Blue Lock is asports animethat gained popularity not so much for its representation of real-life soccer, but for its portrayal of psychological warfare. Blue Lock is the anti-Haikyu: it does away with notions of teamwork and camaraderie. It asks a simple question: is your ego big enough to win?
That’s the question its cast has been struggling to answer for themselves. They may be divided into teams, but only one striker will be declared an all-timer, and that requires breaking bonds as easily as they’re forged. Physical strength and stamina are an advantage, but what really makes a character strong is their mental fortitude. Here are the characters we think could rise above the rest.
10Hyoma Chigiri
Specialty: Speed
If being a prodigy were all it took to win at Blue Lock, Hyoma Chigiri would rank higher. He is one of the most naturally gifted strikers in the entire series. In middle school, Chigiri’s greatest joy lay in football - his sprinting ability is second to none, even after his knee injury.
If there is something other than his bad leg that could make Chigiri stumble, it’s the fact that he’s nice. Blue Lock demands the definitive egotist, and Chigiri isn’t that. The day will come when Chigiri will have to push in front of his teammates, but he only shows traces of that tendency.
9Ryusei Shido
Specialty: Strength
An unpleasant surprise contestant at the end of the first season, Ryusei Shido served as a stark reminder to the Team Z crew that friendship meant little in the race to be Japan’s best striker. Ryusei Shido is overwhelmingly strong and plays football for no reason except that it excites him.
While his physical stats and wake-up game are incredible, Shido’s lack of ambition may be his undoing. He doesn’t have the drive to crush others and tends to get frustrated when his opponents don’t play well. If Shido learns to press his advantage rather than seek worthy opponents, he may well be Japan’s next best striker.
8Jyubei Aryu
Specialty: Reach
Aryu is a charming character: he focuses on being stylish, and dislikes his name because he feels it isn’t cool enough. At six and a half feet tall, Aryu has a massive advantage over everyone else in the sporting battle royale: reach.
As Blue Lock’s tallest contestant, Aryu can cut off shots that would soar over other contestants. He also makes smart use of his entire body, incorporating jumps and chest bumps into his arsenal. It remains to be seen, though, if he has the drive to snatch victory even if it isn’t stylish enough for him.
7Yoichi Isagi
Specialty: Awareness
Isagi is theseries' protagonist, which gives him some degree of plot armour. He was not a breakout star skills-wise, however. Isagi is neither the fastest nor the strongest, and in the early days of the contest, he proved himself to be extremely gullible.
All of that changed once Isagi reinvented his ego. Using his spatial awareness and split-second analytical skills, Isagi can create openings for goals. More importantly, he eventually stops caring about romantic ideals and even sportsmanship: all that matters to him is winning by his own goal. That’s the mindset required to win.
6Shoei Baro
A fallen king, Baro is poised to win at the start of the Blue Lock contest. He has the best physique out of all the contestants, and his ego quickly leads him to dub himself the monarch of his team. He refuses to pass the ball, showing the selfishness worthy of a striker.
However, Baro is eventually surpassed, which is a massive blow to his psyche. Afterwards, Baro reinvents himself as a villain, with world domination as his only focus. Once the scars of his loss fade, Baro may well claw his way back to the top.
5Rensuke Kunigami
If Blue Lock were a typical shounen anime, Kunigami would be the favourite and perhaps even the protagonist. He is well-meaning despite his fiery nature and has all themakings of a hero. It helps that he is physically imposing.
His team-dad status turns out to be all for nought, though, when Kunigami gets eliminated in the First Selection. His return through a wild card segment renders him hostile, with all his initial principles rendered obsolete. This newer, meaner Kunigami has the makings of a winner, the nicer one couldn’t be.
4Meguru Bachira
Specialty: Technique
Don’t let Bachira’s friendly demeanour and winning smile fool you: this man is hiding a monster within himself. Isagi learns this the hard way, as his initial reliance on Bachira results in a rude awakening when the latter cuts him off.
As a young boy, Bachira was bullied due to his quirkiness, leading him to become a lone wolf. With only his imaginary friend keeping him company, Bachira polished his football technique to a high sheen; stealing the ball from him is simply out of the question, so waiting for him to pass is a smarter idea.
3Seishiro Nagi
Nagi is a perfect example of talent getting trumped by lack of ambition - for most of the First Selection, he is utterly unmotivated and skips practice to play video games instead,making him a poor team player. This frustrates his best friend Reo, because Nagi is perhaps the most gifted athlete out of all the contestants. What he lacks in raw strength or speed he makes up for with amazing - and instinctual - control over the ball.
After his will to play is stoked in a few exciting matches, Nagi becomes a more willing participant, cementing his place among the top contestants. Unfortunately for Reo, this comes at the cost of their friendship. After being pampered by him for years, Nagi casts Reo aside in true egoist fashion.
2Rin Itoshi
Rin Itoshi has something besides ambition driving him to win: revenge. As a child, he worshipped the ground his brother played football on, getting better simply to impress the latter. Once his brother left for Spain, Rin was left directionless.
Absent a guiding hand, Rin became bitter and overzealous in his drive to excel. His goal is to defeat his big brother, and he displays an almost complete lack of interest in forging bonds with his fellow contestants. He frequently breaks others down by telling them their goals were unimpressive, and he has the skillset to back up his words. Rin also has the PR skills to become a football star, as he is shown to be fluent in English and can communicate with international soccer players.
1Sae Itoshi
After a First Selection filled with high-level matches, it is a humbling experience for the contestants of Blue Lock to find out that they aren’t even close to beating international football players. This was something Sae Itoshi discovered for himself: when he went to Spain, abandoning his younger brother in the process, he realized that Japan’s football teams were far behind the rest of the world.
Due to his disillusionment with Japanese football, Sae Itoshi makes sporadic appearances, often visiting only to renew his passport. Yet he is without a doubt a master of his craft: his world-class skillset, shown in a match against the Blue Lock Eleven, shows that the main characters have a long way to go.
