#isagi yoichi meta | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

just-some-sorta-person · 6 months

Text

Nagi's "Hidden Path"/ Loophole

*featuring Isagi, Bachira, and Rin analysis*

I've been thinking a lot about how Nagi represents a "hidden path" in Bluelock, and the ways in which it seems the main manga and episode Nagi disagree on whether he should succeed- the key issue being his relationship with Reo. He plays soccer for their collective dream in a manga where depending on another character for your motivation is treated as soccer suicide, which should doom him, but his own manga starts with the statement that his genius is shaped by Reo - framed as a good thing.

I've said in the past that maybe Nagi will succeed by Episode Nagi's standards, but fail by Blue Lock standards, and I still think that would be an interesting path to take, but rn I wanna discuss the alternative that Nagi succeeds by both standards, even if to a lesser extent in the main manga since Isagi is the MC. And we're assuming here that his relationship with Reo isn't permanently severed in a way that makes him more similar to every other Bllk character bc that would make him much less interesting and also remove the "hidden path" aspect that we're expecting here.

So for him to succeed by both standards, I think what essentially needs to happen is that Nagi represents a loophole or caveat in Blue Lock's philosophy. And to understand why that would be the case, we'd have to understand WHY playing for anyone but yourself is a bad thing in Blue Lock. And there are plenty of examples to draw from.

Isagi and "All for One"

We can start with the "One for all, all for one" team Isagi was in- the most extremely dependent soccer we see. I'll be drawing from Isagi's Light Novel for this, because it really just spells it out. First, let's look at the reasoning for that "all for one" given in response to Isagi's request to shoot more:

“Up until now, You could have won matches with your individual skills, but high school isn’t a piece of cake... We win together, and become stronger together! If you do that, then you'll have double the joy! And half the sorrow!”

The reasoning given here isn't that the resulting soccer is better at winning games - rather there is an emphasis on safety. "the world is tough", "If we stick together, there's half the sorrow". And within that emphasis, is the implication that the individual isn't enough.

We can also see complacency in this ideaology. When Ichinan loses, the coach says

“You fought well. It’s frustrating, but this is what Ichinan is capable of now. The third years are leaving after this… and some of you might quit soccer after today but you can be proud of the days you fought together as a team." "To me, Ichinan’s soccer team…is the best team in Japan!!!”

Within this dream doping that Ego rants about later on, we can again see the acceptance on the individual not being enough - "You fought well... but this is what Ichinan is capable of now." We also see within the dream doping the injection of safety and lack of perceived agency. Because we are one unit, there is no blame, no frustration, no need for improvement. The point is the team, not to win, so be proud.

Most damning is the way we see this reflected in Isagi

There’s no need to take a risky battle. If they lose, it will be his fault and he will feel bad for the team. He makes an exquisite pass to Tada's feet. A perfect last pass.

What's emphasized here is the risk in making an egotistical decision for the whole team in believing himself good enough to make that shot himself. What essentially happens here is a devaluing of the self - " I'm not good enough on my own, its safer to trust others, trust the system, not your instincts" And that forces Isagi to not live up to his fullest potential, to chase what he wants. Until Blue Lock that is.

Bachira and the Monster

Bachira is probably the character most directly "punished" in the narrative for playing for someone else. Though I feel like punish is the wrong word because this problem with his ego reared its head and was resolved in the same game - once he realized the problem, Bachira resolved to solve it

According to Bachira's explanation

"...Until now, I was afraid of playing soccer by myself. I guess I wanted you to come save me. But, once I tried fighting on my own, like I'd done as a kid, I realized...

And so the problem with his habit of looking for another player when playing instead of focusing on himself was again the perceived lack of agency, and devaluing of the self. Longing for someone to play soccer with led to a dependency that negatively impacted his decisions on the field

So that's why his moment of growth was breaking through all on his own to steak back Isagi and win - ignoring the idea that he should wait for someone else to help him. He needed to believe in his own agency/value to prove himself on the field and achieve his goals.

Rin and Sae

I recently took a look at Rin's Light Novel and there was a line that stood out as kinda similar to Bachira's old habit of passing to an imaginary monster before coming to Blue Lock

he understood why things were not going well. Neither their coach nor his other teammates have the slightest idea of Rin’s image of play in his head. (If it was Nii-chan, he would have made a pass here……) he thought so many times during today's practice. He jumped out in front of the goal to a position where I said, “Here!” but his teammates were like, “Huh?” “There?”

So whether you're passing or shooting, a reliance can develop, huh...

(How do Bachirin shippers feel about this parallel? haha. And what does this say about what Rin says to Bachira "But afraid of fighting alone. It is a soccer looking for someone. That luke-warm ego won't make my heart dance". Cus it seems Rin is criticizing Bachira for doing the same thing he did. What does this mean about how Rin feels about himself? (I mean.. he did already call himself lukewarm later but was he thinking about himself in that moment?))

In the light novel, I think it becomes clear one reason why Sae is so against Rin using him as his reason for soccer - it definitely affects how Rin plays when Sae is away. And since Sae becomes aware of the competition outside Japan during his time abroad, he knows that Rin's mentality as it was wouldn't be enough and thus wanted to spare him the suffering and have him give up. And this is in combination with the idea of "I've found out, that I'm not strong enough to hold you up. If you rely on me you'll fail" At least, this is my interpretation of it - but moving on-

With Rin’s last pass, they score a shot. If his Nii-chan had been there, he would have passed the ball to him in front of the goal and he would have scored it directly….. He stopped thinking. No pass is coming. That is now the reality. Anyway, the team won for the first time in a long time.

We see a lack of agency and a reliance on others once again - "If only Nii-chan was here". Like with Bachira, Rin is waiting for someone to "save" him, which limits what he chooses to attempt and stifles his potential because of how it limits his perceived agency.

We can also see this limitation in how he wants to be 2nd best after Sae - not best (de-valuing). It causes Rin to seal off his ego in order to catch up to Sae, by being more similar to Sae instead of developing according to his own unique talents/ego.

In order to catch up with his Nii-chan he saw off at the airport, he has to make the team’s victory his top priority. To do so, he must hold himself back. Hold back the you who was trying to steal the goal with everything you have using that sense of smell for the goal and assemble an attack as a team play.

Even after Sae's return he's always on Rin's mind, and this still limits his soccer. It's only after Rin declares himself lukewarm and rejects the stories others create through their relationship with him that he is able to go all out by embracing his own personal style, rather than focusing on others.

Back on Topic!

So in summary, what is wrong with depending on others? What causes Blue Lock to default to individualism? Ultimately it seems like its the resulting lack of perceived agency - the idea that you can't do things without other people present. By constraining yourself into a narrative with other people, you limit what you can do, and you limit what you think you can do by molding yourself to their vision. Thus, your potential is stifled.

How can Nagi and Reo become an exception to this reasoning? Well, maybe Nagi's decision to leave Reo during 2nd selection is part of the key.

We know from Episode Nagi and Manshine that Nagi wants to improve for the sake of his and Reo's collective dream. And he (correctly) identifies following soccer that challenges/excites him as the proper way to improve.

Here, Reo identifies them playing together as a must, but Nagi corrects him and saying that them being the best in the world together is a must, saying (in his head T-T) that he likes being with him, but that in order to protect their dream, Nagi needs to change.

It's actually pretty much spelled out here. Nagi says he's fine with Reo playing with other people, but insists that Reo stay with him till the end. Its ok to play soccer with others, but keep me in your heart always. In other words, I don't mind not playing together, but you and our end goal is always in my heart.

This is different from Isagi, Bachira, or Rin's situation because in those cases, the team/monster/Sae were considered as key to success. However, in Nagi's case, success is key to Reo. It's completely reversed. It's that nuance of "I play soccer to play soccer with you, to win with you" vs. "I play soccer for you, I win for you". Because "playing together" is not a requirement for winning, it no longer acts as a constraint that restricts agency. Nagi's concept of being together separate from playing soccer together saves their partnership from being the same as the others and frees him to (for example) join Isagi to improve.

You can see more of this in epinagi

The Tag Game

You might say this is a bad example because Nagi relies on Reo to get him un-eliminated, but by Nagi's "I figured you'd do that, Reo..." we can guess that this was more from laziness than a belief that he needed Reo's help. Indeed, when Reo's in danger of being eliminated himself, when their dream is in any real danger, Nagi takes it upon himself to solve the issue

They didn't solve the problem relying on teamwork/partnership or anything. Nagi solved the problem because they're partners.

Playing Against Barou

The next time their dream is "Challenged" is when Barou says "Becoming the world's best striker means you'll be alone until you die", essentially a challenge to the viability of Nagi and Reo's dream. Nagi's response to that is to run off and instigate a 1v1 with Barou

So again, rather than deny Nagi options, his partnership with Reo provided the motivation to act out on his own.

Playing against Team Z

Even when they play against team Z, we see this in action. Nagi plays a more reliant soccer, his dream/Reo is challenged when he sees Reo's face, and Nagi decides to act out on his own.

Nagi will rely on Reo for the sake of laziness, but when it comes to their dream, there's this pattern of deciding to rely less on Reo, take destiny into his own hands, and make an effort. It's really that nuance of doing something to be with someone vs. doing something for someone.

Beyond 1st/2nd Selection

Brief mention here of Nagi's eyes shining when Reo says "But it's not enough" when Nagi praises him. I think this might be Nagi thinking its a sign that Reo in fact has not forgotten their promise and is also working to achieve it - consistent with the idea of being together without necessarily playing together (Whereas Reo is thinking the other way round - improving for the sake of playing together because that's the only way to be together)

So, where this theory hits its roadblock is the Manshine City Arc, where Nagi asks for Reo's help. But because of all the ominous foreshadowing afterwards, in addition to Ego's words that Nagi's deep ego (implied by timing of skull imagery +all the scenes I just listed to be Reo/dream-centric) is about to be tested, I think their dynamic is bound to change in some direction within the next game. So, their relationship is still in development and the theory isn't necessarily debunked.

