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While sports anime are not particularly known to attract the huge audiences that action and adventure-themed anime normally enjoy, Kodansha's Blue Lock not only was one of the most anticipated anime of the year but remains one of the most popular series currently running. One of the main reasons fans enjoy it is due to its interesting "superhero-fication" of high school soccer competition.
Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yusuke Nomura's Blue Lock follow the story of high school sophomore Yoichi Isagi. Since he was a kid, Isagi has wanted to play soccer for the national team and has worked hard to achieve that dream. As the anime begins, he's a talented but not stellar forward on his school's team. As he contemplates the chances of ever realizing his dream, he is invited to participate in the Blue Lock; a program focused on producing the nation's best forward. However, unlike other training programs, in Blue Lock, the students, who are 300 of Japan's top under-18 soccer forwards, are forced to face off against one another in a ruthless competition that sees Isagi confront "trial and tribulation" that will not only make him a better person and player, but also inch forward in achieving his ultimate goal.
While Blue Lock's primary story may not seem much different from other well-known and popular sports anime and manga such as SLAM DUNK, what sets it apart from the rest is that the utter intensity of Blue Lock's purpose transforms the classic sports story into something that can be viewed as a superhero action and adventure anime. The consequences of producing one godlike forward will mean that the 299 other players in the program will never be able to play soccer again, at least for those, like Isagi, who hope to make the national team. In other words, Blue Lock is not just about whether Isagi will be able to play soccer. The stakes are the equivalent of a "lie and death struggle" that superheroes normally confront. Blue Lock is almost like a soccer-skinned death game. But rather than express Isagi and the other participants' struggle in the normal, teen coming-of-age tropes common in sports anime, the creators present it as a superhero-like challenge where Isagi and his classmates' soccer skills are portrayed as superpowers that they use to defeat or be defeated by others.
Does Team Z Have the Superpowers to Survive Blue Lock?
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In Blue Lock Chapter 9, Isagi's team is literally asked to explain their "special powers." While Isagi has trouble figuring out his exact abilities, other members of the team name attributes such as shooting power, speed, getting behind the enemy, jumping ability, passing, and dribbling as their powers. Without context, hearing a listing of these abilities, and how the team discusses putting them to use against their "enemies," it wouldn't be farfetched for the listener to think the conversation was about My Hero Academia's Class 1A preparing to take on the Paranormal Liberation Front. The depiction isn't a fluke, but rather a creative decision by Kaneshiro and Nomura to overlay their sports anime with a definite superhero framework.
By infusing its basic sports anime with the best characteristic of a superhero adventure the excitement and tension normally found in action and adventure anime. It's an interesting tweak to the sports anime model that works perfectly, as its immense popularity proves. As such, Kodansha's Blue Lock not only attracts the small, but loyal sports anime fanbase, but also the large and voracious superhero, action, and adventure anime fans who have the power to make an anime a must-see option.
Blue Lock is now available for viewing on Crunchyroll.