Blue Lock

I really enjoy this series so I decided to lose my review virginity
Overall score: 9.5
There are many times sports animes that are way too crazy and take time to get invested in, but this manga is really quick to pick up and enjoy.
It starts with a simple plot and the skills characters have are very realistic. The problem in the entire anime is solid and it makes a lot of sense. It is not just focused on the MC and the art is very clean. Every time I see a page of a score I screenshot it because it's that clean. The character's designs also are very interesting and I like how I can differentiate every character although I forget their names.

The biggest impression left on me is the art style and the story since it inspired me to start drawing since it was so good. It's definitely on one of my favorite manga lists. It Is very enjoyable please give it a chance!

Blue Lock is an interesting manga, like other sports manga such as Haikyuu, Blue Lock will get your adrenaline pumping and will make you want to play football. Unlike Haikyuu and most other sports manga with team based games Blue Lock focusses on the individuality and growth of individuals not a team.

Story:(8/10)
The premise right off the back is very interesting and focusses on building the skills and the "Egos" of the players. The pace feels natural and after every chapter you are dying to read more. A complaint I see often is that it doesn't feel very realistic, and while I agree that this is a manga where you will see the characters doing ridiculous shit for highschoolers it still feels somewhat grounded and not totally unrealistic. The setting is also very nice as it does away with the very cliché and overused high school setting and instead puts all the students in a sort of deathmatch facility which gives the setting a new fresh spin to it and makes the experience seem more realistic and exciting. There are some plot holes and things I can't get out of my mind, but overall the story is very competent and an interesting read.

Characters: (7/10)
I have to gripes with the characters of this manga, some of the side characters don't get much depth or backstory such as the main character. All we really know about him is that he lost a game because he passed instead of taking the shot himself, no backstory, no family nothing. We don't know his motivations or his situation we just know he wants to be the best striker. And to some extent that's alright however I am still annoyed by the lack of backstory and motivation for some of the characters. The side characters also don't feel very developed and don't have a lot of motives. There is some development, but I think for true development and backstory there needs to be a lot more chapters so I shall reserve my judgement. The self improvement and the journey of each character is the one redeeming feature of the characters in Blue Lock and at least makes them interesting.

Art(10/10)
The art for this Manga is amazing. I love the way the mangaka makes the art very sharp and clean for most of the manga, however during the high intensity moments the arts gets a lot wilder with intense lines and a sort of jagged art style which makes the whole experience seem a lot more intense. The character designs are mostly unique and quite distinctive. Not much to say here really just google some of the art and you can see how good it is.

Enjoyment(10/10)
For all of its flaws I really like Blue Lock for the same reason I like Haikyuu. It gets my blood pumping and makes competitive spirit boil. This is one of those mangas that will make you want to play some football and I really love that feeling. Also while reading some chapters my heartrate sped up and I could feel my blood racing and adrenaline pumping. SO if you're looking for a sports manga which is very different from the others on the market, which will make your blood boil and heart race, with a compelling story and lots of potential and fantastic art then I would recommend you pick up blue lock.

Blue Lock Volume 1 Review: A Hero Who Cares Only About Themselves

Just to be clear I am reviewing Blue Lock by volumes since the whole series is not even close to being finished. That said let's get deep into it.

This manga was my first sports manga/anime viewing and it was with my least favorite sport, soccer.

I have never really gotten why soccer is the number one sport in the entire world but this manga made it all too clear as to why that is. This manga not only builds a fictional Japan that is focused on soccer and claiming the World Cup but also uses real life players and soccer knowledge to give this fictional world a sense or realism while also enticing and interesting the reader by its sheer subversion of shonen manga expectations. Famous shonens like One Piece, Naruto, My Hero Academia, and Black Clover all are popular and use the traditional shonen troupe, The "Power of Friendship" or the "Power of Bonds". But this manga wants to turn that troupe upside down, inside out by forcing the MC and the rest of the cast to be selfish in their desires to be the best. There is only one spot at the top and you gotta fight for it together and against each other. This bottom line alone really excited me throughout the first volume. Never have I read a manga that told the MC to be selfish or your dreams are nothing but dreams. That honestly relates to me a lot because I have high ambitions and I have to make sacrifices like these budding kings do and its beautiful to see it drawn in a manga landscape. The story is laid out very cohesively and consecutively so that the story and plot is explained, background is given, the MC is introduced and their primary fault is shown, and the whole reasoning behind this story and why it matters to our world. The supporting cast is an interesting group to say the least, they were not much dived into except for one but I look forward to all of their character development even if it means they won't be in the manga forever because they might get kicked. Another thing I liked a lot about this manga and maybe it is something all sports anime/manga do is developing the MC outside the battlefield. Not with backstory or social interaction but with curiosity. The MC questions himself, his actions, the actions of others and him doing this is probably in tune with a lot of readers who are confused on the concepts introduced in this manga so it is nice to see and feel some mutual growth between the main character and the reader.

