After making it through the grueling Second Selection, Isagi and the remaining thirty-four strikers prepare for their next challenge, a match against the current U-20 Japan team. At stake: a chance to represent Japan on the world stage as part of the U-20 team. However, with only eleven spots available on the Blue Lock team, Isagi must first clear tryouts if he is to keep his dreams alive. Can he assert his place among the best of the best?!
I think that the charm of this series is that it takes on a very different approach to teamwork and its other themes than other sports manga. The core of its themes revolve around how you need to better yourself first and that by pulling each other forward can you improve in ways that you might not have imagined before.
Shido is going to be interesting, isn’t he? I’ve seen so many crazy panels of him circulating online before I started Blue Lock, so I’m kind of excited now that he’s been officially introduced. He already seems so intense, going head-to-head with a monster (Rin) and keeping up no problem!
حس انیمه رو نمیده و هیجان داستان زیاد حس نمیشه ولی مسیر جالبی رو پیش گرفته. یه سری تئوری تو ذهنم هست و اگه تا آخرین چپتر داستان که تا الان اومده، اتفاق افتاده باشه چیز جالبی میشه.
i really love nanase such a breath of fresh air :’) also shidou appreciating every goal even though its a goal from the opponent is so touching to me! kingshit
This series is starting to get stale for me. Isagi is not my favorite character so it grates on my nerves when I have to read his constant internal struggles which feel like the same thing over and over again. He’s mediocre at best. Give me more Chigiri or Bachira or anyone else at this point.
Reread 9.2.24 See below (though 11 is still a better volume overall)
SHIDOU AND RIN YELLING AT EACH OTHER >>>>>>>>>
Original review This one actually had my heart racing!!! Maybe that's because I was running away from Shidou's attempts to steal it? His perfect reverse eyeliner really steals the show here. Fresh team dynamics keep the match interesting and everyone keeps making strides. Shidou and Rin's rivalry dynamic is chef's kiss. i literally cannot wait to see this match animated
I think this was my favorite volume so far. The last chapter was real nice because Isagi finally got to show actual potential. I used to find it annoying how analytical he was because it felt like it was getting in the way, but he has finally made progress towards becoming even better.
i fear they’ll never stop saying weird shit to each other during matches. “look at me karasu… don’t you want these legs?!” chigiri my guy what are you even saying.
In a critical moment for both child welfare services and the national debt, Blue Lock is in danger of being shut down if its testosterone-fueled sociopaths can’t beat the U-20 Japanese team. Of course, they have to make a team first. Oh, could that involve even more matches, mayhap?
Proving its point almost too well, when we see the team breakdowns for this latest micro-tournament and Isagi is paired with two new characters who seem genuinely nice, it’s a such big change from the parade of jerks that the story even comments on it.
But if this series has taught us anything, it’s that self-serving assholes are what will save the day. Therefore these poor stars-in-the-making get the shaft in favour of introducing a villain and having everybody be general butts to one another.
You can’t fault the story for sticking to its guns, anyway, as it’s never faltered from championing its viewpoint and eschewing anything that isn’t full-tilt football action. There’s nothing nuanced here and the way we used to get backstory for the players being eliminated? No time for that now!
So we see Isagi struggle on the pitch, although I do laud the story for actually pointing out a problem inherent in his think-y ability that I had been noticing for several volumes and wondering whether anybody would address it. They actually do! And it makes him worse!
Or better, as the story would have it, as Isagi desperately tries to fight off an obnoxious player on the opposing team and learns to explode with the raw hatred of all humanity that you need to succeed as a sporting figure. Still, it’s remarkably clever that they took a criticism and revealed that it was valid and expanded upon it.
The art remains excellent and the action solid. They’re basically down to at least one player being a ninja, so that’s a thing. I just don’t have the mindset for this ‘there can be only one’ Highlander-style destruction that seeks to prove only one can be the best, while ignoring all the destroyed dreams and broken young adults left in its wake, but you can’t say it isn’t easily digestible content.
3 stars - it’s as pure a bread and circuses manga as I’ve ever seen, where the appeal is the spectacle and the spectacle is the appeal. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy it even as I goof on it, but I’d equally be lying if I said that my primary draw to it at this point wasn’t morbid curiosity.
I love how Isagi's character is written. He doesn't have any particularly remarkable physical abilities, one of his constantly highlighted shortcomings, but he also doesn't have any insane training arcs that allow him to suddenly acquire these attributes with no justification. It makes him seem much more realistic, and it's also fun to see how he overcomes these bodily disadvantages in pursuit of his goal. A very Isagi-centered volume, and I don't mind it at all.
i really have been enjoying getting to know some of the players we have yet to be introduced to. it makes it feel less daunting if that makes sense?? at first i thought there was gonna be so many characters at this point that i wouldn’t keep up. but i am! and at the same time as being so clear that isagi is the main character?? the authors have done an amazing job at that
Some of the things that come out of the mouths of these characters, like the names that the call each other or the insults that they like to hurl is just so unhinged an hilarious to me. Makes me go yep this is a shonen. 🤣🤣