Warning! Contains spoilers for Blue Lock Episode 14!The Soccer anime Blue Lock just forced its protagonist Isagi to betray one of his initial teammates, fulfilling the dark potential of its premise. Part of what makes Blue Lock so unique from other Sports anime is its Death Game-like setup, with its various characters all competing against each other to become the best striker in Japan. Since there can only be one top striker in Japan however, this means that any teams or alliances formed in the Blue Lock program are necessarily temporary, as its latest episode shows.
Episode 14 features Isagi and Nagi beginning a 2 v 2 battle between Naruhaya and Barou. Whichever team wins the match will then select one member of the losing team to add to their group and continue on to 3 v 3 matches. The player not selected however will be eliminated from Blue Lock entirely, killing their dream. Barou and Nagi are both incredibly good players who will likely be picked by the winning team if they lose so this battle is really to determine whether Isagi or Naruhaya will get kicked out of Blue Lock. So now for the first time Isagi is being forced to eliminate one of his teammates from Team Z.
Isagi has eliminated various players over the course of the show either directly or indirectly. In the first episode he eliminated Kira directly and through the various games that followed he eliminated entire teams of players by leading his team to victory over them. But throughout that entire time, he never had to turn against any of his fellow members of Team Z who he trained and lived alongside for the entirety of Blue Lock’s first phase. