The Blue Lock anime is so much more than soccer Squid Game

Sports anime has one of its best qualities: it doesn’t require any interest in real sports. Particularly true for Blue Lock,A cartoon that takes soccer and puts it in a completely new light. Kuroko’s Basketball Keep your feet on the ground. 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?”

The Japanese football union employs Jinpachi Ego, a completely unhinged man who will do anything necessary to ensure that the Japanese team wins the World Cup. 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 GameBlue Lock, a program of training that is similar to the Olympics. This brutal competition pits 300 participants against each other in team and solo 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. This could as easily be death for these strikers and they take Blue Lock very seriously.

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This show is great at fleshing out its characters. It rotates through spotlight segments that highlight their past experiences, and their influence on their performance through the competition. But at the heart of the story is Yoichi Isagi, one of the lowest-ranked players, who’s haunted by the decision to pass instead of shoot in his last game before joining the program. Isagi is determined to become the greatest striker in the game once he has left Blue Lock.

Though the Blue Lock program’s foundation is fostering selfishness, soccer is a team sport, so competitors are forced to find ways to work together while still putting their personal desires above all else. They are constantly in conflict, so friction between Isagis and other players only gets worse. Bachira, an excellent dribbler, is what Isagi needs to be able to hit his stride in Blue Lock. Bachira is nothing like Isagi — confident where Isagi is insecure, kooky where Isagi is serious, and relaxed where Isagi is endlessly on edge. Bachira recognizes the potential in Isagi and works to bring out that power.

All are welcome Blue Lock has a “weapon” they must hone if they want to reach the top. Once each player discovers their weapon — be it dribbling, speed, or in Isagi’s case, spatial awareness — they must figure out their perfect formula for scoring goals and how to create a “chemical reaction” with their teammates to utilize their weapons to the fullest. The show regularly pauses the action to explore this intricate problem-solving, often showing puzzle pieces falling into place to create a portrait of Isagi’s calculating mind. You know a player’s found a winning formula when they awaken the monster within, a leveling up that’s illustrated by the character’s pupils spiralizing and power visibly emanating from their body — sometimes even taking the shape of a looming beast.

Image: Eight Bit/Crunchyroll

This visualization of a character’s inner world isn’t just a vehicle for dynamic animation, but proves key to Blue Lock’s story. To win in Blue Lock, you don’t just defeat your opponents, you “devour” them — using their weapons to your benefit, or even stealing them for yourself. It’s not easy to become faster, stronger or more precise. The only way a player will reach the next level is to gain a greater understanding of theirself.

Isagi is plagued by insecurities throughout the season and fears of not putting his needs first. But he understands that unless he can identify what’s holding him back — physically, mentally, and emotionally — he’ll never survive Blue Lock. Through Isagi’s journey of self(ish)-actualization, he begins to thrive — unlocking a ruthlessness he’d previously repressed, but also reshaping his identity to fit within Ego’s mold.

There’s a compelling tension in Blue Lock There is a difference between believing that success requires one to surrender to their ego and enjoying it. You can find classic anime sports like Kuroko’s Basketball, the young hero isn’t the most talented player, but he defeats the celebrated Generation of Miracles thanks to his prioritization of teamwork and love of the game. Even the egotistic Generation of Miracles realizes that Kuroko is right: To be the best, you must love basketball and have the support of your teammates.

Image: Eight Bit/Crunchyroll

So, Blue Lock The premise of the anime subverts the expectations for sports anime. It is based on the idea that one should realize their potential, even if it means sacrificing others. It’s a concept Isagi and others struggle to come to grips with, as it becomes increasingly difficult for the self-serving drive to expand one’s personal limits to exist alongside valuation of friendships or teamwork. Even as Isagi, Bachira, and the others work hard in the hopes of reaching the end together, they understand the inevitable: At one point or another, they’ll not only have to kill one another’s dreams, but reduce their friends into fuel to propel their own rise. The question of who each player will have become by the end of this journey — and the cost of this transformation — is where the show’s real stakes lie.

These moral quandaries and the characters’ bittersweet metamorphoses are what drives an emotional investment in this world. The show is not only about rules. Each aspect Blue LockTurned up to 11. Animation is hard, but the animation of children goes harder. It’s not about young soccer players trying to make a living. It’s about 300 high school students trying to destroy one another’s dreams while trapped in a pentagonal facility as part of an immoral experiment sponsored by the Japanese government! Sure, they will play traditional soccer matches. However, they must also defeat Blue Lock Man, a hologram goalie who can use advanced microchip technology to redirect balls. They will have to win a game of tag in which your friend could kick a football at your face, in order for you not achieve your ultimate ambition.

There’s a reason Michael B. Jordan called Blue Lock “dope as fuck.” And with the entire first season now streaming on Crunchyroll, there’s never been a better time to discover that truth for yourself.