**edited in addition** I think the key is that regardless of their behavior, the core of their partnership (ie their internal feelings) isn't dependency, but rather reciprocated faith and commitment, though especially with Nagi's communication and introspection issues, it may take some time for them to figure that out because Reo has no idea the faith that Nagi has in him. Reo actually assumes that their partnership can't exist without dependence - assumes its over when that dependence fades because Nagi will have no reason to stay with him, but this is him insecurely misinterpreting Nagi's intentions. They also can't really flourish until Nagi figures out his ego/motivation, though that's luckily foreshadowed to be addressed. I think with how Reo misinterprets Nagi's motivations on a shallow level in 207, and how Nagi's motivation is foreshadowed to be addressed soon, we will get nagireo communication soon timeline wise (not real life lol). And hopefully with that communication, Reo's insecurity + Nagi's motivation can be addressed and they can begin to figure out a functional partnership within Blue Lock. But really the key here is that faith and devotion don't necessitate playing with only each other in mind, while dependence/reliance does.

In terms of what will happen, I think we might finally get a confirmation of what Nagi's ego is - it certainly fits with their conversation in 207, where Reo tries to give a substitute that doesn't really fit. I'm not sure what would happen once Nagi and Reo have the clarity of understanding what Nagi's ego is though...

In Any Case!

I'm running out of fuel but just to let ya'll know I was thinking really hard about what the difference was between Nagi and Reo's dynamic in comparison to partnerships or teamwork criticized by the main manga and I did not expect the difference I came up with to be the difference between reliance and devotion. "I am not enough by myself" vs. "I will make myself enough for you". I still wonder if I'm just biased?

Plz lmk ur thoughts

link to a continuation of these thoughts - Hiori's Words, Reo's Insecurity, Nagi's Enforced Indifference

#reo mikage #nagi seishiro #isagi yoichi #bachira meguru #rin itoshi #bllk meta #blue lock meta #nagireo #reonagi #bllk #blue lock #Nagi's utter devotion lives rent free in my head #episode nagi

132 notes · View notes

oliveraiku · 1 year

Text

I love how this is Isagi’s character core point: differently from the other guys in Blue Lock, who have always known to be good - and have always played to their strengths enhancing them throughout the narrative, Isagi on the other hand has no delusions about being above average player skills. He simply understands reality as it is, and that is exactly why is he both able to evolve, and be as rational as he is, at the same tome incurring in the ires of the other players and putting them in their plays.

Isagi’s real weapon here is being with his feet well placed on the ground: he sees things as they are, he processes them rationally and then acts on them. Unlike Rin, the same Shidou, Barou, Kaiser and Yukimiya - Isagi is a realist. He is never been in the situation when he was the best, and has no expectations for himself or what he can achieve: there is no peak, it’s all a road up and above.

It’s also why Ego’s commentary in this chapter is important: what he says for Nagi and Yukimiya is a bit of a general discourse that Isagi has applied unknowingly now for a while. Once a player is over in his head above himself (somewhat Kunigami) it’s over: they believe a fluke is their ability and when they fail to up keep with their own expectations and those of others, they start yo fall into a pattern that eventually makes them mediocre, instead of true egoists.

On the other hand, Isagi by the virtue of now having a self to fall onto, a talent he can use, of not being as good as, is able to put himself in the situation where he can learn, where he can best the others by exploiting not only his own strengths but also their weaknesses. It’s about about an ‘I’ type of ego, but an ego that makes you conscious of yourself in the field and your position: it’s a selfish ego that makes you jump when the moment is right. It’s not about a “I will do this all alone”, but a “I will make it happen, because I am the only one able to make it happen” and that, my folks is Isagi’s essence.

He is an egoist because he has learned to cope with his faulty self and has passed a stage where he is the challenged rather than the challenger. Isagi IS evolution because he does not care about falling prey to mistake - but instead uses them to devour himself all over again.

#blue lock #bllk #blue lock manga #bllk manga #isagi yoichi #ego jinpachi #nagi seishirou #yukimiya kenyu #i really liked this chapter #bllk 196 #blue lock 196 #blue lock analysis #bllk analysis #meta #blue lock meta

540 notes · View notes

gachagon · 8 months

Text

Kaiser's in his "I can't win, but you can lose" phase uh oh...!

It's also interesting to note that Kaiser sees this game as a battle between him and Isagi, and truthfully in the beginning it definitely seemed like one. But now, Isagi is so fixated on just trying to beat Barou and stay ahead of the game, that he doesn't even seem to care about Kaiser or Ness or any of the silly drama they had in the previous chapters.

I wrote earlier in my post about how "Kaiser doesn't know what Isagi's thinking" that Kaiser misunderstands every little action Isagi takes in games. He presumes that Isagi is anxious when he gets quiet, when it's the opposite. He seemingly has no idea how him and Isagi keep going for the ball at the same time. He's annoyed because they're always on the same page, and while Isagi sees that as the two of them working together, Kaiser only sees competition. He sees someone who is directly competing against him rather than someone he could potentially work together with.

And it's also cool how in the above image, Isagi was thinking this about someone else entirely, but its framed like the two of them are facing off against one another. Essentially Kaiser is losing to Isagi in this game, there's no doubt about that. And the reason for it is because Isagi is so fixated on other players, that he won't even pay Kaiser any attention during the game.

Isagi isn't using Kaiser to make plays, or stealing balls from Kaiser, and I don't think they've even spoke to one another that often during the whole match. With that in mind, it does make sense no why Kaiser looks like he's ready to murder someone in that panel because he's stuck in a one sided rivalry with someone who he believed was easy to beat.

And here kaiser is again making predictions for what he thinks Isagi will do. So far in the game he has been right about what plays Isagi will make, but that's just because the two of them are thinking the same things (so they incidentally end up playing the same way). Kaiser might only be thinking this is what Isagi's plan is because that's what he would do.

But we know already from Isagi's conversation with Hiori that our star player...really has no fucking clue what they're gonna do next lmao:

Though who knows, Kaiser and Isagi are still on the same page just unwillingly:

Maybe if they finally work together in this game they have a chance of winning it. Bastard Munchen is SO disorganized though (by design) with different players all trying to just beat one another alongside the other team. They need to be able to at least see the field in the same way or else they won't be able to keep up.

#bllk #blue lock manga spoilers #blue lock meta #bllk meta #isagi yoichi #micheal kaiser #hiori yo #kaisagi

111 notes · View notes

starweed · 17 days

Text

heyyy, guess who’s back with more thoughts about itoshi rin????

so, we’ve already established that rin is a very extrinsically motivated person, at least when it comes to football. he doesn’t play football for himself, and he never has. and in a setting like blue lock i just don’t think that’s a sustainably way to play football. blue lock is a place that wants people have a real love for the sport, and would play it every single day of their lives if they could. ego wants people who want to win and want to be the best striker in the world.

rin,, doesn’t really want that. sure, he wants to beat isagi and prove his brother wrong, but that’s not really a longterm, sustainable goal. what happens when he succeeds? does he just stop and say, “okay, that’s good enough”? what happens if he never succeeds? if isagi just continually gets better and better and rin never beats him in a way that makes sae acknowledge him?

having extrinsic motivations is good and normal, but you also eventually have to do things that you want to do for you or you’re going to get burnt out. and i feel like that’s the path that rin’s headed towards if we’re being realistic about this. he just goes and goes and goes in a really unsustainable way, and eventually it’s going to catch up to him.

he’s a really interesting foil to isagi, who’s motivations are almost entirely intrinsic. part of why isagi’s mindset feels more sustainable to me is because he really only plays football for himself. he plays because he really loves the sport. and we don’t ever really see that in rin, so i feel like it’s eventually going to kind of blow up in his face as we’ve seen in previous rounds of blue lock.

or i’m entirely wrong about this. idk, i’m not kaneshiro. i’m just saying that i don’t think that rin’s got anything sustainable going on in how he plays football ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

#original post #blue lock #itoshi rin #rin’s really good at football #that’s why he’s survived in blue lock for so long #i just don’t think that being really good at football is all that ego’s looking for in a striker #also #jsyk #i love rin so so so much #he’s my special little boy #i just also think that maybe just maybe he should find a reason to play football for himself before he burns out and decides to never play #again #he doesn’t seem like he really enjoys the sport anymore #and that makes me sad #because he deserves to have fun with the thing that he’s apparently going to spend the rest of his life doing #he’s only sixteen #he deserves to enjoy the life that he’s living #isagi yoichi #ig #he was mentioned #i feel like i talk a lot #get him on a volleyball court with hinata and kageyama #they’ll force him to find some enjoyment with what he’s doing #okay i’m done #does this count as meta?#meta post #blue lock meta #okay for real this time #bye

19 notes · View notes

usagi-yoichi · 1 year

Text

I really like chapter 196 for one main reason : it shows the difference between “égoïsme” and “égocentrisme”.

In French, those words respectively mean egotism and self centeredness but they sound so similar it’s easy to mistake one for another. Even in English, you’d tend to think they have the same meaning but I think this chapter how they’re fundamentally different personally traits. They affect the behavior differently.

Being egotistical means to puts oneself before all others - to prioritize your success over theirs if given a choice and to maximise your own chances. Being self centered means to acknowledge your and only your needs or desires.

