It makes you yell at the referee, which is exactly the point. Orion doesn't just run Inazuma Japan through the FFI bracket, it rots the tournament from the inside: bought officials, marked players, and the Orion Foundation pulling strings before kickoff, so every match carries the paranoid question of who on the pitch is already compromised. Haizaki Ryouhei is the poisoned heart of it, and the show is smart enough to keep you unsure whether you're watching a traitor or a kid with no better options. Nosaka's cold arithmetic against Asuto's stubborn island-boy faith is the actual engine here, more than any scoreline. The animation is the sharpest the franchise has looked, and the hissatsu cut-ins still make you sit up. Be honest, though: 49 episodes and a roster this bloated means half these boys get a name, a shot, and nothing else. Veterans forgive it. Newcomers bounce.

Fresh from winning the national Football Frontier, the newly formed Raimon Junior High soccer team waits to learn who will be named to Inazuma Japan, the squad that will represent the country at the Football Frontier International. The roster draws on several generations of Inazuma Eleven characters. Asuto Inamori, Ryouhei Haizaki, known as the Demon of the Field, and Yuuma Nosaka, the Emperor of the Pitch, soon find the opposition far stronger than they expected. Mysterious powers are at work inside the tournament, threatening to change history and soccer itself. Backed by their shrewd coach Zhao Jinyun and the puzzling newcomer Ichihoshi Mitsuru, Inazuma Japan takes on teams from around the world in a sports series with supernatural elements.