#isagirin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nagi and Reo

Bachira and Isagi

Rin and Sae

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

Second Selection Arc

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

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

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

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

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

Blue Lock Eleven Tryouts

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

Blue Lock vs Japan U20 match

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

d) They work best with each other

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

g) Random other stuff I just find neat

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

And guess whose name has that meaning in it?

糸 – thread, stitch, yarn

師 – teacher

That’s right. The Itoshi brothers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

5) Expectations and guesses on future story plots

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

Second Half (C126 - 148)

Isagi and Rin walk out together, and Rin immediately notices Shidou's presence on the field. They have their usual spat, with Shidou calling him under lashes junior (fourth nickname now, and third from Shidou) and a brocon this time.

(Isagi's seen enough of their fights that he panics right away).

Sae kicks off the U20 team's offense, and they get through to the penalty area with Sae, Shidou and Sendou. Niko gets a yellow card from blocking Shidou, who almost loses his temper and goes after him.

Sae successfully reins in Shidou's temper, and when Shidou demands the free kick, challenges Shidou's thinking. He gives Shidou advice about aiming for the 'most realistically possible' and 'ideal' play. Hearing that, Shidou concedes the free kick to Sae, and dashes on to the field. Chigiri is the earliest to notice and react, but fails to stop Shidou from scoring.

Isagi realizes that Sae and Shidou's teamwork was what he's been aiming for since the Blue Lock Eleven tryout match, based on Hiori's advice. Niko and Chigiri then gets subbed out for Reo and Hiori.

Blue Lock pushes through again. While Aiku defends Rin, Hiori passes to Nagi, who then gets blocked by Niou, (he's uncharacteristically grumpy too, because he lost an opportunity with being able to use Rin as rare bait), then swiftly passes to Isagi who’s been shadowing Rin.

Aiku blocks, and the U20 team counters. Sae passes to Shidou, but it gets intercepted by Reo who copied Aiku’s moves and sent the ball out of the field. When Sae passes to Shidou again, Reo irritates Shidou and successfully limits his scoring chances (guess all those matches with Shidou after losing to him in the 2v2 paid off). Gagamaru sends the ball back to midfield, but its intercepted by Sae, who passes yet again to Shidou. Shidou tries again, and after Gagamaru’s dive, manages to get into flow and score his second goal. Shidou, elated from the goal, jumps onto Sae’s back, and in true anti-touch Itoshi fashion, Sae immediately puts distance between them by unceremoniously tossing Shidou off his back (lmao).

Rin seethes from seeing Shidou and Sae's interactions. Isagi, on the other hand, runs up to Ego for advice, and Ego responds that Blue Lock has already won by making themselves known in this match.

And his response is, well, lukewarm, to say the least.

'The future doesn't matter. Losing here is the same as dying. And we're not gonna accept death just yet...! I only care about being the best in the world...!'

Isagi at his fiercest thus far, for sure.

In response, Ego substitutes Otoya for Barou, strengthening Blue Lock's offense. Rin too, has the team change tactics, telling the forwards to rush in and attack as they please.

'We'll win, even if we have to crush each other to do so.'

Rin and Isagi trade passes, until Rin passes back to Hiori. Seeing Isagi open, Hiori makes the pass, which gets stolen by Barou, who fails his shot. Yukimiya picks up the stray ball, and his shot gets blocked by Aiku, who gets into flow. We get Aiku’s backstory, then Rin gets the stray ball again. While Aiku moves in to stop him Isagi comes up to support Rin, and it prompts Aiku’s monologue that ‘they’re a duo so good it pisses him off’.

Rin ultimately doesn’t manage to get past Oliver, and the ball goes, once again, to Sae. Karasu stalls Sae, and the defenders mark the U20 strikers. Reo blocks Shidou well enough for Gagamaru to then successfully fend off Shidou’s latest shot, and Reo steals possession of the ball, sending it back to Nagi who's at midfield.

With the field in disarray, Blue Lock pushes forward, and Isagi monologues about finding the ‘thread’ of this match, to score his own goal. Karasu comes up to help the forwards, and Isagi passes to Nagi, who has to pass back to Isagi because of the defenders rushing in to press him.

