Blue Lock The Movie: Episode Nagi review – Football reimagined as a heightened form of futuristic warfare
The strangeness comes, however, from the deconstruction of the beautiful game. Some original school of off-centre philosophy here is being applied to the analysis of what makes a striker special. I would admit that such players are often at home to ego, but Blue Lock seems to believe that is the defining characteristic. So much so that self-absorption – or Freud’s mediating personality segment – becomes something of an obsession. You don’t get that in Escape to Victory.
Here we arrive at the strange institution that is Blue Lock. Run by a messianic bore in a head mic – somewhere between Elon Musk and Steve Jobs – this body devotes itself to the production of Japan’s next great footballers. Gareth Southgate could learn something from this Jinpachi Ego . There is no room here for waistcoats and cosy celebrations of diversity. Blue Lock is run more like a less deadly version of Squid Game.