Inazuma Eleven Anime Concept Part One: Story, Main Character & First Episode Concepts

Hello and allow to be preface this with what you are about to read as my most ambitious and what I can say is unknown in parts. If the title wasn't enough of a giveaway I will be attempting to draft, write and pitch what I would do for a full season (or two) if I was given the reigns of Inazuma Eleven. Please be aware this will follow not only my ideas of football but what I have liked about Inazuma Eleven and what I haven't. With respect to this I can say this will be grounded on Earth no space and time used just traditional Inazuma Eleven a tournament with all the teams human. In this initial part I want to cover the main story in an overview as well as going into the Raimon teams main characters and the set up of the season before the first official match. 

Looking at the timeline for what I want to do with the character I have chosen to set this either 10 or 20 years following Galaxy, I want to keep it in track with being able to reference that series and the games played in that and the original 3 series as well. But, I won't be bringing old characters back, sorry no Tenma managing Raimon. I want a clean break as far as characters go to build a team from scratch for the series. Besides it's been a decade the Raimon GO team and others should be pros no need to care here. Sorry to the cast of Ares and Orion let's just say they are out in the pro leagues playing but for this we got back to the original timeline.

The main story is effected by a main change in the world and that is the increased globalisation of football and youth football. What I mean by this is we see players from all around the world form part of Japanese youth football. Between Endou's team winning FFI and Tenma's team saving the world combined with the influx of world class Japanese talent joining pro leagues all over the world. With this it leads to youth players all around the world signing up with teams and joining school there seeing as the gateway to success. It will be something we see at Raimon as well and all the other teams, I feel this is a new way to take the series and is something unique and can spice the series up. From a development standpoint also creates a lot of reusable assets for any FFI with players from other nations already seen. 

With this of course it will create people wanting to exploit it and that gives us the antagonist organisation for the series called XGen. Seeing football as a way to make money they use their resources to take players enhance them and put them back to teams when those teams win they credit XGen and therefore their stock prices go up, their notoriety goes up and soon they can dominate football. Their ultimate goal is for them to create a Super League of their own teams who have dominated Football the past decade and by a team represented by them winning this season would give them all they need to pull it off and take football away from the people and just in their hands. 

Story works around globalisation of football and what that has led to a lot of characters in this from all over the world not just Japan (makes it easier can reuse a lot of assets then the second season). The antagonist from series 1 just wants to use the popularity of Japan youth football to push 'The Way Forward' what the leader of them refers to his 'philosophy' of which many players & teams have signed up to. This has a negative effect on those who work under it. It's like a form of control mixed with hypnosis and anything they can use to their effect. Think of XGen training these players like how New Japan Pro Wrestling trains its Young Lions in terms of the selecting them through trails and exams and then training them relentlessly until they are ready to move to teams and carry out spreading the word to non-XGen players looking to push them out of the leagues until they control all. Of course XGen uses under the table methods, experiments to create ways to enhance players or just indoctrination into their ways, these illegal methods if exposed would be the end of them but as long as those under XGen keep winning nobody will pay attention. 

As for the tournament set up. Well from a narrative standpoint following GO the Holy Road tournament is no more replaced with the 'Path to Glory'. I've done this as much like Football Frontier being replaced by Holy Road it's just a rebrand. No gimmick stadiums just wanted to establish that. In the end only one team can walk the path to glory. As for the tournament it would be groups of 4 with the top 2 of each group going into a round of 32 knockout system and through to the final from there. 

Raimon
So what happened to Raimon in the decade since Tenma's heroics? Well it's been bad. From golden generations and victories of Endou & Tenma the Football Frontier and Holy Road trophies are in a cabinet right in the entrance to the main building of the school but on the field it's been failures to live up to that past success for a while. Last year they were knocked out in the quarter finals when they were expected to make the final at a minimum as a result the manager has left and so have a number of key players who have graduated. The squad is down the bare bones with not even a full starting 11. Those that are left really have lost the want to play. The team feel that with football under XGen they don't stand a chance, what is the point. The failures and weight of expectation has weighed them down.

As for Raimon they play a 4-3-3 mainly with a Defensive Midfielder and two wide wingers as per the below image 

I haven't listed any play names just something to keep a note of when discussing the team is they will mainly operate like this during the series so if I do not state the formation it will be this as this is how I imagine the team playing.

