#blue lock analysis

God there's so MUCH going on here. Where do I start.

My take is that this pic may take place in the parisienne slums, where Noa was born. It would explain the graffiti, the broken pavement and the fact that noa is at the centre of the pic. The fact that he's sitting on a glass chair is making me froth. The pose. That's the pose of someone who stands on business.

Y'all know where else we saw glass associated to a character? Exactly. Kaiser's glass ego. Although I think Noa's glass chair represents something else. To me it's linked to Noa's status as the numer one striker. He sits on the throne but the throne is made out of glass. So one day he will inevitably lose his spot (and look who stands right behind him). Noa seems to know about it though, like look at his confident pose. He knows and he is Fine with it. He also lowkey looks ready to fight.

Yeah right behind him stands Ego motherfucking Jinpachi in all his slenderman-esque figure.

Ego: sit back down

Noa: I'm sat.

Before that I also want to talk about chris prince's tits sporty look. He is a vibe. Also I love how snuffy is designed after an eagle lmao the eyes, the hair color, the fact his headband covers his brows to give his eyes the peculiar cut prey birds have. Peak design. Love it. I also adore how Lavi looks like the Uncle who gets too drunk at your wedding and breaks havoc lmfao. His purple-looking eyes are so cool and his colorful hair as well, altho it's toned down.

Also. Loki. Loki is the youngest of them all, and he stands a bit more afar from them. He also looks so composed? Like he's new to the game, he's still not relaxed/confident enough to strike a more casual pose like the other coaches. I love this detail.

Back to Ego Jinpachi. I'm. [wolf tearing his shirt apart meme] LISTEN!!! LOOK AT HIM!!! The fact he is RIGHT BEHIND NOA. The fact he is the ONLY ONE not looking at the camera because he is not part of that world anymore. He doesn't play football anymore yet he's never given up on his sick sick dream. His jacket being a striking (lol) blue... ugh I love it. It's the only colorful note in the spread and it sits on the centre as well + they dulled everyone's colors for it to result more vibrant. Also not to be a yaoi lover but the black-white hair combination hits again ig.

Also. Also thinking about his volume cover. The four chains forcing him to sit on his chair. Makes me wonder how Ego may had been forced to leave football. There's still so much we don't know and UGH I need NEED to know what happened. Because now he's got horrible eating habits and is probably living driven by spite alone.

rin did not simply lose sae as a brother. sae is still alive, still present, still someone rin knows (obv) but what rin lost was the version of sae who shared his world. the sae who trained w him, believed in him, dreamt beside him. the sae who made rin feel seen, loved n secure. that bond wasnt casual like it was the center of rins emotional identity. rin wasnt js following sae, he was anchored to him. their shared future was the narrative around which rin built his entire self. so when saes dream changed (when he no longer looked back at rin the way he once had) the emotional rupture wasnt js painful bro ts was identity shattering. rin didnt only lose smb he loved, he lost the version of himself that existed in that relationship. he learned, in one devastating moment, that love is not permanent. closeness does not guarantee stability. attachment is not safe. and from that point on, rin internalised one lesson with brutal clarity. that lesson being, 'if i care too much, i will be abandoned again'. so rin learned to withdraw. he learned to make distance feel like control. this wasnt cuz he believed he didnt need people but cuz he feared what would happen if he did. to rely on smb else again would mean opening himself up to the risk of being uprooted, discarded or replaced. it would mean becoming vulnerable in a world that has already shown him that vulnerability is dangerous. ppl misinterpret rins emotional restraint as a lack of feeling. but rin is not emotionally numb, he is emotionally overexposed. he feels deeply, intensely, instinctively. and cuz he feels sm, he cannot allow himself to feel freely. so he controls. he restricts. he dulls sensation before it can become attachment.

the coldness isnt a choice like to him its armour. when smb begins to get close to rin (not js physically but emotionally) smth in him tightens. there is always a moment where his guard rises. the vulnerability terrifies him. the idea of depending on smb again threatens everything he built to protect himself. emotional connection means emotional risk and rin has already experienced what happens when a bond becomes the center of his world. so he pushes them away. he distances. he chooses coldness over softness, confrontation over connection, rigidity over vulnerability. he would rather be misunderstood (even disliked) than be open enough to be hurt again. it aint that he believes relationships are meaningless, it is that he believes relationships can destroy him if he lets them matter. this is why even the smallest acts of care affect him so strongly. smb remembering his preferences, smb supporting him w out asking for smth in return, smb js seeing him. these gestures strike at the wall he has worked soso hard to maintain. to most ppl, affection is comforting. to rin, affection is dangerous. it awakens need. and need is the very thing he has sworn to suppress. its important to understand that rin does not want to be alone. he simply believes it is the only safe way to exist. loneliness hurts but its predictable, controllable, smth he can brace against. attachment is unpredictable. attachment relies on trust. attachment risks loss. and rin cannot endure another emotional collapse like the one he experienced with sae. so rin chooses solitude, again, not cuz he hates others but because he fears the pain of loving someone again. it is easier for him to be alone than to risk needing someone who may not stay. and yet, beneath that surface, there is a quiet ache, a desire for connection he will not allow himself to express. rin isnt cold gng hes js wounded. he is not heartless. he is protecting a heart that feels too much. he is not incapable of love. he is terrified of it.

