50 Fun Facts About Inazuma Eleven

Which birds rise from the pitch and fly with the ball in Royal Academy's three-player shot in Inazuma Eleven?

Penguins give Emperor Penguin No. 2 its name. The move is a safer reworking of an earlier shot that put a heavy strain on the body of whoever used it.

Inazuma Eleven takes its title from a legendary Raimon team; what does the Japanese word inazuma mean in English?

Lightning is the meaning, so the title reads as Lightning Eleven: a name first carried by the Raimon side of forty years earlier, coached by Mark Evans's grandfather.

Which Japanese studio, also behind Professor Layton and Yo-kai Watch, created the Inazuma Eleven series?

Level-5 built a whole franchise around the first game within months, with a manga and a TV anime both starting in the same year, 2008.

On which portable console did the first Inazuma Eleven game launch in Japan in August 2008?

Nintendo DS owners ran their team with the stylus, dragging players around the pitch and tapping to pass between teammates.

In Inazuma Eleven 2, what do the mysterious players who wreck Raimon Junior High claim to be?

Aliens is the story they tell, and the only way to stop them is to beat them at football, so Raimon tours Japan in a van recruiting new players.

What does Inazuma Eleven hero Mark Evans always wear on his head and call his trademark?

An orange headband is his trademark, and the colour stays with him: as an adult he comes back to coach Raimon in an orange shirt.

Which signature shot does Axel Blaze use to score Raimon's first goal against Royal Academy in Inazuma Eleven?

Fire Tornado has the striker spin through the air with his legs wrapped in flame. Followed up on Kevin Dragonfly's shot, it becomes the combination Dragon Tornado.

Which goalkeeping technique from his grandfather's notes does Mark Evans first use to stop Royal Academy's Death Zone?

God Hand conjures a huge hand of energy, and a watching detective recognises it as one of the legendary techniques of the original Inazuma Eleven.

Which team drinks a strength-boosting potion before meeting Raimon in the Football Frontier final in Inazuma Eleven?

Zeus were running away with the match until, in the game, manager Nelly Raimon swapped their spiked drinks for plain water at half-time.

In Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road, what relation is the gifted Raimon striker Harper Evans to original hero Mark Evans?

His son: Harper Evans is a forward rather than a goalkeeper, and his mother is Nelly, the chairman's daughter who once managed his father's team.

Which goggle-wearing Royal Academy captain in Inazuma Eleven is the older brother of Raimon manager Celia Hills?

Jude Sharp was adopted into a wealthy family at six, and struck a deal to win three straight national titles so that his sister could live with him again.

Which Inazuma Eleven 2 recruit turns from defender to striker by taking on the identity of his late brother Aiden?

Shawn Froste keeps his brother's white scarf, which lets him slip into the aggressive striker's identity. The two sides finally merge during the match against The Genesis.

Which Royal Academy commander has the brake fluid drained from Raimon's bus before a final in Inazuma Eleven?

Ray Dark tried again at the match itself, sending steel girders crashing down towards Raimon, and a detective arrested him on the spot.

What kind of restaurant does Seymour Hillman run before agreeing to coach Raimon in Inazuma Eleven?

A ramen shop called Rairaiken is his living, but forty years earlier he was goalkeeper and captain of the original Inazuma Eleven.

Which organisation, led by a disguised Axel Blaze as Holy Emperor, fixes youth match scores in Inazuma Eleven GO?

Fifth Sector sends each school a score order before kick-off, and plants its own trained players, called SEEDs, in the teams to keep them obedient.

Which Inazuma Eleven GO hero took up football after Axel Blaze's ball saved him from falling planks as a child?

Arion Sherwind was a small boy in Okinawa trying to rescue a puppy when the striker's shot knocked the planks aside, and he later chose Raimon because of it.

In the first Inazuma Eleven game, hissatsu techniques come in four types: Shoot, Dribble, Block and which other?

Catch techniques belong to the goalkeeper, and like every hissatsu in the games they use up a player's TP, short for Technical Points.

Which school club did defender Nathan Swift leave to help Mark Evans's understaffed football team in Inazuma Eleven?

Athletics lost a sprinter when Nathan Swift agreed to make up the numbers against Royal Academy, and a younger clubmate later begged him to come back to the track.

Where is the timid defender Jack Wallside found hiding before Raimon first face Royal Academy in Inazuma Eleven?

In a locker, and he had a hard time getting back out. Early on, the huge defender also kept asking to visit the bathroom before kick-off to hide his nerves.

Which hangout do Raimon visit to scout the Otaku team in the first season of the Inazuma Eleven anime?

A maid cafe is the Otaku team's hangout. Its players want the tournament prize money so they can fly to America and buy a limited-edition figurine.

Which punching save does Mark Evans only master in Inazuma Eleven after taking surfing lessons from Hurley Kane?

Fist of Justice relies on the same move surfers use to avoid a wipeout, and his grandfather conceived it as an unfinished technique that keeps on evolving.

Which former rival captain plays for South Korea against Inazuma Japan in the Asian final?

Byron Love, known as Aphrodi in Japan, tells a puzzled Mark Evans that he is simply Korean, and he brings two former Alius Academy captains into the side with him.

Which old friend of manager Silvia Woods joins Raimon in Inazuma Eleven after years of letting her think he was dead?

Erik Eagle was told after a childhood accident that he would never play again, so he had his father say he had died; treatment in America proved the doctors wrong.

Which transfer student joins Raimon in Inazuma Eleven as a spy for Royal Academy, then decides to stay for real?

Bobby Shearer was only meant to hang around and report back, but watching how hard Raimon worked changed his mind and he threw in his lot with them.

Which Alius Academy team, captained by Janus, flattens Raimon Junior High at the start of Inazuma Eleven 2?

