#i'm so so so excited for PXG vs BM

[bachirasbodyguard]

I'm a little worried about how Rin is doing in PXG, ngl

For a number of reasons:

Most importantly - his instructor is Loki. Look at the face Rin made when that was announced.

Rin already disliked him because of how hard he outplayed him in the Blue Lock vs. World Stars mini-game, without putting in basically any effort, as both he and Isagi noted. There's a certain tension between these two if you re-read those chapters:

I think a lot of it might come just from them being so close in age. I think Rin sees him more as another player he has to beat (especially since it's another player who is at Sae's level) than a teacher.

And you know that since Loki is part of the New World 11 it's probably going to be "Itoshi's little brother" and not "Rin".

2. He's probably hit a mental and emotional slump after what happened in BL vs U20. He must have lost some of his spirit after how things turned out for him personally and with his brother, now confused about what he's doing this all for, and Isagi isn't there to light a fire under his ass

3. He has to watch Isagi, his "i'll-kill-you-even-if-it-kills-me" rival, fight ANOTHER, cooler rival. I don't know about you, but if I had Rin's personality and my bitch-ass of a rival was all "look at this better, more powerful rival I found who is like you but better and whose demise is all I think about 24/7" I'd be a little pissed

4. VERY important: His only company are Karasu, who is just as big of a bitch as he is, and fucking SHIDOU. I don't even need to say anything else. I can't even imagine the shit Shidou is telling him now that he has his dick all hard for Mr. Underlashes senior

Of course I hope that his "defeat" at the U20 game made him mature and he won't be a sad little bitchboy during the Neo Egoist League but I'm pretty sure that's not going to be the case.

Anyway. Hang in there lil' emo guy.

[bluelockednyx]

" or for Isagi to stop looking at Rin's thighs whichever is easier" I- 🤣. ( this was so noticeable in that leg extension machine scene he had no reason to go and check up on him, stop him from overworking and prompt him to take rest but he DID)

I thought I was crazy for thinking that abt that one Rin panel but I'm glad I'm not the only one, since Kaisagi is rising in popularity esp w/ Hiori's comments abt the in-universe social media. Idk whether to lament over the lack of rinsagi or absolutely LOSE it over Isagi's reaction. Like it wasn't the kind of cute denial that Raichi was saying it was, bro was so OFFENDED. I can't.

Then again, it makes sense since public has seen more of Kaiser-Isagi than with Rin. I wonder what Isagi's reaxn would be if it had been Rin's name that had come like that 👀. Definitely not visceral disgust to this level.

Besides, recent chapters had carved a place for kainess in my heart and I feel like those 2 should cuddle and go to therapy. ( Any thoughts on recent chapters, that choking scene was disturbing...).

Do u think the light novels and profiles are not written by Kaneshiro? Bcz while they weren’t bad at all( they were quite great) there was this missing spark in them. Like with Isagi, they made him out to be able to see mosquitos across a room and note the temp change in the air as a BABY?? I-??????. I am very confused.

And in a profile, he has 200 level or smth eyesight?? Normal is 150 so.., idk maybe I am just being extremely dumb.

But to me, manga Isagi was so loveable and inspiring bcz he was a normal person who was willing to break and challenge himself to reach his goal, forging a will that was strong enough to withstand all the pressure. Not superpowers.

And in his profile, his type is someone who smiles a lot and it fits bachira but to me it sounds like another way to fit in to what people expect of him. There was a meta on Isagi and anger expression floating around in tumblr. And it says how Isagi loved Noa's style bcz of how brutal it was and through football he was able to exert anger in a socially acceptable way instead of being the peace maker and going along with Ichinan style football and just agreeing with Tada's decisions and blue lock is a release frm that. And like you said, isagi isn't as driven abt bachira as he is about him. Narratively too, that is a good thing, allowing bachira to make new connections and new bonds in Spain instead of being fixated with Isagi. And frankly, I don’t think it's healthy for Bachira to get with the first person to be his friend. Let him experience life first.

Well then, I am so excited for Pxg VS BM. The potential match ups, Kaiser most def knows Sae so some interesting conflict w/ Rin if he mentions that like Luna did. The Isagirin matchup, I'm just so excited. Also ,"# Stop looking at Rin's thighs challenge."

