My issue with the Japan vs France match isn’t just that Japan lost. If anything, Japan losing to France makes complete sense. The problem is that the match didn’t do enough to make that loss feel narratively earned, especially with how Rin and France were handled.

The NEL spent a lot of time showing that Rin’s an absolute monster. He wasn’t just another top BL player; he was someone who could take on an entire team by himself. He was so obsessed with his own ideal that he could even throw away a goal just because it didn’t satisfy his idea of a “perfect” goal. That’s how good, and how warped, he was.

Then, after the NEL, everyone was given specialised training to work on weaknesses, sharpen strengths and maybe even discover hidden talents. For Rin, that seemed to be about meditating and learning to control or understand his inner “monster,” instead of just being consumed by it.

So for the manga to basically throw all of that away in the France match is really frustrating. This should’ve been one of Rin’s biggest matches. He was going up against Loki, his former master in the NEL, and players like Charles, who had history with PXG. But instead, Rin spends most of the match feeling almost irrelevant. France barely treats him like a major threat, Loki doesn’t really engage with him in any meaningful way, and Charles acts like Rin basically doesn’t exist.

Then Rin’s main moment is just him getting annoyed that Isagi’s using everyone else to fight France. Instead of showing any real growth from his post-NEL training, he instantly gives in to his monster again and ruins a genuine goal-scoring chance. I get that this is probably meant to show the flaw in Ego’s philosophy: if every striker is taught to prioritise their own goal above everything else, that egoism can eventually destroy the team from within. On paper, that’s a strong idea. But in execution, it makes Rin feel less like a monster who failed to evolve and more like a plot device used to force Japan’s loss.

France has a similar issue. The story clearly wants us to understand that Loki wasn’t taking the match fully seriously, but the match itself doesn’t show that strongly enough until the end. During the weekly releases, a lot of people were genuinely wondering whether France were actually struggling, because Japan were allowed to compete with them for large parts of the match.

That’d be fine if the manga had clearly framed France as experimenting, conserving energy, or playing below their level because they were arrogant. But we don’t get enough of that. So instead of it feeling like France are letting Japan stay in the game, it starts to look like Japan can genuinely contest a team with Loki, Hugo, Charles and the rest of France’s talent.

That weakens the gap between the teams. France should feel like the level Japan isn’t ready for yet. Instead, the match often makes it feel like Japan are one clean play away from matching them, only for Rin to crash the final chance. That makes the result feel less like France exposing BL’s limits and more like Japan losing because the story needed Rin to sabotage the ending.

The stronger version of the match would’ve been to make France’s superiority clearer earlier. For example, Loki and Hugo could’ve had a halftime talk where they admit Japan are more interesting than expected, but still not a real threat. They could say they’ve been conserving themselves for later matches, testing tactics, or avoiding showing too much before playing stronger teams like Spain.

That one scene alone would reframe the whole match. It’d tell the reader that France aren’t struggling because Japan are equal to them; they’re keeping the match alive because they don’t think Japan are worth going all out against.

Then, once Japan score or build momentum, France could decide to take things seriously for ten minutes. Loki, Hugo and Charles could immediately raise the level and score two or three goals in quick succession, completely crushing Japan. Not just on the scoreboard, but mentally. That would make the gap undeniable. It’d also make Loki feel like the monster he’s supposed to be, instead of someone whose dominance only really becomes obvious at the end.

After that, Loki could get subbed off or mentally check out because he’s already proved the point. The rest of the match could then focus on BL imploding: Isagi questioning Ego’s ideology, Karasu pushing another way of thinking, Rin failing to control his ego, and the team slowly realising that pure individualism might not be enough at world level.

Japan would still lose, but the loss would feel like an actual footballing and philosophical defeat. It’d show that Ego’s method has limits, that BL’s egoism can become self-destructive, and that world-class teams are still operating on another level.

