I should've gotten that booster shot

I thought I was safe. I thought I was immune; I thought I was taking the necessary precautions, abstaining from the fangirl-decimating plague that is Prince of Tennis--only to go and come down with a bad case of an entirely different sports shounen.

The irony is, I don't even like sports. And of all the sports in all the arenas - American Football?? The most mind-numbingly boring sport in the world, as pretty much all the world except America agrees. And yet.

My Eyeshield 21 infection can be attributed to the following vectors:

--Hiruma
--The rest of the Deimon Devil Bats, every damn adorable one of them
--immicolia (fine, fine, we're even for GetBackers)
--Hiruma
--Blatant emotional manipulation, not limited to moments including: ice cubes, cream puffs, Death Marches, football games
--Distractingly sexy boys, even allowing that football has the ugliest uniforms known to mankind.
--Laudable levels of slashiness in the rival teams (see: the Shin/Sakuraba/Takami affair, Akaba/Koutarou, Kakei/the stripping ex-swim-team sweetie whose name I never remember, the Kid/Tetsuma (What? Oh, come on, they totally love each other.), Banba/Harao ("We've been doing it together for three years already." Haw.) Edit: can't forget Panther/Homer!)
--Hiruma
--"We're going to the Christmas Bowl!"
--"You're thirteen thousand, two hundred and ninety-seven hours and forty-nine minutes late."
--Hiruma
--Hiruma
--Hiruma

Eyeshield 21 isn't the easiest manga to pimp out. Oh, it's funny, and pretty, and exciting for sure. But the slashy bits are mostly in the other teams; the Devil Bats are fun as anything, but while they certainly can be hot, and they could be doing each other, it's not handed to you on a PoT-shaped silver platter. But. There's Hiruma. Who's worth reading the manga for all on his own, if you go for obscene, evilly brilliant blond demons with an unhealthy penchant for firearms, unnaturally sharp teeth, and an unholy obsession with football. And while Hiruma is distracting you, his teammates sneak up, whack you over the head with a cute stick and drag you into their cavern of laughter and friendship and sportly team antics.

Knowing Hiruma? This is his wicked plan all along. Damn it.

Warning: Highly contagious. Click at your own risk: Torrent for ch.1-160

And before certain people start panicking/chewing me out - no, I'm not writing fic. Yet. Now, doujinshi, that's another story....5 and counting.