#rin itoshi analysis

[starweed]

my thoughts on itoshi rin and how his relationship with his brother has affected the way he has played football throughout the manga

to me it feels quite obvious that rin still cares about sae quite a bit. quite literally almost all of rin’s football career has been built around his brother, from the beginning of it to the u-20 match.

in the beginning, it started with rin thinking that sae looked cool and wanting to watch with his big brother play. then people realized he was actually pretty good at football himself, so he decided to start playing with sae because, “why wouldn’t playing football with your brother be fun?” this is when football was fun, it was mostly just hanging out with his big brother and eating ice cream together. we also don’t really know much about this time in rin’s life other than a few manga panels, so i don’t have much to say other than this is when got into football and he enjoyed it. i do feel like at first he mostly enjoyed it because he was playing with sae.

then, sae goes to spain, and this is when we first start to see changes in rin’s football. it’s in this stage that rin’s football both becomes about getting better and is when he first starts to enjoy it without sae. it becomes about getting good enough so that he can still walk with sae on the path to becoming the two best strikers in the world. it’s still enjoyable, but it’s mostly fun because he knows that sae is going to come back and they’re going to be great together. sae’s going to come back and they’ll both have gotten better and football will be even more enjoyable.

then sae actually comes back, and it’s apparent that all is not well. their confrontation happens and the football that rin had built up in the time that sae was away crumbled around him. football was no longer about playing with his brother, that had been made abundantly clear to him by sae himself. i imagine that it takes a bit of time for rin to decide what to do with himself after that. we just get a fade to black in the manga after rin and sae’s confrontation in the manga, but we do know that it was in winter. i don’t know how seasons in japan work or when football season is, but i imagine that having rin’s and isagi’s big life changing moments happen on the same day would be kind of unlikely (but who knows, this is a sports manga and the timeline is blurry).

the next change to his football is likely when he gets the letter to blue lock. this is when football becomes a tool to use in the goal of proving sae wrong. proving that he did deserve to be part of sae’s life, and that sae was in the wrong for saying what he did. football was now about making sae feel like rin did with the added weight of guilt. making sae feel guilty about how he treated rin when he returned from spain. blue lock is just a way for him to streamline that process. the facility gives him access to top trainers and training facilities, as well as the opportunities he needs to get back at sae. this football isn’t about enjoyment or happiness or anything that the football he played before was about. this football was about his anger and his need for revenge, at the same time it was also about his want for his older brother back. his want for his brother to love him like he used to, to wrap him up in his arms and take him out for ice cream and sit by the ocean with him. this football was football filled with grief over the fact that his relationship with his brother will never be the same because he is not good enough.

then the u-20 match happens, and this marks yet another change to rin’s football. this is when sae manages to fully cement himself as a world class jerk in both my mind and in rin’s. after this match rin is pissed off, like he is mad mad. he takes some of that anger out on isagi because he’s a) the one that sae praised, and b) the one who walked up to rin who was clearly spitting mad and tried to have a conversation. but after the u-20 match, this is when rin starts to play football for himself. this is when rin lets go of playing for sae altogether, and i am so excited to see what that looks like. this is rin accepting that if sae’s going to be a jerk to him for the rest of his life then he’s not going to let him run it anymore. this is rin not letting go of all the bullshit that he went through with sae, but accepting that it happened and kind of moving on.

of course, this is all from rin’s perspective. i’d like to see what sae thinks of what went down between the two of them, it’s likely much different than how rin views it.

at the time that i’m writing this post (ch 231 of the manga is latest chapter) we haven’t seen any of our paris x gen pals since they chose their team, so that means we haven’t seen rin in a while. i feel like rin’s new play style will be extremely interesting to see (especially from isagi’s pov, it’s like that boy can’t not wax poetry about rin), especially since pxg’s mentor is julian loki. since he’s in the same age range as all of blue lock it’ll be interesting to see how he handles the team.

and the u-20 match really good writing, in my opinion. it really expands on rin and sae’s relationship in way that hadn’t happened before and hasn’t happened since, at the time of this post, and that context is why i can even make this post.

hope that you enjoyed my ramblings about rin, i just think he’s neat

[aesterblaster]

Thinking about self hatred and how it's such a plague in Blue Lock. Thinking about how Rin can't look in the mirror because of how much he reminds himself of Sae, but how he tells Isagi to look at him. How even characters who think of themselves as filth get angry, how Kenyu has bursts of it, how Kaiser chokes himself. How deep down every single character in Blue Lock is begging to be loved and understood. The light in their eyes when someone believes in them and the deep pit of depression they fall into when no one does.

How Reo and Ness are hated by parts of the fandom probably BECAUSE their self hatred is so viceral and so obvious you can fucking feel it. Yet characters like Barou and Kunigami are seen as edgy because they hide their self hatred behind an equally destructive facade, a mask of controlled apathy for those around them. The way the coaches have to cradle the fragile, fragile souls of these boys while still pushing them to be better. Begging them to believe they are capable and picking them up after they pass out, stopping them from falling into the same imposter syndrome they've witnessed again and again (that even they are not immune to).

