#ITOSHI SAE APPEAR IN THE MANGA ALREADY

[kaiser1ns]

i love itoshi sae so much oh my god i cant stop thinking about him

his back, his eyes, his hands, his everything ... ah, what a man

[lanternkiwi]

this is gonna sound real weird but im rereading the second selection and i reread u20 last night- and i LOVE the sweat details in each player and how it showcases their differences

cant believe im about to make a post dedicated to sweat on soccer players but aye man not the weirdest thing in the world LMFAO also another long post i have a lot to say about these boys and their sweat

bllk manga spoilers- second selection, u20, and neo egoist league

first all, i love how the amount of sweat on each player determines skill level and power TO A CERTAIN DEGREE it’s like their level of sweat is their level of power they’re exerting if that makes sense

look at isagi in his match against the top three

this is only the start of the game and he’s already sweating because his weapon requires a lot of power. when rin does the same thing,

not a single bead of sweat in sight. it shows the gap between of them of them in the second selection. isagi had to exert a large amount of power to pull that kind of shot off, while rin’s was almost effortless it’s criminal. 

even here with aryu

another shot that was so effortless it should be against the rules. isagi had already exerted power, running around, passing, and attempting another shot. even when bachira started making plays on his own, he started sweating

and this interaction between bachi and toki,

toki is using a lot of his physical power and bachi is using a lot of his as well to make those passes and trying to break away from toki. also toki is freaking the fuck out and was already sweating buckets before hand, which is why i said it showcases this to a certain degree. cause toki, poor boy, was losing his mind before the match had even started

nagi, bachira, and isagi are already sweating while aryu and rin are dry as hell right now. nagi, bachira, and isagi are working as a team, constantly putting out power and using all of their weapons. rin and the others were fighting independently. they weren’t thinking of playing as a team. and every move and play came effortlessly to them.

even with rin’s ego out and about, he wasn’t exerting nearly as much power as isagi was to sweat.

the three of them were using way more power than rin while he was hardly trying. he didn’t care about this match. he just wanted to move on and win.

sound familiar- this shit runs in the family bloodline fr

sae motherfucking itoshi. the one that EVERYONE points out for not having a single drop of sweat on him through his entire appearance in the story. sae is rumored to have meta vision and didn’t even think about using it in the u20 match what a demon. but i think everyone, at this point, knows sae was barely trying in the match so we’ll keep our focus on bllk’s eleven

now the u20 match is where everyone and their moms, literally was sweating bricks fr. but look at everyone’s difference at the start of the match.

isagi was running around the field and had a brief confrontation with oliver. chigiri was running around, trying to block or stall sae. gagamaru saved sendou’s shot and karasu was keeping defense in check. nagi and bachi still had yet to use their weapons.

the longer the match went on, obviously they got more tired and their weapons were taking a lot of power and they were getting fatigued. chigiri was SOAKING when they got him out of the game cause of his leg and how much he used his weapon, his infamous speed 

but since a lot of them have improved since the previously mentioned second selection, take nagi.

normally, nagi would be sweating by now. but this shot, the shot that got them the first goal, didn’t cause him to break out in sweat like in earlier games.

look at the team v vs team z game

look how much he improved :((( he was already using a considerable amount of power, but since he improved so much as a player, he didn’t need so much to execute that shot in u20. this same comparison could be done for chigiri as well for another example.

anyways, the star of the show, rin. i think him, shidou, and sae obviously, had the least amount of sweat on them by the end of the match. however once rin’s ego TRULY comes forward, he was sweat way more than we’ve ever seen him. look at him at the start of the match

and here he is with his ego and flow state, exerting a new level of power we’ve never seen from him yet.

and now, i offer up the one and only

michael kaiser. in the two times we’ve seen the beloved kaiser impact, not a single drop of sweat in sight.

even when he’s using meta vision, no sweat

even isagi using meta vision has him wetter than oregon on a good winter day fr

isagi’s already using so much of his power and has been consistently using meta vision for as long as i can remember (this game istg) and michael has been consistently using it as well, without a single drop of sweat. it’s really unclear if sae was doing the same thing since we hardly got anything from his pov and his thought process wasn’t really known either. 