P.S. - I wrote a Rinsagi fic, so plz check it out.

How can I read your fic if you didn't send a link lol

Kaneshiro-sensei literally addressed the Kai//sagi shippers in the chapter: nope, not happening, no way, via Isagi himself. He may subvert this later on, but as far as I can tell, given the story's trajectory + Isagi's own character arc, it won't happen. Kaiser will most likely be coming back as a rival/enemy in the U20 World Cup arc too. There simply is no motivation for Isagi to ally with him at all.

Rin's spotlight and turn is coming up, so again, I'm not worried about the current lack of Isagi and Rin moments. It is supposed to be THE highlight of the NEL arc for good reason. And yeah, I doubt Isagi would be as offended if fans had been saying that about him and Rin. On the down low he really is fond of and respects Rin, whereas he despises Kaiser for just about everything besides his skill in soccer.

Truthfully, I've grown a little bored of the recent chapters. Not so much that they aren't good chapters, but more that there's a lack of variety to the characters. IMO Kaneshiro-sensei has hit a bit of a wall on character cast and variety - Ness' backstory is a touch too commonly seen for me to really get into, and feels lacking in effort, though tbf Ness is at best a tertiary character in-series who's there to prop up Kaiser's story.

No real thoughts yet on the choking scene. Currently it's only a sign of Kaiser's desperation to me. The throne he thought he had secured might well be about to collapse from underneath him due to Isagi's growing skill. Seeing how he'll match up against Rin is also interesting, seeing how Rin is actually very much self-sufficient as a striker, while Kaiser thus far seems quite dependent on Ness. I also believe that the PXG match will bring Kaiser into direct confrontation with Loki, who is posited as thus far the best U20 striker we've seen, given how he's a master for the PXG team, rather than simply a fellow player. Fingers crossed that Loki smokes all of them, including Noa, if he comes out to play too.

No, the light novel most likely isn't written by Kaneshiro-sensei, given what I know of the industry. The bulk of it is likely by Moegi Momo-sensei; with credit given to Kaneshiro-sensei because he's the OG creator of the Blue Lock series. That said, there's a good chance that Kaneshiro-sensei provided Moegi-sensei with story ideas and rough character backgrounds who then developed it into proper stories for novelization.

The character profiles are more likely to be done by Kaneshiro-sensei himself, though I am going to point out that it's published as 'supervised by', rather than 'written by'.

Emphasizing this: I generally don't care about light novels, character profiles etc. in terms of my interpretation of the story. To me, what appears in the manga is the only canon there is. Everything else that's official are canon-adjacent and supplementary; fun to read and get an idea of how the characters' personalities and relationships are off-page, but otherwise unimportant unless explicitly referenced in-story. Whatever is not depicted in the manga proper is free real estate.

As for Isagi in the light novel. Well.

He reads as autistic, from that apparent hypersensitivity + his hyperfocused interest in football, and as I've mentioned before: Isagi is also written very much as a tabula rasa, a blank slate of sorts, for target readers to be able to slip themselves into. I think that the emphasis is on Isagi having very clear vision, his personal advantage, amongst the rest of the cast, but again, to me, the light novel is not as important as what we see depicted in the manga proper.

No comments on Isagi's type in the profile, and how it could be Bachira. They're decently written together, and I understand why people would ship them, but they are also just kind of 'meh' for me. Kaneshiro-sensei may intend to write them as a pair, but they are a pretty run-of-the-mill standard MC + best friend ship, with the highlight being Bachira's personal growth via his relationship with Isagi. There are more satisfying ships for me in Blue Lock, and better romances in other animanga series, and while I am fond of shipping, I'm not reading Blue Lock for the shipping. It's just a nice bonus that I find Isagirin's relationship so damn interesting that I've stayed invested.

I haven't read that meta, but that's an interesting interpretation of Isagi's character. Blue Lock is somewhat of a meta commentary on the failures of the general Japanese culture's need to conform to societal pressures and not 'rock the boat', and how it has led to an under performance in football. Isagi as a whole has also been growing more assertive and more confrontational with others, though Kaiser's the only one whom he views with solid enmity.