Thinking about how even Ego Jinpachi doesn't take care of himself.

[glamourscat]

⋆. 𐙚 ˚ My thoughts on the Itoshi brothers’ dynamic ⋆. 𐙚 ˚

The Itoshi brothers’ dynamic is so damn sad, and it breaks my heart a little more every time I think about it.

The thing is, we know that Rin is deeply upset (and that’s an understatement) with Sae. Sae made him a promise, the one about becoming the best players in the world together. Reading the manga makes you understand that the way Sae says it, it’s meant as nothing more than “child talk.” You know, when you’re a child and you feel you’re on top of the world? Exactly like that. When you feel you’re invincible and nothing can break you.

But then Sae left for Spain, alone. He was still just a kid. We don’t know what happened during his time abroad, but we can speculate that it wasn’t easy. Easy to adapt, given the cultural differences between Japan and Spain. It probably wasn’t easy to understand and come to terms with the fact that he was not “the best in the world” like he used to be in the little team he played for in Japan. He went to Spain, met stronger opponents, and his dream got crushed. From a striker to a midfielder, because he saw better talents than him. Because he was probably made to feel like his talent wasn’t worth even trying.

You can’t tell me that a little boy with so much substance, joy, passion, and determination to become the number one striker is suddenly reduced to nothing but a shell of who he was. Sure, people grow, but we are talking about a massive jump. We are talking about a kid left to his own devices, alone, without a family by his side in a foreign country.

Which leads me to Rin. I understand his anger. The way he feels betrayed when Sae comes back and suddenly it’s not about “us” together, but about “us” separately. I understand the way he felt betrayed because while Rin poured every ounce of his sweat and tears into leveling up for Sae—his older brother had instead “moved on,” logically. While Rin was breaking himself in four to become someone good enough for Sae, keeping the promise they made close to heart, Sae hadn’t thought about it twice.

Sure, you can blame Rin and say he was too naive, too childish. But he was. He was all those things; he was a child. What child, a younger brother at that, wouldn’t take into consideration the words from his older brother? Younger siblings thrive off their older ones, becoming who they are as individuals by looking up to their older siblings, most of the times at least. It’s obvious why Rin chose football and not another sport, for example. Why he stopped receiving presents from Santa at 8 because his brother had stopped at 10—and if Sae stopped, then so would he, despite still longing for presents.

The betrayal hit Rin particularly hard because while he still had no idea who he was or is, he had at least Sae to look up to. And he was under the impression that the two of them would become the best together. But then Sae comes back, and that dream is out the window.

I’m not going to sit here and debate ethics, because morally speaking, neither Rin nor Sae are perfect beings. They are both equally flawed, and that’s what makes this tragic. Fast forward to now, with Rin being 16/17 and Sae 18, this is where the issues flow in.

They are both old enough to know that the words Sae spoke in the past and the present are wrong and hurtful. No, it’s not “sibling dynamics.” You can be as angry as you want with the world, with your sibling. But to speak like that, then pretend nothing happened and genuinely be confused about why your little brother is “acting out” is next-level madness. Last time I checked, we don’t know exactly what type of individuals Rin’s and Sae’s parents are. But, seeing how their kids react to conflict and hard emotions, it’s safe to say they probably aren’t the best parents. And there’s some emotional neglect involved.

Back to what I was saying, when you’re 16 your emotions are so damn high, this is not me trying to excuse Rin, it’s me understanding where he comes from. It doesn’t excuse the type of person he has become. It’s me sympathising with his situation, because when you live in an environment where you’re forced to either survive or get eaten—you choose survival, no matter what it takes to achieve it. He is a nasty piece of work, with his sharp edges, closed off emotionally and mentally. Slightly judgmental and extremely angry. At himself, at everything. His anger, however, doesn’t mutate like Shidou’s into violence on the field. Rin’s anger is thin, at times invisible. It seeps through the cracks and makes him bitter and sorrowful.

That said, when you come to terms with the fact that Sae has no idea on why Rin is so angry at him and the reason for his anger—passing off his attitude and words as simple “teenage angst” — makes me feel many ways, and none are positive. To me, it’s absurd seeing your little brother acting so hostile towards you, seeing the clear signs of anger and frustration but also sadness in him, and passing it off as “Rin is acting out.” How? Genuinely, how?

You see your brother on the verge of screaming at you on the football field, in front of thousands of people present and live during the U20 match, and what do you do? Further insult him? Girl— It’s the way Sae is not even trying to understand. You can think all you want that your brother is going through a phase, and maybe it’s just me, but if I see my younger sibling acting out, I’m going to talk to them. It doesn’t have to be an emotional confrontation per se, but a simple “what the hell is going on with you?” kind of thing. Letting them know that you’re there for them.

But, with the hypothetical scenario where the Itoshi brothers grew up in an emotionally neglectful house, it makes sense why Sae doesn’t even know how to approach Rin. Ultimately, however, the fact that Sae has no idea why his brother is “acting out,” why Rin is just so angry, makes the whole thing even sadder. Because while Rin took everything to heart and that anger, the delusion is slowly consuming him—Sae has no idea what’s going on. And if Rin finds out that Sae doesn’t even know/didn’t even notice, I think it would end even worse than it already is.

