Gouenji Shuuya

Gouenji Shuuya (豪炎寺 修也) is one of the main characters in the Inazuma Eleven game, manga, and anime. He was formely the ace striker of Kidokawa Seishuu, then became the ace striker of Raimon, and later Inazuma Japan.

In Inazuma Eleven GO, Gouenji is now the supposedly antagonist of the new series, and is the current leader of "Holy Emperor" of Fifth Sector, going under the alias of "Ishido Shuuji".

Inazuma Eleven (game)

 * "A cool transfer student renowned as a legendary striker."

Background
When Gouenji was young, he was shown to be a talented player. His parents would often come to his games to cheer for him. They said that he had a talent for soccer and they were tremendously happy for it. However, after his mother's death, it was as if his father became a completely different person. He wants Gouenji to quit soccer and become a doctor. Gouenji and his father have been arguing about this ever since.

Right before the finals in the Football Frontier last year between Kidokawa Seishuu and Teikoku, Gouenji's sister, Yuuka, had an accident and was in a coma ever since. After this, his father grew even worse. Yuuka was hospitalized in Inazuma General Hospital, where Gouenji's father worked.

Gouenji thought that if he hadn't played soccer, the accident wouldn't have happened to Yuuka, and wondered how he can simply relax and play soccer when she is suffering. Gouenji keeps an amulet made by Yuuka, transferred to Raimon, and swore that until she wakes up, he wouldn't play soccer.

Appearance
He has fiery white hair and zigzag eyebrows. He usually looks very serious. Casually, he wears a white hoodie with an orange jacket over it and brown pants. During season 2, when he was in hiding, he wore brown shoes and an orange jacket with blue side stripes. He has a fair skin tone. In one of the Inazuma Eleven 2009 artwork covers, Gouenji is shown to own a dark greyish-brown yukata, with grey stripes going vertically downwards.

In GO, he has his spiky hair straightened down, and now has azure highlights in them. He wears a red suit coat over a white shirt, with grey combat boots over his pants. Over this, he wears a black shawl around his neck. His accessories include a long necklace with white green, and red beads, and a shorter necklace with one golden bead. He also wears green and purple-colored earrings. In the first GO episode, he was seen wearing a black cloak and hood. He has a dark skin tone.

Personality
He's cool and calm at most situations. He cares deeply for his sister and has a strong passion for soccer. When one of his team members aren't doing well, he kicks the soccer ball hard at them. And when they look at him in surprise, he makes them realize their mistake and corrects them. This shows that he takes interest other people and understands their feelings and shares their sorrow and happiness at all time.

In the manga, he is portrayed more mysterious, and is easily annoyed by Endou Mamoru's attempts to recruit him into the soccer club. After he was recruited, he still wanted to quit the club, as because the soccer club itself was not functioning well, and that Kabeyama Heigorou's defense was not good as well.

In GO, when he was revealed to be Ishido Shuuji, his personality has drastically changed, he starts with having no remorse or guilt with controlling soccer. He states that soccer cannot be brought back anymore and he doesn't seem to care for his old friendships with his old teammates, friends and to those who play soccer. He also started to have the "sly" smile when watching the matches in the Holy Road tournament. Though, some of his personality remained like being calm and serious.

Season 1
Gouenji's sister, Yuuka, was in a coma because of Kageyama's interference to stop him from playing against Teikoku. He keeps an amulet made by her, and vowed to never play soccer again. He first appears when Endou was training with the Inazuma KFC. After seen a punk spits in the ball and the kick it in the direction of Kisaragi Mako he intervenes, shooting the ball back and hitting the punk's head. But then he was struck by Endou's "never give up" attitude telling him that his sister would have wanted him to play soccer the most, he then regains his passion for the game. He changes his promise to become the champion of the Football Frontier. He is first not accepted by Someoka Ryuugo, but later, when he sees Gouenji working hard to complete Inazuma Drop, his respect for him as a teammate and the ace striker of Raimon grows, and Someoka does not accept anybody other than Gouenji as Raimon's ace striker.

Season 2
In season 2, he got kicked out of the team after he got distracted on a match against Aliea Academy. Later, Raimon heard rumors of the "Flame Striker" somewhere in Okinawa and travel there to find him, in the hopes that he is Gouenji. He is seen hiding in the shadows watching Raimon practice, and even saw the confrontation with Burn and Gran. Later on, on the match against Epsilon Remastered, Gouenji views the match under a disguise (an orange and black hood) and it is shown that he and Hijikata Raiden know each other. Later on in the match, three mysterious men try to take Gouenji away but he tricks them with the help of Onigawara. He runs back to the match and rejoins the team at the last minute. The Raimon Eleven are delighted that he came back to them. Together once again, they finally beat Epsilon Remastered.

Season 3
In season 3, he was a candidate to join Japan's national team, Inazuma Japan, and was placed in the B-team, Kidou Yuuto's team and got in. Later, he was almost out of the team again before the finals, because his father wants him to study in Germany and wants him to become a doctor. But later he was able to show his father how much he loves soccer and he still stays in the team. He makes a new hissatsu with Hiroto and Toramaru between The Empire even though they lose 2-1. Later he followed the white team into the depths of hell to the Demon's Gate. Then afterward he and Inazuma Japan were fighting against The Kingdom, and he got the 2nd point for Inazuma Japan, with Someoka and Hiroto in a chain shoot consisting of their individual hissatsu. He scored a goal with Toramaru using Tiger Storm against Team Garshield. He along with Toramaru and Endou scored the winning goal for Inazuma Japan against Little Gigant in the finals using Jet Stream which broke through Rococo's Tamashii The Hand.