In the light novel, Isagi's idolization of Noa stemmed from how Noa bypassed the opposing team one after the other, and then from how Noa would rather 'lose a game by a hat trick than win one with an assist'. And doesn't that sound quite like a certain someone, lmao.

Cheers to having PXG match to look forward to next year after the hols!!

[n-fblog]

The Bids are Out!

Spoilers for Blue Lock Chapter 240 Below !

Most noteworthy stuff for me:

As expected, Nagi and Reo's bids went down. Rough stuff, but it actually made me excited to see - not only for their development, but it also raises the stakes for the PxG match and the NEL in general

Reo kinda got the short end of the stick with -4M difference; sure he probably didn't do much but as a midfielder, I'm sure he still did plenty of passing to Chigiri and working with the field? Doesn't make sense to me that he’d be lower than Kunigami who (in my opinion) has been kind of underwhelming for the entire NEL. I guess the difference in performance from last match really scared off investors. If anything, I think Chigiri should be slightly higher with Reo and Kunigami tied, but I guess this works better narratively for Kunigiri lol

Nagi makes a lot more sense, 88M from one goal was already overconfident, so to go from that to not making a single goal would crush anyone. Makes me wonder how Reo is gonna 'motivate' him, or if this is going to cause any kind of rift between their already fragile alliance

Rin's bid is almost double what Barou's was after both scoring a hat trick! Really wonder what the difference in their performances was to make Rin worth +80M more than Barou's hat trick (must've been TEARING UP the field 💀). 

Isagi's bid TRIPLE JUMPED UP (per the title) -- my guy broke his way into the top two, which is super hype. As expected of the MC, he's still pissed about being valued 30M less than Rin LMAO this last match is gonna decide it all (watch it be a 1M difference with Isagi on top)

It's crazy to me that Shidou didn't break Top 10 in either match. Where is that boy??? Just makes me think he's gonna go crazy in BM vs. PxG, but I still want to see more of these past few matches with France

Finally seeing the bids again after all this time has got me so hyped, I'm really excited for this next match -- and France is the most stacked in terms of BL players

[thyandrawrites]

So besides nagi and reo do yuo have any other fave character interactions? Or characters you wish would interact more with each other?

Cjhxbdbs sorry for the nagireo spam. It will happen again

But yeah! The dynamic that got me into reading the manga to begin with was the Itoshi brothers', and I'm still very much curious about it. Estranged siblings are a huge fave trope of mine, especially when the conflict boils down to a failure to see reality from each other's point of view. I like to think the Itoshi brothers have some level of miscommunication going on, much much worse than Nagi and Reo's, but I do think the parallels are there for a reason. Every now and then I get meta worms about them and add thoughts to a dedicated gdoc file, but there's still so much that needs clarifying imo. The flashbacks gave me some answers, but I'm dying to see Sae's side of the story as well because Rin is as much as a reliable narrator as Reo is when it comes to Nagi. And I don't believe for a second that Sae is as emotionless about the entire deal as he comes across to Rin. But I also think he's a huge asshole for how he left things between them.

I wish the manga would give us an episode Nagi-style dive into his thought process for how his dream changed and why he lost faith in Rin. There seems to be some level of mutual idolization turned sour on both sides, and while we know why Rin went from adoration to "hatred" (putting that in quotes because it's more complicated than pure loathing), we're left guessing about what made Sae want to cut Rin out of his life completely just over a soccer disagreement. My running theory is that in the heat of the moment he felt some degree of lied to as well, like their dream mattered so little to Rin, he wasn't willing to face reality and grow from it. I won't go into detail on this bc I would write an essay but. Just. Their relationship is... Messy and complex and that's my favourite shade of drama. Can't wait for them to face each other again to shed some more light on all this, and also hoping for an eventual reconciliation.

As far as established dynamics go I'm not intense about anything else atm. I used to like Isagi and Rin's dynamic, but I'll be real with you anon, I liked Isagi more when he had yet to grow that big head and huge asshole streak. I'm still anticipating the bm vs pxg match tho, and tbh I'm way more interested in Rin as a rival/foil than I ever was in Kaiser. I can't wait for Kaiser to disappear from the plotline actually.