There, we will see his anger explode to unimaginable levels. Anger turning into self-destruction. Rin would truly become a shell of himself, unsure of what direction to take. Because how do you even begin to explain to your little brother that his anger, the way he was feeling, wasn’t even noticed or acknowledged by his older brother? How do you even begin to explain that Sae doesn’t even understand why Rin is reacting the way he is? Truth is, Sae is emotionally unavailable, and Rin is a ticking bomb ready to explode really soon.

© GLAMOURSCAT

[chodzacaparodia]

It's so wholesome that each member of "Team Kindness" (Isagi, Hiori and Nanase) is somehow attracted to Rin, one of the people with the most anger in Blue Lock.

It started with Isagi, who starts treating Rin as his biggest rival almost from the very beginning and tries to surpass him:

Then there is Hiori, who was the only one who was willing to give Rin a helping hand without hesitation:

And recently Nanase, who wanted to become Rin's disciple, also joined this group:

+ Honorable mention: Bachira who, although not officially a member of "Team Kindness", is the best boy and he deserves to be here, because he also freely makes contact with Rin without much resistance:

Rin is not a person who attracts others with his positive energy. It's quite the opposite. You may get the impression that he pushes others away and wants to stay away from them. After all, he doesn't need anyone. But somehow he lets Isagi, Hiori, Nanase and Bachira, i.e. people who are perceived as kind (at least at the beginning of the series for some of them) and want to make contact with him, into his space. And this is beautiful.

[vashvana]

I’m not active in the fandom, and I kind of dropped off in the manga back in 2021 after U-20 ended, but Sae will always be my second favorite character. He’s such a complexly written antagonist and after having learned about the Sae Dying theory, my heart twangs for him even more. I completely understand how easy it is to become disillusioned with the world stifling your dreams. I know it isn’t explicit, but I think it’s very easy to read him as suffering from some kind of depression, I can recognize those eyes anywhere

[tkstarss]

rinsagi explanation + analysis

i love them sm im going to explode

[boinin]

panel and scanlation of the new Rin oneshot, via hoshi

it's such a small thing but like, there's something really heartbreaking about this. The brothers are similar, far more alike than they differ and by rights, they should get on.

but... Sae went through something in Spain. He lost his dream, and had to choose another. When he came home, looking for sympathy or maybe understanding, Rin threw it back in his face. So Sae went and did the unforgivable.

And now Rin can't even look at his own reflection without dwelling on his bitterness towards Sae 🥲

Their relationship isn't totally lost for good though. Rin does decide to see Sae's game. Later on in Blue Lock, he addresses the situation as follows:

And while the U20 match proves to be a set-back for them, note that Sae doesn't really discount Rin's worth as a striker. He simply doesn't address him.

He says Isagi will change Japanese football, because he was able to draw out Rin's instinctual (most optimal) playstyle. Rin takes this as a diss. While it was shitty of Sae to skim over Rin's growth, I'm not sure he intended to hurt Rin so badly. I think Sae may just want to see Rin thrive as a striker with his own style of play, not as a hollow imitation of Sae. Hence his praise of Isagi.

Rin gets this close to realising this, but his grudge against Isagi blinds him.

Eventually, there'll be a reckoning for these two, on or off the pitch. I really hope the manga gives them some closure, as much as I enjoy edgelord Rin. I suspect miscommunication is as much their problem as it is Nagi and Reo's. 🥲

[mina-posts-nonsense]

rin & ness’s doomed unconditional love (p1 rin)

i think it’s interesting how the itoshi brothers & kainess both break up because one part of the duo puts their “person” over football:

football to rin & ness simply becomes a means to be close to someone they love, but just by doing that they’ve driven away that precious person:

this will probably be like 2 or 3 parts because of the image limit, gonna begin with rin and his love first!!

rin and that snowy night:

rin originally wanted to be the world's best striker yet limits himself to second best, because that’s what sae wants from him:

he loves sae so fiercely that even if sae is showing him the ultimate faith, and willing to support his ORIGINAL dream- he wholeheartedly rejects it.

(side note: it’s CRAZY how sae said there’s people more awesome than him, so he revised his dream, yet still had faith in RIN to be the best regardless of what he saw in spain!!!!!)

think about it, isn’t it much better for rin to be the world’s best striker rather than constantly being overshadowed by his brother in second place? isn’t it better for him if sae simply acts as support ? yet even if this is a better deal for him, sae once told him that anything less than a striker is worthless :

so by sae’s own metric, rin doesn’t want his brother to be worthless (or “less”) than him, because he loves him and treasures him above himself, he’s okay being “less” but he’ll never accept his brother being “less”.

next, sae tells him to not give up on their dream just because it’s hard without sae, which he tries reminding sae of in that same conversation:

so he doesn’t want sae to give up on himself, because again he firmly believes that sae is capable of the best, he’s just wondering why this is all happening, throughout the conversation we see him ask questions because he’s trying to understand the change he sees, like why are you suddenly putting yourself down?

why do things have to turn out like this when i did what you told me to, when i tried my best for you all these years?

like cmon everyday he trains hard, to the extent where his teammates know his habits!

he just constantly making sae aware of how much sae means to him, how much he believes in sae and he never wanted to put their dream at risk in the slightest:

so this whole scene is how rin loved sae enough to advocate better for him, it’s how rin believes that sae is the most deserving of being the best and how rin will even fight sae over that belief even if sae shows that same belief in him !

i started with night snow because it’s something that rin gets mischaracterised to hell and back for, when it’s literally an example of his devotion and unconditional love for sae, yet he’s accused of “not caring” or being wrong or disregarding sae’s feelings and causing the fight.