The difference here is that while a self centered person could never cooperate with someone - only manipulate or use them -, an egotistical person could cooperate if it would enhance its chances at succeeding. For an egotistical person, there is only conflict with others’ choices and wants when they will hinder their own - a self centered individual doesn’t even take the possibility of others’ needs into consideration.

I believe Isagi is an egotistical but not a self centered person. He works to win - he doesn’t wish for it, doesn’t think it’s granted or believe anyone owes him anything. Victory is something he achieves for himself and with others. It’s something obtained by being rational and pragmatic, being lucid regarding his own abilities.

Egotism by Isagi means achieving victory by his own means and with his own capacities. Most of the time, it means scoring as he’s a striker, but if it’s not possible then it’s cooperating with others to create a situation in which everyone’s potential merges to overcome odds they couldn’t individually. To use and be used for the sake of victory. To win because you know you are able to and you want to. Being self centered means you’ll try to achieve victory regardless of your abilities because you believe you deserve so - that somehow things will work your way. Egoism means winning to grow and work to win.

131 notes · View notes

miyamiwu · 1 year

Note

I have some unpopular opinions. Sorry that they're long and became a bit ranty.

I like Igaguri and the Wanima brothers.

I wish Reo got more meaningful interactions with characters besides Nagi, it feels like atm he has no friends outside of Nagi (RIP Zantetsu, Chigiri is Nagi's friend but hasn't been shown as being more than "friend of a friend" with Reo). He's one of the best-written characters (especially whenever Nagi isn't in the scene), it's sad how he's so often reduced by some fans to just being a Nagi simp whose entire world revolves around Nagi and who will die if Nagi spends even a millisecond breathing the same air as Isagi.

Nagi and Chigiri's friendship is underrated and I wish we got to see more of it. It's just a genuine normal friendship, Chigiri is Nagi's first normal friend with no strings attached, they just became friends by fooling around. They even continue hanging out (with Bachira too) after Isagi leaves to see Tada-chan despite Nagi saying he was going to leave too.

Rin-Isagi is the most boring of all the rivalries in the series. Their personalities, designs and playstyles don't clash enough for what is seemingly set up as being the story's main rivalry. It also doesn't help how one-sided it is for most of the story and we don't get to see any of it after Rin acknowledges Isagi as a rival. They feel too similar atm, so it comes across more as a minor rivalry (like Niko-Isagi) instead of a major one (Kaiser-Isagi, Shidou-Rin).

Speaking of Rin rivalries, Rin-Bachira could have been a great one. Bachira needs a proper rival, he's pretty friendly with most of the relevant cast and outside of Isagi, none of his relationships with the rest of the cast really stand out except for him being a bit passive-aggressive with Rin and Shidou. He has a lot of personality, design and playstyle clashes with Rin that it would have been fun to watch/read. A bit of a wasted opportunity.

Hey @08theverysmallhuman here’s a fellow Igaguri fan. As for the Wanima brothers, I don’t really have much of an opinion on them. We haven’t seen big bro in a while.

And Reo is friends with Isagi! We don’t see them together much, but these two has had several meaningful conversations. This one is my favorite:

We’ve also seen Reo reach out to Kunigami:

I agree with you though that Reo deserves more friends! He’s more than just a Nagi simp.

And oh, I’d love to see more of Nagi and Chigiri just hanging out. Maybe we’d get to see more of it if the manga shows us the aftermath of the Germany vs England match on nagireo’s side. I think Nagi and Reo are gonna have another conflict soon. When that happens, Chigiri can be there for Nagi.

As for the Rin-Isagi rivalry, I actually think it’s similar to Kaiser-Isagi but of a lower level since Kaiser is on a higher level. Both the Rin and Kaiser rivalries are similar in that Rin and Kaiser are basically just better versions of Isagi. What Isagi learns from both of them is a more advanced way of seeing the field–improved spatial awareness, so to speak.

And actually, I don’t think Rin is Isagi’s main rival. Rin is only the main rival in the Second Selection and u20 arc. In the NEL arc, the main rival is Kaiser.

After ch202, I think we’ll see more variety in the Isagi rivalries where it isn’t just Isagi vs Better Isagi. Isagi has achieved metavision, which is probably the peak of his spatial awareness weapon. Now, he needs to work on his physical skills to really be the best striker.

May I also push my agenda that Isagi’s main rival/final boss is going to be Bachira? Bachira is a very skilled player, and skills are what Isagi lacks the most. Not to mention the contrast in how they operate: logic vs intuition. There’s a lot of build-up for it too. I’m gonna have to write a meta on it someday.

And yesss, I also really want Bachira to have his own rival. Rin-Bachira would be interesting, but so is Kaiser-Bachira. But those two are already Isagi’s, so I hope the rival is a new character or a character not yet explored much. I’m hoping it’s Aomori’s Messi, Nishioka, who we are yet to see. Bachira-Ness and Bachira-Kurona would be good if author wants to explore Bachira’s midfielder potential. But personally, I prefer if it’s a striker vs striker rivalry. And seriously, among the list of possible striker rivals, only Bachira-Isagi has been built up a lot.

38 notes · View notes

fyeahbachisagi · 1 year

Text

Isagi on Being Chosen

Guuuuys, I am so emotional tonight (well, technically it’s 5am over here, but I haven’t slept yet…)

Because of this discussion I had with @takeunknownroadnow about how devastated Isagi was over losing Bachira, I suddenly realized just how much of Isagi’s self-esteem was hit.

My thoughts here would make more sense if you read the post I linked above, so please do so first ^^

Like, yeah, we saw him being whiny for a bit right after losing Bachira. But he gradually turned badass throughout the rest of the arc that it led me to think he’s over it and has gotten more confident with himself. And he did! He really did but...

When Rin chose him, he didn’t even look happy.

I mean, yeah, he just lost the game so of course he’s upset. But the thing is, he doesn’t understand why anybody would choose him. This whole time, Isagi has been fighting tooth and nail with the belief that if he lost, he won’t be chosen–not even by Bachira.

And then there’s this:

Isagi’s emotional trauma this arc had started with Bachira telling him he won’t wait for him, and now we’ve come full circle with Bachira choosing him in the end.

“I’ve learned how to fight without you, but it’s way more fun with you around.”

And this line is so beautiful and exactly what Isagi needed to hear at this moment.

Isagi has just lost to Rin twice. He is convinced that his skills are lacking. Why would anybody want him on their team? And then here comes Bachira choosing him anyway not for his skills but simply for who he is, and Isagi…

Isagi looks found, saved…

I don’t know how to describe it. But the expression he makes here moves me just as much as this one by Bachira:

It’s really interesting how Bachira’s and Isagi’s emotional arcs resolved. For Bachira, who was waiting to be chosen, it was him fighting for the strength and right to choose. And for Isagi, who’d been convinced that nobody would ever choose him, was to be chosen by the very person he’s been chasing this whole time.

I am in tears...

#seriously i am crying right now #i love these two so much i can’t #blue lock #bachira meguru #isagi yoichi #bachisagi #bllk #spoilers #blue lock spoilers #bllk spoilers #blue lock manga #blue lock meta #miyamiwu.meta #miyamiwu.src #bachisagi supremacy #isagi to bachira

327 notes · View notes

boinin · 9 months

Text

Broken Hero: Kunigami's journey in the Neo Egoist League

Overanalysing one edgy orange

0. Background and references

This weekend, I read an excellent analysis on Kunigami on Reddit (it spawns things other than fraud allegations and thirst posts sometimes)... and I was not OK as a result.

I'd been building up to writing an analysis of Kunigami's character for some time, and when the hyperfocus kicked in, it kicked in hard.

Come with me to explore how Kunigami's character arc and journey may pan out within the Neo Egoist League. Manga spoilers throughout, including up to the latest chapters (226 at time of writing).

I'd highly recommend reading StarBurstero's analysis (and their other work!) as this piece heavily draws on the points they raise.

All manga panels are sourced from the official translations, due to the possibility of nuance and foreshadowing that may not arise in scanlations.

Like this? Want to reference these points in your own analysis, on Reddit, YouTube, wherever? Go ahead! A shout out to this post is appreciated. (Straight up plagiarism isn't.)

Pre-Wildcard Kunigami: a wannabe hero

Kunigami has his grumpier moments in the first selection (see: him yeeting Bachira, or breaking up fights), but all in all he's a stand up guy. That's clear from his interaction with Isagi in the cafeteria, where they both share his goal-point steak.

Another character defining moment for him takes place after Team Z's victory against Team V. Kunigami doesn't support Kuon's actions, but he is willing to forgive him now that all has been settled. Raichi is decidedly less forgiving. But Kunigami lingers, and helps a bloodied Kuon to his feet. The choice of dialogue is interesting.

We'll advance together. We know this won't be the case. Both Kuon and Kunigami fail in the second selection, and Kunigami is the sole participant that leaves Wild Card.

But nevertheless, this exchange showcases Kunigami's core attitude. He sees the best in people. He values teamwork and unity, even if he shows egotism in relation to his own goals. He's someone that helps others.

2. What canon information do we have on Wild Card?

...just crumbs. Information on Wild Card has been intentionally vague, with only Ego, Kunigami, and possibly Noa knowing what happened.

Ego simply calls it a secondary route for the losers, and doesn't specify whether there were any entry requirements. The pile of bodies and the attention given to hands suggests two things.

Firstly, contrary to my own assumptions, Wild Card was likely open to all participants eliminated during the second selection. Ego threw the losers a bone, despite having a very specific outcome in mind. The vast majority wouldn't have had a hope of meeting the criteria.

