Blue Lock / YMMV - TV Tropes

YMMV page for the Blue Lock manga series.

Beware: both anime and manga spoilers may be untagged.

Accidental Innuendo: The use of the term "devour" when Isagi talks about egoists cannibalizing each other on the field comes across very differently out of context. It may even take a while to get used to in context.
Adorkable: Isagi has his moments of cuteness, mostly off the field. Such as blushing when Kira Ryosuke complimented him and getting excited over a steak after weeks of eating natto.
- Nagi could also qualify due to his lack of social skills, occasional pouting, and his overall demeanor being more that of a grade schooler than a high schooler.
Americans Hate Tingle: Kenyu Yukimiya seems to be this at least for a vocal portion of the English speaking fanbase. He posits himself as a rival to Isagi but antagonizes him in a way that is often more annoying than interesting. It doesn't help that he's a solid but somewhat unremarkable player compared to rival characters like Barou or Kaiser making his ego come off as borderline delusion. While his backstory is sad, namely the revelation that he's slowly losing his vision and will soon be unable to play football at all, many feel that it hardly makes up for his constant refusal to take responsibility for his own shortcomings, instead preferring to lash out at Isagi whenever he surpasses him on the field. Despite all this, many others express sympathy towards his situation and look forward to his development as a player. He also does decently in the popularity polls and has only been treated to more spotlight as the chapters go on.
Awesome Art: The series features a Cast of Snowflakes with even background characters getting distinctive designs. And the panels, especially the ones depicting shots, are often drawn in stunning detail with a unique composition and angle for each one.
Awesome Ego: The sheer premise and philosophy of the series is pretty much intended to embody this trope. Arguably any character could qualify, but a select few stand out.
- Shoei Barou is a Jerk Jock who declares himself king of the football field and expects his teammates to merely pass the ball to him as if they're his servants. He's also one of the more powerful and skilled players who develops an unpredictable playstyle unique to his brand of selfishness.
- Itoshi Rin disregards every other Blue Lock player almost in spite of their actual skill at times, and only relies on them as a necessary roadbump in his quest to surpass his older brother. Even Isagi struggles to legitimately criticize him. Instead, he more often expresses begrudging admiration for Rin's scoring capacity and ability to manipulate all players to his ends on the field.
Badass Decay: Kunigami for some. He started as one of the strongest players in Team Z and accumulated the most goals, if you don't count the ones Team W allowed Kuon to score and performed well in the Second Selection being able to get the upperhand on Barou of all people. It all went downhill once he and Reo went up against Shidou and Igarashi and ultimately lost resulting in him being eliminated from Blue Lock. Although he opted for the Wild Card experiment instead, some attest that this made him a worse player. Despite his improved physique and newfound ambidexterity, his change in personality prevents him from working with others or positioning himself to score much of the time and he seemingly disappears from games after getting one goal.
Base-Breaking Character:
- Igarashi is either beloved for his dorkiness, comedic relief moments, and desperate but effective playstyle, or hated for his lack of Character Development, annoying personality, and surviving by always being the weakest link of the strongest team. The divide increased tenfold when it's revealed that he survived the second selection over Kunigami and that his new technique relies on discreetly bumping into more skilled players to either card them out or get penalty kicks for his team.
- Kunigami became this after his return from the Wild Card training where he went through a change that made him a lot edgier, to the point of even renouncing his "childish" motivation to be a superhero on the field. It's either an interesting Character Development that makes sense story-wise due to his original personality being the main reason he was eliminated in the Second Selection, or a huge misstep that made him a boring character since he lost the entire Nice Guy Superhero gimmick that made him a fan favorite in the first place.
- Reo is well-liked due to his solid backstory, character development, and his interactions with other players. However, some think his Crazy Jealous Guy tendency towards Nagi makes him borderline possessive, and the anime portrays him in a more antagonistic light, making him this. It doesn't help that his relationship with Nagi makes up a majority of his screentime. Criticisms have seemingly died down since Reo developed his Chameleon Style explicitly so he could score goals without Nagi and has now been allowed to ruminate on the type of striker he wants to be.