Raimon's Team
Now we need to get into the main cast of characters some key players for Raimon I won't be talking about here I will give them their own sub section when we introduce them. For reference some of these characters are routed in inspirations to other character from other media. For the sake of clarity I'll refer to those characters either in code which will be noted or just by that character reference. It's nothing out of this world but it helps me to visualise some of the other characters and help create the dynamics that push the story forward  

Protagonist - Central Midfielder
A character who would later earn the nickname of 'The Conductor' he is a strong fiery personality who unlike Tenma is a skilled footballer from the off. The player who's goal with football is to entertain all and lead his team this way (hence the conductor). Of the midfield 3 he would be the one getting forward more hence him having the shoot hissatsu Maximum Circus (because if I'm ignoring Ares/Orion from the timeline I might as well take some of their moves). Although not the captain he very much becomes the emotional epicentre of the team very early on. The one to unite them all to win and to entertain but most importantly get their passion back for football. 

Captain - Defensive Midfielder
Onto our captain the one who should led the team but early on is wrapped in his own guilt. Raimon are coming off a bad season and with senior players leaving he was given the captain's armband probably ahead of his time as the only real leader left, well it's easy to be the only leader left when everyone else feels distant. He wants to bring the team back but can't as he blames himself for the losses. Combine this with his best friend going back to England for a learning excursion which he says is temporary but the Captain doesn't believe this and just thinks it's another person pushed away due to his shortcomings. On his day a one man wall, a deep-lying playmaker and the pillar of leadership the team needs and respect but now a distant hollow negative person who rejects anything to do with football stuck in a place that reminds him pf his failures. It will be up to the protagonist to light the fire in his soul again and if he does the rest of the team should follow in a domino effect. 

Raimon Football Manager
No real inspiration here but a cool, calm and collected figure who is new to Raimon and only just taken the job. He wants to show the world XGen isn't needed or necessary. Our first scene is him being warned off the job but he won't refuse. A tactical manager who works to get the best out of all of his players both on the pitch but connecting to them off the field. 

Protagonist Friend - Goalkeeper
With the team missing a goalkeeper now it makes sense to bring a new one in and we might as well make it the first person the Protagonist meets in coming to Raimon. As enthusiastic of the Protagonist when it comes to football he has wanted to be a goalkeeper all his life. I see him as that Aaron Ramsdale like keeper a big personality for the team. He takes big pride in watching the teams back so they can attack and carries an instant likeability to him due to his work on the pitch but also how he cares for his team off of it normally the one to suggest ways for the team to rest and heal should it be needed. From here I am going to call him 'GK' for ease of use.

Zeke - Left Back Defender
One of the older third year members of the team. He is based off of Zeke from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (one of my favourite characters) in the regards to his flamboyant and over the top way of speaking. It's derived from the player wanting to be an actor. As such he calls the manager 'Director'. He is the one who takes the protagonist and GK under his wing the only one willing to train with them at the start. He has a defensive hissatsu called 'Exit Stage Left' where it is like he ushers the opponent off the stage and takes the ball. I wish I could justify using ' Exit, pursued by a bear' but not at the moment. He bonds with the Protagonist right away and can be seen as an early mentor figure. 

The Ace - Striker
Now onto our Gouenji, Tsurugi and Haizaki of the team. As a person who is trained by XGen he looks down on Raimon because of their failures and doesn't care for the protagonist but he starts to push him and eventually he warms up to him. We see throughout the series the training he went through which he feels shows him to be the best but the rest of the XGen student laugh at him having to go to such a weak team and say it reflects who he is. As the story goes after seeing the light and wanting to be his own person not a puppet of XGen he becomes a powerful ally and goalscorer. A duel citizen of Japan and Italy but will remain with Japan for any future FFI.

Lacca & Auba - Wingers
I decided to go two for one here as while these two aren't main characters they are supporting characters but valued all the same. The other third year players who operate on either wing for Raimon with Lacca from Italy and Auba from Japan as you can guess by their names they are inspired by Lacazette & Aubameyang from Arsenal I like the pair they have good chemistry (seems mainly off the field now but you know) so I wanted to have two wingers who work well together. At the start they are isolated off with another defender who is from Italy. They isolate themselves away from the rest of the team only caring for what they do now as two third years they see it as time to give up XGen has the game now it has passed them by. Their other friend the defender will be referred to as ICB (for Italian Centre Back) he doesn't have much of not except being a strong defender and is the one with the Kabeyama, Amagi, Iwato build as is Raimon tradition to have a massive centre back.

Mr. Versatility - Central Midfielder/Winger/Striker
With Ace being reluctant to play seeing it beneath him we need someone to play that striker role, stepping up would be the man who played as the backup striker last year and one of the highlights as he became a key play in the attacking third and can play all positions there (even Central Attack Midfield) but one third year forward a team does not make. Unlike others he hasn't given up but he refuses to train with others at least to begin with a while he really loves football the negativity of the others annoys him and Zeke is too much for him to handle by himself. Once we get more than 11 playing he would play either as a winger or swapping with Ace in between the two roles, he evens feels in . This is the type of role I wanted for Kira Shuugo in GO, they gave him the Kira name to do nothing with it felt wasted. This is our Minamisawa without the leaving Raimon part. 