Then Sae comes out, seemingly out of nowhere, to block Isagi, and he identifies Isagi as the ‘heart’ of Blue Lock, even complimenting Isagi’s intelligence. Isagi pushes forward, and as he attempts to shoot Sae upsets his balance. Three guesses as to who comes running in to help.

"Isagi!! Look at me!!"

Isagi passes to Rin, but Aiku blocks him. Then from the sides, Barou rushes in, steals the ball, and scores the equalizer for Blue Lock. Blue Lock celebrates the goal, and Barou explains how he got to that point.

Barou: ‘I just moved from start to finish with the intent of devouring you. When my style of focusing on you was read, I moved on to the next stage of that. Meaning I have to hunt the plays you made ‘when you evolved’. Not that I can predict what you’ll do when that happens. But I know for a fact that there’s a guy who can. Itoshi Rin. That guy would definitely react to however you evolved. By targeting that relationship, I could get in front of the goal… and I waited for when you would pass to Rin.’

Isagi: ‘So if you’re supposed to be moving while focusing on me… how do you visualize that? Stuff like Rin’s movements, positioning and all that…?’

Barou: ‘Huh? What are you on about, scrub? You and Rin are so synchronized you already look like one and the same.’

Isagi: ‘What?’

Barou: ‘It’s simple, really.’

Rin [background]: ‘…’

Barou: ‘To me… Rin is just another Isagi.’

Isagi’s expression matched mine as I read this bit, honestly. This is the natural outcome of Isagi and Rin’s mind reading, everyone, brought to you by Barou Shouei. Melding so well with each other that they basically become the other person (in Barou’s Isagi-obsessed mind, at least). And he's not the only one to do that, either. Nagi did it in the 4v4 match. Nanase did it in the Blue Lock Eleven tryouts. It's a legitimate tactic, y'all.

Isagi comes to the realization that to beat the U20, there needs to be a chain of ‘trances’, and he needs to move believing in the others overcoming their own challenges. Meanwhile, Itoshi the elder handily nixes the U20 coach’s plan of a new substitution, and Itoshi the younger seethes with frustration over not scoring again.

Last 15 mins of second half (C139)

Rin understands that at some point, the team, and the game, has begun to revolve around Isagi – from Karasu’s pass, to Nagi’s, then finally Isagi’s pass to he himself once Sae blocked Isagi, that got intercepted by Barou, leading to their 3rd goal. Rin’s furious, but also stressed and straining – see the teeth clench here, telling himself that he won’t be devoured by Isagi.

On the other hand, Isagi’s thinking about the exact opposite, how Rin is still the center piece of the match. Rin’s presence soaks up the attention of the U20 defenders, allowing Isagi to move freely around him, and it’s when Rin gets into gear that the rest of Blue Lock starts amping up their offense as well. He also understands that he needs to replicate the phenomenon from earlier to score successfully. Then we have the iconic page of the both of them thinking that they’ll devour each other and become the main star.

In response to Barou’s goal, Sae decides to turn up the heat and his game play. He easily blitzes pass Nagi, Isagi, Karasu and Barou, dodging Rin’s sliding tackle as well.

This stresses Rin further. Isagi's growing presence in the match, Sae's superior skill, the game that's almost over but still tied, with the possibility of Blue Lock's defeat at hand. Rin thus chooses to ‘synchronize’ with Sae, and figure out his intentions and method of destroying Blue Lock. Rin then accurately predicts Sae’s pass to Shidou, even getting himself hurt (that was a nasty collision) to stop Shidou from scoring. Even Sae is shocked by it.

Karasu tries to get Shidou carded for it, though the referee disagrees (nice try, though, Karasu).

Isagi immediately notices the change in Rin, realizing that Rin's moving with the intention to block/defeat Sae, admiring him for it and understanding that Rin is now evolving (like a pokemon)

Reo passes the ball back to Nagi at the midfield, and Isagi latches on to the changing game flow and circumstances, with the current evolution of Rin’s play style. And after a very long time of minimal presence in-game, Bachira comes up again (yes, I missed him a lot, Bachira’s fun).

Isagi gets the ball, and Bachira surges forward, taking what is normally Rin’s place on the field. Isagi is mindful of that, so much so that Barou spots an opportunity and comes in to steal. That prompts Nagi’s dissatisfaction (‘Quit it! After all Reo went to get the ball back for us!’ be still my Nagireo heart), and Bachira gains possession of the ball again. He bypasses the U20 defenders and shoots, but Sendou blocks his shot.

