Blue Lock

Yoichi Isagi was mere moments away from scoring a goal that would have sent his high school soccer team to the nationals, but a split-second decision to pass the ball to his teammate cost him that reality. Bitter, confused, and disappointed, Isagi wonders if the outcome would have been different had he not made the pass. When the young striker returns home, an invitation from the Japan Football Union awaits him. Through an arbitrary and biased decision-making process, Isagi is one of three hundred U-18 strikers selected for a controversial project named Blue Lock.

The project's ultimate goal is to turn one of the selected players into the star striker for the Japanese national team. To find the best participant, each diamond in the rough must compete against others through a series of solo and team competitions to rise to the top. Putting aside his ethical objections to the project, Isagi feels compelled to fight his way to the top, even if it means ruthlessly crushing the dreams of 299 aspiring young strikers.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Bachira, Meguru Main

Kaito, Tasuku Japanese

Isagi, Yoichi Main

Ura, Kazuki Japanese

Chigiri, Hyouma Main

Saitou, Souma Japanese

Kunigami, Rensuke Main

Ono, Yuuki Japanese

Nagi, Seishirou Supporting

Shimazaki, Nobunaga Japanese

Itoshi, Rin Supporting

Uchiyama, Kouki Japanese

Barou, Shouei Supporting

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Shidou, Ryuusei Supporting

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Mikage, Reo Supporting

Uchida, Yuuma Japanese

Itoshi, Sae Supporting

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Furukawa, Shin Producer

Mori, Yuuki Producer

Hirano, Tsutomu Producer

Arisawa, Ryouya Producer

Reviews

Apr 8, 2025

angecritter

Recommended

An intense, stylish, but often times overambitious sports anime with a hefty dose of shounen absurdity.

Intro

Blue Lock portrays soccer as an ego-driven death game wrapped in capitalism and shounen melodrama. It's intense, absurd, and a little bit horny. And honestly, that's what makes it so damn entertaining - but it's not without its issues.

Storytelling/Pacing

The series spans a standard 24 episodes, which should be enough to tell a tightly paced story. However, the show gets heavily bogged down by its own shounen tropes and poor pacing. The series builds tension well, but too often these moments are buried under bloated internal monologues - especially from Isagi. ... While the psychological aspect is cool at first, the constant ego rants lose impact fast. Isagi's internal monologues are far too often less character exploration and more faux intellectual drivel, and it kills the pacing. Hard. He doesn't develop so much as absorb philosophies like he's a twinky sponge. The matches, as interesting as they are visually, often fall into the realm of Filler Lane, where the characters have to go through an uphill battle in their own minds each time. This is redundant. Either make it more sparse or have different things happen.

There's an undeniable sense that the show is getting high on its own excess. But when everything is life-or-death... nothing is. It numbs you. High drama becomes background noise. After a while, watching Blue Lock is like listening to Merzbow on top of Kendrick Lamar. It's brilliance beneath a layer of pure exhaustion.

Visuals

That said, when Blue Lock does fire on all cylinders, it's absolutely brilliant. The animation is top fucking tier in both technical and artistic quality - brimming with passion in every frame, every major character design full of thematic cohesion. The character designs are always so damn sharp, exaggerated, and full of personality. I'll concede that for some of the supporting cast, they fall into the realm of generic anime high schoolers, but it's not a dealbreaker. I would've preferred it to be more of a spectacle, even with less focus on side characters, but for the main cast? Oh yeah, they nailed it. Bachira has that childlike wonder in his eyes and even his hair, Isagi is determined yet youthful, Rin is...okay, Rin is basically just a taller version of Isagi, just with 20% more cynicism. The way the supernatural/psychedelic elements are shown is really great, too - it really utilizes the medium to its advantage by showing a metaphor for how locked in these guys are on the field, even if the ego monsters are a bit jarring. Despite the sensory overload this show is so fond of, the direction knows how to land emotional beats when it matters most. They take this shit so seriously that it can feel like people are dying out here, even when it's "just" a soccer game. But since we're talking about animation: why use 3D models for distant characters? It just pulls me out of the scene when there's a clear difference in art styles, even if it's just for select scenes. They look like scrapped PS2 models - cheap and stiff, kinda like the music.

Soundtrack

Music in Blue Lock is a mixed bag for me. I love the first OP, like the rest of the OPs and EDs, and don't care much for the background music. The OPs really sell that aggressive, youthful conquest for victory - I can feel Bachira's indulgent yet disciplined passion in every note, and the EDs are cute and sentimental. BGM in this series feels like generic electronic-style sports music, it doesn't do anything particularly interesting to hype scenes up and its composition is...fine. I would've been okay with generic music if it fit the tone (sports can be kind of stale) but Blue Lock is anything BUT generic. Why not go all-out with tunes that catch you off guard? The BGM tries to be energetic but lands somewhere between Skrillex impersonator and the soundtrack to a Fortnite crypto scam. I would've loved to see some Masafumi Takada-esque EDM bangers a la Danganronpa V3 to soundtrack the wild action that occurs, or hell, even some banging cyber metal. There was a lot of room to experiment here, but the chance was simply not taken.