That’s why the match feels badly executed to me. The ideas are there. France’s “suitability” philosophy challenging Ego’s egoism is interesting. Isagi being forced to question whether Ego’s method can take them all the way is interesting. Rin becoming the embodiment of BL’s self-destructive side is interesting. But the match doesn’t structure those ideas well enough. It underuses Rin, doesn’t fully sell France’s superiority, and then asks the ending to carry too much weight by itself. Hell, I would've preferred it if Loki was revealed to be wearing leg weights and dropped them mid match like Rock Lee lmfao.

So the problem isn’t that Japan lost. Japan should’ve lost. The problem is that the match needed to make that loss feel inevitable, brutal and educational. Instead, it made Japan look close enough to win, then used Rin as the final excuse for why they didn’t.

It feels like the author didn't actually have a plan set out for the match before they started writing it, once they realised what they wanted, it was too late to execute it properly which is a massive shame. Blue Lock should've been shown they're levels below France, gotten decimated and had to rethink their entire philosophy.

So far we have got
1. Sae
2. Kaiser
3. Lorenzo
4. Loki
5. Bunny
6. Hugo

I don’t remember if Onazi was an NG-11, he probably isn’t. But since it’s an important game, is it possible that England has an NG-11 player in the team? What surprise is waiting for us in the next few weeks?

P.S. I have added the Spoiler tag just to avoid any surprises for anyone!

I say this with love, but I've been waiting for years to see his "sexy football" shooting style. In the early days, they even had some plans to play around him as the main attacker.

But I swear, I've never seen him do anything besides scream and bodyblock people as a defender. I'm not even sure he has ever touched a ball on screen

EDIT: Thanks guys, I forgot that he did actually touch the ball quite a few times. I still want to see his "sexy football" tho

Hiori Yo by me. Trying to draw less realistic and more impressionistic.

he gets past nagi twice on two separate occasions leaving bro utterly shocked by kiyoras play

Hey guys. My first real post here and I'd like to create a discuss about Rensuke Kunigami and his role within the team, and the his possibilities for the future.

I saw many people seemingly disliking the fact of Ego putting him in the DMF position on the France vs Japan game (since he's supposedly to be a "copy" of Noel Noa).

However, I personally loved this narrative choice (even if it seemed temporary) because I always envisioned Kunigami functioning in a defensive position.

Not only because he possesses the necessary specs – with his physical strength, build, and height, he has excellent traits for a defender – but also for the sake of variety among the Team Z members who remain in the story at this point:

• Isagi remained as a Striker, acting as a CAM in certain formations (such as in the game against France);
• Bachira played as a CF at Barcha, but his priority is to play in Midfield (as he has been in the National Team);
• Chigiri works on the flanks: both as a wingback and as a winger.

Therefore, I always found it interesting how Kunigami could gain prominence and a greater chance of participating in games by playing in a more defensive position (after all, the competition in attacking positions is greater because many of the best BL players are in them).

Yes, I remember his stats during the NEL pointed to him functioning as a Striker (with high Shoot and Attack, and low Defense), but that's why I say this could be his path for the future: where he would migrate to a position like a Box-to-box Defensive Midfielder, where he uses his physicality to focus on individual marking – which he already proved being effective as he shown in the Bastard x PXG match, where he restringed Shidou.

Besides, the skills he developed in the Wildcard (like Ambidexterity) are obviously useful in ANY position, and with him functioning in midfield, it would be easy for him to move to counter-attacks (after all, the Blue Lock ideology is for everyone, without exception, to seek their own goals).

I really like this possibility because, playing in that position, I can imagine him functioning as a duo with Karasu, both as DMF (Defensive Midfielder), but with different archetypes. Thus, formations using both of them on the field would be quite reminiscent of the Andrea Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso duo at Milan:

• Karasu, with his high vision, intelligence, and passing accuracy, functioning similarly to Pirlo, as the Regista, focusing as a deep-lying playmaker;
• Kunigami, on the other hand, with his marking ability and high strength, would function like Gattuso, as the "BL ultimate warrior", as Ego said in his personal training letter.