There was something that the main teacher of this manga said; "It is nonsensical indeed. But then so is the world. Either you win or you lose.” That quote really hit me in the chest because of just how true it is. This world, our world is undeniably nonsensical and cruel but only those with the tenacity and courage to fight for their dreams and beliefs in it will succeed. That is the message of this manga and that is what you are in store for if you keep reading this manga past chapter four. I really enjoyed the first volume. This is my second time reading the manga because the first time I blew through all of it due to my explosion of interest. Hope this helps you decided to give it a chance. Whether you love soccer, manga, shonen, sports, or fighting for your dreams there is room for everybody to enjoy this piece of art.

When i try to find manga/anime sport every series must have friendship power, but in this series they doesn't have friendship power or something like that every character on this series just see other character in the field like object to create goals but in outside field they friendly give advice each other to developing they skill maybe for now they not have permanent team cause in this series the coach just find the best striker one person from 300 striker for japan respentative. i think this series is different from other sport series, why ? cause every character on this series they prety egoism. it's great to see this series every week ( sorry for bad english ).

Blue Lock is my first sports-based manga I've dived into blindly, knowing nothing advanced about Soccer and it did what a sports manga should do fairly well. It balances (atleast up to latest chapter I read) between actual sports and fantasy sports well, leaving enough room to explore actual skills and having room for fantasized skills

The story isn't exceptional but it does intrigue on first sight, a training camp that is made solely to produce an egoistical star after kicking every other participants. Following our MC, we continue the story in his perspective to better himself, passing trials and meeting new challengers. It is not too cliche but it isn't too exceptional neither. If I had to choose a gripe it'd be the lack of focus on other characters in match - 11vs11 match but most of the time they're only focused on the key characters on opposing side, not every player could stand out but it'd feel more appropriate had there been random characters popping in & out to guard/push/etc.

The art is the main attraction of the manga imo, characters close-ups are amazing and detailed, actions and movements flow well between panels and it is easy to follow along the actions in a game.

Character designs for the manga could vary, on one hand the series tried hard on expanding team Z characters (the MC's team) and also introducing new rivals from other teams. With the former, those that aren't given enough screen time are basically forgotten while with the latter aren't interesting beyond their "weapons". It doesn't help too when the only design-able part are their faces considering most of the characters' physique are jacked, making some characters indistinguishable on first glance.

It is a series worth checking out if you want to dip into sports shonen as I believe it does most that should be, well. The "fights" could be repetitive at times (MC clutches every dire moment) but the sky high hype moments are worth the read.

Story : 6/10
Art : 8/10
Character : 5/10
Enjoyment : 9/10 on peak moments
Overall : 7/10

You ever heard of the Japanese national team striker Mike Havenaar? The name will throw you off but he was born in Hiroshima and raised solely in Japan, by the way of a Dutch father. Japanese family names generally don't sound as windmill-y as his surname. You'd be forgiven in thinking he was some naturalised athlete who was pushed through for a passport by the Japanese Football Association. Many, many countries do such a thing, scouring for any promising player whose grandparent was born in some town in your country, and snapping them up for a full cap, therefore locking them into only being able to repesent them on a national level. Hell, Japan does this quite heavily in another team sport where they aren't world beaters, rugby. Their captain lived in New Zealand for his first 15 years and most of their forwards are Pacific Islanders. Even though you can't buy players, you can still look outside your borders to fill in gaps and improve your level of play.

