Episode 2 of Blue Lock aired on Saturday and it left me a lot more impressed than I was with its season premiere. Despite it not having a heart-pumping end to the episode like the premiere did, it did a wonderful job at establishing the world inside and outside of Blue Lock in general. And I think the anime benefitted greatly from moving one particular scene at the very beginning of the manga to this episode.
What Blue Lock Episode 2 Did Right
What turned me off from the season premiere is the unholy amount of death-game anime tropes that we encountered and the insufferable indecisiveness of the main character in Isagi. However, episode 2 did a perfect job of explaining exactly what the Blue Lock is and how it’s structured. In short, it’s actually very different from any death-game anime, or television series for that matter, and that drew my attention instantly. In fact, it’s almost its own little society. And that’s definitely a nice twist on the psychological aspect I definitely didn’t expect.
But what grabbed my attention more is what the team at studio 8bit decided to do with this adaptation. The scene of the Japan Football Union in the board room describing the “insanity” of even thinking about a project such as Blue Lock is actually the very first scene we see in the manga. But, moving that to episode 2 and keeping it away from the premiere, really did give us a clear in-and-out picture of everything surrounding Blue Lock—public outrage versus the vision of a select, passionate few.
The episode even did a wonderful job of making me excited to learn more about who Ego Jinpachi truly is since he was hand-selected to lead the Blue Lock project. Obviously, his motives are clearer than a piece of glass floating in Caribbean waters, but it left us with a little breadcrumb of not knowing everything about him that was enticing. And it’s not even so much Jinpachi that caught my attention, having a Japanese soccer player in Itoshi Sae giving up all hope on the Japan National Team to actually being the one on the outside looking in who is actually intrigued in learning more about what the Blue Lock project creates was reflective in myself.
I felt myself wanting to learn more about everything, and everyone, involved in the series a lot more than I did after the season premiere. And let’s not ignore he’s an elite midfielder that needs an elite striker to pass the ball to. Now we have not only the World Cup as an end goal but playing with someone who will be giving you better passes than anyone else. So it’s going to be interesting to see the role Sae is going to play, especially since he was introduced so early.
Production is Among Some of the Best This Fall 2022 Season
I think one thing that’s going to be a consistently talked about aspect of Blue Lock is the near-perfect adaptation of the artwork from the manga. The heavy line art just makes everything pop. Usually, this kind of style doesn’t fit a lot of series but my goodness it looks amazing in Blue Lock (just look at the picture of Sae above). The first week’s artwork and animation near the end warped around 3D space blew me away and it did so yet again this past week with Bachira’s flashback, albeit it was short-lived since the episode was more plot-driven.
Even so, 8bit has already proven in just two episodes that they are not to be overlooked as an animation studio. And with them adapting the most anticipated sports anime of the year, there’s also part of me that isn’t surprised either. A big project like Blue Lock is a big deal not just for the studio, but the industry in general. After the unfortunate news of Haikyuu! ending with a two-part movie to wrap up the series, anime fans are looking for that next big sports anime. And, so far, Blue Lock is showing out for many anime fans. But it’s got an extremely long way to go if it ever wants to be anywhere near what Haikyuu! has become. That being said, let’s put our trust in 8bit to give us an incredible series.
Blue Lock Episode 2 Wrap Up
There wasn’t much to talk about as last week but that doesn’t take away from it simply being an all-around solid episode of Blue Lock. There were no real faults other than the fact of everyone was barefoot, even in the cafeteria and weight room, and nobody is questioning it. I understand practicing on turf barefoot, but walking around where people eat and lift weights? I’m going to need a Jenpachi explanation for that one. Until then, we finally get a matchup in just the third episode this upcoming Saturday.
We already saw glimpses of what 8bit is capable of animation-wise with this series. Now it’s time to really flex those animation, camera, and composition muscles next episode! Episode 3 of Blue Lock will air on Saturday, October 22, on Crunchyroll. If you enjoyed this episode of Blue Lock then make sure to vote for it in our weekly poll!
Images via Crunchyroll
©Muneyuki Kaneshiro, Yusuke Nomura, Kodansha/”Blue Lock” Production Committee