Finally, I like to imagine that perhaps Kunigami's participation in the game against France could serve as a possible foreshadowing of this path and Kunigami's development. With the Wildcard, he was "broken," and his personality changed in an attempt to mold him into the "perfect striker.

But with his transition to a defensive position, focused on protecting the team, perhaps it's a chance for him to begin returning to his former perception as the hero he once was. I feel that it could work narratively.

What you guys think?

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Edit: I wrote this with some images to illustrate, but I needed to take them out or I couldn't post it. Anyone knows why?

It's always Sae this Kaiser that, so let’s flip the script. Who would you rather start in a match, and why?

We never saw this guy play or even touch the field but since he returned for Side-B which he will most likely lose. What are your Headcannons about him?

We need england match crashouts and infighting up scale on both team side for sake of egos and pride and prejudice and been while we had combat maybe sendou upscale

Alternate timeline

Now that Rin's scoring streak has came to an end is Barou the one who has overtaken him? Or does the match against the world 5 damage his record? You could argue that the game was postponed due to Chigiri's leg but Nagi challenged the World 5 on his own with the aid of Zantetsu and tried to score regardless. So does this make Kaiser the most consistent or does this game not count due to being unfinished and Barou has the title of most consistent striker? Also don't bring up Manshine-shown or not basic comprehension will tell you he scored at least ONE goal if not a brace.

Unlucky Arsenal fans

I’m planning on going to Anime Expo for the first time this year, and I think it would be fun to cosplay as Hiori. The problem is i can only seem to find Kaiser or Isagi cosplay online. Is there some secret site that i dont know of?

Found this while scrolling on Pinterest and ngl I lowkey see the Ego simps vision now

Ego might give him a paper telling him where very player from the opposite team will shoot and he’ll memorize that and dive to that direction

If that’s not it then I don’t know if he’ll ever be subbed in this tournament

I heard people hate the artwork/animation of the 2nd season. I have watched a few episodes, and I like it more than the 1st season. Is there something wrong with my eyes?

I think after the last game Rin will get benched and I think Barou is going to play instead.

With how Sae is being saved for only after they make it through the group stages, the expectations for Sae trying from the start will be high as hell. Because right now, we only really saw Sae try at the end of the u20 match, and he lost a 1v1 against Rin (Granted, Rin litterally knows Sae's habits and to some level psychologically).

What makes Akashi so loved is that he backed up all the talk. When you are saying "I am absolute" all the time, you need to prove it, and Akashi did. Dribbling, shooting, passing, Akashi was a menace that broke more ankles in a game than some players do in their career. Even Midorima and Kagami most of the game, both 2 of the upper echelon in the series, got at times humiliated by Akashi.

That is also why Akashi being utterly shaken at the fact he was losing and ended up making bad plays and mistakes worked. He had already proven himself enough, and even afterwards proved himself.

That's why I think Sae should have at least 1 game before Spain. Give Blue Lock not a fodder, but not best of the best, favorite to win nation. Let Sae prove himself, have the blue lockers not able to keep up at first. Because right now, Sae's best feats are against a team full of strikers that just played in other positions. You could argue he has already shown it, but not on the world stage.

Ideally for me, that hypothetical game should have Sae being able to dominate the other team in duels, but Blue Lockers not able to keep up with him initially. This would establish Sae as still the best Japanese player (He is part of NG11, the best players of the generation, he should still be the best initially), and also still give the match a challenge to overcome, because Sae can't just 1v11. Then we can move on to the Spain game and have the heated showdown between Sae and Bunny that is implicit, and Sae's desire to beat Spain. There, we can have Sae's character development focused on. With this, Sae get's his moment of superiority, while not making him overly superior in such a narratively important game.