Seijuro Shin

Infobox animanga character
name = Seijuro Shin
series = Eyeshield 21


caption = Shin
first = episode 3, chapter 4
last =
creator = Riichiro Inagaki, Yusuke Murata
voiced by = Naoya Goumoto
nickname =
alias =
age =
gender = male
species =
born = July 9
death =
occupation = High School Student, football player
title =
relatives =
divider = yes
aux1 = Middle Linebacker
aux1 name = Position
aux2 = Ojo White Knights
aux2 name = Current team
aux3 =
aux3 name = Previous team
aux4 = 4.4 s (initially), 4.2 s (currently)
aux4 name = 40 yard dash
aux5 = 140 kg
aux5 name = Bench press

nihongo|Seijuro Shin|進 清十郎|"Shin Seijūrō" is a fictional character of Eyeshield 21. The ace linebacker of the Ojo White Knights American football team and Sena Kobayakawa's main rival. Shin is a silent, seemingly unsociable person. Despite this, his friends include his teammates Haruto Sakuraba and Makoto Otawara. After the Ojo's coach, Shoji Gunpei, noticed his talent when he first tried out for the Ojo American football team with Sakuraba, he told the seniors to make sure Shin never gets recruited by any other club than the American football club.

Characteristic

Shin is the fastest and strongest linebacker in Japanese history. His signature move is the Spear Tackle, a powerful one-arm thrust that can stop any opponent, and later, agonizing players so much that he refuse to touch the ball ever again (much more honourable than a spear in a real game, where the tackling player leads with his helmet). He is one of the few characters who figured out that Sena was Eyeshield 21 right away. He does consider Eyeshield 21 as a formidable opponent, as he admitted during the interview before the Kantou Elimination Rounds. This is because Sena is able to achieve the legendary Speed Of Light pace (40 yards in 4.2 seconds), and was the one person who actually beat him and his Spear Tackle outright with pure speed (no cuts-moves, etc.). It was through this experience that Shin was driven to improve on his running as well as his strength. He's very good at analyzing a person's moves and how to react accordingly to stop him. Shin somewhat resembles Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star, which is used humorously in the manga to show Sena's fear of Shin (as a delusion - it's suggested that "Delusion Shin" can probably use "Hokuto-shinken" as well). Shin has been said to be the perfect player without any flaw in his ability which is because he can run at the human limit and he is near to being close in physical strength to strong players like Kurita.

One interesting note is that Shin and Sena may have met previously back in grade school, though unknowingly at the time. In a flashback, Sena is running with Rikku as they train to become faster. Sena almost runs into Shin as he is chasing after a car to return a 100 yen piece to a man who had dropped it. After returning the money, Shin briefly notices the small, scrawny Sena who seemed unusually fast. The memory of him seemed to linger in Shin's memory, and drove him on to become faster. The two would not meet again until much later on the football field.

Another interesting note is, Shin had signed up for the American Football team by pure chance. It was Sakuraba (for his height) that the White Knights had at first noticed, not Shin. When Sakuraba was filling out an application form, another of the seniors asked if Shin would like to sign up as well. Shin had complied, and then was noticed by Shouji, the White Knights' coach. After a while, Shin's incredible skill started to make everyone notice him, and soon, he started to overshadow Sakuraba.

Shin's mind is constantly on his physical conditioning. While the Devil Bats are celebrating their first victories in the Fall Tournament, they meet up with the White Knights part-way, and the two teams go to eat together at a buffet restaurant. Even then, Shin uses the hoarding on the restaurant, which is a model of a bull's head (horns and all) to exercise on, by doing push-ups and one-handed chin-ups on. Shin was based on legendary martial artist and actor Bruce Lee - his facial features seem to confirm this. Shin also seems to actually recognize person from the body build, instead of facial feature (He can recognize Sena easily as Eyeshield 21, also confused when he got asked about Sakuraba new looks and during Deimon Devilbats match against Bando Spiders, he's the one who didn't get Takami's comment about Sena's releasing of his mask).

