They may both have “Blue” in the title and be about soccer (that applies to Be Blues too), but the similarities between 2022’s two big soccer adaptations end there. In fact Ao Ashi and Blue Lock could hardly be more opposite if they tried. One is mostly hand-drawn, the other mostly CGI in the action sequences. One is old-fashioned and pretty traditional, the other a trope-surfing “post-sports” sports manga. Seinen vs. shounen, gritty realism vs. abject absurdity. Perhaps most importantly, one is clearly aimed at fans who love sports, and one at those that don’t.
Of course, I fall into the first group. As such, Ao Ashi was always going to be a better fit with me, but that’s priced into the equation. I don’t know if Blue Lock fully qualifies as a “sports manga for people who hate sports”, but it does seem to lean in that direction. Soccer boring to you? We’ve got you covered. For me, though, any chance I have with this show comes down to accepting it for what it is – and what it isn’t. If I view this as a soccer series, it’s over for me. If I scorn it for being dumb when it clearly embraces dumbness, I have no chance. It may sound simple enough but believe me, it ain’t easy.
In effect, I think this series is kind of a sports version of Dandadan. I don’t have an issue letting the bakayarocity wash over me there, but it’s easier because I haven’t got an attachment to the subject as I do with soccer. Blue Lock is just silly with full abandon (and those eyes!), and sports series that take that route always pose a challenger for me. I almost can’t believe this isn’t a Trigger series (it’s 8 bit), because I can hardly think of a show that seems to embody a studio’s aesthetic like this one and Trigger (if you know, you know).
The protagonist here is a second-year high schooler named Isagi Youichi. As we meet him his team is about to be bounced out of regionals because he decides to pass to an open teammate (who clanks a sitter off the post) rather than take the big shot himself. He’s devastated of course, but awaiting him at home (along with his seemingly clueless parents) is a letter from the “Japan Football Union” (ROFL) telling him he’s been selected as a “certified athlete”. When he shows up at the proffered address he finds himself in the company of 299 other high school strikers, about to be given a bizarre quasi-religious welcome message from a guy played by Kamiya Hiroshi in that mode of his that really grates on my nerves.
There is one element of Blue Lock that does have a tenuous connection to reality, and it’s the theory that strikers have to be selfish egoists in order to excel. Of course it’s handled in utterly simplistic fashion and once the train leaves realism station it’s never coming back. Ego (ROFL) Jinpachi’s (that’s the Kamiya guy) idea is to lock these kids up together and have them battle each other in survival games until only one is left, and that one kid will be “the best striker in the world”. As I said, you really have to divorce yourself from the notion that this is a soccer series to have any chance – or not care about soccer in the first place.
The first elimination event here (the boys are ranked #1-300) is a sort of soccer tag where whoever gets hit is “it”, and whoever’s it when the clock runs out is expelled. That should give you an idea of the level we’re operating at here, but it’s amusing enough for what it is. The gist of this is sort of clever, actually – that these punks have to learn to forget they’re Japanese or they’re going to get axed and forever lose their chance to wear samurai blue. For 299th-ranked Youichi that means turning on the kindly #1 boy and getting him eliminated, thus starting the process of embracing his inner gaijin.
One interesting question for me is to what extent this core idea is taken seriously, and which side of the fence the mangaka comes down on – though I suspect it doesn’t really lend itself to that degree of analysis and is just a hook. Blue Lock is weird enough to be sort of interesting, and it’s certainly popular enough, so I’m going to try and soldier through my prejudices and grok the source of that popularity. Who knows if I’ll actually get there, but it’s certainly worth a shot.
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