Is that cruel? Maybe. But it's consistent with Ego's attitude towards "lumps of talent". He admitted both Chigiri and Isagi into Blue Lock despite their lacklustre performances in high school, on the basis that the programme might bring forth their sealed egos. He was proven correct.

The focus on hands, other than being creepy, hints at ambidexterity being a key deciding factor in the Wild Card programme. Kunigami confirms this above, in a panel from chapter 213.

Kunigami himself refers to Wild Card as a survival battle, where participants had to match Noa's physical specs number for number. He implicitly confirms that he himself got the closest to Noel Noa's physical abilities, thus winning Wild Card.

3. Kunigami's mindset

We're all Isagi in the bottom corner of that last panel, wanting to know more. But Kunigami has yet to elaborate.

In the Reddit post I linked, StarBurstero theorises what's going through Kunigami's angsty little head: becoming the best striker. Not a midfielder, not a false nine - a striker, and only that. The author proposes that, having had to crush and eliminate everyone in Wild Card, Kunigami has limited empathy for those such as Isagi and Kurona, who are remoulding themselves into other roles to fit into Bastard Munchen.

This tallies with how Noa sees himself, in explaining the distinction between him (the world's best striker), and Snuffy (the world's best player) in chapter 223.

As a player Isagi is closer to Snuffy, in terms of his ability and willingness to adapt, than he is to Noa. Isagi is willing to do whatever it takes to participate in the Neo Egoist League, even if this means providing assists or playing in midfield. But he still maintains his dream of playing as a striker.

As different as Kunigami and Isagi are on the surface, they share a dream. Both want to be the best strikers in the world. In that, they're a lot more similar than the fandom give them credit for.

But the conditions of the Neo-Egoist League pose a stumbling block.

There are limited forward positions, not only in Bastard Munchen, but on the national team itself. To nab a starting position for the U20 World Cup, the characters have only two choices: outshine everyone else playing as a forward, or forsake their dream by assuming a different position. They must choose wisely.

4. Resolve versus adaptability: the Bastard Munchen test

Thematically, Isagi and Kunigami are reflections of one another. They are each others "what ifs?" in a sense.

Heroes in the first selection, both Isagi and Kunigami faced elimination in the 2v2 stage of the second selection; Isagi survived, while Kunigami lost. Isagi emerged as the hero of Blue Lock, following the U20 Japan match. At the same time, Kunigami battled to become the "hero" of Wild Card.

Eventually Kunigami joined Bastard Munchen, alongside Isagi. But they're not co-operative teammates as they were before. They're rivals, battling against one another for the role of striker on this team.

Theirs is a quiet competition, secondary to Isagi and Kaiser's more hostile conflict. But I believe there's thematic significance to their rivalry. For this reason, it's interesting to trace their dynamic over time.

Isagi considered himself outclassed by Kunigami in the first selection. Back then, Kunigami didn't the same "goal sense" that Isagi had. He wasn't particularly technical as a player. He relied on passes and his physicality to get the ball and score goals, using his strength to reliably score from a distance. He's still extremely impressive, in Isagi's eyes.

As Isagi sees it, Kunigami's key attribute is his resolve. He trains hard to maintain his physique. He has a clear vision of who he is, and what kind of footballer he wants to be. At the same point in the story, Isagi lacks this. Even at the start of the Neo-Egoist League, Isagi struggles to articulate what his ideal form is as a player, which Noa calls him out on.

It's understandable that Isagi struggles to formulate what his ideal is, because Isagi's genius lies in his adaptability. Throughout the manga, Isagi has been placed into situations that are chaotic, novel and difficult. His approach to football and his abilities have been challenged in every match, and he's been forced to rebuild himself over and over again.

This is what makes Isagi exceptional, in addition to his incredible eyesight and football sense. He's constantly evolving, constantly coming up with ways to beat his competition. No wonder he can't settle on an ideal, when he's been forced to change constantly. All he's certain of is his desire to play as a striker.

5. Chasing strikers: Isagi's journey

Isagi's problem is that he's never been the best striker in Blue Lock. It's his dream to play as one, but purely in terms of his ability to convert opportunities into goals, Isagi is outclassed by a number of players. Rin. Nagi. Shidou. Arguably Barou.

When these players receive the ball near the goal, their ability to put it through the goalposts is simply better than Isagi's. They have the physique, the strength, or the technical skill to outmanoeuvre whatever obstacles are in the way. This is also true of Kaiser: both have metavision, but Kaiser is far better at scoring, as Isagi himself admits. Kaiser is another prodigy, like Nagi or Sae.

Kunigami is also better at securing goals than Isagi is. However, he's not a prodigy, and he lacks Isagi's insane playmaking ability. Nor does he have Ness, Kurona or Yukimiya on his side. Nobody on the team has a reason to support Kunigami or his goal-scoring competence. Least of all, Isagi: his rival for the position of striker in Bastard Munchen, and his antithesis in a sense.

While Isagi assisted Kunigami in the Barcha match, he does so to stay relevant, after Noa threatens to bench them both.

In the Manshine match, Kunigami poaches Isagi's goal attempt. As furious as Isagi is in this moment, it's not obvious that Isagi's shot would have gone in by itself. He targeted the corner of the goal, but the trajectory appears to veer up and left, beyond the goal.

Kaiser alludes to the shot's inaccuracy, and Isagi acknowledges his shortcomings after the match ends. While his eyesight is his "god given gift", he realises that he lacks the physical ability to make his foresight a reality, per this conversation with Hiori.

Who else does he approach?

While he has the wrong idea (seeking Kunigami's advice on becoming ambidextrous), Isagi's dialogue is on the nose.

Kunigami has what Isagi lacks: the physique and ability needed to consistently score goals. Halfway through the Neo-Egoist League, Isagi realises that to secure a position as a forward, he needs to emulate Kunigami in some way. His hard training pays off: his ranking jumps six points between the Manshine and Ubers matches.

Kunigami is a mirror that Isagi looks into and learns from. And like a morphing reflection, their positions are starting to reverse. While Kunigami performed better initially in the Neo-Egoist League, both in training and in the Barcha match, now Isagi is coming to the fore as the strongest Blue Lock player in Bastard Munchen. His performance in Manshine was incredible. His playmaking in the Ubers match so far surpasses it.

If they are intended to be mirrors, then what can Kunigami learn from his reflection: Isagi?

6. Inert hero: Kunigami's arc

Analysing Isagi is straightforward. We have access to his thoughts and development, all the way through Blue Lock. The same can't be said for Kunigami, whose POV was shown rarely during the first and second selection, but not once since his return in Chapter 155.

There's still conclusions we can draw, despite leaning into extrapolation territory.

Kunigami has always trained hard. The Volume 3 omake (Team Z's schedule) alludes to the guy spending every hour he can in the gym.

While Kunigami entered Blue Lock at a higher level than arguably anyone in Team Z, he stagnated as his teammates rapidly developed. He doesn't have a documented awakening, unlike the other Egoist Four characters. The single moment of progression shown was his first goal against Team V, but this was more Kunigami challenging his limits than truly evolving.

My theory is that this goes back to his key attribute: resolve. His formula of working hard and playing consistently has worked so far. Why change?

Other characters like Isagi experienced failures and setbacks prior to and during Blue Lock, but we don't see Kunigami experience anything similar until the second selection.

It's unfortunate that he only experiences a first setback in losing to Team White. Had a moment of failure taken place earlier, the second selection may have played out differently for Kunigami. As it was, this segment of Blue Lock was not forgiving of mistakes. Only players who could adapt and evolve, devour and be devoured, made it to the third selection.

Kunigami just didn't have that adaptability. It's contrary to his nature of working hard, consistently and fairly.

Shidou remarks on Kunigami's resolute nature explicitly after their 2v2 match. It's why he chooses Reo over Kunigami.

Analysis often focuses on Shidou's criticism of Kunigami's heroic idealism, given that Kunigami goes on to reject this himself. But the second point Shidou makes is more important. He's really critiquing Kunigami's inability to adapt and react, not his strength or his motivation. But Kunigami seemingly only internalises the first part.

Failure in the second selection made Kunigami discard heroism as his motivation, in addition to the conditioning forced on him in Wild Card. But Kunigami continues to struggle, even after leaving his so-called naivety in hell.

He came out of Wild Card stronger, faster, and more competent at scoring. It's still not enough to out-do Kaiser and impress Noa in the Barcha match.

If Kunigami took Shidou's words to heart, he might consider his success in Wild Card proof that he can break himself down and be rebuilt. At a minimum, we can speculate that Wild Card consisted of the participants being deconstructed piece by piece, egos eroded and replaced with a drive to become Noel Noa's "vessel".

But in truth, Kunigami already had a lot of the traits needed to become Noa's copycat. Other than developing ambidexterity and packing on even more muscle, the "breaking down" that took place was really the overwriting of his idealism with that of Noa's.

When Ego considers the ways participants may succeed in the Neo-Egoist League, both Isagi and Kunigami are pictured. At the present stage in the manga, Isagi seems to be the fish adapting to his environment and thriving - slowly dyeing the fabric of Bastard Munchen to suit his playstyle.

Kunigami is the one suffocating, unable to breath in this claustrophobic environment.

His core issue - his lack of adaptability - persists. He is unwilling to consider being anything else than a pure striker. In the Neo-Egoist League to date, he has failed to make chemical reactions with anyone.

If Isagi is a universal catalyst, Kunigami is inert. For now.

7. Hero rebuilt: Kunigami, secondary protagonist

Kunigami is an important part of the Neo-Egoist League arc. Not only is he a returning character, but a significant parallel to Isagi. It's no coincidence that they are presented together in many of the panels relating to the arc as a whole.

