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Yoichi Hiruma
Character information
Rōmaji Hiruma Yōichi
Kanji 蛭魔 妖一
Alias King Of Hell
King Of The Darkness
Commander from Hell
Control Tower of Hell
Yō-nii (used only by Suzuna)
Gender Male
Age 17
20 (end of series)
Birthday February 7
Height 176 cm (5'9")
Weight 67 kg
Bench press 75 kg
Relatives Yuya Hiruma (father)
Status
Affiliation Deimon Devil Bats
Saikyoudai Wizards
Year 2nd Year
Jersey 1
40 Yard Dash 5.2 seconds (Formerly)
5.1 seconds
Pass Response Time 2.3 sec
Position Quarterback
Strong Safety
Punter
Placekicker
Holder
Team Deimon Devil Bats (high school)
Team Japan (Youth World Cup)
Saikyoudai Wizards (university)
San Antonio Armadillos (NFL)
Former Affiliation Mao Devil Bats (middle school)
Debut
Chapter 1st Down
Episode Episode 1
Voice actors
Japanese Atsushi Tamura
Shinichiro Miki (Jump Festa)
English Derek Stephan Prince
Image gallery

Yoichi Hiruma (蛭魔 妖一, Hiruma Yōichi) is one of the main characters in the series. He is one of the three founding members of the Deimon Devil Bats alongside Ryokan Kurita and Musashi (Gen Takekura), as well as their captain and quarterback. He is a senior student of Deimon Private Senior High School.

Appearance[]

Yoichi's general appearance can be summarized with the word flashy and very far from reassuring. He has spiky blonde hair, sharp-shaped eyes and eyebrows, sharp pointy teeth - more similar to animal fangs than anything - and long pointed ears that makes him look like a disguised devil. He is tall (from a Japanese point of view) and has a slim build. He also has thin and long fingers, with similarly long nails.

For comedic effect, to emphasize his "demonic" nature, he is sometimes depicted with a pointed devil-tail and small horns when he's planning (or has already done) something particularly devious (not to mention the "black evil aura of evilness" that seems to form around him whenever his evil genius gets in motion).

Yoichi's usually seen either in his school uniform or in his football uniform, but, as sometimes the manga is setted outside the school or the field, he's also seen in normal clothes occasionally.

Attending the Deimon High School, his school uniform is composed by black pants, white shirt and a turquoise jacket (according to the anime coloring).
During the series he shows two version of the football uniform. The first one is red in top and white in pants, the second one is red and white in top (being red the shoulders and chest sides, and white the front and back) and white pants.

When not in his school or football uniform, Yoichi's most frequent clothing is a pair of black tight pants and an equally black and tight T-shirt. He seems to prefer dark colors over lighter ones, though he once wore a pure white furred-collar jacket (with matching white pants) and a maid outfit to spy on USA team during the World League.

Personality[]

Yoichi often acts in a vulgar, bizarre, threatening manner or to intimidate or disturb those around him into getting what he wants. He has a cunning, goal-oriented mind and does not seem to care what means he uses to accomplish those goals. His sense of morals is lax, but he is quick to find the moral flaws of others, which he keeps recorded in his "Book of Threats" or "Devil's Handbook", and uses this information to blackmail everyone from students to figures of authority into placing him in a position of power.

He has little respect for authority and has in fact usurped authority over Deimon High School well before the series begins and has the authority over the principal, using his power in the school to give himself beyond-perfect scores in all his classes and divert funds to the American football club as he desires. Besides blackmail, Yoichi can often intimidate others into taking the action he wants by waving around his vast arsenal of firearms. Even without having to take direct action, Yoichi's mere reputation is enough sometimes to make most of the student body fear him and bow to his authority. He has a brutal appeal to violence and firearms, making him hotheaded such as firing his gun so many time to intimidate people.

Despite his penchant for blackmail and breaking every school rule without consequence, Yoichi adheres to the rules of American football without exception while playing. Inagaki says Yoichi "does everything else to win" and is "only concerned with winning."[1] Instead, Yoichi tries to throw opposing teams off guard through bluffs trickery deception taunts and insults and Sena noted despite often blackmailing and threatening others to get his way he never used his threat or blackmail when it comes to American Football because he consider playing American Football and aiming for the top fun.

Even when Yoichi has expressed excitement or happiness, he does so violently, by firing his large handguns into the air or kicking a teammate in the rear when they have executed well on a play. He addresses all members of the Deimon Devil Bats with a vulgar manner, beginning with "Damned" and ending with a descriptive noun, such as "Shorty" for Sena or "Monkey" for Monta. Some characters, such as Kid, have observed that Yoichi's attitude and even aspects of his demonic appearance are an act to intimidate his opponents both on and off the field.

Yoichi is also a risk taker and often take a risk when they still have a chance even if the chance is extremely low and do things that would be considered impossible but, he would back off if a chance of winning is 0 and he only believes in numbers. Yoichi was stated by Musashi to love to bluff and intimidate people and he likes to play tricks as well, one of them is where he nicknames Musashi the 60 yards Magnums where Musashi couldn't do 60 yards, he then gives Sena the Name Eyeshield 21 to imitate rivals teams with Sena not aware that this is not something that Yoichi made up. Ironically, however, this lie ended up becoming true as Sena became the new Eyeshield 21 after beating the Original Eyeshield Takeru Yamato at the Christmas Bowl and attended Notre Dame and Musashi was able to do 60 yards at the Christmas Bowl.