Gemini Storm beat Raimon twice before losing 2-1 at the third attempt, and they turn out to be only the second-rank team, with stronger sides waiting behind them.

Which team coached by Mark Evans's supposedly dead grandfather meets Inazuma Japan in Inazuma Eleven 3's world final?

Little Gigantes were the outsiders nobody expected to go far in the tournament, and Nelly Raimon had spent time as their manager before the final.

Which historical figure's aura is fused with Raimon defender Gabriel Garcia in Inazuma Eleven GO Chrono Stone?

Joan of Arc is drawn here as a timid girl in large square glasses who gives the visitors home-made sweets. Two attempts to fuse her aura with another player fail before she finds her courage.

Which knight of the Round Table names the Fighting Spirit summoned by striker Victor Blade in Inazuma Eleven GO?

Lancelot is billed as a Sword Saint in the Japanese name of the spirit, and Victor Blade is introduced as an enemy who attacks Raimon's second team on day one.

In Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road, what stopped hero Destin Billows from playing football when he was a child?

A heart condition made him collapse in the middle of a match, so he guides his new school's team as a tactician, calling the plays for the others.

Which animation studio, best known for the Pokémon anime, produced the original Inazuma Eleven TV series?

OLM also animated the GO sequels, the Ares and Orion series and the crossover film, keeping the whole franchise under one roof.

In which Shogakukan magazine did the first Inazuma Eleven manga begin in the June 2008 issue?

CoroCoro Comic launched the manga a couple of months before the first game went on sale, and later carried the GO and Ares adaptations too.

Which manga artist wrote and drew the first Inazuma Eleven manga, launched in 2008 before the game came out?

Tenya Yabuno's series filled ten volumes by 2011, while another artist drew a separate adaptation for a different magazine from 2009 to 2012.

Which game designer, also the story writer of the first Professor Layton games, created the Inazuma Eleven series?

Akihiro Hino founded his studio in 1998 and still writes the scripts himself: in January 2026 he announced he had begun the scenario for a Victory Road sequel.

Which composer, best known for Chrono Trigger, wrote the music for the first Inazuma Eleven game and its anime?

Yasunori Mitsuda rearranged many of his own tracks from the game when he came to score the television series.

Which group, born out of a four-man punk band, performed all six opening themes of the original Inazuma Eleven anime?

T-Pistonz+KMC gained the second half of the name when the rapper KMC joined in 2009, and every single the group released was a theme for the franchise.

Which Japanese network broadcast the original Inazuma Eleven anime from its 2008 debut to its 2011 finale?

TV Tokyo saw the ratings peak in July 2010, during the world tournament episodes, and moved straight on to Inazuma Eleven GO a week after the finale.

Which rival publisher's Manga Award did Inazuma Eleven win in 2010, although the series ran in a Shogakukan magazine?

Kodansha named it Best Children's Manga at its 34th annual awards, and the series added Shogakukan's own prize the following year.

Which US channel began airing the English dub of Inazuma Eleven: Ares in April 2019, replacing Yo-kai Watch?

Disney XD began the dub on 13 April 2019. Ares is set in an alternate timeline in which the second season's Alius Academy story never happened.

Inazuma Eleven Strikers took the series onto which home console, uniting original and GO characters for the first time?

Wii owners had been promised the 2011 game for April, but its release slipped back to July.

Roughly how many playable characters are there to collect in the very first Inazuma Eleven game?

About 1,000 characters can be scouted, each with a unique design, though a squad can hold only 100 of them at any one time.

What two-word name do the English versions of the Inazuma Eleven games give to hissatsu techniques?

Special Moves is the localised term, while the Japanese original, hissatsu waza, translates more literally as killer techniques.

Canon Evans, who helps Raimon beat Team Ogre in the first Inazuma Eleven film, has travelled from where?

The future, 80 years on, is home to Canon Evans, the great-grandson of Raimon's captain, and he recruits five of his ancestor's future friends on the way.

Inazuma Eleven GO Galaxy was sold in Japan in two versions: Big Bang and which other?

Supernova and Big Bang closed the GO trilogy in 2013 with a story in which a galactic football tournament decides the fate of the Earth.

Mark Evans is the hero's English name in Inazuma Eleven; what is the goalkeeper called in the Japanese original?

Endou Mamoru is a pun, as the series creator has explained: it comes from a phrase meaning protecting to the end, which suits a goalkeeper.

Which stat joins Kick, Body, Control, Guard, Speed and Stamina on every player in the first Inazuma Eleven game?

Guts completes the seven stats that settle the command duels triggered whenever two players run into each other on the pitch.

Clark von Wunderbar, the android coach in Inazuma Eleven GO Chrono Stone, is built to look like what?

A teddy bear is his shape, and his body turns pink whenever he gets overexcited. He also sulks whenever someone else is handed the coach's job.

Junko Takeuchi, the Japanese voice of Mark Evans in Inazuma Eleven, is best known for voicing which ninja?

Naruto Uzumaki is her signature role. She often plays lively young boys, and also voiced Gon in the 1999 version of Hunter x Hunter.

Which freezing shot, invented by the late striker Aiden, does his brother learn to score with in Inazuma Eleven 2?

Eternal Blizzard coats the ball in ice before a spinning volley, and the surviving brother only masters it by taking on Aiden's style of play.

Into which shot does Raimon's three-man Tri-Pegasus evolve during the first Football Frontier in Inazuma Eleven?

The Phoenix got its name from a beaten opponent, who congratulated the trio on the winning goal against his own school and suggested what to call it.

Inazuma Eleven GO Chrono Stones reached Europe in two versions: Wildfire and which other?

Thunderflash was called Raimei, meaning Thunderclap, in Japan, while the Japanese name of its partner version meant Scorching Wind.