He is always serious when it comes to his training, but is at an absolute loss when it comes to technology. He will break any kind of device within one minute of being handed it, since he has no idea of how the device works. So far, he's broken a camcorder, a GPS device and later on, a laptop. He even broke a button on a vending machine. In the anime, while training on a cruise ship, he pulls on a level in an attempt to open a door, but instead breaks the lever and cuts off power to the boat for several minutes. In a Jump advertisement for the Eyeshield 21 Nintendo DS game, Shin accidentally breaks the DS he was playing with. In the anime, he is at a loss for anything except football. In a trivia game about Ojo he didn't know the answers to anything except a question asked by Hiruma about football. He is also so absorbed in American football and training to the point that when he was asked what kind of girls he likes, he replied with the requirements to become the team manager.

During the summer before the Fall Kantou Tournament, he trains at Mt. Fuji to perfect the 'Ballista' technique. At the end of the Fall Tournament he is voted as the MVP (Most Valuable Player), and prepares to face off against Eyeshield 21 in the Kantou Tournament.

In the anime, Shin does go up against Sena and his new Devil Bat Ghost maneuver early on. Initially he was shocked that his traditional one-arm Spear Tackle was useless against the Ghost. Sena succeeded in passing him twice. This was a rare moment in which he doubted his own ability. This led him to develop the Twin Spear Technique, using both arms to stop Eyeshield 21. Later on, he witnesses Sena develop the Devil Bat Tornado, causing him to realize that his rival was fast-evolving. He vowed to train even harder for when he and Eyeshield 21 would meet in the final showdown. Unfortunately, unless there is a major twist in the story, this is fated not to happen; Ojo and Deimon were drawn in the same half of the Kantou tournament and, providing they win their quarter-final matchups, would meet in the semi-finals.

Prior to the start of their game against the Sado Strong Golems in the quarterfinals, Shin approaches Riku of the Seibu Wild Gunmen, telling him of a combination of the Spear Tackle with his "Rodeo Drive", creating a new technique called the "Trident Tackle". Used to crush Sado easily, the technique is actually preparation for the semi-final opponent: Sena and the Devil Bats!

At present, Shin is preparing for the semifinal game with Deimon. With the possibility of a perfected Ballista and his own Trident Tackle, combined with his belief that all of Deimon's tricks have been revealed against Shinryuji, he has total confidence in both Ojo defeating the Devil Bats and his final domination of Sena. In chapter 210, his theory seemed set to be put to the test as both players collide during Deimon's opening drive. However, this turned out not to be the case, as his fellow teammate Ikari tackled Eyeshield first. However, as Deimon's first drive continues, Shin immediately realized that the Devil Bats had a distinct advantage over Ojo in terms of ability on the field. With the Devil Bats members playing both offense and defense, and using Seibu's Shotgun Strategy, they went with 100% effort regardless of risk while the Knights only used 99%. He then persuades Sakuruba to join him on defense as he knows that only he could match Raimon in terms of catching.

Though the Knights were able to stop the Devil Bats from scoring the first touchdown of the game, Deimon still took the lead with a field goal. Shin recognized the power and ability of Musashi's kicking leg, but was unable to deflect the ball, due to being blocked by Sena. With the score 0-3 in Deimon's favor, Shin now comes to play on offense. Using the Ballista tactic, the White Knights take the lead 6-3, with a touchdown by Sakaruba, but a failed extra kick attempt. Realizing that Deimon could still score with field goals, Shin and his team must prevent the Devil Bats from scoring any touchdowns.

When the Devil Bats reclaim the ball, Shin surprises everyone by revealing his greatest secret: he has finally reached the "Speed of Light Pace" that only Sena himself had reached! Using the power of his new-found speed and the Trident Tackle, he both catches up and stops Sena's rushing attempt, saying he has finally proven once and for all that he is the better player. At this time, Sena has not found a means to either avoid or surpass Shin, proving that the Ojo player has ultimately become the perfect player of the tournament.