That leaves 4 players who aren't named (3 if you take into account the defender who hangs out with Lacca & Auba) which I won't go into detail on they are very much the utility players in this they aren't key players while they do feature they just aren't main players and more then likely the majority of them will end up benched by the end of the year. 

The mood of the team as a whole is low. They are fractured where some refuse to train or train in a group they feel XGen now run football and they will just lose anyway so what's the point. They can lose 3 games in the group and then be done that's it. With this attitude in camp Ace just refuses to train seeing it as an opportunity to just watch the team as XGen want. 

I don't have ideas for the 3 coaches for Raimon either sorry about that. I am thinking of two existing which echo the sentiments of the team with one being new signing up with the protagonist and as such helping prepare them and train. While they all know they need to get the team working together they can't seem to do it, it has to be an on the field resolution. As far as the coaches go I most likely won't be going into detail much except for the one coach who joins with the protagonist which I will call 'C' just for ease of use. 

Episode One Breakdown

While I won't do this for every episode it makes sense here to go over the first episode and lay the groundwork to the show and what it would contain. The story begins we get a look at Raimon a new design for the school but we look at the main entrance with two trophy cabinets one with the Football Frontier Trophy and one with the Holy Road Trophy we then cut to the Protagonist going into the school we see him excited to be there and he heads to the football club on the way there he meets GK and C on their way as well. They quickly all bond over their love of Football and when they to the football club which is in the same place as GO just with some slight updates to the look. The first thing they hear upon entering is the principal of the school warning the new manager to leave now this team is uncoachable now and XGen refuse to help them. The Manager does not mind and instead welcomes the trio to Raimon.

When they enter the playing field they are met with silence. Auba, Lacca & ICB are passing the ball between each other. Ace is standing over to side where Captain has his back to the team. The manager welcomes them in saying he's just started as the manager today as well so he's just getting use the things but as you can see the team isn't wanting to practice. However, Zeke strolls up to them all introducing himself in the manner described of him and takes them around the team while some or welcoming at least saying hello such as the Auba trio and the utility players but Versatility ignores them continuing to practice by himself completing dribbling exercises when the Protagonist goes to say hello to the captain he storms off clutching a picture of the team last year which he feels he let down. The two coaches who are at the team chase after him. When they go to greet Ace he laughs saying if this what this team offers he has no need for practice and leaves. Confused by him Zeke also says that Ace joined today but he can't get a read on him. He says look while they can't train here on the main pitch they do have a second pitch behind where the second team they use to have practiced so the four of them can use that. It's here where Zeke goes over the backstory of Raimon the early exit last year the players leaving and graduating and why the Captain holds that photo of last years team close because he harbours guilt he let them down, everyone left feels they blew it, while some just shut off to themselves to train alone or just use the time in the clubs as a social gathering it's all because of the pain they have due to last years results it's a team hurting but Zeke for how upbeat he is doesn't know how to fix them. He shakes that off and smiles saying he's glad if anything he gets to spend his final year at Raimon with these three and hopes he can leave the team in a better place than this. 

When the school days finishes Protagonist is asked if he wants to train more but he says he can't he's already agreed to meet with someone. Here we will say by the riverbank he meets with his old friend who goes to a different school now (for arguments sake when he is brought up he will be referred to as BF) talking about Raimon and while they are at a low he's happy to be there. He asks BF about his new school and BF sounds apprehensive about talking skirting around issues before saying his school doesn't have a football club and the Protagonist says why doesn't he transfer to Raimon which is met with refusal. BF only just joined this school he can't leave but he leaves this conversation for now. BF will be a reoccurring character in the series we will see more of him at a later point.

This episode ends with us seeing Ace going to the XGen building as he walks through other players under XGen are talking about him, laughing at how he's been sent to Raimon how he's so low down he got sent there. He meets with the head of XGen saying he's above this, Raimon are no threat but he is reminded of his place in XGen if he wants to get to be a leader like his former training partner AceF (I should start each each of these posts with a key for all the dumb names I use in this) who's front and centre of all posters for XGen a Prodigal player who we see in brief flashbacks he actually held his own with AceF. The XGen leader says maybe one day it will be him on the poster but he falls short off the field and hence why he's been sent to Raimon maybe he will actually be marketable after sometime learning. Ace grits his teeth and listens as the XGen leader says all they need to do it wait XGen will be the centre of the football world when their players win the Path to Glory and nobody will stop them as he looks out on the city as the end credits go.

That wraps up where we are for this part. Key characters established the first episode mapped out and the plot established. We will move into the main plot following this but this stands as the overview of how I wanted as for how this disconnected team becomes the team to save football we will start to see that next time.