Back to Mike, he has typical Dutch number 9 attributes; tall, good in the air and able to make his own space. But he was never that good. If you go look at his club history of Wikipedia, you could pick out another entry for some other Japanese could-have-been, mixed them around and I couldn't tell you what one is Mike's. It's the formula of "playing in the J League when you're 18, try yourself out in Europe, play in a top 5 league, drop down the pyramid, and go back to the J League". For the past 30 years, since professional football landed in Japan, many hopefuls try but almost all don't make it. If they do, they fit into the sterotypes of Japanese footballers; small, quick, technical. Wingers, attacking midfielders, ball-playing centre midfielders. The last success Japan had in the final third of the pitch would be Shinji Okazaki with Leicester City in 2016, but his countribution was purely as a second striker to play balls in the channels to more clinical players.

Blue Lock takes this observation of Japanese football and plays with it in a comic format, taking jabs at Japanese quirks and offers a solution in still quite a Japanese fashion, to force a solution. The story revolves around Yoichi Isagi, a normal high school footballer who has normal high school aspirations to go to nationals, bread and butter stuff for a sports manga. He and 300 other high school forwards get invited to a national training camp run by the Japanese footballing body. They all arrive and a cultish puppet master of a sporting director called Jinpachi Ego wants to mould the world's best striker, everyone chases after him towards that dream. What follows is a story of teenage boys being kept in an interment camp where they train and compete with each other to rise out on top, all the while breaking the shackles of "goody-goody" notions of a team sport, but to create a player who is the physical repesentation of the word ego.

We then see the whole spectrum of interpersonal relationships in a ball game. Rivals, allies, betrayal, backstabbing. Even characters with "a lot of resolve". But football is in fact a game played with multiple players on two teams, so the story does have to betray the idea of forming the singular player in order to show us football. Teams are formed, but they are also disbanded. And because this makes up the bulk of football-based chapters, it has to fall into the trap of having characters being inspired by watching other characters playing. But overall it does it best to tie it together as we are marching towards who will be number one, and that leads us to our protag.

Isagi is the safe kind of main character as his growth is around always finding another peak after climbing the mountain. We are first introduced to him as an almost story about his high school team missing out on nationals because he passed to his teammate, and questioning himself about his ability and whether he made the right decision. As we go through the story, he works towards becomming the best piece by piece (and the manga makes sure you know it's piece by piece, as it's always symbolised by a flurry of jigsaw pieces). He comes up against players who start out better, but he catches up and wins over their adoration, making friends or at least mutual respect of his opponents.

Now I understand that sounds like I'm describing most plots for a lot of sports manga, but it works well and it paces its story very well. It allows the story to display meaningful growth and progress without the need for exhaustive tournaments. This is all training arc and it never stops with it. At the end of these matches or events, the story always reminds you that even though there are teams and positions, this is still Isagi's story, and his victory alone. Football manga struggles with this premise and resolution because it wants to repesent football in the way it is in reality, where every goal is built from your team. Baseball manga does not have this problem, the author can either pick the template of relief pitcher or bases-loaded batter, and you have your hero whose thing caused them to win. The premise of Blue Lock allows the story to exist as a baseball manga, but they just kick the ball instead.

But the characters, supporting and main, really don't have much going for them as well-rounded personalities. Isagi's "I play football, I get better" philosophy could of been forgiven if he had a cast of interesting traits and motivations around him, but sadly he does not. Other characters fall into either the "hot-blooded, bleached haired rough boys", "quiet and princely narcissists" and "kooky and aloof weirdos" archetype. And it's difficult to resolve with typical manga means, as you can't go too slice of life as they are not in high school, and girls are banned. You can't go too dramatic as boys don't cry. Artstyles in such genres like these don't really change, as they need to be able to show fluidity in a static medium, so there's a lot of heavy outlines and diagonal artwork to suggest motion. The characters designs are on par for what you would expect for a manga being published in 2021, no one will have any harsh objections to it.

So Blue Lock, it's pretty good. It takes an observation on football and explores it without losing respect for the sport, and it does something pretty much every other football manga has failed to do: make a comic read like a highlight reel, rather than bore like watching a nil-nil draw for 90 minutes.