Having yet to catch up to Isagi and the others in the front, Rin defends the pass route from Sae to Shidou. Sae passes to the other U20 forwards instead, and when the ball goes to Sendou, Barou and Nagi block it with a spectacular head crash.

Isagi’s back to defend against Sae, who passes to Aiku. But just like when Aiku blocked him earlier, this time Rin intercepts Aiku’s shot with a sliding tackle.

‘Can’t believe you reached that, self-centered captain.’

‘Sorry, but I’m the little brother of someone self-centered too.’

As the game resumes with a corner kick off, Rin thinks that he has to overlap his thought processes with Sae’s as he struggles to beat his brother. Yet he’s also conflicted: he’s the only one who can keep up with and stop Sae, and if he doesn’t stop Sae Blue Lock will lose. However, if he focuses only on beating his brother, he won’t be able to score his own goals either.

Note the focus on Isagi’s back here.

Then Rin’s reaction:

C144: Libido

*looks at chapter title* uhhhhhh.....

Hiori’s gotten the ball, and as he’s prepping to pass, Rin comes in and steals the ball from him, blitzing past the rest of his teammates and surprising them. Realizing that the person whom he needs to crush is himself, Rin undergoes an evolution – entering his own ‘flow’, as it were. Sae too, notices the change in Rin. Isagi comes over to match up with him, but Rin ignores him, focusing instead of breaking through the U20 defenders by himself. He gets through Neru. Interestingly, as he goes up against Darai, he passes back to Isagi, who then passes back to Rin as well. Here, also, he stops Darai from turning with a hand and uses a backheel trap to stop Darai, He bursts through Niou’s charge. At this point, Nagi and Karasu have also both cottoned on to Rin’s change. Ego then notes Rin’s flow – a football that destroys hideously, one that uses his opponents strong points against them. A clear parallel and antithesis to Sae’s style of football.

Facing Aiku, the last defender, Shidou comes in and helps to block Rin’s assault (also a new nickname, which brings the count to five now? I think?)

Isagi comes to back Rin up, but Rin ignores Isagi. Shidou also calls Isagi ‘lover-boy’ here. So, with shipping goggles on, and after so many instances and chapters of people remarking on it I’m going to declare that Isagi is Not Subtle At All where Rin is concerned.

Rin makes the shot, but it doesn’t go through, and Sae gets the rebound, with one minute left in-game. Sae bypasses Isagi, Barou and Nagi. Karasu stalls him, and in this moment, Isagi notices Rin going in for yet another showdown with Sae, and gets a ‘prediction’ or ‘premonition’.

Meanwhile, Rin, still in his ‘flow’, finally gets the conversation with Sae he’s snapped at Sae for in their first showdown, but Sae is still cruel and disparaging to him, telling Rin that that’s as far as his ability gets, and that Rin would have been happier if he stayed home and the best Rin can ever do is live in his shadow. Rin violently rejects Sae’s words.

‘Stop trying to bind my ‘ego’ with words again!’

‘brother of a genius’ -- Sae

‘Partner’ – Isagi

‘Rival’ – Shidou

‘That list of values, so convenient to you people, has no place in my life. I’m not ‘something’ in any of your lives! I’m done being Itoshi Sae’s little brother!

I am me! Trust this indignation! Entrust your body to its destructive impulses! I am Itoshi Rin! The ‘egoist’!

C147 - 'last strike'

An evolved egoist Rin faces off against Sae, and wins. He gets the ball out of Sae’s possession, a feat no one in-game has managed thus far.

And that stray ball lands right into Isagi’s waiting arms (or legs, as it were).

Also the whole chapter??? A bomb in terms of the art. No words at all, besides the Itoshi siblings memory and the final narrative words declaring the end of the match, and consecutive double page spreads of Isagi making the shot, and getting the goal and win for Blue Lock.

C148 - C155 (After the end of the Blue Lock 11 vs Japan U20 match)

Blue Lock celebrates the win. Shidou questions Sae on why he didn’t pass to the front immediately. Aiku asks Isagi about his play. Isagi informs him that yes, he was aiming for Aiku’s blind spot, while looking for a place that he could score instantly. And finally, he believed that Rin would defeat Sae.

