The first episode of the most awaited sports anime this season made its debut on October 9, 2022. The premiere took the community by storm, and it’s not an exaggeration to say that everyone is super invested in this series.
The first episode of Blue Lock was quite a roller coaster and a buttload of exposition was thrown into our faces to quickly setup the world building. The careers of multiple young strikers will end throughout the anime, and Ryosuke Kira might be first on that list.
Ryosuke Kira, the forward from Matsukaze, will be the first one to leave the ‘Blue Lock’ program. This will be the direct consequence of losing the first game of tag set up by Ego Jinpachi. He’s tagged by Yoichi and eliminated.
Unfortunately for him, this also means that Ryosuke loses his chance to represent Japan forever.
Blue Lock anime will be truly different from the other sports anime which we came to witness over the years. In the first episode, we see that 300 high school football players from all over Japan have gathered and are divided into different teams.
Ego explains to them the rules of the first match which is essentially a game of tag. They have 136 seconds and the person who has the ball at the end of the timer will be kicked out of the program.
The 300th player Igaguri starts as “it” or “oni” as he is the one with the least ranking. During the match, Isagi is hit with the ball and is now the pursuer.
He sees that Igaguri is injured and plans to strike him but something inside, tells him that the only way he is going to get stronger is by winning against someone stronger. He immediately directs his goal towards Kira who is the strongest one.
With 11 seconds remaining on the clock, the ball lands up in front of Isagi and he hits Kira. The anime stops here.
And let’s just say that my curiosity got the better of me and of course I read the next chapter of the manga to know if Kira will be expelled or if it was just a psychological manipulation thing that Ego used.
Ryosuke Kira’s Reaction
Upon knowing that his football career is over, Ryosuke Kira has the most expected outburst. He calls himself a national treasure and complains that the lesser-skilled Isagi and Igaguri should be the ones to be expelled.
He also questions the relevance of having a tag match as a practice for football. He claims that there is absolutely no connection and it’s absurd for them to expel the players based on it.
Ego explains the importance of this tag match and how it is meant to demonstrate abilities like spatial awareness and the ability to make strikes.
Kira is spiteful but he has no other choice but to leave. This anime is truly amazing and concentrates on building the egoism of the players.
This is completely different from what we have experienced so far in all other sports anime where they always emphasized the importance of team play.
We definitely won’t see players winning matches with the “power of friendship”. Though we enjoy other sports anime, this anime will serve as a breadth of fresh air.
About Blue Lock
Blue Lock is a Japanese manga series written by Muneyuki Kaneshiro and illustrated by Yusuke Nomura. It has been serialized in Kodansha’s Weekly Shōnen Magazine since August 2018. Blue Lock won the 45th Kodansha Manga Award in the shōnen category in 2021.
The story begins with Japan’s elimination from the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which prompts the Japanese Football Union to start a program scouting high school players who will begin training in preparation for the 2022 Cup.
Isagi Youichi, a forward, receives an invitation to this program soon after his team loses the chance to go to Nationals because he passed to his less-skilled teammate.
Their coach will be Ego Jinpachi, who intends to “destroy Japanese loser football” by introducing a radical new training regimen: isolate 300 young strikers in a prison-like institution called “Blue Lock”.
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