"After all, a first-rate striker is one who appears in football's most critical moment."

Let me start by saying that this is my first review ever.

Story: 9/10

This story is not the typical sports manga following a highschool team that wants to go and win nationals, it goes beyond that. Instead of emphasizing on the usual qualities, such as teamwork and supporting teammates, it focuses on the “egoism” a player needs to develop in order to become the best. This different approach might seem silly at first since it’s a story about football/soccer -not sure what you call it- but it definitely makes sense later because of the “survival game” element of the series.

The pace is actually pretty good so far up to ch. 46, everything is explained to the amount needed and the feeling of wanting to read more is certainly there.

Art: 10/10

I have one thing to say: my eyes have been blessed.
Some panels & pages are exceptional, making the story even more entertaining.
The art gets even better, comparing the 1st chapter to the 46th one.
Even the little details are drawn very nicely, the balls, the shoes, the characters’ hair, the field, etc.

Character: 9/10

The number of characters appearing in Blue Lock is pretty normal and it’s really enjoyable how each one of them gets his own part in the story, teammates and rivals included.
Some of the players’ skills are actually out of this world for highschoolers but overall, very exciting to see.
It’s also nice that we get to see how some of them are off-game and their development through the story.

Enjoyment: 10/10

Blue Lock is a thrilling series, it definitely leaves you in agony and wanting more by each chapter you read.
You may even find yourself feeling a rush of adrenaline while reading it, especially with some chapters and panels. It's definitely a series worth your time, especially if you're a fan of sports.

I usually don't read Sports Mangas because it doesn't get me as hyped unlike Animes. But boy, does this manga gets me soooo hyped up. I have zero knowledge of football/soccer and yet it's very easy of understand and not at all confusing. The storyline is interesting, though less humorous unlike other sport animes (Haikyuu!!, for example) but still very well-written. None of the characters are boring at all. I find myself loving all these characters. The art is amazing as well, I never get tired of looking at it. I honestly don't want to recklessly give a 10 but I can't think of any score lower for this one.

If this ever becomes an anime (I really hope so!) it would definitely become a big hit, no doubt.

Really worth the read, give it a try if you haven't done so!

This instantly managed to become a favourite of mine, probably the best sports series I've read or watched. In short, this is an edgier spin on sports manga.

In the start I was a bit skeptical, I found the setup a bit cheesy and edgy for the sake of being edgy at first, but oh boy did my opinion change up real quick.

One of the strengths of Blue Lock is definitely its characters. This story manages to take somewhat generic anime/manga tropes and make them new its own in a way. While series like haikyuu tend to focus on character relationships, especially duos, I found that Blue Lock focuses more on building the players individually, and only then forms relationships, while seemingly not being scared to tear them up.

Usually, with sports series I tend to get attached to the characters, and tend to not get that invested in the matches. But here the matches are amazing too. Even if you can already predict who is going to win and lose, they still manage to get you extremely hyped. While reading some of them I was so pumped that I started literally shaking from excitement.

The art also plays a huge role in the enjoyment factor. It's absolutely stunning. The way the player auras are drawn, the eyes THE EYES??!!? so beautiful, the expressions give me chills. Also the artist manages to draw the matches in a way where I, as a person who doesn't know anything about football, sports even, manages to clearly understand everything that is going on. Big props to the artist, great execution.

In terms of pacing, I'm more of a fan of manga with fast pacing (like fujimotos works for example), so i really appreciated that this manga didn't dwell on one arc for too long and cut the unnecessary matches out. Some might find this as a flaw, but I personally really loved that.

Debated a lot if this deserves a 10 or 9, but even tho it might have some minor flaws, I enjoyed this immeasurably. If you haven't read this yet, def give this a try, you won't regret it.

Lots of 'first time reviewers' for Blue Lock, huh. I have some thoughts.

I understand why one would enjoy Blue Lock. The art and characters are real pretty, and it's hype in the way of popular sports series like Haikyuu and Kuroko, in the way that definitely eventually guarantees an anime season or two.