- Tokimitsu's constant negativity and nervousness goes both ways. It either makes for a unique ego that helps Tokimitsu stand out amongst the cast, or people find him to be extremely annoying.
Catharsis Factor: With egos being such a prime element, seeing a few of them get bruised is inevitable.
- After contributing almost nothing to games, revealing he had an ACL tear and may never play again if it tears once more, and having to face his middle school bullies of all people in the Team W match, seeing Chigiri finally reignite his ego and use his speed to tie up the game at the last second thus defeating the Wanima brothers and saving everyone from elimination is immensely gratifying.
- Pretty much everything that happens to Kuon after he betrays Team Z in the above mentioned match could fall under this. After the game ends with a tie, he gets beaten up by Team W. Then right after that, he goes to Team V with the same offer to give them information on his team if they let him score enough goals to advance by himself and gets shot down in spectacular fashion. Made all the better by Zantetsu, Reo, and Nagi practically taking turns insulting him each more brutal than the last. After the Team V match, Raichi makes good on his earlier threats and punches him hard enough to make him fall flat. And Kuon's Humiliation Conga gets wrapped up with him ultimately being eliminated from Blue Lock despite his efforts since his reputation as a traitor spread like wildfire throughout the facility, meaning that nobody picked him from losing teams.
- Anyone who was getting sick of Barou's arrogance and nonexistent sense of teamwork in the Second Selection was undoubtedly pleased when Isagi started using him as bait to set up goals for himself and Nagi. Him turning the insult "donkey" around on him to boot was just whipped cream on the Humble Pie.
- Isagi's "dethroning" of Michael Kaiser during the Neo Egoist League arc. Having spent the duration of the story harrassing Isagi, trying to prevent anyone else from scoring goals to perserve his status, and overall abusing his position as the ace striker to get away with bullying most of his teammates, Isagi slowly but surely gaining control of the field in their games together and working with Hiori in the Ubers match to score the winning goal is an amazing sight, and seeing him freak out over this is nothing short of what he deserves. The fact that he pretty much brought this on himself by joining for the main purpose of "putting Isagi in his place" and then sought to be challenged by him is even better.
Common Knowledge: Many decry the series for giving the impression that teamwork is useless in soccer and that all that matters is having a singularly strong striker (not helped by Ego arguing his point by quoting a famous striker as preferring to score all the goals in a lost match over scoring none in a match where his team wins). The series is more in favor of a pragmatic, less friendship oriented teamwork, than full solo-play of the soccer version of an Inter-Service Rivalry, as the first real game in the series sees the main character's team getting utterly destroyed due to an inability to coordinate as a team and Shidou and Rin never being put on the same field due to their constant arguing. Ego believes in teamwork, favoring a highly offensive play style where the striker's ego and talent forces the other ten players to build their game around them. It is repeatedly emphasized that trying to play the game as an individual is a terrible idea and that ego can in fact go too far.
- Hell, the second selection is all about teamwork. With less of a team and an AI goaltender, the players are encouraged to go on the offense, but Ego emphasizes creating chemical reactions, utilizing a connection between teammates to better set up goals. And this is where the balance between teamwork and ego really apply as what chemical reactions really emphasize is utilizing player skills to understand who needs the ball at any given time, but more importantly, whose skill set is best utilized in a specific situation. Isagi and Nagi show the upsides to building a chemical reaction as the two of them feed goals to one another. Meanwhile Barou refuses to build a chemical reaction with either of his teammates and his selfish style ends up causing more problems for his team. In essence, Ego wants the team to rally behind their striker, but that doesn't mean he should be the only one.