Themes

Blue Lock actually has something to say. It's not just about soccer: it's about ego, ambition, and what it means to pursue greatness with complete disregard for teamwork or tradition. It's a sports anime with the plot of a shounen death game, without the death but with all the philosophical dread. I'm not sold on the philosophy it's going for, but what matters most is its believability. These are soccer players with the drive to be the best at any cost - and I can completely see how they come to their primarily self-fulfilling conclusions. It definitely doesn't shy away from showing other perspectives too. Isagi gets treated like a self-serving dick more as the series progresses, and I found it pretty funny how they call out him trying to be the main character of the story. It's no labyrinthine debate, but I'm glad the showrunners are at least a little self-aware. Blue Lock has something to say, but what adds layers is that it never really gives you a straight moral to take. Personally, I see Isagi as a well-meaning occasional bonehead whose ego may eventually eat him alive, but you might see him as a complete asshole that has no regard for his friends. These are conversations that are worth having, and as a sucker for philosophy, I definitely want to talk to some people about how they view the characterization at play here. Despite its interesting themes, however, it can be a little too unsubtle in its delivery at times. I don't need everything to be super nuanced and intricate, but I feel that a lot of the time, Blue Lock kicks back on having clear-cut motivations for everyone that leave little room for intrigue. The show would've done this better if it took more time to build specific perspectives instead of it being primarily an ensemble cast, especially when a few characters rely way too heavily on tropes. (looking at you, Tokimitsu)

Tone

Tonally, Blue Lock lives in this really odd space between hardcore serious sports shounen and off-the-wall comedy. It's not a perfect contrast by any means, but I'd say that its flaws add more merit and memorability to it, which is an absolute win in my book. Are some of the voice actors going way too hard? Absolutely. But I'd much rather have that than phoned-in performances with nothing interesting going on.

My Strange Addiction

Okay, let me just break character for a second, because I need to talk about my one true love, Meguru Bachira. This man quickly became my husbando as the series progressed. He's so cute, I love how driven he is, how much romantic tension there is between him and the rest of the cast, and just the sheer passion he has for soccer above LITERALLY anything else. He's the perfect protagonist, and I didn't even realize he was a protagonist until he'd already stolen my heart. I love how he perfectly captures the themes of ego and ambition by being the centerpiece - driven by pure love and passion for everyone on the team via the realm of soccer. Everything about the way he thinks and plays is this perfect harmony of his worldview tying into every action he takes. It's gorgeous. Beyond all the analysis though, my emotional reaction to him is so strong that I just NEED to get this out. What an amazing little creature.

Outro

Blue Lock is so far from perfection it may as well be allergic to it - but it's got style, guts, and a few standout moments that make the ride worth it. Just don't expect a masterpiece. Expect an over-the-top shounen about egos and highly queer existential crises.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Apr 17, 2025

bergars

Mixed Feelings

It's fun to see a show admit you have to be an egotistical bastard at times.

I'm tired of battle royale's, man. I've seen the tropes. How characters unite in the most unlikely ways. The empathetic main character, or the morality at play when put against people who could be good. Rarely done with nuance, and I'll admit, this one gets pretty close to being great, but I really couldn't take it seriously.

Battle Royale, but with soccer. You got monsters who can level the playfield, you've got the underdogs, the great prospects, and our protagonist who is very much a nobody in a sea ... of potential nobodies. He's gotta climb his way through, alright, sure, fine. I went along with it, and took what was essentially 24 episodes of what I can only describe as an author holding back.

Be it the slow progression, the character dialogue, and the constant weirdness in all of them. First, you can tell the big cast of characters merits diverse personalities. It allows them to stand out, to have their voice, but as a problem, they're too out there, exaggerated, stupid, incoherent. Their way of thinking makes sense for each character, but they get so repetitive.

They repeat their way of talking every time they're on-screen, just for those three seconds to remind us of their existence. It speaks poorly of the writer's ability to direct them without being edgy, or plain cringe. Stuff like “I have a demon in my heart”. These are highschoolers, close to 18-years-old. If they were middle schoolers, that's the limit, but please, STFU.

Second. This is an experiment from the author, and you can tell. I've read the author's biggest works before this one, and while still childishly dealing with adult themes, the writing stood out, the characters were given proper depth, since they couldn't cross the line of excess. There were always smaller casts, and thing is, the next season, or part of the story probably works way better since the story rids itself of unneeded characters. However, the most edgy ones stay, and weirder ones just got in, making my optimism utterly stupid.

I wish there was more to chew on, more of an interesting main character. Even if his dynamic is very fresh, being able to predict the playing field, and what not, his personality is as plain as you can imagine. Main character, underdog, nice guy, the least unusual, with a strange awakened state. I'm tired of it, and this simply perpetuates cliché's without being able to break away from them.

The animation works, the story works, and it moves, but I'll give it a chance to redeem itself. It's not bad, it's just on the verge of being bad. It can only get better if the author manages to truly use its cast, and lesson, to change the protagonist and the people around him. Other than that, it just doesn't stand out that much compared to the author's other works, which have a little more to say about its world than this.

6/10. If the author was trying to make a typical Shonen, you can feel the Victorian style skeleton whispering he should go back to his edgy roots.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Mar 25, 2025

Yunice

Not Recommended

Frankly speaking, I do not know what the hype is all about for this anime series. There is not much going on other than a bunch of frenzied "strikers" throughout the whole show trying to outdo one another. Actual matches with normal players are pretty much non-existent.

Next, I need to talk about the art. The eyes! Why? Why do the characters look like they are in a permanent state of shock the whole time? Also, some of those eyes gave me the heebie-jeebies more than most horror shows did. I hated how they creeped me out while watching, and it was really a major distraction.

There ... is also so much internal monologue! If there isn't so much of that, I am quite sure the whole series could have been done within a twelve-episode run. It has been exhausting having to sit through a few minutes of internal monologue before almost every tiny bit of kick or pass in a sports show.

The only dramatic thing in this show is the unnecessary drama within the brains of the characters every time they see, or want to do something.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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