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Blue Lock (TV) (w/ index).




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Tony K.
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 28, 2022 11:15 pm Reply with quote


Season 01: Blue Lock (TV)
Season 02: Blue Lock vs. U-20 Japan (TV)

Source: Manga (ongoing @ 30 volumes, written by Muneyuki Kaneshiro, illustrated by Yusuke Nomura)

Demographic: Shounen

Animation Studio: Eight Bit

Genres: action, drama, psychological, thriller, tournament

Themes: elimination game, soccer, sports

Plot Summary: After failing to win the World Cup, there's unrest in the Japanese Soccer community. Many of the older patrons of the sport aren't too disturbed by the lack of trophies, but newcomer Anri Teiri is furious – and she's determined to fix what she sees as the problem with Japanese players.

To that end, she hires maverick trainer Jinpachi Ego, who devises a strange yet rigorous plan: he takes the three hundred best young soccer players in the country, sends them to a state-of-the-art training facility, and whittles them down until he has the absolute best striker in the nation. Yoichi Isagi is one of the boys chosen for the camp. He may be number 299 out of 300, but nothing – and no one – is going to stand in his way of coming out on top.

Air Date & Platform:
Season 01: October 8, 2022 (Saturday)
Available on: Crunchyroll

Season 02: October 5, 2024 (Saturday)
Available on: Crunchyroll

Episode Count / Runtime:
Season 1: 24 episodes
Season 2: Pending

Total: 24 episodes
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EPISODE INDEX

(Clicking on the episode will take you to my post that has a summary, comments, and screen-caps)

Episode 01: Dream
Episode 02: Monster
Episode 03
Episode 04
Episode 05

Episode 06
Episode 07
Episode 08
Episode 09

Episode 10
Episode 11
Episode 12
Episode 13
Episode 14
Episode 15

Episode 16
Episode 17
Episode 18
Episode 19
Episode 20

Episode 21
Episode 22
Episode 23
Episode 24


Last edited by Tony K. on Wed Sep 25, 2024 6:02 pm; edited 7 times in total
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Tony K.
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 14, 2022 8:18 pm Reply with quote
Episode 01: Dream

Summary: In the tournament finals, striker Yoichi Isagi, opts to pass the ball to his wide open teammate rather than shooting the goal himself. His teammate misses, and the opposing captain, Ryosuke Kira, kicks the match-clinching goal to advance to the national tournament. Later, Yoichi is summoned to the Japan Football Union and finds himself being one of 300 strikers confined to a remote soccer training facility called Blue Lock, being put through a survival boot camp in order to develop the ultimate striker for the national team with the winner becoming the starting striker and the rest being banned.
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Comments: This will be the first soccer anime I’ve ever watched. I love sports titles, but I hate soccer in real life. Part of the hate comes from the fact that my father loved it, tried to get me to play it, and I sucked at it. I also can’t stand watching the actual sport itself because I feel it’s slow and boring from a technical perspective. The field is so long, the players are so spread out, and it feels like it takes forever to score a goal, if at all(!). For a better version of soccer, watch ice hockey.

I will say while soccer is a team sport, much of the team's effectiveness can be heavily affected by a star player or two. And we all know shounen is about "getting stronger." Although I can't stand soccer in reality, I think it has a ton of potential for a shounen story. And from the looks of the first episode, it feels like it's turning into a mix of elimination game via Battle Royale (2000) and super-unhealthy obsessive over-competitiveness via Whiplash (2014).

Revenge and redemption are my favorite themes in any kind of story. I love how one or the other can drive people way past their limits to achieve great (or sometimes dangerous) things. On the one hand, I'm a very vindictive person. On the other hand, I also hate making mistakes and will do way too much to make up for my own incompetence.

And I am all for Yoichi's cut-throatedness. He passed the ball instead of taking the shot, and his team lost. He carries that burden of losing and will have to redeem himself, if not take out his frustration on all the other Blue Lock contestants. I'm not saying he might not make some stupid mistakes along the way. But that laser focus, in most cases, should be pretty awesome to watch. Consider me very interested in this series.
----------------------------------

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Tony K.
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 16, 2022 6:13 pm Reply with quote
Episode 02: Monster

Summary: Japan Football Union's newest member, Teieri Anri, says she's pissed at the state of the national team and that Ego Jinpachi is Japan's one shot at giving them a chance to compete at a world level through the Blue Lock program. Meanwhile at Blue Lock, Yoichi befriends Meguru, who explains to Yoichi about a "monster" that tells him to do things under times of intense pressure and that Yoichi has one, too. Then at a JFU press conference, Teieri's vehement words capture the attention of Japanese prodigy, Itoshi Sae, who was so good, he had previously been playing in Europe, but now, considers staying in Japan to see the results of Blue Lock.
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Comments: The world expands a little further, as Ego explains the rules of Blue Lock. It's interesting that while only one person will be the victor of this whole program, they still keep the groups together as teams. I'm guessing, at some point, either the best person of each team will have to eliminate his own teammates to develop a cutthroat killer instinct mentality, or that the whole "single victor" gimmick was a smokescreen to find an actual team, instead of a player, for nationals.

I forgot to talk about this in the first episode, but I really like these intense face closeups. The competitiveness of everyone and everything very much fits the over-the-top nature of the show. The heavy outlines almost give the art a Demon Slayer kinda' vibe with how detailed those faces are. I think it really helps add an extra something to the production value.

I'm curious just how far the scope of the story will go. The manga's at 20 volumes and still going. But will it be just about Yoichi and the people in Blue Lock? Will it go beyond the program and actually have a story about the national team? At the same time I'm watching this, I'm also reading Hajime no Ippo on the side (only at Vol. 9, right now, but have seen all the anime), and the scope of that seems to keep going forever (it's currently at 135 volumes).

The irony is that I wasn't much of an appreciator for boxing, either, until Ippo completely changed my perspective. I think Blue Lock is starting to do the same for football (soccer), now, which means a lot, 'cause I really, really dislike the sport.
----------------------------------

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Tony K.
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 11, 2022 5:46 am Reply with quote
[Reserved for ep. 3]
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Tony K.
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 11, 2022 5:46 am Reply with quote
[Reserved for ep. 4]
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 11, 2022 5:46 am Reply with quote
[Reserved for ep. 5]
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 11, 2022 5:46 am Reply with quote
[Reserved for ep. 6]
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 11, 2022 5:47 am Reply with quote
[Reserved for ep. 7]
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 11, 2022 5:47 am Reply with quote
[Reserved for ep. 8]
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 11, 2022 5:47 am Reply with quote
[Reserved for ep. 9]
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2022 11:01 pm Reply with quote
[Reserved for ep. 10]
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 23, 2022 7:11 pm Reply with quote
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smurky turkey



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PostPosted: Wed Nov 27, 2024 6:28 am Reply with quote
So, after having seen a lot of jokes and memes about the animation of the second season I decided to take a look and I have to admit to being surprised. I know people love to exaggerate and dogpile but in this case it is staggering to see the difference between the two seasons.
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