Blue Lock

It was good overall, it was fun. I believe many have said Blue Lock portrayed football in unrealistic ways and I agreed with it. However, I do find it fascinating in its own ways. I really like the premise, it's unique and fresh. I love how each character has their own times to evolve and show off their abilities, so the story didn't solely focus on the main character. The games gave me chills most of the times. Also, even though this project was made to create the best strikers, I like the way the creator kept his characters this way, they had their own unique strength & weakness and they were not forced to simply follow the order or to simply do as they were told. They did what they believe it's right and I like it.

Whenever the students played, they usually showed their complicated thinking process, through a long monologue, especially Isagi. At first, I was so annoyed, to be honest. It was unnecessary, you wouldn't have this much times to overthink in real football games. But as time went by, I started to understand this might be real football players' state of minds anytime they're on the pitch. They have to face so many possibilities and options and they have to make the best possible decision in span of seconds and it is not easy. I think Blue Lock portrayed this quiet well, it made me wanted to understand the players more.

Anytime I found the team members fought with each other, I thought it was maddening and a bit frustrating to watch. They wasted their times on fighting and debating over a lot of things while they're in looking for goals. But then I realized it was so difficult to integrate different visions and in the end, a compromise was needed. Blue Lock described it well too.

I love the graphic, it was neat. The sound effects, the OVA, it suited the whole story.

However, just like the other series, I do think it has some problems that cause confusion to me personally.

1. I don't really understand Ego Jinpachi & the red-haired lady roles here. I get they're the ones who initiated the project but they weren't really involved in the students' development, imo. I know it was a very different method, but I think their involvement is also needed. They showed up several times through the screen and explained the rules, but then what? They didn't monitor the students' training techniques, they didn't really give them advice, they didn't really tell them what should they improve, all they did was obligating them to compete and let them figure their own problems by themselves.

2. Contrary to majority of viewers, I found the last episodes of season 1 a bit underwhelming, compared to the first 12 episodes. The students were getting more inhuman and it was almost feeling like they have some kind of superpower, I don't like this.

3. I found it hard to sympathize with Isagi's character. I don't know perhaps his character development is yet to be shown, or the creator didn't give enough backstory to allow the viewers to understand him more. I feel more attached to Bachira and Nagi. They're the most interesting characters to me.