With a second season on the horizon, Blue Lock presents a never-before-seen footballing tale of creating the world’s best striker from Japan’s football. In a world where only a striker's ego is enough to guarantee survival, the series presents several egotistical personalities that generally do not fit into the philosophy of football being a team sport.
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However, some characters, either positively or negatively, can bring out the best qualities of their teams to ensure their survival. These characters are usually quick to adapt to situations, can think on their feet, and, either by words or actions, can bring out the maximum quality of their teammates. For these characters, below are some of the series’ best.
This article contains spoilers from the Blue Lock manga series.
8 Hiori Yo
Position: Winger, Offensive Midfielder
- Archetype: Deep-lying Playmaker
- Age: 17
- Anime Debut: Episode 24
One of the more quiet and soft-spoken characters in the series, Hiori Yo is one of Blue Lock’s best players and, for a while during the Neo-Egoist League, the only person with Isagi’s view of football. Hiori’s team spirit shines much more when his service to the team is directed at a sole, as seen in his collaboration with Isagi against the Italy Ubers in the Neo-Eogist League.
While Hiori is considered a football prodigy, he hates football but can not stop playing due to parental expectations. With no personal goal or vision, Hiori more or less just does and is ready to work hard for his team.
7 Jingo Raichi
Position: Forward, Defensive Midfielder
- Archetype: Box-To-Box
- Age: 17
- Anime Debut: Episode 01
Arguably Blue Lock’s most hotheaded character, Raichi, is one of those ‘do whatever I have to do to help even if I don’t like it’ characters. This trait is reflected well in his positional application in the series. Like every other Blue Lock, Raichi aims to be the best striker in the world; however, listening to others is not his strong suit, until he realizes the difference in the gap between his abilities and other characters like Rin and Bachira.
By the final game of the First Selection, Raichi willingly lets go of the striker's position to prove to his teammates that he can change for the good of his team and inspire them, and this reflects more as the story progresses.
6 Tabito Karasu
Position: Forward, Defensive Midfielder
- Archetype: Midfield General
- Age: 18
- Anime Debut: Episode 24
Introduced as the third-ranked player during the Third Selection, Tabito Karasu, much like most characters in Blue Lock, has a rather strong ego and tends to look down on mediocre people. However, this is just a defense mechanism to ensure his survival. As a player, Tabito thinks himself to be mediocre.
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Still, he is quite the leader on the pitch, as shown during the U-20 match, where he, alongside Raichi, kept barking out orders at his teammates, making sure to galvanize and order the team’s attacking and defensive structure. His team spirit shines because in a way, he is a perfectionist who always makes sure that nothing goes wrong, which ensures that he does whatever is necessary for the good of his team.
5 Reo Mikage
Position: Forward, Defensive Midfielder, Centerback, Central Midfielder, Attacking Midfielder
- Archetype: Utility Player
- Age: 17
- Anime Debut: Episode 01
The literal description of a team player, as his archetype is that of a utility player, Reo Mikage can play anywhere on the pitch that is required of him in the series, making him incredibly versatile and effective. However, this is not fully manifested until Reo relieves himself of his dependence on Nagi Seishiro, allowing him to take his game to the next level while being fully ready to connect his team wherever is lacking during a match.
Being a team player is more or less Reo’s inverted way of becoming a self-sufficient player whose football requires no one other than himself through his positional versatility. A quality that shines the most bright when he is being of service to his team.
4 Itoshi Rin
Position: Forward
- Archetype: Playmaker
- Age: 16
- Anime Debut: Episode 11
Blue Lock’s undoubted number-one ranked player, Itoshi Rin, is the younger brother of Itoshi Sae. Like the other contenders of Blue Lock, he desires to become the world’s best striker. Ideally, Rin is the literal opposite of a team player, as he is the series’ most complete and rounded player so far, making him quite literally self-sufficient enough to decide a match.
However, it is specifically the fact that he is the best that earns him his spot due to his ability to force his team into sync due to his knowledge of his teammates’ overall and specific skills during a game. Though it is more of his arrogance and sheer footballing talent at play, Rin, without many words, can perfectly become the brains of any team he is on.
3 Itoshi Sae
Position: Central Midfielder
- Archetype: Playmaker
- Age: 18
- Anime Debut: Episode 02
Japan’s unparalleled football prodigy, Itoshi Sae, is Rin’s older brother and Japan’s best football player. Initially aiming to be the world’s best striker, Sae changes his mind when he experiences football outside of Japan. Like Rin, Sae is one of the series’ most complete and rounded characters on the pitch.
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Sae's abilities usually surpass most of his teammates on whatever team he is on. Like Rin, Sae’s sheer footballing talent earns him a spot, and unlike his brother, Sae is mature enough not to overexert his role in a team. By simply doing the basics to a point that elevates his teammates, Sae’s mere presence makes him a unifying factor despite his arrogance.
2 Ikki Niko
Position: Forward, Centre-Back, Defensive Midfielder, Offensive Midfielder
- Archetype: Ball-winning Center-Back
- Age: 16
- Anime Debut: Episode 04
Isagi’s first real personal challenge in Blue Lock, Ikki Niko, is a boy of very few words. He was a member of Team Y during the First Selection and now plays as a defensive midfielder for the Italy Ubers in the Neo Egoist League.
Initially a striker like every other Blue Lock candidate, Niko turns out to be a really versatile player like Reo while possessing a similar vision to Isagi, which makes him a really valuable asset to any team he’s on. Niko’s current team, the Italy Ubers, personifies team play quite literally, as they are able to move, react, attack, and defend as a single unit, with Niko being at the heart of it all.
1 Yoichi Isagi
Position: Forward, Attacking Midfielder
- Archetype: Ramdeuter
- Age: 17
- Anime Debut: Episode 01
The series’ focus and protagonist, Isagi Yoichi, is the story’s embodiment of a team player, shown at the beginning of the series when his teammate misses an open goal because he decided to pass. For Isagi, Blue Lock becomes the necessary foundation for evolving from a team player to a self-sufficient striker and the best in the world. However, this does not completely rob him of his instincts to always galvanize and organize his teams whenever he plays.
As the story develops, Isagi can meld the two contrasting ideologies he has imbibed into one, the first being that football is a team sport and the other, that ego is the only thing necessary for football, making him even more assertive. What distinguishes Isagi from others on this list is his acute understanding of all of the players around him and his willingness to play according to the strengths of his teammates, making him an even bigger headache for his opponents.
- Release Date
- 2022 - 2024
- Directors
- Tetsuaki Watanabe, Shunsuke Ishikawa
- Writers
- Taku Kishimoto
Cast
-
Ricco Fajardo -
Drew Breedlove
WHERE TO WATCH
- Studio
- 8bit
- Creator
- Muneyuki Kaneshiro
- Number of Episodes
- 24 Episodes (Season 1); 14 Episodes (Season 2)
- Streaming Service(s)
- Crunchyroll
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