Creator's Pet: Igarashi has been accused of being this^*with many contending that it's the only explanation for how long he's lasted in Blue Lock. While he's shown an increase in skills, it feels like peanuts compared to how much the rest of Team Z has improved. And his "technique" Malacia, in which he essentially flops and gets penalty kicks for his more talented teammates can be seen as simple Loophole Abuse rather than an ability. Another sticking point is that while he doesn't get a lot of screen/page time per se, the sheer bloat of the cast means that it's noticeably more attention than many interesting players who still haven't had a Day in the Limelight get. Kunigami being one of the biggest examples since what happened during the Wild Card training is still a mystery and his lack of a presence during the Bastard Munchen vs Ubers match struck many as odd. Igarashi even got more dialogue than him despite being on the benches the whole time.
Diagnosed by the Audience:
- Bachira is commonly thought to have untreated schizophrenia with the most obvious indicator being his "monster" that appears to him and encourages the type of football he wants to play. Lesser known symptoms outside of hallucinations also include; expressing bizarre ideals (his insistence on being "one with the ball"), social withdrawal and apathy (expressed both of these in flashbacks when coaches and players tried to railroad him into playing the game normally), and compulsive behavior through inappropriate or strange actions. (trying to kick people in the First Selection and his habit of walking around naked)
- Kaiser's morning routine of talking to himself at the mirror and repeatedly saying to himself "nothing is impossible" is thought to be Autosuggestion, or even some form of self-gaslighting. His habit of touching his tattoo to the point of choking himself when in distress also suggests some kind of defense mechanism. He also can't stand white-colored drinks, which can be interpreted as lactose intolerence, or some form of Trauma Button.
- Shidou is speculated to have bipolar disorder or ADHD, due to his constant mood swings, only focus on one single thing that interest him to extreme levels and lack of attention to anything else, and his occasional violent outbursts.
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Raichi Jingo, despite not being in the spotlight in a lot of matches and chapters as of late. A lot of fans started to appreciate him once he proved to be capable of pulling his own weight as a defensive player in the final First Selection match against Team V, and is the one who provides a lot of catharsis for fans as the guy who holds Kuon accountable for his traitorous actions towards Team Z. He is very popular for his design and even placed third in the 2020 popularity poll, following behind Kunigami and Rin.
- Ryousuke Kira is popular among fans despite his early departure. Mostly owing to his attractive design and having a personality similar to a typical Sports Shounen manga protagonist. A significant number of people are theorizing/hoping he'll make a return in some way. Possibly as a surprise final boss-esque rival for Isagi driven by revenge.
- It's honestly hard to find anyone who dislikes Yo Hiori. Be it for his cute design, amiable personality, or immaculate passing skills, he's been declared underrated to the point that it's pretty much come all the way around to making him one of the more well-known characters introduced in the later chapters of Blue Lock.
- Ranze Kurona similarly gets a lot of love from the fandom despite his somewhat limited appearances. His eagerness to cooperate with Isagi and mellow personality makes him stand out from the rest of the Bastard Munchen players who are either out to score goals themselves or exclusively pass the ball to Kaiser.
Estrogen Brigade: Blue Lock has many female fans due to the series having a Cast Full of Pretty Boys and the Fanservice in parts of the manga. Like Prince of Tennis and Kuroko's Basketball before them, this has also landed them collaborations with major female demographic magazines, including Bessatsu Margaret.
Fandom Rivalry: With Ao Ashi, a seinen soccer manga that focuses on the serious aspects of the Japanese soccer world in a near similar vein as Blue Lock. The two fandoms often come at odds considering that both focus on some of the flaws of Japanese soccer, but take very different approaches to it.
Fanfic Fuel: For the most part, you're only following along with Isagi's journey as he makes his way through Blue Lock, which leaves a lot of room for telling stories of other Blue Lock players. Especially since you don't get to see how the matches of the other 4 First Selection buildings or in Neo Egoist League went down.
Fan Nickname:
- "Soccer Ichigo" for Kunigami due to their similar spikey orange hair. It helps that Blue Lock's anime adaptation released at the same time as the Thousand Year Blood War adaptation for Bleach.
  - "Cardcaptor Kunigami" also becomes a rather well-known nickname after his comeback from Wild Card.
- "Underlashes" for the Itoshi brothers, due to their designs have noticably long lower eyelashes.