I just can't help but feel that the series misses the point of football? Blue Lock is about owning up to your own selfishness and ego as a player in order to prove your superior football skillz.It's interesting but, the problem is that soccer is.. truly a team sport. It doesn't matter if you have the best [forward, attack, whatever the position is], as they won't be able to operate without an equally competent team. WHICH BECOMES EXCESSIVELY CLEAR like twenty chapters in once all the [that same position] players except the protagonist just... default to regular football positions...Why are they even still in this training camp? Even worse, instead of regular football matches (which are great for supporting character conflicts, narrative development, etc, normal sports anime stuff) we end up getting all these fucking wacky and convoluted football-adjacent games and excercices, which aren't satisfying, because they're not football!

Honestly, while ripping off the Kuroko art style (yes, mixed with Bleach, yes yes), they should've also ripped off the rest of the fucking story format. Make sure each team has one of each position, but is just ultra-powerful in that one position. Like this, we can still get over-powered protagonist AND the satisfying functionality of football as the team sport it actually is!

Also again, the art is pretty, but the character designs arent anything special. Most of the characters look like Bleach or Kuroko background characters, unless they're irreparably evil, in which case they look like the weird teeth gangly guy from Yowamushi Pedal. Finally, and this might be just me reading into this a bit too much, but is the lack of women to act as supportive side characters in this manga sort of solved by having two very feminized / homoeroticized players close to the protagonist (I'm thinking of the guy who only ever dribbles and passes and the princess guy)? Much to think about.

Honestly, out of all the sports anime I have read or watched, this was by far the most interesting. It doesn't focus on "friendship" but rather the "selfishness" and "egoism" of each character. I think stories like these are more realistic because it brings out the true human nature in people. What I mean by this is that the selfishness and egoism of humans are displayed. The characters rely on their egoism throughout the manga to achieve their goal. The main character is very interesting and so are the people around him. I highly recommend this manga because each chapter is amazing! Props to the author for keeping the readers entertained each chapter. I scored the manga high because it really deserves it.

This Is my first Review so please keep that In Mind.

So, finally we get another GOOD sports series.

Are you tired of super powers?
Are you tired of uninteresting opponents?

Blue Lock fixes It all, It has an Interesting concept and completely fixes
the problems Kuroko and Haikyuu suffers from.

Blue Lock doesn't have unrealistic superpowers, they have qualities that make themselves special.

Opponents are Interesting because everyone shares the same fate, you decide what to think of the characters yourself by looking how they respond to the pressure and stress they are under.

This manga tries to combine the Sports and Psychological genres, and It works wonderfully.

This Isn't the sports manga where you relax and watch the story unfold, you need to think.

I can fully understand how people can like Blue Lock and if you enjoy it, then good for you, but in my case I will say this: I was really disappointed. This manga had so much potential with his unique trope of the selfishness in soccer. It could have fully exploited this idea by making a story way more dark and realist, but instead, it went to the basic shounen story. I had couldn't get past chapter 24 cuz at this point I felt like the story shifted from dark and compelling to basic "friendship power" style. Imo, this manga is like the perfect "edgy teen": seems gloomy and complex but is really just cringe. The art is great, the premise is great and the story might become great later on, but I just can bring myself to continue Blue Lock. But again, its a matter of taste so that just my opinion.

P.S. : pls, don't even compare this to ao ashito, their style and story are too different and I just can't stop cringing at the people who says that blue lock story is better than ao ashito.

This is the first review I am writing for a manga that made me literally sweat the overall premise is ambitious and amazing I love how the author can make the characters in the series interact with each other that they evolve just from a simple conversation the art is amazing and is perfect for expressing the character desires, in short, the whole manga is worth a read I recommend it to anyone who likes psychological sport premise.
For extra info, if you like how the characters grows to change develop succeed and fail it is a perfect match for you the only thing that may throw you off is that the character teams are disposable your favorite character might never appear again if they simply don't match with the other characters.

