take for granted that the protagonist drives the story, but never wonder how. I'm glad that someone took the time to review key story points and go over why Sena was a keystone character (i use that term because without him the story fails). This was a totally awesome read! ╮(￣▽￣)╭
:) Thank you for reading it (even though I just skimmed it and cringed at how many typos there are).
I agree with you. Sena was Hiruma's hope and Hiruma was Sena's hope as well. If it hadn't been for Sena, Hiruma wouldn't have had a strong team with strong will like this to go to CBowl. Everything would be the same as their first year, only 2 members in the team. Nothing will change. On the contrary, if Sena were a normal student who doesn't have any special ability, their team can not go this far. Sena was Hiruma's hope from the beginning to the end. If you notice, in their matches, especially with Oujo and Teikoku, Hiruma always trust Sena, he waited Sena to defeat Shin and Yamato, no matter how hard and desperate it can be. In the last match with USA, Hiruma told Agon he didnt need money, but he need the NFL price, he wanted to give that price to Sena by making him shine at their game.
Hiruma was Sena's hope. Thanks to Hiruma, Sena's awareness changed. No more crying baby, bullied boy, useless student. He awared that he can do better than that, he believed they can go to CBowl. His life turned a new page. (づ￣ ³￣)づ
Sena is one of my favorite characters and I kinda just want to talk about how much of a huge impact he was to the forming of the team. I know he's the protagonist so of course he's the one who will bring the team together but no one ever talks about it.
Can you imagine if Hiruma never discovered Sena, or if Sena had gone to another school and they never met? I honestly believe that if Hiruma didn't have Sena, Deimon wouldn't have made it past their first game in both the spring and fall tournaments. In the beginning of the manga, it was only Hiruma, Kurita, and Sena as the core players (because Musashi had already left), and they relied heavily on Sena in order to win: with the Cupids, Sena got the touch down to win, and with Oujou, Sena scored two touch downs which impressed everyone there. BECAUSE Sena impressed everyone, more people, both from inside and outside of Deimon, became interested in the team and began to see them as serious competition. Remember: after Sena scored the first touch down in the Oujou game, Shogun (the coach) was surprised not because Oujou had been scored against, but because it was Deimon that had done it. Before Sena, Deimon wasn't thought very highly of. It was because of Sena that more people (in their school) were interested in the sport which meant that Hiruma could now look for dedicated players instead of stealing them from other sports for impromptu games.
The Devil Bats work because they are a group of people who are specialized in their own field, so to speak, and this doesn't just concern the players. Mamori wouldn't have become the manager if Sena hadn't joined. I think it goes without saying how critical she is to the team.
Monta would have still been on the baseball team if not because of Sena. It was Sena who gave Monta the idea that he could be a part of a different sport team. It was because of Sena that Hiruma threw the football in Monta's direction to test his abilities. Arguably, Hiruma could have found Monta and used him in a game or two due to blackmail, but Monta wouldn't have stuck around. He wouldn't have been inspired to stay and improve.
The Huh-Huh brothers wouldn't be linemen. They probably would have been bullying another kid, but Hiruma wouldn't have been interested unless said kid could've contributed to the Devil Bats. Due to that, Hiruma wouldn't have blackmailed them. Jumonji, Kuroki, and Togano wouldn't have played in the match against Zokugaku because they wouldn't have been gone looking for those pictures. They wouldn't have run into Komusubi on the day of the test and been provoked into participating. IF Hiruma did gather blackmail material in order for them to play in future games (w/o Sena), they too would've been players who weren't really interested in improving. The Devil Bats would have lost early in the tournaments, so they wouldn't even have the time to think about changing: the crowd acknowledging their strength and worth wouldn't have happened.
Komusubi is the same age as Sena and considers Kurita a mentor, yet he wasn't part of the team from the beginning of the manga. This means that Komusubi became interested after he saw Kurita play. Because the Devil Bats played against the Cupids, Oujou, and Zokugaku, the Devil Bats were able to show off what little strength they did have and even managed to win two out of the three games. Kurita wouldn't have been able to showcase his strength and impress Komusubi if Sena hadn't been there. It's mentioned that the Devil Bats had lost in the first round in the fall tournament the previous year (Hiruma, Kurita, and Musashi's first year at Deimon), so it can be said that the Devil Bats would have lost this time if they didn't have Sena.
Yukimitsu joined because Eyeshield 21 inspired him to. It give him the inspiration to go and become part of the team even though he knew he wasn't very special when it came to athletics. He would have stayed studying.
The Devil Bats wouldn't have gone to America to train and find Doburoku. This also means that Taki and Suzuna wouldn't have been found by Sena and invited back to the Devil Bats.
Musashi wouldn't have come back. It's because they got so far in the tournament that he joined. He didn't join in the first game and without Sena, Hiruma, Kurita, and Musashi's dream would've ended with the first game in the spring and fall tournaments.
Without Sena, these players wouldn't have become involved with the team. I'm not saying Sena won all the games all by his himself because he didn't. He needed Kurita and Hiruma to block the players in the match against the Cupids in order for him to score the touch down. He needed everyone to become his shield in the match against Oujou for him to score the first touch down, and he needed Kurita in order to score the second touch down. He needed Jumonji, Kuroki, and Togano to block the Zokugaku players. Sena needed them all as much as they needed him.
I'm just saying without Sena, the key players wouldn't have gotten interested in the game/team, and they wouldn't have shared the same dream as Hiruma, Kurita, and Musashi: going to the Christmas Bowl*. Had Sena not been there, the team Hiruma would've put together, like all of the previous times, would've been similar to Zokugaku's which gave up halfway.
Let's also not forget that Sena still would have been aimless and a coward if Hiruma didn't force him into American Football.
*Anyone else notice that (in the past and sometime in the present of the manga) Hiruma never says that they're going to win the Christmas Bowl, but that they're going to just participate. I noticed it after a couple of times it was said. At first, I thought I misread it "because of course Hiruma meant to win" but I think the author did it deliberately. At first it was only three of them who were serious about this dream so Hiruma was being realistic about winning.*
12/2016