Blue Lock came at a pretty lucky time.
There hasn’t been a hugely popular sports anime in a while, much less one that received the hype that Blue Lock has, so the series is in a really good position and has tons of opportunities to become the next big thing.
Except for one glaring issue.
No, it’s not the “bastardization” of the sport of soccer. This is a sports anime; accuracy is somewhat irrelevant, especially when modern soccer anime has been preceded by series like Inazuma Eleven where middle schoolers play soccer to stop the apocalypse. It’s definitely not the animation or the design of the series, either. The anime looks great! It isn’t even the edginess of the series that gets in the way; the whole “monsters inside of us” thing isn’t actually all that bad.
No, the issue is instead one singular character: our protagonist, Isagi Yoichi.
Isagi is a pretty easy character to figure out. He’s the kind and motivated heart of the team. He’s struggling with the idea of playing selfishly and having difficulty finding his footing scoring goals in a place full of people more talented and malicious than him. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it’s a quintessential character type in sports anime! This is your Gion in All Out!, your Makoto in Free!, and your Hinata in Haikyuu!!, and all of these characters are well-loved by viewers. They provide an interesting look at how teams and individual athletes function. They often serve as a foil to a disillusioned team and as the catalyst for change. And to an extent, Isagi does this.
But He Isn’t Special
It might sound harsh to say, but as a character, Isagi isn’t anything special. Sometimes, going this route works; having an everyman protagonist who has to work hard to improve their skills will almost always be beloved by viewers if they’re done right. The problem comes when there is absolutely nothing else going on with the character, and that’s what we see with Isagi.
Isagi has absolutely nothing going on when you stack him next to a cast of side characters. We know that Isagi’s big obstacle was a missed shot during a major game. This is what we keep coming back to as his motivation to score goals and climb the ranks. However, when you stack him up against characters like Chigiri, who has lost his love of soccer due to a major injury that literally altered his perception of himself and the idea of talent, or Kunigami, who simply desires to make things a fair fight for everyone, or even Igarashi, who knows if he loses he will be forced to go back home and take over his family’s temple and give up on his dreams, Isagi feels…bland. His driving force doesn’t feel as intense as everyone else’s, and that’s a bit jarring when the series focuses on him.
It could be pointed out that this is what makes him special. He’s surrounded by these extraordinary people, and he’s managing to hold his own and keep his spirits high. However, in a way, this makes him even worse as a character. While everyone around him seems to advance and improve, Isagi seems stagnant because his core is in being a motivator and increasing his spatial awareness.
His Special Ability is Not A Player’s Ability
A big part of this stagnation is due to Isagi’s main special ability of spatial awareness. Using this ability, he can see the layout of the field and player’s in his mind and understand their abilities and motivations. He’s an adept player - we do see this in his incredible direct shots and technical ability, even if it isn’t always at the same level as his teammates - but overall, his team relies on his intuition and ability to set up and execute plays. While this is honestly an awesome ability, it isn’t quite suited for a player, and it definitely isn’t suited for Isagi’s progression, making it feel out of place in a sports anime. It would have been a perfect fit if he was aiming to be a coach, though!
This special ability causes Isagi’s progression to feel wrong. We see that Isagi needs to find a bit of selfish nature to make it through, which already goes against the grain of the rest of the cast, who have to do the opposite. Isagi is there for everyone else’s progression because by achieving his own goals, he should be losing his ability to be aware of the people around him. Yet, he becomes more aware of people’s motivations and stories, despite the series trying to show that he’s finding the “monster” within him that desires to win. Because this doesn’t happen, it makes Isagi’s progression and ability feel silly in comparison with other characters who have honed or natural physical and strategic abilities that get stronger and lead to their success in the Blue Lock.
He’s Inconsistent
Lastly, Isagi’s personality often feels inconsistent. This isn’t always a bad thing; as humans, we’re very irrational and full of contradictions, so it’s natural for good characters to be this way as well. However, we often see breaks in Isagi’s usual kind demeanor that simply don’t make sense. A good example of this is during Team Z’s match against Team W. He shoves Chigiri aside and tells him to get out of the way because he wants to win. People do things in the heat of competition that they might not normally do, but this was extremely out of place for Isagi, who is always shown to be level-headed during matches.
The series most likely does this to avoid actually having to do the work of showing Isagi gaining that selfish attitude he needs. It’s far easier to just toss a handful of instances of him being a little rude than to give a reasoning for why he’s adopted that attitude. This unfortunately makes Isagi a little frustrating as a character; we want to see what’s getting through to him and changing his mind about the way he plays. It almost feels like a part of the story is missing because of this.
This isn’t to say Blue Lock isn’t worth watching because of Isagi. He does have his moments, and it is neat to see his ability in action. At the same time, though, he often feels underdeveloped, lackluster, and frankly, frustrating because he isn’t quite used to his potential in a series that’s about him. We can always have hope that he’ll find his footing as a coach and see his abilities and amicable personality to use. Until then, we’ll just have to wait and see how his story goes.
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