Team work, mutual cooperation and trust. Omnipresent in Slam Dunk, Haikyuu, Kuroko no Basket and other popular team sports stories, there's no end to the nakama powa jokes that derive as a result. Romanticized with the sweat, tear and blood-stained trials and tribulations of the large casts of athletes, how could one possibly not feel the gallant appeal of sports?

In a fit of pubescent rebellion, Blue Lock emerges as a slight and intriguing contrarian to these ubiquitous themes. Combining psychology and sports, Blue Lock depicts a cynical approach to teamwork and trust. The borders between victory and loss aren't defined by pretty optimisms of friendship, but how well you use both your allies and enemies to climb higher in this survivalist game called Blue Lock.

Today's friend is tomorrow's enemy

Blue Lock's refreshing depiction of teamwork is one of its great selling points. The set-up immediately perks up your ears; a survivalist game set in a prison-esque complex to root out the best soccer youth talents across Japan in a new project to revitalize Japanese soccer. However, this also prevents the altruism of teamwork to infest the characters. Complementing the prison complex setting, their "escape" relies on either losing or winning. Second chances such as a next season tournament are disallowed. One mistake means an eternal boot from their entrance in professional soccer. Thus, rather than the path to victory relying on their teammates, Blue Lock forces its characters to contemplate how to utilize their teammates. Romanticized uncertainty, that is unconditional trust, is replaced by pragmatism.

These games are wildly enthralling and intense. The different progression stages nurture and sharpen our characters' skills in midst of their play-offs. Though ego is a large and repeated aspect of these games, the good ol' trust n' teamwork is facilitated, as well. And I do mean trust and teamwork, at their most watered down components. Blue Lock doesn't highlight friendship nearly as much as basic, neutral teamwork. The atypical nature of the setting and plot removed from the usual high-school sports club ensures that the characters learn how to cooperate and adjust to new teammates, rather than one team that they'd stick to for all 3 years of high-school and whatnot. Thus, very interesting, unexpected and new character chemistries are born frequently out of the unique mish-mash of skill sets and personalities in this series.

Technical mechanics

In a similar vain to Kuroko no Basket, Blue Lock incorporates the supernatural for entertaining abilities. There's exaggerations of intangible abilities and skills, such as dynamic vision, with shounen type beat special skill names and other explicit visual cues indicating a character's "zone".

However, don't let that mislead you to believing Blue Lock sports mechanics is based in nothing but shounen pseudo-fantasy. The games are brimming with interesting strategies, heavily supplemented by forced adaptation to unexpected development and player growth. There's no compromise of entertainment and pragmatic play found here. The commentary and visual graphs smoothly break down the players' moves and strategies while maintaining a severe intensity in their plays. Those ignorant of ball-isms, like myself, and soccer enthusiasts alike will have great voyeuristic pleasure watching Isagi and co. fight it out on the grass field.

SHEEEEEESHHH

Nomura Yuusuke's art-style breathes kinetic energy and sharpness into Blue Lock. His previous work on Dolly Kill Kill already promised his creatively intense and dark art-style. He alchemizes the supernatural with real-life for erratically, goosebump-inducing action. The characters' "zone" is explicitly drawn out in flamboyant, fiery fashion, making their presence on the field all the more intimidating. The characters are greatly elevated by their entertainingly animated facial expressions, especially their intense eyes burning from a hunger for victory or dullness from losing the match.

Almost every chapter features exceptional stand-out panels blasting with wild motion, as well. I've lost count the sheer quantity of metaphoric nuts I've busted from them. The euphoric peak action is very easily among the best of sports manga I've read up until now. Yuusuke utilizes erratic vector lines and demon-like character expressions for the most exciting of these scenes. Attempting to further verbalize the extent of Blue Lock's art would be futile and monotonous, so enjoy some samples below.

Conclusion

Blue Lock is on an alarming rise. Brimming with a unique plot, thematic nuances atypical to most team-sports manga, and crisp, wild art; you'll be as hungry as our characters for more. Although I'm not one much for sports anime, my first-born child will unfortunately have to be offered to the gods in trade for an anime adaptation of this series. There's little more to say than, read this fucking kino.