WHEN THROUGHOUT THE CONVERSATION ALL HE’S TRYING TO DO IS UNDERSTAND SAE, he wants to know what’s wrong with his weight loss, he wants to know why sae changed his mind, he wants sae to stop putting himself down and giving up on their dream, even after the 1v1 he tries again to bargain and reason with sae, there’s not a doubt in my mind that he would have come around to sae being a midfielder.

but sae putting himself down, sae giving up on being the best, sae coming home changed and exhausted, sae not explaining anything beyond “you don’t know the world”, it’s not anything that rin can agree with.

rin’s love for sae vs his perception of sae’s love for him:

it’s immediately clear that rin loves sae beyond football, just notice how the smile disappears from his face when he sees sae’s exhaustion

how he praises him (showing that he kept up with sae’s career) then notices AND worries about his weight loss, because he cares about him more than his football successes- what he wants to talk about is sae’s health !!! yes he’s brillant and amazing at football, but how is his health ? ( which sae sadly brushes him off ...)

here’s that same scene from the light novel:

“

“Wasn’t that shot naive?”

While he was entranced by the fluttering snow, he heard a familiar voice from behind him.

“Ah.” When he turned around, Sae was there. The falling snow reflects the lights on the ground and sparkles. In the snow that shimmered beautifully, as if like an illusion, Sae was standing. His heart leaps. It wasn’t an illusion. He was carrying a large suitcase, and he could tell he had come here straight from the airport.

“Nii-chan……”

He thought he would just shout out loud “I'm the best in Japan!” and hug him, but in reality, that didn't work out that way. Sae's expression was grim and looked terribly worn out. He wasn't the kind of person to smile, but even so, he had never shown this kind of face to Rin.

“Welcome… back…”

“Yeah… I’m back.”

He wonders what's wrong. Is he tired from the plane ride? Or is he not feeling well?

“It’s been four years, huh… but weren’t you supposed to return tomorrow?”

…….He wonders if he isn’t glad to see him after so long.

“Yeah. I came ahead of schedule.”

The snow continues to fall. He doesn't know why, but his brother seems so far away. It’s sad and scary.

”

so yeah, he loves sae more than football and that is the exact problem!

even after that snowy night, he STILL keeps up with sae’s news:

the first image is directly after their fight and the second is after u20, so even when he thought sae threw him away and didn’t love him (or never loved him in the first place), he STILL keeps up with him.

even crazier is that he once jumped in front of a moving car to save sae’s ticket:

so that’s why it hits so hard when he thinks sae only used him for football, because he used football for sae:

this is a crazy statement considering that rin has his own desires to play football! he has a destroyer ego that sae has nothing to do with, yet his love for sae outweighed his initial impulses to play, that’s why it’s a doomed sort of unconditional love.

love -> (supposedly) hate aka the crashout scene:

the specific trigger for it is him thinking that his entire life was a lie, that all the love his brother had for him was false and simply because he was worth using:

he’d rather not have played at all if everything was false, if he was being used, if the sae he loved simply never existed, but the thing that send him over the edge is his experiences being invalidated:

(fun fact: that specific frame he’s looking at is his favourite picture

“His favorite photo is the one taken when they won the junior competition. Rin is in the third grade and Sae is in the fifth grade. Sae is in the middle of their team, with a bored look in his face like it’s just natural to win. Next to him is Rin holding the trophy high in the air because Sae, the ace who was supposed to hold it, let Rin do so.”

mentioned in the rin light novel!!)

the sae he loved and who loved him wouldn’t have given up on their dream, that sae would never have given up on his ego or said such cruel things to him. in a weird sort of way, he’s trying to give value to their bond by destroying sae- because he’s refuting the fact that everything they had was a lie, he genuinely loved sae and he practically built his whole life around him-and that’s why he won’t forgive the fact that sae is supposedly invalidating everything.

remember because all his life he’s wanted to be by sae’s side, he’s continually bothered by how far sae is:

throughout the light novel, he basically talks to sae’s picture and it’s emphasised how lonely he was without sae and how much he struggled and also constantly worried about being left behind. yet he didn’t tell sae a thing as to not burden him with it.

remember they equate their personal relationship with football, it’s not just about “far” in terms of skill level but also emotional distance:

rin is just continually yearning for his brother, he wants to be good enough to be by his side and the reminder of how far sae is keeps sending him into despair- right after this scene, he says this:

consider the prior context- he crashed out because sae invalidated their brotherhood so here he’s stating to himself that they ARE brothers, thus he refuses to be less than sae to prove that !