it’s fitting that the new generation world 11 are this op and able to relax like that in games like that. 

even the top five in the world are similar to them. like sae, they weren’t trying in the game. i dont wanna make this ridiculously long so just have this one comparison.

the top five after the match,

and our boys after the match. totally different and ALL of them are sweating, showing the gap between our boys and the top five. the top five are fine, they hardly put any efforting into the game yet our boys are completely winded and out of breath. ego mentioned that the purpose of that was to show the players just how much they need to improve.

anyways, that’s it. i like those small details like that hopefully i’m not looking too deep into it and i sound insane LMFAOOO but i love how their sweat shows their growth, improvement, and output of power. 

[bluelockednyx]

Isagirin meta part 1

“You should aim to choose, rather than be chosen”

AKA Blue Lock, its focus on ‘egoism’, the impact of that philosophy and Kaneshiro Muneyuki’s + illustrator Nomura Yusuke’s opinion on what constitutes a good relationship in the series and how it ties into Isagirin/Rinsagi

An Isagirin/Rinsagi ship manifesto/meta. Spoilers up till the end of Blue Lock Phase 1, where Isagi and co. return to Blue Lock after the Blue Lock vs U20 match. Do note that I am flipping between both the JP tankabon for the OG text + official + fan translations for the english.

I’m going to preface by saying that I adore Blue Lock for all the reasons I also think it’s ridiculous: the hyper-competitiveness amongst fictional teenage characters in their pursuit of becoming the world’s best striker, all done in a glorified high-tech jail cell (which, as of the Neo-Egoist League arc, also serves as a reality tv show background!), where they are able to do and think of nothing but football and football only. Yet with all that, the series has chosen a fascinating take on its characters’ relationships with each other: the pursuit of a relationship, that prioritizes individual growth and independence, and where the characters, after separating, come back together stronger both individually and as a unit.

To start off with, a quick look at egoism, the main theme of the series.

What is egoism? It is the doctrine that human behaviour is motivated by self-interest, as per Merriam-Webster’s definition. Thus, from an extreme viewpoint, a fully egoistic person would regard oneself as the center of every interest, and every action made is done for one’s own benefit and one’s own benefit only, without any regard given to others.

In the context of Blue Lock, our main character, Isagi Yoichi begins to discover his own egoism through participating in the project. Over time, he learns to develop his skills while trusting in his ego, and on occasion even use other’s egos to his own advantage, and every step of the way he encounters/learns from his teammates and opponents in Blue Lock, then the U20, and as of now, the Bastard Munchen team.

And even with this hugely colourful cast of characters, Itoshi Rin still manages to stand out from the rest of the cast since his very first appearance, as well as Isagi’s first meeting with him.

As this is again, mostly a shipping meta, and an organisation of my thoughts about Isagirin’s relationship with the primary focus being the series’ narrative – Isagi’s egoism and his path to become the world’s best striker.

A note: I use football and soccer interchangeably throughout this series of posts. Fight me on my British English centric education. This is also very long (at least 5 parts, I'm still editing pics and whatnot), to say the least, because there are so many things to talk about where they are concerned in relation to the story.

As this is all about Isagi/Rin, I’ll start with Rin’s first appearance as part 1.

First impression (C40)

The first time Isagi (and we, the readers) meets Rin is in Chapter 40. Everyone is exhausted after the two weeks of physical training, and Ego has just announced that beyond the doors are the second selection trials. While everyone is hesitating over being the first to go in, Isagi included, Rin takes the initiative. We know immediately that this guy’s gonna be important: Rin appears larger than life by artistic positioning of his full body before the manga panels.

Isagi, along with several team Z members are immediately impressed by his first shot. Isagi calls it a ‘beautiful kick, a tall gentle curve’. He’s taken aback by the second shoot Rin makes, which hits the first. Rin declares his warm-up over and tells the AI system (or Ego?) to open up the doors, and becomes the first person to head inside the Second Selection Trial.

Upon seeing his surname, Igaguri immediately links Rin to Sae, who is, as of yet, a minor character who appeared early on in the story, and is already considered one of the top 11 players in the football world stage. It further reinforces Rin’s future importance in the series.

