Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: BLUELOCK
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Cardcaptor Takato
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On the subject of Ao Ashi vs Blue Lock it seems the Ao Ashi mangaka has recently recommended Blue Lock to readers https://twitter.com/MangaMoguraRE/status/1582903923505262593?s=20&t=MdcGoYFc-4t0k6W_MOjO5A
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moozooh
Posts: 149 |
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I think Blue Lock does take the middle ground in terms of its portrayal of the respective sport. It spares the viewer all the nitty-gritty details that would mainly be of interest to those who already love football, but it also does everything to engage somebody who doesn't by reframing the narrative as a high-stakes shonen battle series that deconstructs football itself. This is a pretty novel approach for a sports manga, and it clearly works considering it's quickly become the most popular football manga and anime in literal decades. That's certainly something to note.
An example of a nominally sports series that doesn't really try to sell you on its sports is Ping Pong the Animation where you could rather easily replace table tennis with any other 1v1 sport that works similarly and deliver exactly the same story beats because the series isn't about the sport—it's about the people who play, and as a result, we see them doing all sorts of things that aren't, well, playing table tennis. The sport is mainly a canvas to tell a character drama, its role is purely functional. On the other hand—and this is an example of extreme love for the particular sport—you can't make Haikyuu without volleyball because volleyball is the main star of the story, with the rest of the character cast being there just to present it in the best way possible. If anyone ever thought that series was about Hinata, Kageyama, or any other character, they can try to count the number of scenes where these characters weren't playing volleyball, thinking about volleyball, talking to others about volleyball, or getting ready for the next volleyball game. There's no conflict or plot development ever happening outside volleyball venues. Haikyuu is a pretty long series, too, but we don't really get to know anything about these characters that doesn't directly connect to volleyball because that's considered irrelevant to the story. Coming back to Blue Lock, the show makes a good point by saying good team play is great and all, but it cannot win games all by itself. You could have a team amazingly well put together and great at keeping possession of the ball but lacking the necessary offensive ability to outscore the other team. So in the end, what ultimately decides your team's position in the ranking is offensive superiority, with the rest of the team play being in service of it. And since only one person has possession of the ball at any time, it falls on the strikers to cash in on that superiority by delivering goals. And it ultimately fosters the egotistic mindset where the rest of the team serves the striker by getting the ball back to him, and he only needs to care about scoring goals. Hence all the quotes from famous real-world strikers who represent that exact mindset in action. Isagi is an interesting protagonist because rather than being merely a skilled athlete good at delivering the ball from point A to point B, he has the makings of a tactical playmaker, having the intuition that informs him of potential goal situations, how to create them, and how best to take advantage of them. Other players diss him for choosing to pass instead of taking the shot himself, but tactically, that was the smartest decision Isagi could've made. |
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RubyRed
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Oh, hey, this might be the best description of Blue Lock I've ever seen! Right on the money, really. I'm not a football fan or anything, but I'm dropping this as of episode 2 anyway. Because this series and its fans are getting something very wrong: teamwork and friendship are in no way the same thing. Fouling the opposition, treating your own teammates like shit, antagonising the fanbase, etc., are not things you avoid because you're a spineless chump or a "nakama power" junkie - it's a cold, calculated move to ensure that you lull the enemy and your own allies into a false sense of security while using them to attain your own personal glory. If you play a team sport but can't work as a team, then you're gonna fail in the end, because the world of pro sports - or of any adult job, really - is all about faking nice with others in order to succeed on your own. Blue Lock throws all that aside by training its players to act like egomaniacs in a strange environment which isolates them from all other football positions as well as normal "football society" altogether. If this method was successful in any sport, individual or team, do you think RL coaches and players wouldn't have tried it already, ethics be damned? No, they would have. But it doesn't work, so they haven't. I picked up Blue Lock thinking it'd be a kind of "teenage football version of One Outs," seeing as several people have described it as such, but really, what an insult to One Outs! That being said, I could overlook all of this if there were so much as a single character I could enjoy following through this whole "death game disguised as football," but there isn't. And, I mean, Tokuchi Toua from One Outs is one of my all-time favourite animanga characters, and I absolutely respect the realistic portrayal of pro sportsmen/coaches/managers in series like Giant Killing, so no, I have no strong attachment to nakama power in team sports (though I don't dislike it either). But the Blue Lock cast is way too repulsive, plus there isn't even any real football being played (according to some of the manga readers), so... *Jumps off the hype train right at the station* |
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Joe Mello
 Posts: 2256 Location: Online Terminal |
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Blue Lock is giving me the impression that it's a chuuni piss take on FC academies that likely has more in common with shows like Birdie Wing than Aoashi. I can easily imagine the show's base hypothesis as a common sports talk hot take (though it's not like team sports aren't littered with super successful people whose a-holery is excused because all they do is win), and goes over the top with it. It's not for everyone, and there's no guarantee that it won't fall victim to its own deadly traps, but I respect what it's doing even if I'm not into it myself.
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11348 |
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I don't understand the complaint that the series hasn't already given its answer to the question at the thematic core of the entire series. If they give us the definitive answer after four episodes, what's left to do? That's like a murder mystery nailing the culprit in the first third of the show.
I'm pretty sure Isagi's skill is the same as Ashito's in Aoashi, namely, he's aware of everyone's position on the field. The episode title says it straight out: "Premonition and Intuition." But like Ashito, that doesn't necessarily make him the best striker. He needs some actual skills to back it up, which he doesn't seem to have yet. In an environment like this, I'm wondering how he'll acquire them. I'm watching this in tandem with Yowamushi Pedal,, and seeing how differently they approach teamwork is always a treat. Ironically, Yowapeda has forsaken its after-credits vignettes which were such a highlight, while Blue Lock has taken them up, though they're not nearly as endearingly funny. |
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malvarez1
Posts: 1664 |
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I'm over 100 chapters in the manga, and it doesn't look like it'll be ending any time soon, so we have plenty of time for the series to make a definitive answer for what it's ultimate intentions are.