you could even argue he's fighting so hard, specifically dedicating every minute to football for the purpose of defeating sae because he thinks this will repair their relationship (aka “defending their brotherhood, making sae see that everything wasn’t a lie”):

(side note: it’s almost like he’s denying any change in their relationship, because he doesn’t want to believe things have changed or that everything was a lie!)

hence why he melts immediately at recognition even if he didn't get to enact his revenge of hurting sae as much as sae hurt him:

for a second, he thought he finally proved himself enough to get his brother back.

like cmon rin scored this match and sae didn't say a word, rin was also n1 of bllk and captain and helped create chances for everyone to score, it's only fair that sae takes back his words because they clearly aren't true, yet even the most basic form of recognition makes rin soften up like that and he just gets his heartbroken again.

desire for validation:

prior to pxg vs bm football was basically a way to bond with sae and get him back, [i think we’ll see him focus on his destructive impulses now that he understands his true ego (in the light novel he uses horror movies to cope after sae leaves)] and a core part of that was looking for validation.

he changes himself so that he can stay by sae’s side, this later becomes "how can i make him approve of me"? which unfortunately translates to "im not enough unless he approves of me":

he’s quite literally haunted by not being good enough for sae, when rin finds himself lacking he uses sae’s insult of “lukewarm”, it’s most clear in pxg vs bm, he literally conjured phantoms of sae and despair at not surpassing his phantom's expectations! he only receives "pleasure" from a goal when he defeated sae's phantom (after isagi took its place)- so in a way, he's almost trying to as working to shape his destroyer ego into something that sae approves of.

rin also has this negative self image of himself, remember he was told that his worth depended on football by the person he loved the most, and he seems to have internalised this:

if his body breaks, that’s all his worth is as a football player, he doesn’t value his body it’s just a tool for him to use to prove to sae that he’s not worthless! an incredibly destructive mindset that you see later on too:

so yeah, unconditional means unconditional, he will act in practically self harming ways to get good enough for sae, even if it’s his own phantom of sae- he will do anything and everything for that validation/approval/love. it’s not that he loves sae if sae loves him (otherwise night snow would have turned out differently) but he loves sae ABOVE himself, that’s why he can easily put his body at risk and why he’s so opposed to sae being a midfielder.

abrupt conclusion:

i had more to say buuuuut i ran out of pictures🫠 so im gonna conclude this part here, i still have to talk about his destroyer mode and what sae said during night snow too, but basically the main points of this post are that:

rin loves sae selflessly and unconditionally, he is fine being lower than him even if his dream was to be the world’s best striker yet he will not allow sae to be lower than him, he believes so strongly that sae can be the best that he’s willing to fight him over it, which dooms him in a series about being an egoist and ruthlessly climbing over people to be the best. (also rin genuinely worries and tries to understand sae in night snow, just please re read the thing if you still think he was some heartless prick, because the entire time he was questioning, bargaining and always mentioning how highly he thinks of sae.)

rin used football to be close to sae, yet he believes that sae used him for football, but even after, thinking that he still keeps up with sae’s career and admires him and immediately melts when he thinks sae will recognise him 

a more destructive side to his love is how willing he is to hurt himself to evolve/beat sae(hence get him back)/train because he was told his worth to sae as a brother comes from his football skills. he literally jumps into a moving car for sae! he’s incredibly desperate for validation.

[crushmeeren]

hello crush!! ヾ( ˃ᴗ˂ )◞ • *✰ i wanted to check in and ask how you're doing! i also saw you like blue lock (my fav sport anime after haikyuu heh!) and wanted to ask who your favorite character was + why 🙈 blue lock has a bunch of cool characters i adore and i'd love to hear what you think about them 🥰 i hope you're doing well, love!! make sure to drink tons of water and take care of yourself <3 love you! :)

omg bee hi!! i’m so happy to see you in my inbox, i love getting messages and ily too!! c:

i am down so bad for haikyuu and blue lock 😩

this is so long bee i’m so sorry lmao. please feel free to write paragraphs back to me cuz i want to hear your thoughts as well. <3

let’s see… for blue lock, the one who caught my eye immediately and who i’ve been obsessed with since the beginning is bachira!

ᯓ★ bachira.

the fact that the man is so unapologetically himself and doesn’t fit inside the lines (in soccer and outside of it) draws me to him like a moth to a flame and the fact that the very first time we see him he’s asleep on the floor kills me. he’s so silly and cute and he’s a fucking beast on the field. he strikes me as the kind of guy who smiles at someone threatening him but you can just tell he’s unhinged on the inside and i love it. 😭

ᯓ★ isagi.

another fav is isagi. his determination and dedication — even his desperation, his willingness to do absolutely anything and everything to become better makes my heart pound. watching just how smart he is on the field drives me insane, like i want to run beside him on the field and let him tell me what to do or where to be to score a goal (even tho the only time i’ve ever played soccer was when i was 5). his friendship with bachira lives in my head rent free.

