Blue Lock takes sports anime to a whole different level. Its death game-like structure will remind you of anime like Kakegurui or Tomodachi Game.
Just like these psychological series, Blue Lock involves several young players and eliminates them one by one to build Japan’s best striker.
Turns out, a crazy new experimentalist coach (Jinpachi Ego) is all it takes to push Japan out of its sorry state in the soccer World Cups.
With sky-high expectations riding on its back, the Blue Lock anime has finally confirmed that it will debut in October 2022. The very first trailer for the anime has been released, and it will give you a glimpse into the mad experiment that the coach, Ego, came up with.
The video starts by introducing our protagonist, Yoichi Isagi, and his dream of winning the soccer World Cup. Cut to Ego and a new facility he has created, the Blue Lock.
300 of Japan’s top teen strikers have been selected and put into this facility where they go through rigorous training, and elimination games every day. The goal? To build the greatest striker over the ruined careers of 299 others.
The latest visual shows some of the main characters in the anime, along with Jinpachi Ego at the pack. It is complete with chains around the players’ necks that symbolize the Blue Lock.
Some of the other players have also been introduced in the trailer and you can find their voice actors right here:
| Character | Cast | Other Works |
| Wataru Kuon | Masatomo Nakazawa | Haruki Nakayama (Given) |
| Jingo Raichi | Yoshitsugu Matsuoka | Inosuke Hashibira (Demon Slayer) |
| Yūdai Imamura | Shōya Chiba | Ange Yuki (Visual Prison) |
| Gin Gagamaru | Shugo Nakamura | Issei Kuga (TsukiPro the Animation) |
| Asahi Naruhaya | Daishi Kajita | Rael Kertia (Noblesse) |
| Okuhito Iemon | Ryūnosuke Watanuki | Commander (Time Bokan 24) |
| Gurimu Igarashi | Aoi Ichikawa | Pele (Plunderer) |
| Ryōsuke Kira | Kenichi Suzumura | Momotarō Mikoshiba (Free!) |
| Jinpachi Ego | Hiroshi Kamiya | Levi (Attack on Titan) |
| Anri Teieri | Eri Yukimura | Emma (Magnificent KOTOBUKI ) |
The “soccer is a team sport” stereotype will be discarded for good in this anime as only the best player and the ultimate egoist will survive Blue Lock.
No one is an ally, least of all a friend. Can our average skilled protagonist really make it in this cut-throat competition?? Or will he fold sooner than you can blink?
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”.
Source: Official Website
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