This chapter is the start, though definitely not the end, of Isagi’s, uh, fixation on Rin.

C44

Isagi’s the first person from Team Z to go through and complete the individual ability challenge. He teams up with Bachira and Nagi, (who leaves behind an upset Reo), and they head to the next stage, where they immediately encounter Rin, Aryuu and Tokimitsu, who’ve teamed up. Ego explains the rules, and emphasises that to play, both teams have to agree to the match-up. At first, Isagi is hesitant to clash head-on with Rin, Aryu and Tokimitsu, and Aryu, too would prefer to fight against better opponents rather than Isagi and co. Then Rin says he wants to win quickly and move on.

Rin’s self-centredness and stand-offishness is out in full focus here, and it almost causes a fight between him and Aryu. His speech about getting into the Japan U20 to crush Sae reveals his fixation on his brother, but at the same time incites/intrigues the other five present. Then we get this:

Neither Bachira nor Nagi seem to be all that keen to duke it out against the top 3. Contrast Bachira and Nagi’s reaction to Isagi’s upon seeing the top 3’s antics, and finally Rin’s declaration. Bachira’s amused, while Nagi looks a little perplexed, or perpetually bored.

But Isagi.

“But… my ego is telling me – I want to fight this guy! And most importantly… I want this guy!”

So yeah. The most important story theme to Blue Lock, one’s ego, and Isagi uses it in reference to wanting Rin. Okay, I’ll concede, he wants to fight Rin first and foremost, but, even within story and context included, this line is definitely an eyebrow raiser. And even in other fujoshi bait sports anime, this line is definitely a 'wow they laid it thick' moment.

At this point, Rin definitely couldn’t care less so long as he moves ahead. So they match up. The first 3v3 in Blue Lock is set.

C45

Game starts in a mini field, Isagi-Bachira-Nagi team score, but all it gets from Rin is a scoff. It’s in this match that Isagi encounters the concept of football being a deathmatch, and the field a battlefield.

‘This is… a battlefield.’

‘Soccer is a death match as far as I’m concerned.’

This is somewhat of a rehash of Ego’s speech in the earliest chapters of the series, when the 300 strikers were first gathered before him.

“True strikers tread a path of winning or losing everything… every single day, in order to keep on surviving.”

Isagi’s response?

"Interesting... I'll join this death match!"

C46-48

The match is quick, and brutally one-sided. Besides the first goal, scored from the joint effort of Bachira-Nagi-Isagi, Rin, Aryu and Tokimitsu score one goal after the other. Isagi struggles to keep up with Rin the whole time, and the game ends with Rin scoring thrice. Isagi hardly does anything worth mentioning, other than the first goal and successfully blocking one of Rin’s goals.

Chapter 48 is a real goldmine for this ship, and sets the course for Isagi’s future skills growth and character arc in the manga very deliberately.

‘Think you found a good space or something? At least go study how human eyeballs work, you trash.’

As the realisation of his impending loss sinks in, this is his reaction:

From a shipping perspective, Isagi’s whole response to the loss is spectacular. Note the blacked in panels of Isagi’s monologue of despair, the inevitability of losing dragging his movements down putting him distantly in perspective. Then note the switchover from black to white again in his monologue, down to the way his eyes widen, and the light in his eyes when Rin makes that final goal to trounce Isagi-Bachira-Nagi team 5-2. The monologue itself reads like a love confession, even with context.

‘We’ll lose. Are you kidding?! With my current capability… I can’t even measure… how much the difference between me and Rin is – I can’t tell… the difference is just that overwhelming… and despairing… 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 --’

In the OG Japanese, Isagi says his eyes and heart were stolen.

「敗北という現実とは裏腹に　俺の目は　心は　奪われていた　糸師凛のけり描く　その放物線の美しさに　―」

In this moment, Isagi should be absolutely devastated by the loss. Yet, he’s not. He’s hung up, he’s smitten, his heart is stolen by Rin's beautiful kick, which neatly bookends with the first time he sees Rin shooting back in chapter 40, where he was surprised and fascinated by the tall, gentle kick that Rin made.

And isn’t that fascinating?

I’ll be wrapping this up here for now. Part 2, covering the rest of the Second Selection Arc coming soon!