Rin watches Isagi shaking hands with Aiku, and Sae comes to talk to him again. But it’s not the talk Rin expects. Instead, Sae acknowledges and praises Isagi for being a striker that could even call forth Rin’s instincts, the striker that Japan was waiting for. Meanwhile, Isagi gets his moment in the paparazzi limelight, declaring that he would lead Japan to victory at the U20 World Cup.

In the locker room, Ego says that Rin’s awakening broke everything apart, and that only Isagi was able to respond to it, a mirror to what Barou said in the match about how he got his goal, about Rin being able to keep up with, and respond to Isagi’s evolved plays. He then tells them that things will get more heated in the future, and to prepare themselves. Anri informs them about the celebratory buffet she had prepared for them, and as everyone’s leaving the locker room, Isagi is the only one to notice Rin still lingering behind all alone. Bachira realizes this, then tactfully says that they’ll go on ahead, leaving Isagi to talk to Rin alone.

Isagi takes the chance to talk to an upset Rin, trying to comfort him, saying that the goal happened as much due to Rin’s efforts as his own trust in Rin… which, unfortunately, is the wrong thing to say to Rin right now. Rin declares Isagi his rival, and that he’ll kill him. Isagi maturely doesn’t escalate the situation further, telling Rin that he’s welcome to try and leaves Rin to cool down on his own.

Phase One of Blue Lock is thus complete. Blue Lock and U20 get two weeks off, and Isagi meets up with Bachira and Chigiri in Shibuya during this time. We learn that Blue Lock’s become famous, they run into what feels like half of the other Blue Lock members as well, jump Nagi at the arcade, come across the U20 team at karaoke, and have a bowling match with them. All in all, fun shenanigans.

[On a side note, Reo and co. were talking about a cutting-edge style summit, the stock market, and futures. This group is clearly the ones from the upper class.]

Halfway through the bowling match, Isagi leaves, and he meets up with his old friend, Tada, the one whom he passed to in the very first chapter of the series. When Tada says that Isagi was lucky in picking up the stray ball from Rin and making that last goal, it upsets Isagi, and he notices how he and his view of the world has changed significantly from Tada.

After this, we get the hint of Ego’s upcoming entertainment project with Blue Lock, phase two, before the story cuts to Rin.

Rin checks up on news about Sae, and muses over the match. He recognizes that he beat Sae, but he was one step short of something to score that final goal, and doesn’t know the ‘awakened’ him that beat Sae. He’s also still hung up that Sae acknowledged Isagi, and that Isagi ultimately ‘won’, and not him.

Back to Isagi: we see his parents supporting him, and Isagi, too, ruminates on his experiences in Blue Lock, before declaring that he wants to live in Blue Lock and continue pursuing his dream of becoming the best in the world. He gets the message of the restart of the Blue Lock project, and the arc ends with the Blue Lock members returning to the project’s site.

In summary for the Blue Lock 11 vs Japan U20 match:

The match’s main focus and character development was on Isagi, Rin, Sae and Shidou, with a bit of Aiku, though the rest of course gets some spotlight when they’re due.

We see Isagi and Rin’s developing teamwork on the field, as well as the increasingly fierce competitive tension in it, primarily instigated and upheld by Rin. Throughout the match, Isagi and Rin build up the team’s offense together, both through excellent teamwork initially, then ultimately, when the chance to score occurs, by pursuing their own thing. While Isagi targets Aiku as his main ‘challenge’, Rin’s focus from start to end, is almost solely on Sae.

Shidou subs in in the second half, and immediately, in combination with Sae’s plays, wind up putting Blue Lock 2 goals behind. It’s also the first time we see Shidou move so freely on the field, and enter flow. We learn his mindset towards the game, and though he falls off the radar somewhat after Barou gets subbed in as well, he still actively hinders Blue Lock’s efforts.

On Sae, we learn that he is clearly a step above the U20 members and the Blue Lock members. He successfully worked together with Shidou, the one person none of the other U20 and Blue Lock members could deal with. No one really successfully defeats him in this match, although Rin does become his biggest obstacle after Barou’s equalizing goal, and Rin’s win was at the very end of the match, after he awakened, and not, from the looks of C152, one that he himself can fully grasp the mechanics of. There are also many instances where Sae could have scored throughout the match, but chose not to.

