Even before the official anime announcement, Blue Lock has been surging in popularity fairly quickly among manga fans, and the rumors swirling around about an anime adaptation only got the community hyped up about it even more. Now that the anime has finally been confirmed for a 2022 release, it’s time to talk about Blue Lock and why you should be excited if you don’t know anything about it.
It’s a Fusion of Sports and Action
Action-oriented anime series are popular for a reason: they just look so damn cool. It’s exciting to watch characters come at each other with fists and swords, or any other kind of weapon you can think of, and it’s always thrilling to see them pull off stylish-looking moves in a beautifully choreographed scene.
Blue Lock isn’t an action anime, but just from reading the manga, the way football is presented feels every bit as thrilling and exciting as a fight scene from Attack on Titan or Demon Slayer. It’s fairly similar to Kuroko’s Basketball in the sense that every move that a player makes on a field is hyper-stylized and well thought out, and players from opposing teams are often going head to head against each other as if their very lives were on the line.
And, indeed, it does often feel like their lives actually are on the line, thanks to the intriguing story setup…
An “Egoist” Story
Unlike most other sports anime series you’ve probably heard of, like the much-revered Haikyuu and aforementioned Kuroko’s Basketball, Blue Lock is a very individualistic style of series. Whereas series like Haikyuu are very focused on teamwork and friendship, the story setup of Blue Lock forces its characters to get into the mindset of “every man for himself.”
The story kicks off with a select group of Japanese high schoolers who have been entered into the Blue Lock program, where the overseer Jinpachi Ego has been tasked with training the “perfect striker” who will go on to win the World Cup for the Japan national team. This is a program that doesn’t hold anything back, and if you’re disqualified, your football career is essentially over and you’ll be barred from ever joining the national team.
For a bunch of teenagers who are so overwhelmingly passionate about football, this is essentially a life or death situation. No one can afford to slip up, and while we do get to see some great friendships form over the course of the story, no one ever forgets that there can only be one winner. This creates a very tense situation where the players are all automatically hostile towards one another, leading to frantic and unpredictable scenarios that keep the story interesting.
It’s (Somewhat) Realistic
Like every anime series ever created, you do require some suspension of disbelief if you want to be fully immersed in whatever you’re watching. Blue Lock is no exception.
However, even with how over-the-top it can get at times (there’s a player who comes up with a name for one of his unbelievable goals), all of the moves we see in the manga are actually technically possible in real life. In fact, many of the incredible goals we see in Blue Lock are actually taken straight from iconic goals we’ve seen in the history of soccer.
The techniques that the players pull off during the game are also references to actual football moves, and it stays fairly faithful to the actual sport. The only thing that’s ridiculous about the series is how frequently and effectively the players are actually able to pull off said moves.
Achieving perfect synergy with your teammates in almost every single game you play is virtually impossible, yet the Blue Lock players are able to do just that. And, of course, whenever a player catches up with their opponent on the field and greets them with a cheesy line like, “Hello, princess,” it can be just a tad off-putting. But hey, that’s anime for ya.
It Fills the Haikyuu Void
Now that the Haikyuu manga has finally ended and the anime is coming to a close soon, it leaves a pretty big void in the anime world where sports stories are concerned. It’s the perfect time for the Blue Lock anime adaptation to step into the spotlight, and if done right, it could very well become the next Haikyuu.
It has all the elements needed for it to succeed: truly compelling characters with fleshed-out backstories and diverse personalities, exciting matches with well-choreographed action scenes, and the spirit of competition, which is prevalent in every single chapter of the series.
From what we’ve seen of the manga so far, Blue Lock’s story still has plenty of room to grow, with a lot of potential for more exciting developments, and we absolutely can’t wait to see it get animated.
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