Plot: The Japanese Football Association creates a new training programme called Blue Lock. The aim of that programme is to create the best striker who will lead the Japanese team to win the world cup. They selected 300 high school football strikers all around the country and put them all into a prison-like a facility to compete with each other. Out of 300 of them, only one person can be the striker and the remaining not only are eliminated but also banned to participate in any games. With stakes are true high our main protagonist Isagi must defeat all the rivals who are much tougher than him.
An average sports manga would go this way. First, we will have an average player joining an average team but that average player has a hidden talent that will surprise everyone. Then he and his boys will develop their skills. And they will enter the tournament and with 60 per cent talent and 40 % power of friendship. They will take the victory from their rival team. Even though rivals were training way longer than the protagonist team. Poor Rivals, If only they were the main characters this wouldn't have happened.
Unlike these average sports manga, blue lock takes a very refreshing route. It didn't focus on typical stuff like teamwork, power of friendship, instead, it focused on egoism a quality which is important to be a world champion. When I read the synopsis of the manga, it felt silly and at the same time unique. I doubted how mangaka will execute it, and when I read it. It blew my mind. I have to praise the mangaka for mixing survival and sports together and execute it this perfectly. This manga is a battle royale. But instead of life people lose their future and watch as their dreams get shattered when they lose. It is a kind of depressing but the mangaka was an assistant to Hajime Isayama. So it's not surprising that this is going to be depressing and realistic.
The art in this manga despite being a weakly shounen is so good. The author really knows how to draw expressive faces and keep you engaged during those football sequences.
While this manga is mostly amazing there are some things that bothered me. Most of these kids are superhuman and it felt like I was watching pro athletes, not your average teenagers. And also some of the side characters were very one dimensional and you can easily notice them in other sports manga too. Both of these flaws are a reminder for me that despite the lack of typical shounen cliches this is still a shounen and it will have some of those cliches.
Rating: 3.5/5
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