BLUELOCK

Episode 3

It's easy to have a narrative that centers around this “every man for himself” mentality when you create situations that continue to pit one person against various other individuals. However, how do you progress that mentality while also forcing those individuals to compete as part of a team? You see this conundrum explored a lot in battle royale stories: even though there can ultimately be only one winner, everyone is first separated into teams in order to whittle down the cast. While I never really liked those stories, it can be interesting to see people realize that sometimes they need to rely on others to achieve their self-centered goals. I was very drawn into BLUELOCK 's almost anti-teamwork philosophy in the first two episodes, so I was curious to find out what will happen when the puppet master put these incredibly angry and amped-up teenagers together in a team while also screaming that only the person who scores the highest will succeed.

Honestly, it's not handled the most gracefully in this episode, and it's partially because most of it is spent setting up and foreshadowing the aforementioned conundrum without actually following through with the answer. The longer this competition goes on and the more psychological components get introduced to the sport, the smarter the show needs to be about its writing. If it gets too complicated like I feel this episode almost does, then it runs the risk of contradicting itself. But if it's too simple, then it closes down a lot of potential for interesting exploration.

The best I can put together is that it's a striker's responsibility to not only score goals but also be the anchor that the team revolves around. They are the ones who set the pace, boost morale, and inspire their teammates through their selfish egos. However, if they let those egos get too out of control, then they end up clashing with their teammates and get nothing done. Our team is starting from zero because they are just raw selfish aggression at this point, but how can they still maintain that self-serving mentality while also working as a team? I think these matches are going to make up the crux of this season based on the episode's pacing, so hopefully we will get more into that next week when the next matchup presents itself.

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BLUELOCK is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.