ᯓ★ nagi.

moving on to another boy on my list of faves we have nagi. he’s called the lazy genius and it’s true but i do find it truly fascinating to see him switch between wanting someone to feed him to laser sharp focus on the field. he’s effortlessly talented and it’s like he doesn’t even have to think twice about being amazing. i am envious and in awe of him at the same time because i wish that was me with long distance running lmao. seeing him decide he wanted to actually work on becoming better was so cool.

ᯓ★ chigiri.

chigiri is my pretty baby omg! besides the fact that he’s gorgeous (i’m super attracted to boys who look feminine or androgynous like him), he’s just so strong. i don’t necessarily mean just physically, but mentally too. thinking about how he overcame his fears and continues to grow and evolve and showcase how damn fast he is gives me chills. wish i could see him run in real life. he’s dependable and sassy and smart and if i played soccer i’d always want him on my team.

ᯓ★ rin.

rin is who i wish i was more like. i’m always drawn to characters who have troubled relationships with their brother’s ( i.e. itachi, sasuke, shouto, touya) because i also have a complicated and painful relationship with my own and he’s the only sibling i have, just like rin. so i feel as if i can relate to him in certain ways. rin is cold and calculated and brilliant and he stands on fucking business. gives approximately zero fucks about anyone else’s opinions and has the talent/skill to back up his behavior.

[madarasfloofyhair]

looking in the mirror and seeing him. looking in the mirror, and the resemblance making you want to claw your own skin out, filling you with rage and self-hatred. that's rin itoshi, relieving the betrayal he felt, his dream crushed, his hopefulness and naivety crushed under the weight of his older brother returning home—different. sae itoshi's tired eyes, his unpacked suitcase, his spitting words, calm and so so fucking mean. 'you make me want to vomit', 'what have you been doing these past three years?' threading the rin itoshi's future inner thoughts of pure worthlessness and standards and internal conflict and distance and drive. there's preciousness shattered from when sae used to hold his hand. the calm care in how he'd look out for rin, his eyes sharp and knowing in older-sibling ways, mysterious and cool to rin, but foreboding to us. what the hell happened to sae? what the hell happened in spain? it was this incident that drew a line between them; it's under this line that they both grew. messy teenage years, a hard distance between them. and yet - they look the same. they appear the same in the way siblings realistically do: enough differences and similarities in physical appearances that help cut the lines of their personalities but don't prevent the air of inevitability between them. the same morning routine, the same eyes, the same phrases, tone of speaking, a pretence at the same outward cutting displeasure, but a difference in how far one's willing to take it, who excels where. rin itoshi serves as a bridge to sae itoshi, in the set-up of the story, and in the set-up of rin's own life. from the words sae gave to him back then, he's been tied down. he's been chained, unable to let go, and excel. what pushed him forward was the one thing he needed to—needs to—break free of. there's too much mystery about sae's own feelings, what he thinks privately when he looks at the boy he changed forever. whether his intentions were more complex then we'll ever come to know. instead, we watch them fight on japan's stage, cameras everywhere, curious gazes, for all to see and wonder at. 

[miramiolis]

Itoshi Rin - To sculpt an identity

The very first identity Itoshi Rin has is not one he creates for himself, but rather one that is handed to him. It comes as a byproduct of his brother’s ardour and indefatigability towards football. He is Itoshi Sae, the genius prodigy’s little brother, Itoshi Rin. It is simple, it requires no formulation of titles, beliefs or ideologies that are exclusive for Rin, for he can exist as a shadow. 

“I can be the best, and you can be the second best.”

To Rin, football is not a dream he wishes to accomplish alone. Unlike Sae, who dreams of the world, Rin dreams of a position next to Sae for his dream is not football, it is football with Sae. 

Rin associates himself with Sae, intertwines their identities together to fuel a shared dream. It works out because his competition was never Sae, not initially at least. 

Which is why the deconstruction of this identity provokes a salvo of baseless accusations, all too aggressive in nature. Rin’s questioning of Sae is childish in every regard, it gives us a look into the fragile nature of Rin and his perception of competition in football, as someone who thrived in the shadow of his brother, he fails to comprehend the world outside.

Sae’s arrival from Spain, his shift in demeanour and the transition of his dream to be more accommodating of his ability serves as a brief interlook into the fleeting and fragile nature of childhood aspirations sustained by the lack of awareness of the outer world. 

However, to still be able to pursue this dream, despite having made alterations to the original variant of it, is still a privilege, one that Itoshi Rin does not understand. 

To him, Sae merely seems to be going astray. Giving up on their dream, choosing to be someone other than what he had promised his brother of being. The very essence of it reeks of betrayal, to Rin, who has carefully nurtured himself all these years just to stand next to Itoshi Sae. 

Sae, however, gives Rin an opening into retaining this dream again. He extends a hand, thereby attempting to rekindle the formation of a heart.

“You are not the same brother I shared a dream with.”

“I am the younger brother of the world’s greatest striker.”

In hindsight, Sae’s response to Rin’s disagreement may have seemed harsh, but it is unfair to have a bias for either of the two in this specific interaction as both appear to be very self absorbed in their own complexes.

A thorough dissection of the said interaction may yield a more nuanced conclusion to their fallout. 

