A review of Blue Lock the Movie – Episode Nagi

I watched Blue Lock on the big cinema screen and that’s still pretty rare for an anime. However, I haven’t seen the anime series, and I don’t particularly like sports anime. That’s a bit of a risk!

Now, the good news is that Blue Lock the Movie is good. You don’t need to know anything about the Blue Lock series to enjoy this, although it does help if you like football, or soccer as they call it throughout.

We don’t follow the main character from the Blue Lock series, although he’s introduced as ‘short ass’ and certainly takes over the narrative by the end.

Instead, we follow Nagi who I assume is a supporting character in the series, or in TTRPG speak, Nagi is an NPC.

We get Nagi’s original story as a slacker at school who just wants to play computer games and skive but who is adopted by a rich kid and steered into playing football.

I suppose a bromance follows for a bit, although it hints at being a toxic relationship.

Nagi is an oddball. He’s so lazy that he can’t always be bothered to chew his food or eat at all. He thinks nothing of his new friend, Mr Rich Kid, literally carrying him from the football pitch and back home.

I can’t say I warmed up terribly to Nagi, even as the character developed. I’d argue he continued to do some pretty terrible things, although the writers try hard to get us to empathise with him by letting us hear his straightforward, emotionally challenged, and non-bitter personality.

Blue Lock the Movie – Episode Nagi synopsis

There’s no spoilers here.

You don’t need to know the Blue Lock series or even like football to get into the movie because there’s only one normal match.

Instead, the anime is more like Squid Games meets Champions League. Nagi, Mr. Rich Kid, and 298 candidates are adopted into a training school called Blue Lock. Once they accept the challenge and go inside, they cannot leave unless by elimination—and that’s not death; that’s just football blocked to them at an international level.

Rather than the normal 11 men versus 11 men, we have 5-aside, 3-side, 2-side, and dodgeball knockouts. The focus is very much on the characters and their development. That’s all wrapped in moments of body-twisting football athleticism and the occasional ripped body at the communal pools.

The reward for winning at Blue Lock is a place on Japan’s national football team. The man behind this idea is tall, sinister, and perhaps sociopathic. He could be straight out of a horror movie and is also a familiar whacky mentor trope in many animes.

Then it ends. In fact, my main beef with another perfectly entertaining anime feature length is that it just stops. The screen goes blank, the cinema lights stay down, and the whole audience is confused as to whether it is over or not.

I suppose we do get the full Nagi-comes-of-age arc, but the rest is more of a teaser or warm-up for the Blue Lock series.

Blue Lock look and feel

Blue Lock has some very pretty young men, but I’m sure it also appeals to straight bloke football fans.

I did like the tempo and the mix of physical action and emotional drama; neither lingered for too long, and the plot moved on.

You’ll be used to musical changes and cues telling you that something is about to happen. In Blue Lock, it’s the footballers’ eyes, and the trick worked for me, helping to spell out that the sports star in question was having an epiphany or rush of adrenaline. The youngsters’ eyes glow with the fire of football passion, and this would foreshadow a moment of athletic genius.

Some moments flirt with surrealism, as shadowy demons of doubt and uncertainty swarm around would-be sportsball heroes. It might be overly dramatic, but it does stop Blue Lock from being an animated football match.

Overall

I’m glad Crunchyroll brought Blue Lock the Movie to the big screen. I’m just thinking about it now; it’s either Anime LTD or Crunchyroll that does that here in Scotland. I can’t recall whether Netflix or Disney+ ever has, and Disney+ certainly buys anime licenses.

I’ll give Blue Lock a happy score draw. That’s to say, I don’t regret buying my ticket, but there’s a legion of anime feature lengths that I would recommend before getting to this one. That said, catching anime in the cinema is still rare, so if you’re a fan of the art, then see it.