The manga only gets more wild from here... |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11348 |
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I guess we're lucky they're playing indoors, or Aoashi's conversational crows would probably have flown over to explain what Isagi's skill is. Even putting the dialog in Chigiri's mouth instead, it was pretty much the same words.
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11348 |
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Looks like Midousuji not only traded in his bike for a soccer ball, but found time to father twins. And those might just be the most unique eyebrows in anime. I've seen all kinds of whacked out brows, but I don't think I've ever seen any that were actual animals (hmm, there might be snake brows out there). And alligators rather than the easier to draw snakes! Even if Team Z wins (and they kinda have to? unless there's another loophole in the rules), I feel like we won't have seen the last of the twins. You don't waste a crazy character design like that on someone who only gets one or two episodes in the franchise.
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FilthyCasual
Posts: 2189 |
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SHD
Posts: 1752 |
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I never thought I'd develop one of these hang-ups, but man, as someone living in Eastern Europe I can't help being uncomfortable with seeing all those "Z" signs everywhere, as well as finding myself being expected to root for "Team Z"... My rational mind knows that this is just a coincidence (also I read a bit of the manga before so it's not like it was unexpected), but I do wince a little bit every time. Just goes to show how innocent things can be ruined by being associated with something terrible.
Anyway, that aside, I'm enjoying the show so far, much more than the manga - it helps that this being animation it's more dynamic about the football scenes. I still find myself tuning out during the sports scenes, but at least not completely, something always happens that grabs my attention again, unlike in most other sports shows. And I quite like the ideas behind the story: both the purely football part where it lampshades, criticizes and also subverts the insanity of individual stars in a team sport, and how it can still work; as well as the part where it's a commentary on Japanese society demanding conformity even at the expense people's full talents being realized, and offering ways to break out of it while still keeping social bonds. I just wish the characters were more interesting. Like, I'm not expecting Tolstoy here, obviously, but most everyone is a cookie-cutter walking collection of sports anime tropes, especially in the current match where there's one of my biggest annoyances, the "oh I'm so lazy, I can't be bothered" type super genius. Oh well, it'll be over soon, anyway. |
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blahmoomoo
Posts: 460 |
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In case you are referring to the show (I can't tell if the subject is the show or the current match), note that it is 24 episodes long. |
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SHD
Posts: 1752 |
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I was talking about the match. At least I assume it won't be going on for the rest of the show... 
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Hiroki not Takuya
 Posts: 2514 |
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Well, Japan suffered "humiliation" at the hands of Croatia apparently so Blue Lock isn't real after all...Also fun fact, the abbreviation for Blue Lock is the same as Boy's Love, coincidence??
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Jay_Stone
Posts: 143 |
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Mbappé making the same direct shot during the world cup final as Isagi in episode 11 was [expletive] insane to witness live on tv..
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SHD
Posts: 1752 |
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I'm kind of surprised how much I'm into this show, considering that sports anime/manga are normally not my thing, and even though I'd picked up the manga on a whim, and actually enjoyed it, I ended up not following it because there was just too much football in it.
Even though that football actually became more interesting to read as the manga went on, I still kind of tuned out during the matches. (Even though football is one real-world sport I actually like, even if I don't follow it anymore.) I guess this is the difference that a more dynamic depiction makes, it brings out the drama and adds to the character development, and in a show like this that makes a world of difference, for me at least.
Also, the show is doing a great job with the themes, which are what made me enjoy the manga in the first place. As I noted before, I think the manga is making some great commentary on both the state of football as such - the perversity of privileged celebrity players in a team sport, yes, but also how egoism and personal desires are important regardless, and how they can be made to work in balance with the team aspect; but also a more general social commentary on Japan, where community is above all, and you're expected to conform and shape yourself according to what the community thinks you should be, even if it means giving up your personal aspirations (even if it's just something like wanting a place for your kids to freely run around and do kid things, while all public spaces are geared toward the elderly...), never ever ever going against the flow. In fact that's what grabbed me about the manga, and the show as well, how Isagi is suffering from the restraints placed on him by the "THE TEAM IS ABOVE ALL!!!" sentiment, not being able to make his talent blossom because he feels that would be selfish and he would be ostracized for it. Which is why I'm really scratching my head seeing all the "this is an anti-teamwork/anti-team story!" because it absolutely isn't! The entire point is how the kids are being de-programmed and then re-shaped into players who are driven by personal ambition instead of a saccharine/fake "it's all about the team!" sentiment, but are also able to work together because they understand that, to reach their personal ambition, they need to be able to develop a team spirit, and also learn to work together with people who are wildly different from them. Which is why I don't agree with the reviewer's points here:
Ripping away the dreams is not the point here. I think we're far past that point in the story, that was a trick for the first couple of episodes, but now it's more about how the kids shouldn't get complacent and slip back into the "it's all about the team!" mindset. By breaking up the team they're forced to develop further, find ways to work together with new people, etc. until they eventually grow into driven, creative, highly adaptable professional players - even the egomaniacs/borderline sociopaths. This is something that would have never happened had they stayed in the "traditional" system. Anyway, I'll be continuing with the show, and I look forward to how the story goes. I may even pick up the manga again (this is around the place I dropped it in the first place). Especially since finally I'm not going to have to be uncomfortable about the whole "Team Z" stuff. |
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