This is where Rin’s reconstruction of an identity begins, which, comically, ends up orbiting around Sae too. It is convenient for him to villainize Sae as it allows him to construct his identity around him once again, he already has the blueprint. 

In retrospect Rin’s association with Sae ran deep, like roots of flora intertwined beneath earth, detaching himself from his brother acted as a guise of a goal that carved a path for Rin to have a distorted, and more warped perception of what retaining a dream meant. Being Sae Itoshi’s brother was never a complex for Rin until he decided to make it one. 

“My brother…is really nice.”

“I want the same cleats as my brother.”

Rin's need to sculpt an identity from scratch began after Sae’s arrival, however, it was only after he met Isagi that the reconstruction began. Rin’s perception of Sae is a very delicate one, despite his attempts at villainizing him, it only takes a mere acknowledgement from Sae (directed towards Isagi) for Rin to shift his focus, even if it's momentary. It was only then that he was able to look somewhere that wasn’t in the direction of his brother which is very crucial to his character as Rin’s idolisation of Sae constricted his worldview to the point that to him, the one standing at the very summit of football was Sae. 

“When someone is better at soccer than me. So far it's only my big brother,”

Itoshi’s brother's feud is fabricated on a chain of misconceptions and misdirected accusations. However, it strips Rin off something he had gambled his entire existence upon. And perhaps in hindsight, to Rin it was never really a gamble. 

“My brother is the best striker in the world, can I also become that?”

It was hardly an afterthought, let alone a gamble. 

“Can I also become cool and strong? Like my brother.”

Itoshi Rin’s imitation of his brother, was a stimulus honed to become a second nature to him. Which is almost amusing considering how he wounds up becoming anti parallel to everything Sae Itoshi is in terms of football. 

[aesterblaster]

With the way the author is starting to give more realistic and depressing backstories (which has been happening for a while tbf ...see naruhaya) I'm praying to fucking god that Sae's life in Spain was either just mildly taxing or never gets revealed. Like I want it to stay a mystery forever why he came back such an asshole LMAO he just hates soccer in Japan that much 😭

Sae vs Rin gets so much funnier when you think of it as them just being diehard fans of opposing sports teams...

[qiianyun]

Mulling over Rin’s emotionally incestious relationship with Sae…

Tw: pro yapper at work

ts was spurred on by a drawing I saw on Pinterest of Rin running to kiss Sae during a kiss cam moment during a soccer game (idk if the artist was a shipper, I just thought it encapsulated their relationship lmao)

rin you're so brocken bro 💔💔

Throughout the anime and manga, we see Rin consistently obsessing over his brother, even after he “overcomes” it during the PXG vs BM match, I can still see him being thinking of brother as somebody he must surpass/prove himself to.

As a child, Rin is always following Sae around, seeing his brother as the best person in the world. Sae is Rin’s obsession. The person who inspired him to start playing soccer, and the person who he was so obsessed with that they were the only reason he kept playing soccer.

It’s obvious that Rin’s obsession with Sae is extremely unhealthy.

(Entering Yun conspiracy land)

I imagine that Rin entered some form of depressive state/became depressed (or at the very least, really fucking sad) after Sae’s abandonment. For his whole life, Rin was his only reason to keep going, the one person who he thought would never abandon him.

He 100% has a brother complex/one of those borderline incestious boy mom relationships with Sae. This includes wanting to simultaneously destroy and uplift his brother, wanting to be the only person his brother notices, etc…

Rin is highkey probably a bit of a yondere when it comes to his brother, considering how he constantly obsesses over him

Idk where I was going with this… just wanted to get this out of my system. Might continue idk. Mischaracterization pmo so I wanted to get this out there...

[chodzacaparodia]

Rin and Sae just hanging out together over popsicles is one of the cutest things in Blue Lock.

However, after Sae's betrayal, ice cream certainly stopped tasting the same for Rin.

Just imagine. You have your favorite delicacy and the person closest to you often buys it for you because they know you like it. You associate this ice cream with this particular person. But this person hurt you like no one else. You feel betrayed by them and start to hating them. From now on, your favorite food will automatically bring back memories of the person you always ate it with. Ice cream will always taste bitter.

Sae ruined Rin's taste of ice cream forever.

[xadoringmal18]

Ranking my Favorite Blue Lock Openings & Endings

Will update S3's opening and ending here once it releases in next year.

Openings:

1.Boujaku no charisma (UNISON SQUARE GARDEN ) :

Love the visuals and how it follows the manga panels closely. It also shows on Rin's pov as well as hint on bllk player's flow. I love part from "I'm following my beating heart" to "beyond the bounds of common sense, arrogant charisma". It's too hype even as someone who watched this intro for the 1st time, I felt so mesmerized . Tbh, it's better than S1 openings no offence. It's too movitating to listen to this opening whenever I'm down.

2. Judgement (ASH DA HERO):

The visual and typography is soo amazing! This song reflects on this 8 players: Isagi, Rin, Chigiri, Nagi, Bachira, Reo, Kunigami & Barou working so hard to survive in Blue Lock. Damn, the beats is on fire! I'm feeling so hype seeing Isagi catching up to Rin.