However, Sena finally reveals that he has discovered a means to finally fight back while rushing with the ball: the Devil Stungun, a dagger-like arm jab that blocks any defensive movements from Shin's Trident Tackle and allows him to continue moving down the field. With this ability, Sena appears to finally found a way around his rival...until a subsequent rush towards the end-zone finds Shin using his Speed of Light Pace and a slight grab forcing Deimon to come up short for a touchdown. Subsequently, as the match becomes an offensive duel, Shin becomes the main defensive line supporting Sakuraba in a formation to protect pass receptions and allowing Ojo to remain on top of Deimon with three minutes left in the game. However, his team was unable to stop Deimon from scoring and taking the lead. During the last play of the game, Shin is handed the ball and seemed unstoppable as he approached the goal line in what appears to be certain victory. The plan was to score with no time left on the clock. However, Deimon's weakest player (in terms of strength, skill and stamina) Yukimitsu pushes him through to score before time ran out. With one second on the clock and Deimon receiving one last kickoff, Shin ends up chasing after Sena one last time, with the winner of this final showdown determining the Kanto finalist. In the end, Shin's Trident Tackle was defeated by Sena's combination of the Devil Bat Ghost, Devil Bat Dive and Devil Stungun.

At the end of the Deimon/Ojo game, Shin is elected as the new team captain for the White Knights, and makes a promise to Sena to compete against him again in the following Spring Season. At the end of the game and his final chat with Sena, Shin smiles (sort of) for the first time in the series.

After the game, it was revealed that he'd become one of the trainers for Deimon's special training for Christmas Bowl, more specifically, the personal trainer of Sena. They trained using the square path, optimizing Sena's skill to do extremely sharp cut without losing his speed and to build his stamina.

His most common pose is him pulling on his glove, seen almost every time he enters a scene.

Techniques and strategies

*Spear Tackle - Shin uses a one-arm thrust aimed at his opponent's midsection, which is usually enough to stop him in his tracks. It can stop Sena's normal running tactics, Panther's Zero Gravity Run and Riku's Rodeo Drive, but it proves useless in the anime against the Devil Bat Ghost. During Fall tournament, the strength of his tackle is so devastating that it makes opposition players traumatized, to the point that they refuse to touch the ball ever again.
*Twin Spear Tackle - By using both arms in the thrust, Shin is able to counter the Devil Bat Ghost. Shin also uses this on other players to stop them and make them fumble, as seen in the rematch against the Sankaku Punks. Whether it can overcome the Devil Bat Tornado is yet unknown.
*Trident Tackle - First seen in the 203rd Down. In order to counter Sena's light-speed running, Shin asked Riku (Sena's childhood friend, now playing for the Seibu Wild Gunmans) on how to do his Rodeo Drive. By combining this method along with his Spear Tackle, Shin is able to suddenly shoot forward at 120% of his maximum speed during the instant he charges his opponent. This also delivers a more powerful thrust. It has proven effective against Sena's Devil Light Hurricane move by chapter 218, but by chapter 228, Sena seems to have found the weak point. The tackle cannot be stopped head-on, but can be deflected from the side. Sena demonstrates this by using his arms to redirect the momentum of the tackle. It doesn't stop the charge completely, but it delays Shin long enough for Hiruma to avoid being blitzed.
*Ballista - In chapter 206, it was revealed that the Ballista is a formation that involves putting Shin into offense. This was information that Takami, the Knights' quarterback, offered up freely when Hiruma gatecrashed the Ojo Festival Quiz. When it comes to the first Ojo drive of their game against Deimon, Takami is so confident of the formation's success that he actually tells the Bats which way the play will go - and he doesn't bluff them either. The nature of the Ballista is to use a Spear (Shin's trademark move) to open up a hole for the ball carrier to get through - and Shin's power is such that he actually "lifts up" Kurita!
*Sagittarius: A combination of Sakuraba and Takami's Everest Pass and his own Trident Tackle, Shin becomes Sakuraba's guard allowing him to catch passes while he defends against the opposing defense. The main weaknesses is that Shin's focus can be split and if Takami is targeted, then the play becomes useless.
*Speed of Light Pace: After discovering Sena's ability to run 40 yards in 4.2 seconds, Shin trained consistently throughout the year until he finally achieves the ability to do the same during the game against the Devil Bats. By achieving this speed, Shin is able to combine it with his strength to stop even speedy players like Sena.
*Trident Light Spear Tackle: Not the confirmed name, but will probobaly be likened to this, it combines the Trident Tackle and the Speed of Light Pace, it defeated the Devil Light Hurricane easily but it was beaten eventually with Sena's One Man Devil Bat Dive.