How BLUE LOCK Turns Isagi into the Protagonist | MrGoodSir

all right stop me if you heard this one the reason why a lot of anime protagonists are boring or uninteresting is due to their simple design and lack of special features or qualities you've probably heard this more simply said like this all of these dam katos look the same they're the same picture there's obviously a lot of Truth to that most mainstream protagonists in the media of Manga and Anime tend to be this type of other worldly beings capable of great impactful Feats in their stories and in the worlds that reside these quote unquote boring protagonists however are mostly used as vessels for us viewers to better immerse ourselves in their Fantastical worlds most of us wouldn't be considered protagonist material so we're initially just like them relatable yet unremarkable and this isn't this to anyone who likes these self-insert shows I myself I'm nothing special you're seeing a slightly more interesting cartoony version of me and that's by choice because I essentially looked like the love child of moist critical and Asma gold they're the same picture having all that said however that is why when I started reading blue lock and later than watching the anime adaptation I became fascinated by its main character isi and that's just how unremarkable it looks and and yet that is the perfect design for him as a character he is not interesting that is of course only at first glance that is [Music] [Music] meare soon you we already know to spell the game but first just letting you know I'm spoiling some of the anime and later parts of the manga for this you don't like that go watch slre it and come back quickly I'm not waiting for you the rest of the class will be ahead of you for the rest of the year all righty then the year is 2018 the Japanese national team finished 16th in the FIFA World Cup not being quite happy with the results the Japan Football Association hires this group heo Chachi with most members reluctantly agreeing to his master plan to lead Japan to stardom blue loock a training regimen designed to create the world's greatest egotistical Striker and so U saki is one of 300 players invited for the program it decides to join even after being nagged on by budget jender band Edna from The Incredibles there's one catch to Blue lock however and that is that those who fail blue loock will never again be permitted to play or represent for any Japanese team making this a PG-13 football cross squid game anime setup you never knew you wanted until it was presented to you now that we got the brief summary out of the way we can get to the why isaki doesn't seem much like main character material part and to do that a little intro to its character yii Sagi has always loved football ever since he was little especially looking up to Noel Noah the world's greatest football player and so isaki aspires to be just as great as him alongside his dream of leading Japan to win the World Cup someday yep that's about it blue loock doesn't pull you in with the main character's backstory or personality but with a fun enough premise it honestly doesn't have to isaki is very much presented to you as your typical high schooler with an interest for sports he's not that special and he's an okay football player at best considering that he's at the bottom of blue lock at the beginning of the story I want you to think about any other anime main character how do we visualize them figure out who they are those are the main questions to answer when designing a character a good character design speaks to the character's identity characters aren't striking for the sake of being striking and in the case they are it's painfully obvious that there's no real thought behind the character itself now before I tell you what saves isaki from ending up in the garbage can of forgettable characters I'd like to show you the moment he meets his competition at Blue loock for the first time it all I think the anime does a better job with this scene than its manga counterpart on the account of adding short shots of future characters but the thing you notice right away is just how much more visually striking these characters feel as opposed to isaki If blue lock were written in a typical shaen form of this guy is insane and I must survive this crazy program with the power of friendship and determination there are quite a few characters who I believe would fit the MC spot perfectly inin kunigami wants to be the football equivalent of a superhero megaup pachira wants to play against rifles who can compete with him and his monster yeah I also thought it was a bit weird but I love this good boy anyways Yoma chigi wants to unchain himself past his injury drama to play football wholeheartedly again as you can see there are many other characters far more interesting for the MC spot than isaki but I think first and most obviously someone who fits this criteria although probably no one thinks about is rusi yeah hear me out Kira is introduced at the beginning of blue lock alongside isaki beating isak's team allowing his to go to the Nationals and crushing por isaki stream in the process he too is invited to the blue lock program but unlike isagi kir emanates a Radiance that could only be described as the pure hardworking boy a genuinely good guy he is disgusted at ago's entire philosophy on egoism seeing football as a Team game where every player is just as bit as important as the striker he wants to prove ego Wrong by finding a way of beaing blue lock the righteous way the correct way which it doesn't though you see for as much as I've been antagonizing the default anime character design of yii isagi doesn't take more than an episode or two chapters to see what blue lock does in order to develop him as a character and doing this at lightning speed this isn't a story about friendship and the fun sport of football but a story about clashing egos the feeling of Despair that comes with losing and