There's a lot of symbolism in Blue Lock. The panel announcing the Neo-Egoist League establishes Isagi and Kunigami as dual protagonists, with Kaiser as the primary antagonist. The end of the Barcha match really reinforces the idea that these characters are the main heroes within Bastard Munchen.

Isagi has been on a learning journey from the beginning of this arc, starting with his underdog struggle against Kaiser. If Kunigami's journey is a mirror of Isagi's, then we can expect him to encounter his most difficult hurdle later in the arc, leading to an epiphany about his playstyle. At this point, it's fair to conclude this will happen in Bastard Munchen's match against Paris X Gen.

These are my outstanding questions about Kunigami's journey, which I believe the manga must eventually address:

What will be Kunigami's darkest hour: the low point where he realises he must change or die (metaphorically)?

When he overcomes this moment and emerges stronger, like a phoenix - what will Kunigami's true ego be? Will he return to his original heroism, or strike a balance between his past and present selves? Hero and Wild Card, accepting both?

I'm not going to delve much into Question 2. Hero, Wild Card, Dark Horse, Phoenix - all of these could work as a manifestation of Kunigami's ego. The only thing I can say with confidence is that his ego will manifest. This has been the case for each of the other Egoist Four characters (although Isagi's true ego remains in flux). Personally, I'd like to see an ego manifestation that reconciles the personas of pre- and post-Wild Card Kunigami. I trust the writer and mangaka will serve on that front when the time comes.

On question 1, the fandom (and myself) are hyped for a particular reunion. It's hard to imagine a better catalyst for Kunigami's change than the person that sent him to Wild Card in the first place: a literal demon, the manifestation of Kunigami's internal woes.

Shidou is the opposite of Kunigami in many ways, when they encounter each other in the second selection. Although both are strong with imposing physical abilities, Shidou is chaotic while Kunigami is lawful; Shidou abhors dull players, the ones that cannot spark "explosions", while Kunigami sees Shidou as a violent psychopath. Shidou has no qualms in crushing weaker players. Kunigami defends them, regardless of their nature.

But Kunigami has changed greatly since their last encounter. He and Shidou have more in common than before. In Wild Card, Kunigami had to learn how to crush the weak, despite his inclination to advance together. He's had to become more aloof, more violent even, to survive in Wild Card and in the Neo Egoist League. He's more resolute in becoming the world's best striker than ever.

But Kunigami still doesn't know how to explode. He doesn't have chemical reactions with other players. The part of him that valued teamwork died in Wild Card. Compare this to Shidou, who thrives off what he calls explosions. He adores Sae, because their chemistry on the field made Shidou soar. Sae unleashes Shidou's inner dragon.

I believe in facing Shidou, who will form reactions with his supportive teammates, Kunigami will come to realise that he cannot overcome his demons without assistance from outside. He'll realise his heroism was never the issue: it was his lack of adaptability. To overcome Shidou, Kunigami will need a catalyst to create a chemical reaction.

Luckily, Bastard Munchen has the one person capable of reacting with anyone: the embodiment of adaptability. Who better to set the true Kunigami free than his idealogical mirror? The one person who, thematically, has been by his side since the start?

A link-up between Isagi and Kunigami - dual protagonists, reflections of one another - would be an amazing way to round off both Isagi and Kunigami's journeys in the Neo Egoist League. Even better if the final goal against Paris X Gen is the result of their genuine teamwork - mirroring their resentful co-operation during the Barcha match.

I'm manifesting this and I hope you might too. If for no other reason because... can you imagine the look on Kaiser's face if this happens?

Absolute gold.

---

If you read to the end, thank you! I'd love to hear my fellow nerds thoughts on this and Kunigami generally.

Further reading: short analysis of Kunigami's effectiveness on the pitch up to chapter 232.

#blue lock #kunigami rensuke #isagi yoichi #bllk #blue lock analysis #bllk analysis #blue lock meta #bllk meta #blue lock anime spoilers #bllk anime spoilers #boinin talks bllk #long post #mine

61 notes · View notes

rirururu · 12 days

Text

They're partners uwu

Source

#bachisagi #isabachi #bachira meguru #isagi yoichi #blue lock #meta #discourse #analysis #it's funny to me that #nagireo and bachisagi got special arrows

135 notes · View notes

intheafterall · 1 year

Text

Tried something different.

#blue lock #bllk #isagi yoichi #bllk isagi #meta vision #football #soccer #fanart #digital art #drawing #illustration #itaa's art #I'm blue da ba de da bo da

35 notes · View notes

bluelockednyx · 2 years

Text

Isagirin meta part 6

Part 1, on Isagi’s first meeting and match with Rin here.

Part 2, on the rest of the Second Selection Arc, here.

Part 3, on the 5v5 matchup against the world-class players and Blue Lock Eleven tryouts up until Rin’s kickoff, here.

Part 4, covering the first half of the Blue Lock Eleven vs Japan U20 match here.

Part 5, covering the second half of the Blue Lock Eleven vs Japan U20 match, up until their return to Blue Lock for the Neo-Egoist League, here.

This is the sixth and final part of this long af meta/manifesto, aka the discussion of story themes and relationship trajectories and parallels of Blue Lock. Here, I take a deeper dive into how Rin and Isagi’s character arcs coincide with and foil each other's, the why I ship Isagi Yoichi with Itoshi Rin from Blue Lock, plus some speculations for the manga’s development as of September 2022, which means spoilers for the Neo-Egoist League Arc. This is very long, and entirely text.

1) Blue Lock, egoism, and its encouragement of personal growth in relationships.

The crux of egoism is that it’s a form of self-centeredness – that you, yourself, are the focal point of the world, and your motivation and goal of your own actions are ultimately self-serving. Even the altruistic actions you make, e.g. helping others at the cost of your own self, like voluntarily taking the blame for a fault someone else did, is ultimately egoistic because it’s a fulfilling of your own will, which I think, can be expressed very well with this quote I came across:

“Each man for himself in that desert of egoism which is called life.” ― Stendhal, The Red and the Black

In the greater world of the team sports animanga in general, egoism as a theme very efficiently makes Blue Lock stand out. Football, like basketball, baseball, and volleyball, is ultimately a team sport which requires the skills and cohesiveness of multiple members to win in games. Most traditional sports animanga would focus on team-building, a bunch of quirky personalities coming together and winning the national championships equivalent for high school.

Blue Lock doesn’t bother with that. Blue Lock says: high school football, is only high school football. That’s too small a stage for our story. We want the world. We want a character that becomes the best striker in the world.

The story begins with our underdog main character, Isagi, failing to participate in the national football championships because his team lost fairly early on in the qualifiers. The narrative then cements that fact and ups the stakes by having Isagi kick out Kira Ryousuke, a famous, excellent player who beat Isagi’s team in the prefectural finals and who's being called up for the Japan U-18 team, in the second chapter of the series and the first elimination game, setting the tone there. By doing so it brings a modern and new twist to the genre. Blue Lock does not care for high school championships and Blue Lock will not be limited to only high school Japanese students, as most sports animanga do, and by Blue Lock Phase Two, it’s fully delivered on its premise and promise: the characters are interacting and actively competing with players from other countries for contracts and positions in renowned football clubs.

With this focus on egoism, and becoming the best in the world though, it thus gives an interesting twist towards the traditional relationships that would develop between the characters. A rivalry, even friendly ones, is all but mandatory between them, and Blue Lock takes the usual rivalry tropes and turns it into a theme and statement about how the pursuit of your own ego, your wants and desires, can be a good thing for you and your relationships. In fact, Blue Lock's narrative punishes relationships that have lapsed into personal stagnancy or decline in skills, and routinely punishes the characters who choose to prioritize staying together in relationships over pursuing individual ambitions. I’ve touched on this briefly when I wrote about the Second Selection Arc, and will now develop it further.

Up till chapter 148, the end of the Blue Lock vs U20 match, we see the narrative punishment for personal stagnancy most prominently in 3 different relationships:

Nagi and Reo

Bachira and Isagi

Rin and Sae

I’ve said before that there’s a pattern here. All three of these pairs split up, only to come back stronger, together. The reason they split up, is that at one point, one chooses to pursue a higher level of play, and follow their ambition, or ego. The other is left behind, and made to evolve themselves, their skill and ego (sense of self), or risk losing the relationship entirely.

Second Selection Arc

Reo approached Nagi to play football first (Blue Lock Episode Nagi further develops their backstory, and is very cute, so go read that too). This whole time they’ve played together, though short, they’ve hardly faced a challenge because of how skilled they both are individually and as a pair. When up against Team Z, upon seeing Reo desperate for a way to win, Nagi who has only been pretty much a passive bystander waiting for Reo’s passes for him to score thus far, evolves his plays, taking initiative for once. It’s too little, too late, and they lose, though both of them move on to the Second Selection with the rest of their teammates. Nagi’s ego then tells him to go with Isagi, whom he lost to, and they move on to the 3v3 match. Here, Reo and Nagi’s personal stagnancy has caused them both to split up, as the story now demands that they level up both their skills and ego.

In the first 3v3 match, the reason why Isagi-Nagi-Bachira team loses, besides being behind in sheer skill, is because first and foremost, none of them treated the game as seriously as Rin did (in sports animanga, losing == death, and Blue Lock takes it to an extreme). The initial goal, which depended on solid teamwork between their newly formed three-man team, and the second, Nagi’s goal was the only one where they challenged themselves in the match. Nagi’s ego has developed more here, as do Bachira’s and Isagi’s, but they are unable to push themselves enough to match against, much less win, against Rin, Aryu and Tokimitsu’s abilities. Isagi gets a double blow here, as he loses both the game and Bachira as a teammate. In other words, because both Isagi and Nagi have thus far relied on scoring via Bachira and Reo’s passes, they have stagnated in developing their skills and overall ability, and thus gets handed a loss by the narrative. Bachira, on the other hand, because he evolves via making a new kind of pass that demands Nagi’s skill and mentality growth to respond successfully to it, gets chosen to go on with Rin, Aryu and Tokimitsu.