The anime-manga pool has a surprising lack of soccer related series. Being a soccer fan, I am so relieved. Out of the 4 soccer series I experienced, this is the second best. I'm someone who prefers a realistic, tangible approach when it comes to sports. For example, if we compare Slam Dunk with Kuroko's Basketball, we can see how SD is realistic and how exaggerated KB is. And yet, a normal audience will definitely like KB more, largely because of the over-the-top thrill and visual appeal it can offer. It is far too cool. And just like that, Blue Lock vs Ao Ashi is like the KB vs SD of soccer series!!!
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The concept of high school students having pro-level skills is stupid right at the face of it. But, it makes the series fun to read. I mean come on, it just means we get to see pro play integrated into a high school backdrop.
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I'll break this down:

Story (7/10) :
The main concept looks highly ridiculous at the beginning and yet, I can't help but be curious to see the progress. One thing I'm very glad to see is that it didn't take the cliche high school club setting. That is far too overused in the sports genre. As you can see from the MAL description, its all about bringing up a striker for the Japanese National Team. And so, the selection begins.
Pros -
> elimination system always keeps us on our toes. we constantly get to see a ranking system, incredible competition, a very shonen feel
> creativity of curriculum. due to the unconventional setting, the methods of elimination and their correlation to the actual sports is always so interesting
Cons -
> stupid, unbelievable skill levels and superhuman tropes. the teams are ranked from b to z, by skill. the V team shows pro player level skill. So one can just speculate what the B team might look like; they probably have ronaldo and messi in them
> lack of guidance. the students are there to be polished into better players. but so far, they have recieved little to no coaching. they are on their own. the story is so focused on progressing its main areas, it forgot some very essential side matters
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Art (10/10)
It is ridiculously good. Its close to the artwork shown by Yusuke Murata in OPM. Mind you, I said CLOSE, its not there yet, just in the ballpark.
The art is sharp, vivid and highly engaging. It is largely owing to this stellar art that I enjoyed it so much. The flow is smooth as hell, the character designs are very innovative and it does a tremendous job in showcasing impact.
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Character (6/10)
Due to its plot driven nature, the characters have suffered. While the main character and his constant self discovery is quite interesting, the side characters are quite one dimensional. Most of them are being defined by their supposed "skill". The first 2 volumes had little to no development. The 3rd volume started to shed some more light on the characters. Some of them got well developed. 1 of them even got a backstory, which was mediocre, cliche but still, a start.
This is definitely the weak link and needs a lot of work.
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This series is highly enjoyable. It doesn't matter if its realistic or not, doesn't matter if characters are weak. It delivers immense thrill and its this adrenaline pumping nature which gives it such a wonderful score. Technicalities may be weak but the heart, is strong. Every chapter has you pining for the next. And this is precisely why, despite preferring realistic series, I gave this one such a high score.

(This my first review) Blue lock is one of my favourites right now. Honestly thought it was gonna be follow the same story line in sports anime which is starting as a average or below average player but with some hidden talent and then they have to work with their teammates and win their matches with team play and form strong friendships but in Blue Lock they simply don’t care about about team play they simply want to win. Egoism is not something you normally see because it is usually portrayed in a negative way so to be able to show that it can help players get to higher levels and develop new skills. Overall it got me very hyped as Isagi continues to develop new strategies.

This Is my first Review so please keep that In Mind.

So, finally we get another GOOD sports series.

Are you tired of super powers?
Are you tired of uninteresting opponents?

Blue Lock fixes It all, It has an Interesting concept and completely fixes
the problems Kuroko and Haikyuu suffers from.

Blue Lock doesn't have unrealistic superpowers, they have qualities that make themselves special.

Opponents are Interesting because everyone shares the same fate, you decide what to think of the characters yourself by looking how they respond to the pressure and stress they are under.

This manga tries to combine the Sports and Psychological genres, and It works wonderfully.

This Isn't the sports manga where you relax and watch the story unfold, you need to think.

So far I've only read up until volume 3, the first 2 volumes did lack characters development but volume 3 did a good job.

I'd say that every sports fan should give this manga a try.

\SHORT BUT MEANINGFUL REVIEW\

I didn't know anything about soccer, besides Ronaldo and Messi.
I don't even know the complete rules of the game, nor some basic ones like offside.
This manga made me want to watch TOP 10 GOALS on Youtube, and furthermore learn about the game.

This isn't your "oh I need to believe in my teammates" type of crap. It is full on how egoistical and selfish you can be, and the art style really compliments it.