the feeling of euphoria that comes with winning what happens when you put an unremarkable person in a situation that's designed to mercilessly put him against all ODS in my opinion there's only two things that can happen either they're utterly crushed by the pressure of said situation or they are forced to rise to the occas in order to beat those odds playing as a team didn't work for isaki in the past so as the story progresses even though phys phally weaker than most other characters you start seeing isak's strong points as a player mainly his football IQ he slowly but surely starts seeing his teammates less as teammates and more as puzzle pieces to use to getting himself closer to Opportunities of scoring himself blue lock is still a Shonen anime at the end of the day and in good Shonen fashion our characters have ability or rather strong attributes that Define the player's play style from agility strength speed dexterity everything can be a weapon for a player to use and get the better of their opponents the great thing about isaki spatial awareness and later on metav vision is the fact that even though he is inferior to other players overall as someone who slowly becomes capable of analyzing in detail other players strengths weaknesses to even predict the flow and future of the game itself he can use his opponent strengths against them which leads us to what I believe is the best Concept in this anime [Music] devouring throughout blue lock you'll hear this expression quite a bit if OS well EG based ideologies speaks to a person's selfishness and self-importance as a striker devouring speaks to a person's ability to render their opponent's abilities useless it's beating them at their own game regardless if you're playing by their rules or not take Shy b as an example he calls himself the king arrogant selfish he sees himself above everyone else obs obsessed with pursuing his own form of football where he's the main character and everyone else Falls to second thought and as perhaps the most naturally physically gifted player in blue loock you can see where this overconfidence comes from and yet heaky demolishes his play style multiple times throughout the anime and manga and this is no matter the scenario they're in opposite team teams and Marrow focuses too much on their opponents and the ball isaki learns to use his blind spot to evade them they play in the same team and bar wants to play by himself even against two players then isaki predicts the placement of the off ball from that Exchange in order to score most characters in blue lock just like isaki tend to evolve as players and B is no different you see there's this point in the anime where they're playing team three as I just mentioned Barrow is not a team player which forces isaki and Nagi to learn to play around Bar's play style and as the game progresses bar slowly realizes how powerless he truly is having been used and manipulated again and again by isagi with these two characters roles having been fully reversed Barrow is devoured by isaki he passes to him something the self-proclaimed King of the field would never allow himself to do this is what makes a character like is like is so good he knows the gap between himself and other players e he is like his design suggests unremarkable he constantly doubts himself and his ability to surpass these Geniuses and yet he finds ways to do so turning himself remarkable by becoming the center of blue loock his existence and constant egocentric desire to become the best Striker forces those already pretty incredible players to reinvent the themselves creating a vicious cycle of constant devouring even Mar right after this scene I just mentioned he has a mental breakdown and refusing to play secondary character like isaki he evolves instead of brutally trying to pass through other players like he used to he develops his own style of dribbling on the spot consequently unlocking himself from the shackles that haki had created if blue lock is a chaotic environment where the biggest ego rules overall thei isaki someone who constantly beats the odds against monstrously gifted players is the embodyment of that word ego by this point in the story there's already been many occasions where isaki has proven himself to be more than a non-polished Jem shown his ego to be superior to other characters but nothing compares to this scene in the manga for some context at a later point in the story ago has to justify blue Lock's existence and Effectiveness in order to continue the program and so he makes a deal with the high hubs blue lock versus the u20 Japanese team these unpolished gems versus professional players and it is a fierce game one of my favorite in the whole manga and after many backs and forths the game's at a steel point and having been playing a mostly supportive role the entire game right under everyone's noses isaki steals the ball and scores the winning goal through blue loock the celebration is heartfelt The Crowd Goes Wild and so to the scoring the decisive goal isagi is then asked for an after game interview and you see how much he has changed in this scene from low number 299 to the Ace of blue lock ah [Music] for for con world world this is how blue lock turns Yoshi isaki into the protagonist thank you so much for watching I apologize for taking so long to post again but uh better late than ever I'd like to give a special thanks to D Victoria for translating the Japanese from the original manga I hope my voice acting wasn't too bad and of course thank you all for over a 100 views on my first video it means a lot to me believe me I'll try and post at the very least once a month so please subscribe look forward to the next video and I hope you take care of yourselves bye-bye

Channel: MrGoodSir

Views: 30,561

Keywords: blue lock, BLUE LOCK, Isagi Yoichi, Yoichi Isagi, character design

Id: pprCyHzBzQ4

Length: 17min 33sec (1053 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 28 2024