Blue Lock

Welcome back my wonderful weebs! This week I watched the first 3 episodes of the soccer anime Blue Lock! Before I watched this show I had already read the first two volumes of the manga and I was excited to see how they adapted it to anime form. The studio that produced Blue Lock is called eightbit, I haven't heard much about them but, I did see that they produced some more popular anime like That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and The Irregular at Magic High School. Now that we know that, let's start the review!

Plot:

Blue Lock offers a unique concept, through a sort of battle royal between the top 300 high school strikers in Japan. The reason for the competition is that Japan's soccer team has never won the World Cup. So, in an attempt to fix this, they decided to produce one of the best strikers in Japan, no, in the world, through this battle royal facility. Here's the kicker (heh get it? Kicker? I know I'm hilarious), anyone who fails/gets disqualified from the Blue Lock Facility will never play for Japan again and their soccer career in Japan will end forever. Yoichi Isagi (our main character) is selected for this program, and our story starts from there.

It's a fun concept! But I'm going to be honest here, this isn't a show you want to think too deeply on, it's a fun, go-with-the-flow, turn-your-brain-off sort of show. (Note: In my opinion, the plot is better executed, has better dialogue, and is more self-aware in the manga rather than the anime). The themes in this show are interesting, however, they don't take it far enough. A common gripe I hear about this show is that instead of those who fail the Blue Lock program soccer career in Japan ending, it would fit better if it was more of an actual life-and-death situation. I find myself agreeing with these criticisms, some of the scenes would make more sense and be more impactful if that was the case. 

Characters:

The characters in this show can be very trope-y if that makes sense. You've got your main character (the underdog who's actually really good), the crazy one, the competitive/jerk one, the eyes always closed calm and collected one, and the list goes on. However, there are definitely compelling glimpses further into some characters as the show goes on. Take our main character Yoichi Isagi, on the outside he seems like a motivated, kind person, your classic main character, but he has a dark, egotistical, cruel part of him in the back of his mind that is brought out more and more through the Blue Lock program. The story of his character seems to be ruining the empathetic and kind parts of him and leaving behind a highly effective monster. It's an intriguing idea to watch play out! 

Animation:

The animation is...conflicting. It's good until you get to the most critical part of the show, the soccer. The soccer ball is CGI and sometimes the characters around the main ones are also CGI, and unfortunately, it sticks out and not in a good way. The upside of this is that when they are not playing soccer you can trust the animation to be good, the downside is that this happens to be a soccer anime, and the soccer part isn't always the best looking. However, it does seem to improve a bit in the third episode, so maybe they just needed time to get their footing. If you don't like the animation but, enjoy the concept of the show I'd HIGHLY suggest reading the manga over watching the anime. It's actually really well-illustrated and a very fun read. Let's move on to the music!

Music:

The music is a rock, electronic, dramatic sort of vibe. It's fun and enhances the show, it fits the feeling of Blue Lock well, and overall I have no complaints about it. The producer of this music is Jun Murayama. He's done the music for a couple of popular anime here and there and this is his most popular musical work. 

I find the best way to get the vibe of an anime (most of the time) is the intro and I'm sticking to that statement here. The intro's music is fun and the visuals describe and introduce the show well. So if you're not sure if this is the show for you watch the intro before you decide! There's not much more I can say about the music so let's look at the voice acting!

Sub or Dub:

I very much think the Sub is superior to the dub, in fact, I stopped watching the dub five minutes in. It just felt off and the Japanese version sounded better. Maybe it's just me but, something cringy said in Japanese is a bit less wince-worthy than when it's said in English. I'd say if you think this is a show you would enjoy, watch the subtitled version over the English one. 

There is something I want to note about the dialogue of Blue Lock. In the manga, there are a couple of scenes where the f-word is dropped instead, of either using these scenes or just adding different wording, the anime decided to use the word "lock" instead of the f-bomb. Yeah. It's very VERY weird, you'll be watching an intense scene and then out of nowhere someone will say "Then lock off!". It's wild. I can't help but cringe or burst out into laughter every single time it happens. Just be aware that some of the dialogue can be very cringe-worthy at times.

Final Ratings: 

Overall, there were times when I was drawn into this anime and times when I found it not lacking. If I were to give this a rating it would be a solid 6/10. I like the ideas and themes, and it's a fun show to watch casually, however, the animation can be lacking at times and the dialogue can be cringy. If you do decide this is something you would be interested in, I would suggest the manga over the anime. That's it for this week! Thanks for reading!

Ps. As always if you want me to review something feel free to comment it and I'll try my best to do it!