Rin, too, is clearly still coming into his own as an egoist. Compared to the Second Selection Arc, and the pre-U20 matches against the World Team (where he was thoroughly outclassed) and tryout matches between the top six, this is where Rin is really pushed and challenged. As captain, he makes the tactical calls in game with the other Blue Lockers. He challenges Sae to a 1v1 and loses, and Sae mostly ignores him throughout the match up until the last thirty minutes. When the game clearly begins to revolve around Isagi, he starts to feel the pressure, further compounded by Sae choosing to step up his play. He’s pushed to his limits and is forced to choose – try to keep scoring himself and potentially lose the whole game, or focus on dealing with Sae for the sake of the team. He chooses the latter, which ultimately leads him to his ‘awakening’, but while Rin realizes that he doesn’t have to defeat Sae alone, as the rest of Blue Lock is there to back him up, he also finds it ‘disgusting’ (no power of friendship allowed here yet, folks). His choice to challenge Sae, and the added challenge his growing rivalry with Isagi causes him ultimately leads him to awaken as an egoist and get into flow.

Isagi on the other hand, is still very much the underdog here, despite how it seems with that last goal. He doesn’t get many chances at scoring a goal in the first half, and in 1-on-1 situations he never really comes out on top of anyone, and moves more as a supportive relay for Rin and the rest of the team overall. It’s only when Blue Lock gets cornered with Shidou and Sae’s combo, and Barou comes out, that Isagi gets to build up his plays to the point of getting to shoot a goal himself, which is reminiscent of Rin’s own play style in the Second Selection Arc. Even at that point, he loses to Sae (the shoulder tackle that broke his balance), and the equalizing goal ultimately went to Barou instead. In the last minutes, where Rin goes into flow, Rin also refuses his support and defeats the U20 defenders on his own, but fails to get the shot. He thus replicates Rin’s success in the 4v4 in the Second Selection Arc, by positioning himself accordingly to his belief that an awakened Rin would defeat Sae, and gets his day in the limelight as the hero of the Blue Lock vs U20 game.

The next part will be the final part of this meta, and details the ‘why’ of what draws me, personally, to the Isagirin or Rinsagi ship in Blue Lock, my opinions on the narrative importance of their relationship to the story of Blue Lock as a whole, and my own speculations and hopes of the future of Blue Lock's story development.

C49-55 vs Barou + Naruhaya

The loss doesn’t entirely sink in for Isagi until after Aryu and Tokimitsu decide to take Bachira onto their team. In a future flashback monologue, Isagi realizes that that was the point where he was the one who would have to do the chasing from now on.

Much like Nagi points out, they’re both now in a ‘lonely’ state, having lost their previous partners, though in differing ways. Nagi moved on without Reo by choice, while Isagi and Bachira were forcibly split by their loss to Rin, Aryu and Tokimitsu.

In this mini arc, we further witness Isagi’s growth as an individual, and his skill in 1-on-1 matches. He ‘steals’ Naruhaya’s skill in c53, realizing that the moments when he’s not having the ball is also considered a 1-on-1. He ties it back directly to Rin’s insult in the previous match, complete with a flashback, and after successfully stealing it, proceeds to win the game with Nagi.

The other interesting bit is chapter 55, where Naruhaya, after losing and not being selected to move on, tells Isagi that he has to struggle to death and keep winning. It’s yet another reinforcement of Rin’s mindset and Ego's philosophy towards the game – that a football game, in Blue Lock, is a death match.

C58

While Isagi-Nagi-Barou are preparing to square off against Chigiri-Kunigami-Reo, we cut briefly to Rin’s team. Bachira tries to join Rin, who’s training by himself, remarking that Rin’s football seems lonely, fascinatingly paralleling them both with Nagi and Isagi, who are also without their usual partners right now. This is interesting insight from Bachira, which develops both Bachira's character and layers Rin’s complex relationship with Sae later on.

Throughout the match-up with Chigiri-Kunigami-Reo, Isagi finds it difficult to play together with Barou, thus leading to his evolution of choosing to ‘devour’ Barou instead. This entire match, besides Isagi learning the importance of evolution by ‘devouring’ other people’s skills, much like the way artists and writers ‘steal’ from other artists and writers, we also get an important mindset of Isagi’s.

And yes, this is the working title of the meta, because I love it.

