The Observation Deck: Blue Lock
Welcome, weebs, to Animated Observations
When the world ends, will go out in a blaze of glory, or peter out, barely sparking a flame before surrendering into a tiny batch of embers?
Did that intro have anything to do with the fascist soccer anime? No, not really, but honestly it is hard introducing sports anime without mentioning the fact that they are sports anime and that all of the typical Shonen bravado makes even less sense cause it’s a game. Also, in case those who are reading have not heard about the series and were confused by the phrase “fascist soccer anime,” don’t worry, I will explain.
First, though, let’s start with a basic plot description. Despite steadily improving over the years, the men’s Japanese soccer team has never won a World Cup. Though most in the world of professional men’s soccer are content with profitability, some want to see Japan’s soccer taken to another level. Enter Blue Lock, a project launched by the Japanese Football Union and operated by one Ego Jinpachi to find Japan’s next star striker. Many high school-age players find themselves invited to join Blue Lock, including Isagi Yoichi, a young man who thought his soccer career was all but over, that is until he joined Blue Lock.
In this cross between sports and battle royale, players are forced to fight for survival, at risk of elimination from the program and the barred from ever participating in Japanese Soccer, but what exactly makes its narrative so sinister? What about the show works? what doesn’t? Those are the questions I will try and answer over the next few hundred words, so stick with me.
The Calm Before the Storm
For what it’s worth, I do think there is a fair bit to like about the show, specifically in regards to its setup.
Sports anime often focuses primarily on individual characters and their introduction to the team, how that team works together, and what sort of personal obstacles the characters overcome in the face of wanting to win. That is, and largely has been, the formula of most series. Not to say it is bad, but can certainly lead to predictability and a lack of interesting development if the only thing that happens is that the characters keep winning.
Blue Lock essentially throws that out the window in favor of a setup where everyone is looking out for themselves. Rather than focus on issues outside of the sport which get resolved through hard work and dedication, Blue Lock’s primary aim is a story in which the only thing that matters is soccer. While this does lead to everyone feeling a bit less like real people, it had the potential to say something really profound about our relationship with personal goals and drive to becoming the best. It doesn’t do that, mind you, but we’ll get there.
Another element of the show that does become really engaging is the process by which people come to understand and learn about their niche within soccer. One of the central conflicts in the series is that everyone at Blue Lock is a striker, an inherently offensive position, vying to become the best in a team sport that has many other positions.
Because of this, nearly every character has a trait that becomes honed and perfected throughout their time at Blue Lock. Isagi, lacking any outstanding physical ability, is forced to turn inward and rely on his spatial awareness and game sense. Chigiri, haunted by his past injury, is scared of ruining his career. However, he ultimately decides that utilizing his incredible speed and risking his leg again is better than not playing at his best. Bachira, afraid of trusting anyone but the monster in his head, rapidly develops his dribbling skills to the point of being nye unblockable.
Keep Your Eyes on the Ball
Normally I save the discussion of animation till the end but in this case, there is actually a decent amount worth talking about, including stuff that informs the overall themes and narrative.
Eyes have often been used across visual media as a way of denoting fantastical elements of particular characters, and this is even more true in anime. Whether it be a strange coloration like Holo’s bright red eyes denoting her godhood in Spice and Wolf, or the various clans in Naruto which were born with a visual jutsu, eyes can often say a lot about their powers. Thus, it makes sense that in a genre of anime that can often be visually just as fantastical, eyes would be a highlighted feature.
It should come as no surprise that an anime in which soccer players are constantly fighting for survival said players would be a bit on edge. This is most often denoted by a glowing presence in their eyes. Visually, it adds a bit more intensity to a game, noting when a character is ready to go all out. Thematically, however, it does add to the sinister, extreme right-wing leaning of the show’s politics, as often the characters become solely focused on themselves and their individual accomplishments.
However, that in and of itself doesn’t constitute a great understanding of why many have criticized the series as being aligned with fascist ideas. So, without beating around the bush too much longer, I think it best to finally talk about the ideology of the series.
How Can Soccer Be Fascist?
Very easily, as it turns out.