This point becomes obvious as they head to the 2v2 stage. There, Isagi and Nagi win against Barou and Naruhaya because Barou and Naruhaya’s teamwork stagnated with Barou doing all the scoring, while Naruhaya supported. Neither truly develops their ego, skill and abilities, unlike Isagi and Nagi, who, now without their usual partners, have to both learn to play together in the game and evolve themselves, both in terms of mindset and ability. Naruhaya, whose individual skill is weaker than Barou, and his ego less developed (willingly playing support to Barou), is therefore eliminated from the Second Selection, and, as we know later on, from Blue Lock entirely.

In the second 3v3, the Isagi-Nagi-Barou team initially crumbles against Kunigami-Chigiri-Reo’s teamwork. This comes back to Barou’s personal stagnancy. By refusing to admit his own shortcomings, and his loss, once Isagi stops trying to work together with him he’s essentially left behind as dead weight against the others in the game. Kunigami-Chigiri-Reo’s teamwork fails to evolve against the Isagi-Nagi combo, leading to their loss. Chigiri, who was the only one who meaningfully pushed and challenged himself harder in the game, was therefore chosen to go on with Isagi-Nagi-Barou. Reo, whose fixation had been on winning against Isagi instead of evolving himself, and remains hung up on Nagi’s choice to move on without him, culminates in his fight with Nagi at the end, and this time, he loses both the game and hurts his relationship with Nagi.

Finally, in the 4v4, everyone is pushing themselves to the utmost, except for Bachira. The narrative punishes him for this as well, because in the last few minutes he finds that Rin and Isagi, the two people whom he wants to play with the most, have ignored him entirely and are fully focused on each other. He gets two warnings in fact, one from Chigiri and the second from Nagi. The desperate realisation that if he loses, Isagi’s team will pick Rin, and that he will not get to play with either of them spurs his evolution and ego. He stops focusing on merely passing anymore, and tries to shoot. Isagi, who notices this change, succeeds in stopping Bachira, but once again loses to Rin who makes the final shot. Then because Isagi has finally come far enough into developing his abilities, and developing his ego, the narrative rewards him by allowing him to move ahead to the next stage before Nagi, Chigiri and Barou with Rin’s team. Bachira, too, is rewarded by the narrative for challenging himself: he still gets to play with Isagi and Rin, just as he wanted.

Blue Lock Eleven Tryouts

This trend continues on in the vs U20 tryouts. In team A, Isagi never gives up on developing his skill, combining his plays with Rin and even scoring the last goal before Rin and Shidou could, hence he is rewarded with 1) his goal in the match and 2) being selected for the U20 match as ‘the ideal partner for Itoshi Rin’. Reo, in team C, also develops his ego by aiming to score on his own, but his skills are still not up to par with Nagi’s level of play. He gets the goal, and gets the chance to better rebuild his friendship with Nagi, but still winds up on the bench. Later on in the U20 match though, he gets rewarded through being subbed in for the game.

Blue Lock vs Japan U20 match

In the U20 match, Rin and Sae’s relationship and backstory gets their time and the most development. In this arc, Rin parallels Reo, as he is the one who is left behind by Sae. He also foils Bachira, who does not seem to be as committed to the game itself as he was to the desire to play football together with Sae.

For his first chance at scoring, in attempting to imitate Sae’s own shot, he fails to make the goal, and its Nagi who gets the first point for Blue Lock. When the game restarts, Rin, who’s still more hung up over the fractured relationship he has with Sae, insists on a 1v1 matchup against Sae, then loses. The team’s defense has his back and this time, when Isagi successfully provides ‘noise’/a distraction for Aiku who’s defending Rin, Rin manages to score the second goal. When Blue Lock reinforces their defence for the last 5 minutes of the first half, Rin again gets backup from the team after he stops Sae’s pass to Sendou. In the half-time break, Rin has his flashback. Then when Shidou comes in for the second half, Blue Lock loses their grasp of the gameflow. At this point, Rin is clearly enraged over Sae and Shidou’s successful combination. It’s at this point that he stagnates in the game, somewhat. He loses to Aiku, and it’s Isagi, instead, who spearheads their renewed offense, and in doing so Isagi gains Sae’s attention and interest. This time, Rin becomes the one supporting Isagi, but he once again grapples with Aiku, and it’s Barou who comes in and steals the third goal.

Sae and Shidou’s combination, his consecutive losses against Sae, then trouble with Aiku’s defending, and now Isagi’s growing presence on the field amplifies his stress. Sae’s choice to up the gameplay after Barou’s goal, and Rin’s failed tackle makes him even more desperate. Although he succeeds in ‘synchronizing’ and reading Sae’s thought process, it’s still not quite enough for him to beat Sae. It’s through Isagi linking up with Rin that they stop Shidou from scoring, and Rin realizes that he’s playing with Isagi, and the rest of Blue Lock, he’s not fighting alone.

But, Rin doesn’t like it. It’s this realization that prompts his evolution, and his ‘flow’, coupled with the intention to destroy his past self, his personal stagnancy with regards to his obsession with getting Sae's acknowledgment, to pieces. When he stops playing as a team with the rest, he blitzes past the U20 defenders and even Aiku, but Shidou blocks him, he refuses Isagi's support, and he misses his shot again. He faces off against Sae one last time in the final minute. Only this time, now that he’s no longer letting himself be bound by Sae’s words, not letting his ego be bound to Sae, he wins. And it’s a team win for Blue Lock too, through Isagi’s shot.

Now this is where things get interesting for discussing Isagi and Rin’s relationship in the context of the narrative themes.

2) Rin’s loss to Isagi in the U20 match, and a look at Rin’s character flaws

Even though Rin finally surpasses Sae in the last 1v1 bout they have near the end of the match, he loses the chance to score a goal, loses the chance to secure the win for Blue Lock, and also never gets Sae’s acknowledgement that he so desperately wants. Instead, it’s Isagi who gets everything he wants.

This is because, much like with Nagireo and Bachisagi above, throughout the whole match, Rin was very much fixated on Sae, and on defeating his brother alone. That, unfortunately, stagnates the development of Rin’s ego and thus, his skills, up until he makes the choice to suppress his desire to score solely for himself, and focus on defeating Sae, which he believes that he's the only one skilled enough to do so in Blue Lock.

I’ve mentioned this briefly before in part 4, but Rin has picked up several bad habits from constantly playing together with Sae, and then a few other bad habits after Sae leaves for Spain and he’s left behind to play in Japan. Besides the generally rude attitude he has towards others in general, Rin winds up with an underdeveloped sense of self and ego, as he chooses to emulate Sae in the youth teams he plays for, rather than pursue his own unique playstyle. He has also adopted a mindset of ‘fighting alone’, and doesn’t develop much of a relationship with others in general.

In his flashback, he remains behind alone to practise while his teammates go home. In Blue Lock, when Isagi, Nagi and Bachira first meet Rin, Aryu and Tokimitsu, he dismisses and irritates Aryu enough to the point that Aryu almost started an argument with him. He’s also constantly seen practising and training alone, and it’s Bachira and Isagi who later take the initiative to practise/interact with him. After the U20 match, too, we don’t see him with the rest of Blue Lock either during their Shibuya trip, and unlike, say, Gagamaru or Niko, who have in-story reasons for not being there and are talked about (Gagamaru went off to the mountains, Niko refused to come, Chigiri couldn’t get Kunigami’s contact), no one mentions anything about Rin’s absence. They even come across Barou, but not Rin. When the story cuts to Rin during their mini-holiday, its to Rin, sitting and ruminating alone at the seaside where he used to go with Sae.

Much like Shidou, whose failure to synergize with Blue Lock and the U20 gets him trouble (Ego chooses Rin over Shidou when deciding on the Blue Lock Eleven, U20 threatens to boycott the match if he’s in it so he doesn’t get to start for the match), this isn’t presented as a good thing for Rin in story. His only goal for the match, he succeeded because Blue Lock backed him up and helped recover possession of the ball after he loses to Sae 1v1. Isagi’s backup is also what helps him to get the shot pass Aiku and the goalie. Contrast this to him in his flow state; when he refuses Isagi’s support and forces the shot while being blocked by Aiku and Shidou, he misses.

I think you know what I’m trying to say here, at this point. Rin is currently at the point where most of the others (especially referring to Nagi, Reo, Bachira and Isagi here) were in the Second Selection Arc. He needs to develop his ego, his skill, and his relationships with others independent of Sae. Adopting Sae’s play style is no longer enough. Rin needs to get a handle of his own flow and more importantly his own play style, ‘destroying hideously’, and he needs to be able to play together with others as equals – no longer guiding others around like a puppeteer or marionette as he did in the Second Selection Arc, especially now that we can see the others are evolving further and beginning to catch up to him in terms of skill, and their new opponents on the next stage are only going to be more skilled and experienced than any of the Blue Lock boys.

3) What does Rin have to do with Isagi’s character arc and the narrative?

Isagi is a classic hero, with a necessary un-classic development per Blue Lock’s premise. His greatest strength, and his greatest flaw, is his adaptability born from his consistent compassion and natural inclination towards teamwork. But to succeed as the hero in the story of Blue Lock, to become the best striker in the world, these are the very things he needs to overcome. It’s in confronting others, and in prioritizing himself and his ego over others’ ego, that he gets rewarded by the narrative.