Other characters I'm interested in... Well, I wouldn't call him a fave of mine yet, but I am curious about Shidou. There's more to him than violence and innuendos, and I'm excited to see his progress in the next match. His dynamic with Rin also amuses me greatly. I'd like to see more of those two, but also more of Shidou in relation to people in general. Gosh, I'd like to see him be friends with Bachira tho it will likely never happen. I think they have a lot of common ground on the loneliness front, and I hc that Shidou was also an outcast who played soccer alone cause he had yet to meet someone who could match his passion and intensity.

But because I like loneliness-bonding, I'm also drawn to Rin and Bachira as friends (and as a romantic pair too, as you've probably seen me share bachirin stuff). The fact that Rin saw through Bachira's longing for a human connection soon after meeting the guy always struck me, and the fact that Bachira can see right through Rin's loneliness in turn is interesting, especially since Rin refuses to acknowledge that he is.

Other bondings I'd like to see are Hiori and Rin (traumabonding over family), Hiori and Nagi (bonding over games and self-isolation), Bachira and Nagi (bonding over being silly little airheads with no brain-to-mouth filter), Nagi and Nikko (weeb to weeb communication), Reo and Kunigami (bonding over their relationship with failure and their crazy self-expectations), Reo and Isagi (as metavision rivals and midfielder-like play makers) and probably something else that I'm forgetting

In short: just pick all my favourite characters and put them in Situations™ with different people. There's a high chance I will be into it

[snaillock]

I'm so excited for the Bastard vs pxg match, just imagine Rin and Isagi fighting, Kunigami and Shidou too while Kaiser is matching all this shit and he opens his mouth like always, And Noa and Julian randomly speaking French (I need them to speak French or I'm gonna die)

DUDE OMFG i literally cannot contain my fucking excitement for the pxg match.

i’ve been waiting for so many of these characters and theirs interacting with the others on bm for too damn long now.

i could honestly write a whole ten paragraph or more post about my predictions on what will happen character wise but ima keep it short.

i just know that shidou is going to cause so many problems on both his own team and bastard, like he’s for sure starting so much shit with rin, kunigami, maybe even kaiser and ness and loki definitely has to find some way to contain his insanity. god i love shidou so much honestly

also i’m so excited to learn more about loki. currently my favorite master is snuffy but i feel like loki is for sure going to beat him in terms of favorite coach and over all top characters

[miss-allsundays]

brainrot abt isagi and his development throughout the manga!

before you read: spoilers for post-season 1 (up to the latest) chapters

rereading blue lock has truly made me realize just how much isagi has improved over the course the series????

as someone who has read most of the chapters as they came out, I had forgotten some of the finer details/the shorter arcs, so when I read the selections "arc" for the bllk 11 vs U-20 again (for like the first time in years) I was so surprised to see isagi falter/hesitate as much as he did!! because I'm not used to this version of him anymore!!!

like maybe that's just me but neo-egoist league isagi (or, if you wanna stretch it, bllk 11 isagi) seems like a complete different person than like, the isagi from previous arcs, purely because of his confidence and the way his ego, which had been sealed by his old team, has finally come out again in full force.

which is why I'm SO excited to see the pxg and bm match!! the last time rin and isagi have played on the same field, the latter hadn't been able to 'fight' on his own, because of he lacked the body and the technique AND because he didn't possess the level of confidence he has now; so to think that these two will finally play again together, as RIVALS!!!! for like the first time in a while!!!! makes me sooo excited!!!!

because isagi is finally one of the 'big dogs' (if you will), he has finally started exploring his full potential, training his body to catch up to his ideas and coming up with so many intricate strategies that can help HIM score, without being too dependent on others!!!

he's a completely different person than the last time he's been on the same field as rin- and I'm dying to see how he -rin- will react to that, and how the match will evolve!! ESPECIALLY because the last time they've talked, their relationship developed into this bitter (from rin's pov) rivalry because of sae's acknowledgment of isagi!!

[riririnnnn]

OHMYGOD I'M SO EXCITED TO ANSWER THIS! THIS IS LITERALLY ME RIGHT NOW:

So, there are three things that comes to my mind:

1. Isagi's words awakens some kind of emotion inside Kunigami's heart -> WC Flashback where it is a mixture of Ego brainwashing + eliminating players -> Noa gives some training.