I want to preface this section by saying that, though I tend not to read a ton of other criticism before reviewing a series myself, Explanation Point’s video on Blue Lock did inform and explain a lot of my existing discomfort while watching the series. Because of this, a lot of the ideas talked about here are coming from his video in some way. However, there are also some gaps in his argument that I will be filling with my own observations.
One element he points out early on in the video is Ego’s obsession with mythologizing Japanese soccer, despite the fact Japan was never that exceptional to begin with. After all, he admits at another point in the series that Japanese soccer is only recently becoming a force to be reckoned with. However, it is through the creation of a mythic past of hyper-aggressive soccer that he can convince these high-school-age players to join this random soccer program and participate in Blue Lock, to begin with.
Explanation Point also identifies a tendency in Fascism to focus on nuclear families with male leaders, obedient wives, and kids to be raised in their image. Though the translation does not work one-to-one, having a dominant role, in this case striker, along with a team of other players to ensure that the player looks the best is basically the entirety of what Ego wants to happen. A nuclear family of soccer, if you will. Interestingly, this also enforces more typical gendered dynamics with feminity being an undesirable trait. Hence why Chigiri is called some version of “princess” or “girl” as an insult for most of the series.
One thing worth adding to his analysis that he addresses mostly in description is the concept of Social Darwinism. For those unaware, Social Darwinism is a theory that arose in the 19th century that argued people are subject to the natural laws described by Charles Darwin just as much as any other species, and that weaker people and cultures will naturally be eliminated whereas stronger ones will survive.
Ego iterates on multiple occasions his desire not just to see Japanese soccer get better, but to create a striker who will be the star of Japan in the same way Lionel Messi and others are the stars of their countries. In other words, he is literally advocating for a de facto soccer leader to more or less rule the sport for Japan and promises Blue Lock to be that origin point.
However, instead of contending with these ideas in any real intellectual way, it almost whole-heartedly embraces them by painting Ego as largely in the right. Rather than Blue Lock being portrayed as an interesting, though ultimately failed experiment, the show instead has the heads of the Japanese Football Union rush to shut the project down, portraying Blue Lock’s leader as the victim of a greedy upper-class only interested in money. This talking point is one that fascists embrace often, nominally agreeing with societal problems pointed out by those on the left while not supporting any solutions that would actually solve said issues.
By the end of Blue Lock’s first season Ego Jinpachi is barely an antagonist let alone a villain, as most of the kids still left inside the program come to agree with his analysis of the sport. I am not here to say that someone could not enjoy the series despite this, as I personally find myself in that camp, but would definitely be wary of someone saying they enjoy Blue Lock because of these things.
Conclusion
There are a lot of things worth appreciating about this series. One thing I didn’t even mention in the main body of the article was Isagi’s perfectly normal character design, not really worthy of mention on its own but in the context of the series where he goes through the most change in terms of finding his personal weapon as a striker makes a ton of sense. He starts out as the “average Joe” Jinpachi goes so far as to demonize and also becomes the one most enraptured by Ego’s propaganda.
Still, it would be dishonest to not talk about its more concerning thematic elements. Another point of comparison that it would have been really helpful to already have finished my retrospective on (thanks past Vivian, sarcastically) is Attack on Titan.
AOT’s ethos is by no means morally good. Whereas that series ends up with a worldview more akin to pessimism about real-world politics, Blue Lock in a weird way gets closer to straight-up advocacy. It is a narrative all about selfishness and one’s ability to elevate oneself above all others, displaying many of the hallmarks of fascist beliefs.
Not that I expect this random blog post to have much of a reach beyond the small niche of an internet audience this blog has carved out for me (thank you all again), but just in case, let me say this. Literary analysis like this is not meant to antagonize or accuse anyone of anything. Above all else, it is about analyzing the values embedded within pieces of media we all enjoy.
I do think the values of this series are morally bad, but that doesn’t make someone wrong for liking it. Being critical of media and looking at it as art is what I try my best to do and for as much as I might want to wholeheartedly embrace the series as a unique twist on the sports genre, it’s hard. Blue Lock has a lot to offer for those just looking for a good time, but it is hard to call it great when it seems to advocate for incredibly morally questionable things. For that reason, it’s just ok.
How do you all feel about Blue Lock? Let me know in the comments.
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Originally published at http://animatedobservations.com on April 10, 2024.