300 Strikers are put together in a Masterchef type of competition, where there are different types of stages, and players gets eliminated along the way. The art style really made the intense moments what they are, while sending multiple shivers down my skin. Plus don't even get me started on the characters, they are all basically badasses and OP.

Conclusion: No complaints, needs a good anime adaptation, Hella underrated, Do read it, you will be craving for more. Pure action on action and more action.

I feel like Blue Lock hooked a lot of its readers in with the long first chapter and its outlandish ideas of what football should be. It's a different take on sports manga (at least from the ones I know of) and almost like a breath of fresh air.

Though, I'd really have to say the art is where this manga shines. The style is visually appealing when it wants to be, and jarring when called for. Lots of metaphors and visualizations that are exaggerated, but in the best way possible (if that makes sense?)

It falls a little short on characterization in my opinion, a good majority of the characters don't have much development, if any at all, but for the ones that do, I think they're done relatively well.

But the dialogue can be... a little much? I don't really care about it, but can understand why it would make someone turn away from this, so just take that part with a grain of salt.

Personally, I adore this manga, it's not too hard to keep up with and it has me rooting for every character that gets introduced. It's just, overall, a good time.

Y'all, this **** SLAPS. I'm reading a lot of ongoings at the moment, and out of all of them, Blue Lock is by far the most hype. It's also the only one where I tend to let a few chapters build up so I can read them all at once instead of every couple weeks.

I don't read many sports manga but I used to love sports anime, and this manga gets me even more pumped than Haikyuu. The plot is a little, well, interesting. It's not your typical sports manga since the plot is the antithesis to your generic shounen. I've always loved Kaneshiro Muneyuki's works, and Blue Lock has the same underlying dark theme as everything else he writes. Rather than teamwork, Blue Lock is all about "ego", or a bunch of players becoming the greatest by being as selfish as they can. While I've seen darker themes like this in other shounens (eg. Chainsaw Man), this is the first time I've seen a concept like this in a sports context.

I will admit the premise is a little strange. A bunch of high school soccer players (all of which are strikers) get called out to some weird training camp where they have to fight one another in order to produce one super-genius striker. It's truly a death game plot (a genre where Kaneshiro excels), the only difference being that Kaneshiro doesn't kill of characters as randomly and readily as he does in other series. Normally, I'd find that a little disappointing and boring, but at the heart of it, Blue Lock isn't a true death game, it's a sports manga, and not killing off characters gives off plenty of room for all of their development. Which brings me to my next topic, the characters.

Blue Lock's cast is excellent. My only critique is that as the cast expands, new additions have become a little bit trope-y or repetitive and hard to keep track of. At the current stage in the storyline, there's a good percent of the cast that has been relatively unexplored. However, I really loved the original main cast. The characters are excellent, interesting, and play off each other with surprising creativity when we consider that none of them are ever truly trying to work together so much as feed their own egos. My personal favorite is Bachira, whose dynamic with Isagi is almost reminiscent of Ushimitsu and Akashi from Kamisama no Iutoori Ni. He's a weirdo and an excellent player and his development was incredibly entertaining for me to watch. While I would say that nobody is truly extraordinarily original in the series (again, they can be trope-y), the natures of their development and growth make them far more interesting than they appear on paper.

On top of the well-rounded cast and off-beat plot is the artwork. Wow. Blue Lock's artwork isn't too out of the ordinary for a shounen, but it's truly a treat for the eyes. I feel like oftentimes in shounen I can get a little bit disoriented or distracted during fight scenes, but I don't really feel like that with Blue Lock at all. The panels are surprisingly easy to follow (even for someone who doesn't really get soccer like me), and they scream cool. The full-page spreads and close-ups really get my blood pumping, and it really amps up my enjoyment factor. My excitement really goes through the roof while reading this manga.

Overall, if you're looking for a twist on the generic shounen sports plot, Blue Lock is a great work to check out. It may not be the most accurate in terms of the sport (though to be honest, I wouldn't know), but it's really entertaining and features an extremely dynamic cast. It's the type of manga where it's incredibly easy to get swept up into the pacing and waiting impatiently for the next chapter.