After Nagi and Reo have their fight, Isagi, who’s been watching, tells Reo that he should ‘aim to choose’. To him, it’s important that he gets to choose. Not that someone else chooses him. He must be the one to make that choice.

And thus far, Isagi’s been focused on one person in a markedly different manner compared to his interactions with the rest of the Blue Lock cast. But we'll get to that.

C69

In the meantime, Bachira practises with Rin, and acknowledges Rin’s skill. Rin points out Bachira’s weakness, and remarks that Bachira’s soccer is reliant on instinct, but constantly searching for someone.

“Your dribble looks like you're having fun... but afraid of fighting along. That lukewarm ego… won’t make my heart dance.”

Hence, Rin himself is interested in someone who can fight independently.

Small moment at the end of the chapter, while Isagi-Nagi-Barou-Chigiri are bonding in their shared room, we have this tiny panel of Isagi wanting Bachira and Rin to wait up for him… which, Bachira, yes, because it was their shared promise after he, Bachira and Nagi lost to Rin, Aryu and Tokimitsu, and they’ve been friends since Blue Lock started. Yet wanting Rin to wait up for him? Bit of a strange, tall order isn’t it, for someone Isagi has, arguably only known for the duration of a single match?

C72 – C85 4v4

The 4-man match is close to a chapter by chapter replay, so bear with me.

While they’re prepping for the match, the original matchup they decided on falls apart. Barou gets irritated with Tokimitsu and decides to match against him instead. Nagi, subsequently, decides to match up against Rin, whom Isagi himself had decided to play against at first. He concedes to Nagi, taking on Bachira instead, but also adds this little bit.

"Ok. But, if you lose, I'll be stepping in to crush him..."

Bit possessive aren’t you, Isagi

In their match off, Rin acknowledges that Isagi’s improved, but still basically pulled a ‘mada mada dane AKA you still have lots more to work on’ ‘you won’t make my heart dance’ on Isagi, paralleling his earlier conversation with Bachira.

Isagi thinks of how to devour Rin to win. Rin outclasses him still, but unlike Nagi, Chigiri and Barou, he is perfectly capable of keeping up with Rin’s way of thinking. This suggests a level of similarity in their thought processes, something none of the others share, which is interesting. We then get a little of Nagi’s viewpoint, and it’s clear to him that he isn’t able to view the plays on the field the way Isagi and Rin can.

Nagi thus targets their 'relationship' to steal possession of the ball, then cleverly uses his trap to score a second goal for his team. For the first time, Rin loses in a one-on-one situation where he expected to come out on top. Bachira even teases him for it. While Rin responds rudely, Isagi monologues that he wants to beat Rin, using his own ability, without relying on anyone else’s skills.

Isagi views Rin as his current challenge, his ‘goal to beat’ on the way to become the world’s top striker. It’s also in this match up that Rin really starts showing his mettle. In revenge, Rin blazes past Nagi, draws Isagi in for a fake and passes it to the open Bachira, who scores. Instead of getting by with his overwhelming personal skill as he previously did, Rin’s starts to make use of his teammates and his opponents. Faced with this, Isagi’s reaction is admiration and self-doubt.

“A genius like him… can I actually devour him...?”

C78 is the chapter where characters start giving Rin eyelash-related nicknames, lmao. Barou’s the one who starts it. The OG Japanese isn't so rude, with Barou's nickname being along the lines of 'bottom eyelashes Number 1'.

C79

While Isagi and Rin fight to seize the ‘flow’ of the game through Barou, Bachira celebrates upon finally finding two people who are ‘monsters’ whom he can play with. Except…

Neither of them are even looking at him, or considering him at all in the game. Like Nagi, earlier, Bachira thinks that Isagi and Rin are viewing the field on a different level altogether, in a way that no one else can match up to/keep up with. He thinks of them as a pair of monsters, friends, whom he can play with. But right now, Isagi and Rin are so hung up over fighting/winning against each other that neither of them are even thinking of the others, except where relevant in the game.

Rin’s team gets a free kick, and while Isagi’s debating over whether Rin will immediately shoot for a goal or pass, Rin goes in for the kill. He even spells out Isagi’s thoughts, then declares that the only option for him was to make a goal. “It’s always that one last step. Just when I think I’m about to catch him, he slips out of reach!!”