3. Chaos ga Kiwamaru(UNISON SQUARE GARDEN ) :

Yes, the OG opening! Miss the old team (Team Z). The transition and animation is too smooth. UNISON SQUARE GARDEN always hype me up with Blue Lock intro and outro.

Endings:

1.One (Snowman) :

this is the most heart-touching song I've ever listened! My fav part is "with only one dream, keep that mind in one day" and "oh yeah yeah yeah". Love that they included players who got qualified for u-20 and shows how hard they are working. They incuded top 6 (Karasu, Rin, Shidou, Yukimiya, Nagi and Otoya) smiling confidently. This gives me hope that bllk S2's last episode were peak! This is my fav outro! That's why I fell in love with blue lock!

2.Numbness like a ginger(UNISON SQUARE GARDEN) :

This is my 2nd fav as it shows the reflection of the players after the OG team (team z) got separated. Ofc, the ending of outro shows how much Isagi had memorable moments playing with team z as they had his back. They even showed Rin and Sae's past and the "I want you to understand me" hits so hard.

3.Winner(Shuugo Nakamura) :

This is like Isagi, Chigiri, Kunigami and Bachira's pov before and after joining blue lock. "Only one winner is enough" hinted that Blue Lock is about finding out who is that one striker out of 300 players. Yes, this is just a beginning of blue lock. If I were a beginner blue lock fan listening to outro, I gotta say Blue Lock had the potential.

[onceonafullmoon]

Character Analysis Yaps

Part 1: Sae

Aka just some rambles about Sae and his personality, not really proof read

I think Sae as a character is sort of convoluted, but not necessarily for the reasons most people would think. In terms of soccer when you view him he seems sort of unreachable, after all, he is a prodigy and he’s got a great brain. But who is Sae outside of that bubble of soccer?

Well, he’s a blunt, singularly focused, asshole type of guy… but I think he’s also someone who values domesticity and comfort, and that he’s someone who deeply cherishes his close ones.

I think a great example of this is apparent with his brother. But he’s been shown to take the fall for Rin consistently when he messed up (ex. Rin breaking his toys) and even being there to comfort Rin when Rin wonders if no one will like him due to his more off putting personality traits. Sae doesn’t offer false comfort by saying that people will like Rin, instead he says that even if no one likes him, his older brother will always be there for him.

Even later on, when Rin and Sae have their confrontation, Sae’s choices of words are harsh, but underneath it, there’s honest advice. That advice being that Rin, if he really wants to be a pro player, should stop seeing football as a way to bond with his brother and find his own appreciation for the game untethered by other people. Even when Sae says that he’s never seen Rin as anything but an eyesore, he’s pushing Rin away, not to further his own goals, but to further Rin’s goals by helping Rin move away from depending on Sae. Obviously, that doesn’t exactly work due to Rin’s obsessive tendencies, but it’s clear that Sae has been doing two things: one, really testing if Rin wants to play soccer and two, making sure that Rin knows what lies ahead on his path to become a pro.

I think these reasons show some insight into his childhood and his personality. Once again, two main points, one, that some part of Sae mourns his childhood/ a loss of the sense of normalcy and two that Sae is a deeply considerate person.

Obviously, daily interactions aren’t exactly shown in the manga, but there are a few key hints to the fact that Sae does crave this comfort and most of these come from the Egoist Bible. 

The first thing that stood out to me is that his favorite anime is Crayon Shin-Chan, which is targeted towards children, which I think furthers my point for his sense of longing for those unburdened childhood days. This is also interesting to me because his favorite movie is Taxi Driver which is a drastic leap in genre change and could serve as a contradiction to what I said before about him craving comfort. However, despite the somewhat violent and unsettling nature of Taxi Driver, the director himself stated that the movie “…arose from my feeling that movies are really a kind of dream-state…”, which I believe serves to show the type of comfort that Sae seeks out. The movie also is largely about male loneliness which could serve to reflect Sae’s mental state being both isolated in his own country as a prodigy and in Spain as an outsider.

The second thing that stood out to me was that Sae’s least favorite food was French fries. Now normally this wouldn’t mean much, but I think it’s interesting to note that Sae doesn’t hate French Fries, he actually thinks that they’re “addictive”, and that the only reason he doesn’t like them is that they’re unhealthy. I think it’s interesting that his least favorite food wasn’t something he disliked, but rather something that he craved but wouldn’t allow himself to have because he’s so committed to football. It makes you think about what other things Sae must have given up, what average everyday things he found solace in that he felt like he needed to remove, that he now finds distaste in, simply because he can no longer enjoy them unburdened.

Finally, the last and the most heart wrenching piece from the Egoist Bible is the question of what he would do if he didn’t play football, and he finds that he can’t even provide an answer. Because for Sae, his whole life, since he was one, has been focused on honing one talent, and everything else has seemed to fall second, only becoming important when he needs it to further that one skill. Perhaps that’s why he values the simple things outside of football, because he never even got a chance to develop a taste for anything outside of that bubble. And maybe that’s why he was so harsh towards his brother, someone who he saw as unburdened by his talent, slowly growing into someone like him.