- "Sprouts hair" or "Grass hair" for Isagi, due to his V-shape Idiot Hair. This is later included in the story itself, in which Charles calls Isagi "monsieur ahoge".
  - On the western side of the fandom, "Himsagi" is a popular nickname for the moments he becomes much more aggressive and domineering while scoring goals.
  - Another one is "Mr. Puzzles" as his aura manifests as a set of floating puzzles, each akin to an idea or strategy during matches.
- "Goatgamaru" for Gagamaru, referencing his clutch moments such as saving the ball thus preventing Team V from winning, and especially his aptitude at being a goalie in the U-20 match.
- Kurona is usually referred to as "967" or "Baby Shark" by fans, as the former is a Goroawase Number pun on his name, while the latter is based on his Animal Motif slash his favourite animal.
Friendly Fandoms: With Haikyuu!!. Despite their differences, both have a lot of fans for its sports genre and male characters. Both gain a lot of positive comparisons involving their characters.
Harsher in Hindsight: The first two chapters of Episode Nagi depicting Nagi and Reo's relationship and friendliness between each other before Blue Lock canonically began becomes this in light of the Foregone Conclusion of how Nagi eventually went on ahead to improve faster than Reo can comprehend and Reo now rushing to catch up to Nagi and growing insecure of Nagi's fast progress ever since they joined Blue Lock.
Hilarious in Hindsight: The storytelling at times will mention some real life players as examples of great egotistical strikers who haven't actually managed to win a World Cup. Argentina's Lionel Messi was one of such players brought up as a player who never won it all. However, that's no longer the case due to Argentina winning the 2022 World Cup.
Hollywood Homely: In Episode Nagi, a few girls describe Nagi as "sloppy looking" and wonder why someone like Reo would associate with him. One brief glance at any fanart of him however shows that much of the audience believes the opposite to be true. His permanent bed-head doesn't look very out of place since odd hairstyles are something of a norm in anime/manga. Add to this his physique, big eyes, and in the adaptation soft voice, and you have fans who are gobsmacked at the idea that he's meant to be unattractive.
Ho Yay: Now has its own page.
Hype Backlash: Nagi Seishiro is prone to this given just how prominent of a role he would end up playing in the story. His popularity is such that he has his own Spin-Off and is the character people will have most likely seen or heard about before getting into Blue Lock. But some attest that his personality is on the bland side and his amazing skills on the field while impressive, don't make up for how dull he is. Some even believe he's "overpowered" and should have to suffer loses more often than he currently does. Come chapter 241 when he scores zero goals against PXG, losing a score to 3-1 (the only goal is scored by Chigiri) which is considered serious since he's the main striker of Manshine City, and thus his bid suffers a decrease by nearly a half as a result. Rin also gives him a Rousing Speech about goals and motives, prompting Nagi deep in thought. The results repeated following the next match with Ubers, and this time multiple characters including Barou, Aiku and Agi calling him out on his immaturity. As Ego lampshaded, this is when Nagi's ego is challenged, and readers too looking forward to another layer of his Character Development, both as a player and a person.
I Knew It!: Fans who believed that Isagi would eventually ask for help from Kunigami in order to improve both his overall physical abilities and effectively use his left foot to score goals were proven right in the Bastard München vs Ubers match.
Jerkass Woobie: Rin Itoshi is cold, rude, self centered, and refuses to acknowledge anyone in the Blue Lock facility as his equal. But his backstory reveals that he used to be a relatively nice kid who looked up to his brother with adoration. His change in personality happened after Sae came back from Spain and renounced his and Rin's shared dream of being the two best strikers in the world. He even went as far as to force him into a brutally short match finished with him telling Rin to never use him as an excuse to play football again. After learning all of this, Sae still refusing to acknowledge Rin and instead praising Isagi right in front of him at the end of the U-20 match is enough to make you wanna give the poor guy a hug.
Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Antagonistic characters such as Ryusei Shidou, Sae Itoshi, and Michael Kaiser are generally well liked thanks to their bombastic personalities and/or having the skills to back up their arrogance. Kuon Wataru, by contrast has earned little more than ire from the fandom for trying to throw Team Z under the bus by leaking their plans to Team W and even helping sabotage the game in exchange for letting him score three goals so he could advance alone. Even after being largely forgiven by his teammates, he remains one of the least popular characters from Team Z and the series as a whole.
Launcher of a Thousand Ships:
- Isagi, in virtue of being the protagonist, has been shipped with many characters from Bachira, Rin, Barou, Kaiser, Nagi, Sae, and so on.
- Doesn't help that each arc seems to introduce a new on-field partner that acts as Isagi's main partner during that part of the story. Bachira in the First Selection, Nagi in the Second Selection, Hiori during the U-20 tryouts and currently Kurona in the Neo Egoist League.
Memetic Mutation:
- That's what high school boys should say. ^note
- Blue Lock is real! ^note
- Blue Lock forgot to teach Penalty Kicks. ^note
- Isagi and Kurona vs. Everyone ^note
- Kunigami doing absolutely nothing. ^note
- UltraSadist. ^note
Moe:
- Little Bachira in spades. Or just every character as babies appearing in flashbacks.
- Yo Hiori as well with his doe eyes and good manners.
Narm: The scene where the World's Five are ridiculing Team Red in English becomes this due to the voice actors' heavy Japanese accents. Ironically, many attest that Rin's English sounded more comprehensive despite his character being the only Japanese person involved in the confrontation. Then he puts special emphasis on the word "Traumatic", a line that has reached meme status for its unintentional hilarity.
Nightmare Fuel:
- If looks could kill, the Death Glare that Kira gives to Isagi, because of the latter eliminating him in the Tag game would definitely be one.
- The way one's ego is visualized can sometimes evoke this. Baro's ego for example appearing as a threatening lion makes him look absolutely frightening at times. Nagi's ego appearing as a skull is also a worthy contender.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Fans found Raichi Jingo quite annoying early on due to coming off as a Hair-Trigger Temper Jerkass who did nothing for Team Z but yell at everyone for doing things he doesn't like. However, people started to warm up to him as the matches went on due to it becoming clear that he's more a Jerk with a Heart of Gold as along with being someone who is willing to play with the team, he even gets excited when Team Z and his teammates succeed. The final First Selection match against Team V also allowed Raichi to finally prove that he can pull his own weight for the team as a defensive player who kept Reo locked down to the point that the latter didn't score a single goal. Along with being the guy who holds his team's traitor, Kuon, accountable for his treacherous actions, all of this amounted to Raichi basically becoming an Ensemble Dark Horse.
Salvaged Story: Fans of Kunigami who lamented his elimination were all rejoicing when he first reappeared from the Wild Card training entrance and went on to join the story further. Though depending on how one feels about the new direction this takes his arc in, you may not think the revelation was worth it. See Base-Breaking Character.
The Scrappy: It's safe to say that Kuon lost any fans he might have had when he infamously betrayed Team Z made worse by the fact that he was eliminated before he could properly atone thus dashing his chances to win back the crowd. Despite the author's best efforts to make his actions understandable, his backstory falls flat and his tackling of Nagi to prevent Team V from winning felt like too little too late due to his rather unrepentant behavior up until that point. It speaks volumes that Raichi found his way into many fans' favorite character lists after punching him.
Signature Scene: Kira Ryousuke's early elimination makes for one hell of a series first impression as the moment that makes it quite clear that Blue Lock will follow the It's All About Me mantra rather than the usual Team Spirit theme that is seen throughout the sports genre.
Spiritual Antithesis:
- Blue Lock is this to Captain Tsubasa. While both series are about high schoolers playing Football and eventually taking on the world, with the casts eventually developing Improbable Sports Skills along the way as they grow as players, Captain Tsubasa focuses on the friendship and teamwork formed together in order to win while Blue Lock focuses on drawing out each players' individuality and promoting a competitive scene where the best and most individualistic, egotistical players will survive and become the best striker. There's even a not-so-subtle Take That! at Captain Tsubasa in the very first match, when Baro states that "The ball is not my friend or any of that nonsense". That said, the series very clearly comes from the Tsubasa cloth, with one of the later moves outright being the Twin Shot from that franchise.