rin is not a character who needs to learn how to love. he already knows how (deeply, intensely, fiercely). what he needs to learn is that love does not always lead to abandonment. that attachment does not always end in pain. that needing smb doesnt make him weak. his journey is not about winning. it is abt trust. it is abt allowing himself to need. it is abt learning that vulnerability can also heal. and imo, that is what makes rin itoshi one of the most heartbreakingly real characters in blue lock.

firstly, kaiser is all too aware of the survival response to submit to a greater power, on account of his father’s abuse of him:

what he’s talking about is very similar to a concept called “learned helplessness”, and in defiance of his childhood and coasting off the moment he finally stood up to his father he tries to challenge the impossible. and yet, when there is true impossibility in front of him, in the form of noa being this all powerful striker- kaiser yet again runs from the challenge.

however, isagi has a noa of his own, kaiser himself and NEVER runs from him. he truly manages the impossible since he steals a team from a superior striker AND he even challenges noa outright in front of the world:

next, kaiser is again aware of those who waste away their talent in order to live comfortably (yet again his father is one of them):

but yet again, he acts in failure of his own ideals. he chose stagnation over growth, he chose to model his life after his shitbag of a father by punching down on people weaker than him instead of improving himself and becoming stronger. ness in a way is his child self, taking that abuse and enabling that weakness.

but isagi is always hungry, always greedy for more and more and more. he will never dilute his ego. everyone inside universe and out throws midfielder allegations at him, yet he refuses to rein in his ego in favour of a easier life:

it is isagi who does the impossible and kaiser himself recognises this:

despite promising to do the impossible we see that he runs from challenges he knows are impossible, and yet isagi repeatedly runs TO impossible challenges and gets off on barely scraping by. kaiser is fascinated and confused in equal measure, it’s his ideal staring him in the face and he can’t admit that he’s falling short of things. he’s trying to be his father in representing impossibility yet it was child him facing down several grown men to protect his ball that was truly impossible. it is DEFIANCE despite odds that is impossibility.

furthermore, kaiser’s magnus goal has easily defined parameters and is scientifically defined (again at odds with his claim wanting to be undefined):

(he even gives up on ness’s assist when he deemed it impossible after his awakening!)

and guess whose goal is described as undefinable and impossible?

yep it’s hiosagi’s reflex x reflex goal, even admired by NESS THE MAGICIAN!

and speaking of goals, when ness tries to emulate hiosagi’s goal, kaiser fails to meet his expectations:

if you look at kaiser’s barca goal, he does exactly what ness was trying to get him to do here, use his off the ball movements fo match up to ness’s play. yet it is isagi who ness sees as kaiser and who ends up matching him perfectly. by his own standards kaiser fails!

finally, kaiser wants to live as a living scar in others, carving himself into their souls through his victory:

but as established, he is already failing since he is targeting only "possible" challenges, it is isagi who manages to carve himself people who are much stronger than him and change their world view. nagi is forced to reconsider his disrespectful attitude toward football & barou was dethroned by a “peasant” and had to embrace his villainous nature by preying on that peasant’s light. chris prince is literally the world’s n2 and isagi has him seeeeething!!!

bonus: let’s look at the ironies of kaiser’s name, he is “God’s chosen emperor” and yet he seeks to rebel against God:

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.

I think it’s such an interesting choice to have Anri be the one to deny Nagi here when Ego could’ve easily taken her place, but I’m happy he didn’t because a) we have enough of him beefing with Nagi and b) even though this is a relatively short scene I love the implications and insight it gives into Anri’s character (aka I’m making it deep & overthinking because I love her 💔).

She’s been watching him linger outside for days on end through the cameras, probably hoping he would leave on his own if he was ignored long enough but when that doesn’t work, she finally chooses to speak to him without actually revealing herself. There’s no “I’m sorry” or “I/We miss you” or “I wish I could help you,” just pure rejection without any sugarcoating, PLUS a bonus threat of the police. This is probably the “cruelest” we’ve ever seen Anri be because it’s so personal, at least on Nagi’s end, but I think it’s a great example of Anri’s own ego coming into play—“out with the old, in with the new, adapt or evolve or get left behind.” Maybe she wanted to be the one to personally confront Nagi herself, because of course Ego would’ve noticed him too surely, but she’s either doing it out responsibility, guilt, remorse, or something else and I absolutely love it.

If it were up to me I would’ve made chapter 306 a couple of pages longer (right before B*ratsuta enters towards the end) to actually explore and solidify the dynamic between Anri and Nagi, which could also neatly tie back to the earlier idea of “the one who gets to choose (in this case Anri) rather than be chosen (Nagi).”

So with the way things are right now (chapter 349 is the newest released chapter at the time I'm writing this), I don't think it's a matter of if Nagi is coming back but when and when that does happen, it'd be such a good opportunity to showcase Anri's reaction and also flashback to this exact moment from her perspective behind the door.