Over time, the series has alluded to Yoichi's 'true' personality, which Sena and Mamori Anezaki have at times been shown to understand to some degree, as when one or the other correctly observes Yoichi to be worried, happy, or tired. In addition to these instances, Yoichi has shown compassion to others, though he continues to hide it with his demonic behavior - allowing Takami some privacy after a loss is one such instance. In addition, some of Yoichi's actions imply that he cares for the other members of the team more than he lets on. In the case of his two oldest teammates, Yoichi abandoned Shinryuji High to join Kurita at Deimon High when Kurita failed to gain entrance into the school, and he forbid Musashi's kicking tee from being touched after Musashi had to leave the team, making it an almost sacred object in the Devil Bats' locker room. As the series progresses, Yoichi's feelings for his teammates become more apparent, especially the faith he places in Sena and Monta.

Conception and Development[]

Inagaki said that he developed Yoichi as a character that does not follow the Japanese concept of emphasis on sportsmanship and effort in the game; instead Yoichi is "only concerned with winning." Inagaki intended to make an "anti-hero" or, as he refers to the concept, a "devil-hero." Yusuke Murata, the artist, said that every character design has to have a distinct quality as many characters are in groups and each one has to stand out; Murata chose to portray Yoichi as looking "close to being a demon" since he heard from Inagaki that Yoichi had "the personality of a demon."

Reception[]

When a Weekly Shonen Jump popularity poll of the Eyeshield 21 characters was conducted, Yoichi ranked number 1, unusual in a Jump manga, where the main character usually ranks first. In a following poll for the Dream Eleven, in which a team of eleven was created via a popularity poll of characters and their positions, Yoichi was the only character to receive not only over twice as many votes as the second-place finisher, Kid, but more votes than all the other candidates combined—Yoichi with 9196 votes, and all the other quarterbacks with a total of 6971 votes![2]

The latest ES21 poll, to form All-Freshmen and All-Seniors (and in Deimon's case, All-Sophomores) teams, saw Yoichi come out on top here as well, with a total of 3968 votes.[3]

Riichiro Inagaki, writer of Eyeshield 21, said that "all the characters" were his favorite characters, and that Yoichi is "especially" his favorite.[1]

Quotes[]

  • "Ya-Ha!"
  • "Trying without the winning intent is meaningless."
  • "We won't die, at least not until we make it to the Christmas Bowl!"
  • (to Agon Kongo) "Kekeke! Don't you know? Devils don't ask gods for favours!"
  • (to Clifford D. Louis) "Do you understand how to handle cards now? I win as long as I can make you think 'there's no way he will play that card'."
  • "WE WILL KILL THEM!"

Trivia[]

  • About his name: (蛭魔 妖一 ヒルマ ヨイチ Hiruma Yōichi) Yoichi's last name (Hiruma) is spelled with a kanji literally meaning "leech demon", while his first name (Yōichi) is spelled with a kanji meaning "bewitching one". If the two kanji are put together to form his last name plus first name, it can also be read as "demon in broad daylight".[4]
  • Yoichi is one of the Deimon "Brainy Trio" Members along with Mamori and Yukimitsu.
  • He is hinted to have eidetic (photographic) memory, as shown when he completely memorizes, then uses Mamori's hand signal system within a period of about 10 seconds.
  • Yoichi's signature laugh, "kekeke," is an evil cackle
  • Yoichi is the only member of the Devil Bats who has most of his personal background unrevealed.
  • Yoichi is actually the Devil Bats' hidden ace, as he is the one planning behind the scenes.
  • In an interview with Riko Kumabukuro, he said that his strong point is that he wins, the most expensive thing he ever bought is an island, with the cost unknown, if it is the last day of Earth, he will search for every single possibility for it not to happen and the kind of girl he likes is a girl that he can use. When he was asked if he is looking out for any player in the year's tournament, he didn't answer.
  • Yoichi resembles Toua Tokuchi from the series One Outs.
  • Yusuke Murata tweeted that Marco was originally going to be set up to be Yoichi's older brother.[5]
  • During a livestream, Yusuke Murata said that Yoichi was modeled from an image in the book "Hayao Miyazaki and Yasuo Otsuka's World"[6]
  • In the author's next work Dr. Stone, Yoichi was later as the leading character concept for protagonist Senku Ishigami adapting his intelligence, cunning and the habit to smile into turning crisis into chances.

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Shonen Jump. Volume 4, Issue 2. February 2006. VIZ Media. 15.
  2. Eyeshield 21 manga; 211th Down, pg. 1-2.
  3. Eyeshield 21 manga; 258th Down, pg. 1-2.
  4. "Inagaki-Murata Interview"
  5. https://twitter.com/NEBU_KURO/status/828971564003520513
  6. Here's the image https://twitter.com/Chenkari/status/1001151259431374853

Navigation[]

view · talk · edit Deimon Devil Bats Team
Coach Doburoku Sakaki
Manager Mamori Anezaki
Players Yoichi HirumaSena KobayakawaRyokan KuritaTaro RaimonGen "Musashi" TakekuraKazuki JumonjiKoji KurokiShozo ToganoDaikichi KomusubiManabu YukimitsuTetsuo IshimaruYohei SatakeKenta YamaokaFutoshi OmosadakeAkira NakaboNatsuhiko Taki
Cheerleader Suzuna Taki
Mascots Big devil bat Deimon Devil Bat (Big)Deimon Devil Bat (Small)CerberusPig-Berus
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