Inazuma Eleven (イナズマイレブン) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tenya Yabuno based on a series of video games created by Level-5. The manga has been published by Shogakukan in CoroCoro Comic since the June 2008 issue. The manga series won the 2010 Kodansha Manga Award and 2011 Shogakukan Manga Award in the Children's Manga category.

Plot

Endou Mamoru is a cheerful goalkeeper at Raimon Jr High, who has six other players on his team. The team is threatened with disbandment unless they can win a match against the Teikoku Gakuen, the best team in Japan. Endou tries to save the team by gathering four more players. In the second series, Endou and his team have to gather players to defeat the new enemies, Aliea Gakuen. In the third series, the Football Frontier International is announced and Inazuma Japan is assembled; it is coached by Kudou Michiya.

Volumes

The Inazuma Eleven manga series, based on the video game series of the same name, was written and illustrated by Tenya Yabuno. It began publication in the June 2008 issue of the Shogakukan magazine CoroCoro Comic and ended in the September 2011 issue. A total of ten tankōbon (bound) volumes of Inazuma Eleven have been released in Japan between September 26, 2008 and October 28, 2011.

Media

Anime television series

The animated series, Inazuma Eleven (イナズマイレブン Inazuma Irebun, lit. "Lightning Eleven"), was produced by OLM, Inc. and Dentsu Inc., and directed by Katsuhito Akiyama. 127 episodes aired on TV Tokyo from October 5, 2008 to April 27, 2011. The series was available for video on-demand streaming via Toon Goggles. The second series, Inazuma Eleven Go! (イナズマイレブンGO!), adapted from the manga of the same name, aired from May 4, 2011 to April 11, 2012. It was followed by Inazuma Eleven GO: Chrono Stone (TV series) and Inazuma Eleven GO: Galaxy (TV series).

Anime film

Guidebooks

A series of three guidebooks to the first anime series have been published by Shogakukan. The books detail the television episodes and include player information and uniform catalogs.

Reception

Inazuma Eleven won "Best Children's Manga" at the 34th annual Kodansha Manga Awards. According to Kogyo Tsushinsha, the first film, Inazuma Eleven Saikyō Gundan Ōga Shūrai, debuted in second place at the Japanese box office for the weekend of December 25 and 26, 2010. By February 6, 2011, the film had grossed US$ 21,099,188 by its seventh week of screening in the country.