As season 2 of Inazuma Eleven kicks off, they fully embrace that
charming incredibly-stupid-and-over-
If the first series' story of
a ragtag group of football-playing boys with pure hearts and lots of
shounen-tastic FEELINGS going undefeated from incomplete and unpracticed school
team to national champions who can beat others with powers that are literally
godly sounded daft, just wait for this. Is the next level competing with adult
teams? Foreign children from nations like Brazil ?
Oh no. No, what happens in season 2 is that aliens show up and begin destroying cities with
their cannonball-like footballs. Who is assembled to fight them off with
football? World cup teams? The Japanese national players? No no - the
schoolchildren of Raimon Junior High. Of course!
Not without some roster
changes, however. When Aliea Academy first appear, they injure many of the team
and render them out of commission for the entire season - including my
favourite Handa and his close friend Max, as well as the funny little dot-eyed kid.
Other players depart on journeys of self-discovery, including star striker
Hitsugaya...wait, sorry, Gouenji. Speedy girly-boy Kazemaru and funny little
buck-toothed midfielder Kurimatsu last a while but eventually feel they have to
leave the team, though may well return.
To fill these gaps, a whole
lot of colourful characters are needed. Strange, quiet boy with an uncanny
knack for befriending the ladies Fubuki becomes a star player for a while, but
has issues up the whazoo and essentially serves as a benchmark for the others
to catch up to. Two girls join the team - the prime minister's tomboyish
daughter after Aliea Academy go so far as to kidnap him, and an outspoken
gyaru-type. Then there is the little prankster Kogure-kun and brash surfing savant
Tsunami.
Most uselessly, but most adorably, is the Endou fanboy Tachimukai, who
they put on the team despite the fact he's really a goalkeeper, and soon
becomes the weak link, which is strangely adorable because he tries so hard.
The series ends with the dramatic appearance of an old ally and an old foe, who
work together to defeat one of Aliea Academy
The scale has become even more
ridiculous than ever before - and characters in the previous series were
stopping time and summoning vast stone walls. Here there are wormholes and
great demons - but there's a sort of dispensation for madness when it comes to
sports special moves, and it's more of a surprise that you get aliens and
explosions and huge submarine training facilities (for school football teams)
and presidential kidnappings. It's that silly a series.
And yet at the heart of it is
the relationships between the various young boys, their fiery rivalries and
strong bonds. That's really the point of this anime, probably of all sports and
indeed school anime - and it does it far too well to ignore. I didn't know when
I set out that I'd want to finish this story, that I would end up starting to
associate Takeuchi Junko's voice with Endou more than with Naruto, and be very
happy to enjoy more and more series.
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