It seems pretty plausible considering the current events, but also considering the anticipation of WC backstory, I think it'll be revealed in a more peak time like after Kunigami scores a goal or Shidou gives some kind of acknowledgement to him.

2. Isagi x Kunigami x Hiori plan an attack -> PxG counters successfully or more specifically, Shidou counters it -> Focus shifts to Shidou -> Flashback on how Loki tamed him.

We can't forget that alongside Kunigami, Shidou is in the limelight too, so it might make sense on revealing the events about how PxG trained or how Loki made things work since we got that introductory thing for every team till now and also that we never got an answer of why/how Shidou jumped up in the ranking all of a sudden.

Further, BM Vs PxG feels like the perfect time to reveal Shidou's backstory too.

3. Isagi x Kunigami x Hiori attack -> But no goal, just some crazy match-ups -> A glimpse of WC in the last panel of the chapter to create hype just like what happened during Ness' backstory.

I think a slow build up to the flashbacks feels perfect. It has happened many times and, in fact, Snuffy's backstory was revealed in near two parts too.

I would love to hear other people's theories!

I'm so excited omg!

Excited for today's leaks, but also work today is not gonna be cooperative in letting me indulge bllk brainrot 🥲

I'll probably see the leaks, and I'll drop in to babble when I get a chance.

[bluelockednyx]

"sae picked up his attitude from somewhere-" lmao, i got to say i burst out laughing at that cause though his attitude is something, what kind of place did he as a child get that from...?

that aside, itoshi parents being emotionally distant seems to support the fact that sae and rin kinda filled up that role for each other? That's maybe why the first thing sae did after coming back from spain was rushing to meet and talk to rin (tho he did a shitty job of communication). I assumed that sae wanted to fully pursue his dream and in order to do that, he had to level with his brother to cut loose of any hesitation or guilt or whatever, and when that didn't go well (blame yourself, sae), he said to himself, 'lukewarm', sae was the one being lukewarm

btw, the current arc is almost at its peak, what is your thoughts or predictions so far? i think kaneshiro wanted isagi to go through a training arc and in the end, he can finally beat rin to fulfill his monologue in the shoe-lacing chapter

have a nice day!

Right?? He was such a rude little shit as a kid. And he couldn't have been more than like, eight, at the time.

Yeah, the Itoshi parents being emotionally distant feels that way to me, and thus far the manga's depictions support it. Neither of them even turned up for the huge Blue Lock vs U20 match, despite how both Rin and Sae were there. It's genuinely a little sad.

Rin and Sae were very emotionally dependent on each other, Rin moreso than Sae because he's younger and Sae took care of him. It's both sweet and heartbreaking that Sae's first move, after returning from Spain, is to go to the youth team's fields and find Rin. Sae actually parallels Reo somewhat in that specific scene, as he was trying so hard to live the scraps of his dream through Rin, which is so strongly opposed to the narrative themes that there was no other way for that particular conversation to go but down, from a writing perspective. (also, compelling angsty sibling drama lmao). At the heart of Sae's character is the tragedy of being so close yet so far to his OG dream, and I'm really excited for when he returns to the main story.

BM sweep, more because I don't see Ubers winning, as so far they are working fairly rigidly in accordance to Snuffy's strategies with a huge lack of thinking for yourself in there. How well can you perform, as an egoist, when you're mostly following someone else's orders? Though I would argue that given how, well, untrained Blue Lock generally is where defense is concerned, it feels more like Ubers is training the defenders to actually get used to defending, while letting Barou run wild.

Though who, exactly, gets that last goal is still up in the air, I would like it to be Isagi, but the payoff is sweeter if he beats both Kaiser and Rin in that final PXG match. I personally think it would be extremely fun if the last goal winds up going to someone no one expected: Hiori. But that's because I love chaos.

And yes. Final training arc for BM before Isagi faces off against Rin in the PXG match. We might get a cut of PXG facing off against Barcha, and Manshine against Ubers while their matches are going on during BM's week off, and I really want to see Nagi vs Barou.