- Alternatively, some fans see this as what a typical Inazuma Eleven Opposing Sports Team would look like as the protagonists of the series. Both encourage fantastical styles of play and rigorous ego-boosting training, but this series acts in favor of such methods rather than having it challenged and beaten.
Strawman Has a Point: Hiroshi Buratsuta, the chairman of the JFA, is constantly shown throughout the series to be an apathetic and greedy individual who doesn't care if his country's national team isn't improving so long as it's profitable, and is constantly throwing roadblocks in front of Ego and Blue Lock for no other reason but petty jealousy. However, his low opinion of Blue Lock does make sense when you consider how much money the JFA spent on the project in exchange for nothing but the promises of an eccentric madman. It's not just greedy money-hounds that might have a valid reason to be skeptical in that situation. When the Blue Lock team defeats the Japan U20 squad, Buratsuta acknowledges the good the program has done for the country and pledges to support it, proving that he didn't irrationally hate it, even if all the other characters (including ones who aren't familiar with him and his personality) continue to treat him like a weasel who's still acting out of greed and self-interest.
Take That, Scrappy!: Kuon getting yelled at, threatened, and ultimately punched by Raichi over his betrayal of Team Z is satisfying enough to have made most readers warm up to the latter despite his less than stellar first impression.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- Some wish for Kira Ryousuke to finally make a return after he got Put on a Bus early on. The logic being that Kira could return playing for another country's team, and aim to get Revenge against Isagi.
- Given the large amount of Blue Lock players, there's bound to be some here and there who don't get as much screen-time as others.
  - After all the focus he got throughout the First Selection, it can be a bit surprising that Wataru Kuon ended up getting eliminated off-screen during the Second Selection. While the series does provide a reason as to why he was eliminated (No one wanted to team up with Kuon due to rumors spreading about his traitorous actions.), there are some people who wish that the series continued with his redemption arc.
  - Okuhito Iemon also ended up getting eliminated off-screen during the Second Selection, which some would have liked to see his development continue as a goalie for Blue Lock.
  - Zantetsu Tsurugi and Aoshi Tokimitsu both suffer the same issue where despite being built up as big threats in their first arcs (Tsurugi in the First Selection, Tokimitsu in the Second Selection), they ended up getting harshly Demoted to Extra to the point of becoming background characters, and barely interact with the main cast from then on. At the very least, Tsurugi gets a lot more expanded upon in the Blue Lock - Episode Nagi spin-off.
  - Amongst the background fodder of Blue Lock's 300 football strikers, Hajime Nishioka got hit the hardest when it comes to wasted potential. He's been foreshadowed throughout the series as a beast football player who's believed to be the next up-and-coming Messi, yet not once is he ever seen in person interacting or playing with Isagi and company.
The Woobie:
- Bachira once his backstory is revealed. We learn that he has a Friendless Background and was bullied for being weird which partly led to the creation of his "monster". And after finding a real friend in Isagi, he gets chosen by the Top 3 when they lose their first match in the Second Selection and gets terrified of being left behind by him when it seems like he evolved past his level.
- To a much lesser extent Anri. She genuinely wants the Blue Lock program to be successful and does her best to maintain PR. For her efforts she's derided, treated like a maid, and insulted for her "ordinary thinking" by Ego pretty much every time she opens her mouth.
Woolseyism: The scene with the World's Five mocking Team Red was viewed as much better in the English Dub than the original Japanese version, see Narm section above. This is in no small part thanks to them having voice actors with accurate accents who can more easily convey the intended mood of the situation. And instead of not understanding their language, Bachira comments that the distance and thick accents makes it hard to hear them and is impressed by Rin's willingness to approach them. The same can't be said for a later scene where Bachira is learning to pronounce the days of the week in English though.

YMMV / Blue Lock

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