— — — —— — —
×
— —— —
— — — —— — —
×
— —— —
— — — —— — —
×
— —— —
Blue Lock is the DBZ of Sports genre
[A bit spoilerish review about Blue Lock including manga panels]
Soo, first off, don't get me wrong, Blue Lock is amazing and a really well done sports manga, kudos to that. I love it, but man, sometimes, or rather the entire time its way too overhyped and intense that we as readers don't even get a moment to breathe, and that's what makes Blue Lock the most addictive sports manga you will ever read. It's more of a battle shounen with wits constantly on play, but on an overdramatized football ground. Also, I'd like to say that blue lock has insane art, I was skeptical about reading a sports manga, wondering if I'd be able to understand whatever is happening on the ground, but I was relieved to see that Nomura sensei delivers breath-taking and immersive art which makes it super engaging to read it
You see, we all watched and loved DB when we were kids, and we loved watching the hype moments and fights rather than focusing on characters or story. Blue Lock does the same, but in a more engaging way. Most of the times, its almost nonsensical how Isagi, the main character gets a godly power like Meta-Vision. Well, it might actually be something soccer players get through evolution, but as I, a non soccer player see it, it seems something like Kamehameha is being given in the hands of Isagi, and that's crazy AF.
One more thing I realised is that, if you truly wanna enjoy reading BlueLock, you gotta shut your brain, no for real. It has strikers running all the way from the opponents' goal to their own goalbox defending the strikes, it has players doing non-humane stuff, getting "awakening" mid-game, Isagi foreseeing the upcoming future perfectly and all, it's basically a chaos, and if you want to have fun, you just gotta digest it the way mangaka intended it, without thinking of any real-world logic. It's a show where strikers defend, strikers assist, strikers saves the goal, and of-course, strikers score goals, actually, a lot of super-hype goals
It's simple, its because of the characters. All of the characters in BlueLock are egotists and extreme narcissicists. Be it the U-20 team players, or the world-class players, every single player wants to shine, in their own way, and they'll do anything to achieve it and make themselves worth, even if it means going against your team-mates in a game. If a protagonist like Isagi was in haikyu, or ao-ashi, it would've been a disaster, because these 2 mangas emphasize on team-dynamics instead of solo techniques. Crazy characters like Isagi, barou, prince and kaiser can only exist in a story like blue lock where it's all about devouring other teammates
Why Oshi No Ko S2 is the best sequel to any show
[Spoiler-Free]
Let me make it clear, I didn't actually enjoy watching the first season. Given how immaculate the episode1 was, the rest of the S1 felt pretty bland to me and the I never really liked the character dynamics, which is why I decided to not continue watching the series and eventually dropped the plan to watch the S2.
This was until S2 finished airing, and everyone around me started to praise it, for basically everything, animation, characters, story, plot twists and what not, which made me want to give oshi no ko another try, I did, with literally 0 expectations from it, and here I am, writing my first ever review on an anime which I disliked initially. That's how good this season was.
This season revolved around the Tokyo Blade arc, and man, that was beautiful in every aspect, be it character interactions, the execution, the emotions, basically everything was so damn perfect I couldn't even believe I was watching the same show. Initially, the plot felt repititive but as we progressed with each episode, things started getting interesting and I personally loved how they ended each episode on a cliffhanger, making audience eagerly wanting to watch the next episode asap.
Aside from the main cast, the side characters were really well written as well.
Melt, a character who I despised in the S1 had an amazing comeback this season. This time he had a conviction, the urge to do something, the urge to be better than his previous self, which made me root for him in the final play.
Himekawa, he is introduced as the main cast of the Tokyo Blade play, although initially looking boring and unattractive due to his visible unwillingness towards acting, he turned out to be interesting as the season ended. I liked his interactions with Kana and Aqua during the final play and how smoothly he was able to turn the tide of the play with just one move was truly astonishing
Kana, I hated Kana Arima in the S1, her arrogant attitude towards others was such a massive letdown and I considered her to be just one of the losing heroines of a typical harem story. I was so wrong. This season we got to see her past with Akane, and how they both praised each other mutually, her positivity and her love of acting was shining in the final play of Tokyo Blade.
Akane, she has one of the biggest glow ups this season, not only in terms of likability, but in terms of being important to the plot as well. She's a likable, and a scary character at the same time. We see her getting tensed and uncomfortable whenever Aqua talked about his past and the motive to kill someone, as if there was something she knew, which is kept a mystery for the time being
Aqua and Ruby, their characters went completely 180 this season. Ironically, I believe it's safe to say that Ruby was my favorite character this season even though she had the least screen-time. Aqua's emotional act during the stage play was goosebumps inducing because of how tragic his emotions were. And Ruby, she was phenomenal in the final episode with those black intimidating stars on her eyes, her resolve and hatred towards the murders feel more intense than anything we've seen so far in the show. So exicted for the future arcs to get adapted
Narrative of this arc was the main reason I liked it so much, instead of Aqua, it emphasized on all the characters equally, giving them enough room to shine on their own and not giving Aqua the main character treatment was the best thing Oshi No Ko delivered so far. Also, DogaKobo killed it with the adaptation, the stage fights felt more like a battle straight out of a beautifully done battle shounen, the animations and the perspectives were CLEAN. Its also amazing how well they blended the personal lives of actors with their professional lives. I feel like S1 emphasized too much on the professional lives of characters that made them uninteresting to an extent
In conclusion, I'd like to say that Oshi No Ko is still worth giving a try. It gets so much better, which is the reason why I believe it was the best sequel to any anime I've seen so far, as not being too different than the first season, it escalated the characters and the story to a much higher level with deepening mysteries to unfold.
I'm sorry if the review was poorly written because its the first time I'm writing something like this, I just let out everything I liked about this season. Thanks!