As a character, Isagi starts off with underdeveloped skills, and a tendency to pass when he should score, and overall, tends to prioritize team play over his individual desires. We see this in the first arc of the series, and we also see this occur in the Second Selection Arc over and over. In the 3v3 against Rin-Aryu-Tokimitsu he prioritizes team play initially, and gets the first goal, but ultimately loses the match. In the second 3v3, his attempts to play nice with Barou leads to their team trailing behind until he chooses to devour Barou and use him instead of focusing on cohesive teamwork. In the U20 match too, we see him coordinating with and supporting the others more than going for his own goals, even though he tries to do so. He succeeds only at the very end of the match, and that is when he 1) chooses not to support Rin in the 1v1 against Sae 2) trusts Rin to defeat Sae and 3) ‘creates his own luck and chance to score’, by positioning himself where the stray ball would most likely land once Rin defeats Sae, and 4) make the actual shot, in a mirror of what Rin did in the 4v4.

In contrast to Isagi, Rin begins in-series as a highly-skilled, self-centered striker, who pulls his team together by being the best, and having his team revolve around his moves and his strategies, treating them like puppets on a string -- both a reference to his name and a deeper indication of his attitude. That has mostly worked for him so far in Blue Lock, where he’s the undisputed number 1 – but when up against more skilled players, such as the World 5 and Sae, it no longer works. When he was made to team up with Shidou by Ego for the Blue Lock Eleven tryouts, who is equal/second to him in skill, it’s not enough either, and their lack of teamwork creates more problems than chances for Team A, though they do manage to win all their matches together.

Rin’s basic character arc, as of now, is the development of his ego and by extension, his relationships outside of his fixation on Sae. The narrative has worked that way too thus far. From his initial apathy towards the others, he’s gradually beginning to play nice – or nicer, for a stretch – with others. Beginning with practising with Bachira, then communicating better with his teammates Aryu and Tokimitsu, and to Isagi as well once Isagi joins their team. Very much a Defrosting Ice King trope, and a bit of a tsundere to boot. As captain of the U20, he begins Blue Lock’s offense, but it’s his fixation on defeating Sae one-on-one and getting Sae’s acknowledgment, rather than prioritizing the Blue Lock style of teamwork with the others, that leads to how Isagi has begun to supplant him in importance in the game to his teammates, and his eventual narrative loss.

Through Rin, Isagi not only grows aware of his lack of skill, he also changes his perceptive of what it means to play football. When he first faces off against Rin in the 3v3, it’s still a little hard for him to grasp how Rin perceives soccer as a death match, but by the time the U20 match happens, he’s fully embraced that ideology when he snaps at Ego when U20 takes the lead over Blue Lock. He also learns to think his tactics and strategies through more thoroughly, and further develop his skill in spatial awareness. Now in the Neo Egoist League, Rin still remains as his goal and to an extent, the standard Isagi’s set for himself and wants to surpass in the future, to be able to stand on the world stage.

So they have a very unique relationship in Blue Lock. More than anyone else, they both need to learn and take on each other’s mindset and attitudes better, for the sake of developing themselves into more rounded individuals and better players as a whole. And there’s still plenty of room for both of them to grow.

We are also seeing, interestingly enough, Isagi and Rin developing into an oddly codependent sort of relationship with regards to their on-field performance, despite neither of them intending to do so on purpose. We see them evolve in terms of skill and abilities whenever they play against each other, and we also see them teaming up very well together. Isagi, who’s weaker in a one-on-one in most cases, gets supported by Rin (vs Karasu, vs Sae), and when he starts forming tunnel vision in game it’s Rin that gets him out of it. For Rin, his blind spots in game get covered by Isagi, and Isagi matches up well enough with Rin to distract their opponents and give Rin more movement and freedom – which is also an important motif for Rin with regards to his relationship with Sae. There’s also a fun pattern of people watching one of them to figure out the other’s intentions in matches. And all of this thus culminates into...

4) Reasons why I ship IsagiRin or Rinsagi/why I think they make a good ship AKA the manifesto part

a) They get along off the field and would probably get along better if they try

Isagi and Rin have okay conversations with each other most of the time. Though Rin definitely could be more polite with Isagi, Isagi as a whole isn’t too bothered about Rin’s attitude. In comparison, Isagi gets irritated when he’s ignored by Nagi, Barou and Chigiri when they were sharing rooms, and is distinctly more short-tempered with Barou during games, and as of the recent Neo-Egoist League arc, more aggressive and hostile towards Kaiser and Yukimiya too, off the field.

For other instances: after losing to Rin’s team in the 4v4, Isagi questions Rin about why he loses, and Rin is shirty with him but ultimately answers him as best as he can. When Rin is doing yoga and meditation as physical aftercare, he doesn’t stop Isagi from joining him. While Isagi and co. were studying their English and waiting for the end of the Second Selection Arc, Aryu and Tokimitsu annoyed Rin with tons of questions while Bachira playfully started up a fight by tossing a book at Rin. Isagi sits out of their shenanigans to focus on studying instead. Isagi even feels close enough to Rin that he tries to tackle Rin with a hug after Rin scored a goal in the U20, though Rin dodges him.

b) They have similar thought processes, to the point of being able to understand what each other wants to do on the field

This is something consistently noted upon by the other characters, to the point where ‘watch Isagi to be able to keep up with Rin’ is a whole tactic by itself in matches, a la Nagi in the 4v4, then Nanase in the Blue Lock Eleven tryouts. Barou, as of the U20 match, utilizes ‘watch Rin to figure out Isagi’s evolved plays’, even remarking that ‘Rin is just another Isagi’ to him.

c) They are both invested in their rivalry with each other, and inspire each other to do better

Isagi gets invested first, yes, and after meeting Rin, Rin thus becomes his goal and standard. In the 4v4, Rin begins breaking out of his previously aloof shell and putting effort in to the game, and by the end of it, his on-field rivalry with Isagi has grown so much that Rin does a full 180 from the 3v3 where he couldn't care less who joined him, to selfishly, dictatorially declares that he’s chosen Isagi to join their team. As of the end of the U20 match, we have Rin declaring that Isagi’s his rival too.

d) They work best with each other

Ego, who’s a bit of a pseudo-in-universe omniscient narrator, emphasizes this point. The ideal partner for Itoshi Rin, is Isagi. Spelled out in canon, y’all. There are more than a few instances, too, of other characters remarking how well they work together. Bachira and Aiku, for instance, comes to mind.

e) Their relationship, since Rin’s appearance in the story, has been Isagi’s most important relationship, for no reason other than that Isagi’s ego chooses Rin. No one else has that distinction. And they choose each other.

From their very first matchup, Isagi decides that he wants Rin. At the end of the 3v3 matchup against Rin-Aryu-Tokimitsu, we basically have a full on monologue about Isagi falling in love with Rin’s shoot which, to date, is still the heaviest romance-laced monologue in the whole series for over a hundred chapters, surpassing Reo’s interactions with and monologues about Nagi ever since their split, and Bachira’s personal monologue about Isagi during and at the end of the 4v4 matchup.

Rin’s side is a little more iffy. Although he regards Isagi as someone he needs to beat as early on as the end of the 4v4 match, it’s really only in the U20 match, after realising that the game has begun to revolve around Isagi, that I feel Rin properly begins to regard as someone who can compete with him on equal footing. As ‘twisted’ as the artwork where Rin declares Isagi as his rival looks, it is a declaration and a choice, and ties into what I believe should be Rin’s intended major character arc for the series.

f) I just like the narrative motif they have, of ‘seeing’ each other

There’s something to be said about one of Isagi’s earliest-developed abilities being spatial awareness, a form of mind’s eye viewing of the positioning of players in a match (re: Kuroko no Basket’s Akashi’s Emperor Eye, Ao Ashi's Aoi Ashito with his Eagle Eye), and how Rin recognizes it as a weak point of Isagi’s early on, where before then Isagi had thought of it as one of his few strengths. Isagi’s skill growth and development over the course of the Second Selection, and even well into the U20 stage, had also primarily relied upon his spatial awareness, to the point where his current stats in the Neo Egoist League are heavily skewed towards it. There’s also, you know, the overarching theme of the pursuit of the ‘ego’. Ego, again, is about self-centeredness. And what is a successful egoist if not someone who makes everything revolve around them? Hence, look at them?

Now, let’s take a look at the motifs and descriptors Isagi has with some of his more prominent relationships.

Bachira and Isagi have the ‘monster’ and ‘egoist’, as well as partners.

Nagi and Isagi have the ‘striker’ and ‘genius’.

Barou and Isagi have the ‘king’ and ‘peasant’ (though arguably, Barou treats everyone this way), evolving somewhat into 'villain' and 'hero'.

Kaiser and Isagi have ‘emperor’ and ‘clown’.

Kunigami and Isagi now have 'fallen hero' (per Chigiri's own words) and 'hero'.

Rin and Isagi? Their relationship doesn’t really have any of these kinds of motifs assigned to them, even though they are the central rival pair in Blue Lock. In their short conversation before Ego announces the Neo-egoist League, they call each other 'fake hero' and 'fake villain', but there's not much substance to it. Yet. But let’s take a look at Isagi’s ending monologue for C48 again.

“Even so... why… In spite of the fact that we’re going to lose… my eyes… my heart… I’m completely smitten, by the beauty of the parable that his kick drew --”

The ‘eyes’ come first. They both yelled ‘look at me’ at each other in the U20 match. It’s deliberately written in, both for drama’s sake and also because it is an important part to their relationship with each other. Rin and Isagi having ‘Look at me’, as a symbolic tie-in with each other is just… nice, even without the implicit romanticism of this.

