The Blue Lock anime is so much more than soccer Squid Game
One of the best parts about sports anime is interest in actual sports is never required. This is particularly true with Blue Lock, an anime that puts a spin on soccer so outlandish it makes the practically superpowered athletics of Kuroko’s Basketballlook grounded. An adaptation of Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yusuke Nomura’s award-winning manga, Blue Lock dares ask the question, “What if being an asshole is the true key to success?”
After the Japanese national team once again fails to go far at the World Cup, the football union hires the completely unhinged Jinpachi Ego to do whatever it takes for the team to win it all at the next tournament. Ego diagnoses Japan’s problem as too much teamwork; they lack the egocentric striker they need to make the self-serving, scoring plays demonstrated by top players like Pelé, Lionel Messi, and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ego’s solution? Recruit the country’s top high school strikers to participate in a Squid Game-like training program called Blue Lock. The cutthroat competition sees 300 players face off against one another in solo and team competitions. But rather than fight for their lives, they’re fighting for their careers: The top five players will play as forwards for the under-20 team at the World Cup, but anyone who loses at Blue Lock will be banned from ever playing for Team Japan. To these young strikers, that might as well mean death, and they treat Blue Lock as seriously as if it did.
The show does an excellent job fleshing out its ensemble of characters, rotating through spotlight episodes that reveal their past experiences and how they color their movement through the competition. But at the heart of the story is Yoichi Isagi, one of the lowest-ranked players, who’s haunted by the
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