Plot (GO)
In Inazuma Eleven GO, he appeared in Matsukaze Tenma's flashback, when he saved his life by kicking a soccer ball to the piles of wood that were falling on top of him. He had done this during the time he was under hiding from Aliea Academy. And when Tenma picked up the ball, it is seen with the Raimon emblem on it, proving how much he missed his team. He actually became Tenma's hero and made him passionate for soccer like he is now, 10 years later. It was shown in Episode 011 (GO) that Tsurugi and his brother also wanted good with soccer like him.

He is first seen in Episode 1 (though not revealed as Gouenji yet) in the shadows being commanded by someone else. And also he wishes to "control soccer" at the first episode and was looking determined, though his whole appearance is not revealed, since he was hooded while doing this.

Shortly after Kuro no Kishidan forfeited the game after Shindou Takuto releases his Keshin for the first time, he is seen again, where he is looking at the statistics of each Raimon team member, especially Takuto's stats. He commented that Shindou had "recently awakened".

He is also again seen overlooking Holy Road's opening ceremony.

When Raimon advanced to the semi-finals, they were originally supposed to play against Aoba Academy, another participant in the Holy Road tournament. However, Ishido switched Aoba's place with Teikoku, fore sighting that Teikoku would crush Raimon. Despite this, Raimon won the match and advanced to the finals.

He is seen watching Raimon and Kaiou academy's match at the end of episode 20. In episode 22, he is seen in Holy Road Opening Ceremony making a speech.

In Episode 024 (GO), he is confronted by Endou Mamoru at Fifth Sector's base, where it is confirmed that Gouenji is actually Ishido Shuuji. Gouenji, however, denies his old identity as well as Endou's offer to help him.

In Episode 027 (GO), he is shown to be watching the match of Raimon and Hakuren when Segi was switched into the field and started to playing rough.

In the preview of the episode 29, he is shown talking to Aphrodi but it is unknown what were they talking about, but then he is shown smiling for some reason.

Inazuma Eleven the Movie: Attack of the Strongest Army, Ogre
In the movie he learns Maximum Fire and uses Prime Legend with Kidou.

Inazuma Eleven GO the Movie: The Ultimate Bonds Gryphon
He is set to appear in the Inazuma Eleven GO the Movie: The Ultimate Bonds Gryphon, where he is seen to be making a speech. He joins forces with Kibayama in the movie to take down Raimon (GO). At the end of the trailer, he is seen to be talking with Kibayama about Endou Natsumi

Hissatsu

 *  [SH] Bakunetsu Screw
 *  [SH] Bakunetsu Storm
 *  [SH] Crossfire (Anime)
 *  [SH] Fire Tornado
 *  [SH] Grand Fire 
 *  [SH] Inazuma Otoshi
 *  [SH] Maximum Fire (Movie)
 *  [SH] Prime Legend  (Movie)
 *  [OF] Heat Tackle (Game)
 *  [DF] Quick Draw (Game)

Relationships

 * Gouenji Yuuka (younger sister)
 * Gouenji Masato (great-grandson)

Inazuma Eleven

 * "A fight against the world. For that, I'll put in everything I've got for this match!" (To Himself)
 * "I understand how you feel, Kidou. But I intend to follow this coach. It's him. As long as Endou keeps trusting Coach Kudou... I trust him too. He's gotten so fed up with doing nothing that he's finally started practicing in his own room." (To Kidou Yuuto)
 * "That kind of soccer isn't fun at all. Look! The people here are the strongest players from all over Japan. And...We're up against the entire world! We're here to fight against the world and win. Don't forget that!" (To Utsunomiya Toramaru)
 * "Try and suprise me, Toramaru." (To Utsunomiya Toramaru)
 * "You still need some time before you can catch up to us, Toramaru." (To Utsunomiya Toramaru)

Inazuma Eleven GO

 * "The moment arrived, even if their destruction doesn't matter, for what he believes. I go to give everything of me for this intention." (To an unknown person)
 * "Yes, as long as the sacrifice to achieve it does not matter anyway." (To an unknown person)
 * "I... will control soccer!" (To an unknown person)
 * "Don't you get it? Soccer has changed. It won't return to the way it's been. Therefore, I must control soccer and divide it equally amongst everyone." (To Endou Mamoru)

Trivia

 * '炎' in Gouenji (豪炎寺) is Japanese for flames.
 * He is left-footed when kicking, but in three hissatsu, he shoots with his right foot.
 * It is revealed in the Drama CD that he makes delicious takoyaki, but he doesn't make it in front of Urabe Rika, stating that "he doesn't want to end up like Ichinose."
 * He has a character song titled "Honoo no Riyuu".
 * His seiyuu, Nojima Hirofumi, is also the seiyuu for Kurumada Gouichi and 'Ishido Shuuji in Inazuma Eleven GO.
 * In Episode 024 (GO) is revealed that he is Ishido Shuuji, the Seitei. This is also the reason why they have the same seiyuu.
 * When you look closely at both names, Gouenji Shuuya and Ishido Shuuji, "Shuuji" is made up from Gouenji Shuuya's name. "Ji" from Gouenji and "Shuu" from Shuuya, when you combine it together, it creates the word "Shuuji".
 * In the manga, he seemed to be a bit more harsh compared to the anime: he almost punched Kageyama, but luckily Endou stopped him.
 * Gouenji is the only player of Inazuma Japan who plays full time in all the official matches of the FFI.
 * He seemed to be close with Kuroki Zenzou and Terumi Afuro.
 * As Ishido Shuuji, his skin is darker and he has earrings.