So, the mind’s eye view motif for Isagi is obvious, once you consider that his best ability right now is spatial awareness, but why is ‘look at me’ so important for Rin?

It comes back down to his character arc. He wants Sae’s acknowledgment. He wants Sae, to, essentially, see him as a person, as his brother, to ‘look at him’, but it still hasn’t happened. In Rin’s mind, Sae doesn’t see Rin, the person. Sae sees Rin only in relation to his own football, as a practice partner to improve his football. And when Rin is no longer skilled enough to compete with Sae, Sae throws him away. Rin’s emotional dependency on Sae’s acknowledgement, as I’ve already stressed, is not good for his mental well-being, his ego, and goes against the story’s themes.

Instead, it’s Isagi who looks at him. It’s Isagi who sees Rin as his own person. But Rin's not able to accept that yet. With how the U20 match ended -- with Sae acknowledging Isagi instead of Rin, and Rin himself not getting the final goal, his emotional immaturity has him viewing Isagi as a villain instead. Even in the U20 match, Rin refuses to look at Isagi and accept Isagi's support after he awakens his flow. Rin still has to develop and grow more as a character, to realise and commit to the fact that he doesn’t need Sae’s acknowledgment, for himself or his football. Hence, it’s important for them both that this ‘look at me’ shtick is mutual. So yes, I am very much looking forward to the day that Rin looks back at Isagi the way Isagi looked at Rin in the U20 match.

g) Random other stuff I just find neat

Other than the mind’s eye view shtick, in the U20 match, in the English fan translation, Isagi mulls about finding the 'thread' in the match to score.

And guess whose name has that meaning in it?

糸 – thread, stitch, yarn

師 – teacher

That’s right. The Itoshi brothers.

In the OG Japanese though, Isagi thinks that he's finding the 'design', 「綾」, to score. 「綾」 is read as 'aya', but it has an alternate reading. And if you guessed that the alternate reading is 'rin', congrats! You got it right! And Rin, does, in fact, lead to Isagi's win and goal.

After Blue Lock renews their offense with Karasu backing them up in the Blue Lock vs Japan U20 match, it’s Sae who comes up to block Isagi and destablizies him from making the shoot. Isagi can practically see all the puzzle pieces he’s had fall apart beneath him, himself breaking apart into pieces and artistically awesome symbolic despair, but it’s Rin who comes up to support him after he makes this monologue of , and it’s where the ‘look at me’ occurred. Then of course, it's Rin who leads the team to victory, and it's after Rin manages to get the ball away from Sae that Isagi gets his winning shot for Blue Lock.

A little more on the Itoshi surname: they both live up to their name as well, to a point. Both Rin and Sae have brought to Isagi’s attention critical weaknesses he has in his personal game play, Rin with the ‘eye’ in the Second Selection Arc, and Sae with Isagi’s hastiness and lack of a stable ‘core’ in the U20, though whether or not Sae’s advice is still a throwaway line, or a Chevkov’s Gun waiting to be fired will be built upon in the future is up in the air. Edit: as of the current Bastard Munchen vs Manshine City Neo-Egoist League match, it's come up again, so yay, foreshadowing.

Again, Blue Lock is a sports series, so you’re not really going to get classic action-adventure tropes where the characters and ships save each other from the brink of death, but its interesting that Blue Lock still manages to kind of throw this in with Isagi and Rin. Rin is the more skilled of the two. He ‘saves’ Isagi from Karasu in the Blue Lock Eleven tryout match, and also ‘saves’ Isagi in the U20 match when Isagi was losing to Sae. On the flip side, one consistent aspect of Rin, with regards to his relationship with Sae, and when he's not playing with Sae, is that he finds it ‘restricting’ – fan translations even go out of their way to point this out. And the person who gives him freedom, both from a humanizing viewpoint and in-game, is none other than Isagi. Isagi recognizes Rin as his own person, from that yoga session where he declares Rin his rival, and he both successfully supports Rin’s gameplay, giving him more options as to what to do in game, and covers for Rin’s weak points as well.

To borrow conceptually from BnHA, saving someone is a contract between the rescuer and the rescuee. There needs to be trust from the rescuee that the rescuer will save them. Isagi allows Rin to help him in games, and readily takes it when offered. However, in Rin’s case, neither Isagi nor Rin are at that point yet – Isagi simply lacks the skill to do so well enough, and Rin too, is currently unwilling to accept Isagi’s help. Their relationship has not developed to that point yet.

I know it’s potentially a bit of a stretch, but, eh, *puts on shipping goggles* this is biased and tends towards a shipping meta, and if you’ve read this far, you know what you signed up for.

Also another little fun fact, the reading of the Itoshi brothers’ surname, is a homophone for another fun word, 愛し, which means ‘beloved’. And Rin's name (the kanji) is also a very common and popular name for girls in Japan (I'm talking consistent top 10 spot popular in the past decade), though it's unisex. Definitely not the author hinting anything. Nope.

5) Expectations and guesses on future story plots

Blue Lock is a long way from being over, though it moves pretty fast as a story by skimming over most of the regular ‘training arcs’ and team building periods that other sports animanga tend to have after the first arc, but we’ve had foreshadowing that things will only get harder for Isagi after the U20 match, namely from Tada-chan, that perhaps Isagi has already used up all his luck with that goal in the U20 match. But we also need to remember Rin and Ego’s philosophy on luck, which could also be taken as an omniscient philosophy of the story: luck is something you get to move towards you, to shift in your favour based on all the underlying elements and how you notice and respond to them, grasping a possible ‘chance’ and taking advantage of it in that moment it lands in your hand. A chance becomes a pinch when not properly utilized, just as a pinch becomes a chance when overcome.

As of now (October 8 2022), we are at the Neo Egoist League, with new antagonists and new rivals, and Isagi’s problems has only grown more difficult. He not only has to contend with new, hostile teammates like Kaiser, he also has to tread carefully with old teammates like Kunigami and Yukimiya, all the while ensuring that he makes it into the Japan’s U20 team for the world cup by securing a high offer from existing professional football clubs. If Tada-chan’s prediction comes through, then that means Isagi can no longer simply rely on his luck for his future. He’s going to have to create it. And all of this ties back to Isagi developing both his ego and skills, per his character arc, to fulfil his dream.

He’s still lagging behind the others in terms of personal ability, especially his former teammates/rivals, and it’s exciting to follow Isagi’s journey to become the best striker in the world. He is already getting good advice from Noel Noa about carefully visualizing, planning and managing his time and actions to fulfil his goal. With Kaiser in the same team, there’s another landmark of a player for him to surpass for the most important skill necessary for a striker: his shoot. Kunigami is also his foil and challenge there: Isagi rose to become Blue Lock’s hero, where Kunigami fell from his original ‘heroic’ aspirations and is now an antagonistic character towards Isagi, an inferior ‘copy’ of Isagi’s own hero, Noel Noa. Then there’s Yukimiya, a former teammate now turned rival that’s biting at his heels, without needing to mention all his previous teammates whom he’s on varying levels of friendliness with to beat as well.

I also have high hopes over the fact that Rin and Shidou are both in the French team together within the Neo-Egoist League. From a narrative standpoint, neither of them have fully succeeded in the Blue Lock vs U20 match. Blue Lock’s no. 1 and no. 2 also have a lot to learn from each other – Rin needs to tap further into the self-centered, twisted flow he discovered in the vs U20 match, Shidou's field of expertise, while Shidou still needs to learn to work with others besides Sae both on and off field. Not to say that Rin is that much better than Shidou in that regards, but Rin can at least be on talking terms with the rest when he tries to, whereas Shidou seems to antagonize just about everyone he encounters.

Who better to show Rin self-centered flow than the egoist no one in Blue Lock could handle, Shidou? Who better to impress on Shidou the importance of at least synergizing with your teammates, other than Rin, the only person who kept up with and knows Sae better than anyone else, the first person whom Shidou felt a keen connection to when playing football? That is, if they don’t wind up killing each other first. Karasu probably has a minor stroke from being in the same team with these two, and I'm also curious if more narrative spotlight will be given to him. He did face off against Isagi and Rin in the Blue Lock Eleven tryouts, and then go up against Sae in the U20 match, plus, he's just one of my favourite characters.

I’m looking forward to the Germany vs France match up in the Neo-Egoist League. I’m guessing that it’s going to be the very last match up for the arc, since Isagi’s already said it himself: the day he manages to beat Rin, is the day he gets to stand on the world stage as a player on his own merit.

And Isagi still has more people to defeat on his way of becoming the world’s best striker: Michael Kaiser. Julien Loki. The rest of the ‘top 11’ players for the U20 world cup. Possibly, maybe, Noel Noa himself, if Blue Lock’s author truly intends to take Isagi that far, which I hope they do, especially since Noel was introduced all the way back in the very first chapter of the series too.

TL;DR, shipping Isagirin/Rinsagi is great, they are foils and rivals and spur each other’s growth fantastically in a series where separating from your friendships/partnerships, and becoming better individually, constantly challenging yourself and them, then coming back together, stronger and more mature, both as individuals and as a pair, and choosing each other throughout it all, is a theme. And I’ll end this long, long meta, with this quote.

“The weak are dominated by their ego, the wise dominate their ego, and the intelligent are in a constant struggle against their ego.” ― Hamza Yusuf

#blue lock #bllk #isagi yoichi #itoshi rin #isagirin meta part 6 #rinsagi meta part 6 #rinsagi #isagirin #otp: heart stolen by his beautiful parable

121 notes · View notes