In fact, they’re so caught up reading each other’s moves, it leads to --

Isagi was so fucking cool in this panel

Isagi legit makes this goal, and brings the score to 4-4, only because he knows that Rin knows what he’s thinking and what he can do. So. Yeah. Again, they’re mind-reading each other now. And they’ve only known each other for the duration of exactly two matches, and by my count, less than a week. Maybe slightly longer, but I really don’t think Isagi and Nagi took that long to 1) beat Barou-Naruhaya and 2) beat Reo-Kunigami-Chigiri. Rin is so surprised here, his hair got whited out.

C82

It’s do or die now, for both teams. Isagi explains his plan that got him the previous goal to Chigiri, Barou and Nagi. His trust in Rin's play and moves is especially fascinating, because, once again, unlike with Bachira and Chigiri whom he’s teamed up with throughout his whole time in Blue Lock, then Nagi and Barou whose abilities he’s went up against with firsthand, and also played alongside with, he has only known Rin for the duration of these two matches, yet he believes in Rin’s abilities, so much so that he forms the plan and succeeds in it because he believes Rin was just that good.

In response to the goal, Bachira realises that he’s so far away from reaching both Isagi and Rin, and he’s so crushed by this realisation that he basically falls into an existential crisis. His momentary lapse in concentration, naturally, gets picked on by his opponents. Chigiri steals the ball from him. Nagi questions him for it, and gives, to Bachira, the worst-case scenario possible: Isagi's team will win and take Rin, and Bachira will be left behind, unable to play with either Rin or Isagi as he wants.

Nagi’s words, ironically, gives Bachira his second wind in the game. Now the game is like a death match to him. He wants to win even if it kills him. He wants to steal back Isagi.

Which is also interesting, because Isagi, unlike the previous matches we’ve been shown so far, isn’t potentially being stolen by a rival team. Isagi and his attention, is being stolen by 1) the game and 2) Rin.

This shocks Bachira enough that he gets his ‘ego’s awakening’, pushes through, then fails to make the shot because of Isagi’s defending.

And there, to pick up the stray ball and win the game, was Rin.

Then in a complete 180 from his previous match-up against Isagi-Bachira-Nagi, Rin tramples over Aryu, Tokimitsu and Bachira's opinions and makes the decision to pick their new teammate. And he chooses Isagi.

Of note:

Isagi’s ego and skills development over the course of the 2v2 and 3v3 matches, from devouring Naruhaya’s skill to devouring Barou’s presence, to the point of using him as bait/decoy in the match vs Kuni-Chigi-Reo, ending with Kuni-Chigi-Reo’s loss, then the NagiReo fight, and Isagi’s suggestion to Reo that he needs to aim to be the one with the ability and power to choose, instead of being chosen (also the title for this meta/manifesto!), all of these are a reiteration of what I’ve already mentioned in part 1, about Blue Lock having a repeating motif in the characters’ relationships: Isagi separated from Bachira, and comes back stronger to challenge Bachira’s new team. Nagi separated from Reo, and came back stronger, then defeated Reo’s team.

Reo never quite manages to grasp his ego and develop on it throughout the whole game, playing it with the intention of mostly stealing back Nagi from Isagi, and thus suffers a narrative loss, both via the game and via losing Nagi and damaging his personal relationship with Nagi as well. Bachira, who fights back at the last minute, losing the monster that’s both been his crutch and mental support, and together with Rin, who outclasses Isagi by sheer skill, manages to steal back Isagi.

Throughout the course of this, we can see that 1) Isagi’s skill development and growth was heavily influenced by Rin, and 2) he has a growing interest with duking it out with Rin on the field, to the point where by the time its the 4v4 team match, Isagi and Rin are already so aware/attuned to each other’s thought processes on the field that the others can’t catch up and view them as a separate unit fighting it out with each other the whole while, something that’s picked up on by the two people who are arguably closest to Isagi right now, Bachira and Nagi.

On the other hand, we also learn that Rin is potentially ‘lonely’, like Bachira, and that he has a preference for people who can fight independently. He outclasses everyone else in the match by far in terms of sheer skill, and underneath that cold attitude towards others, can get quite worked up when provoked and up against a decent opponent. Also, at the end of the match, he chooses Isagi. :D

Side note: I am so happy that I hadn't begun posting this series before tumblr updated to the new 30 pics limit, because it was torture picking out which 10 pics/panels had the most relevance to the meta.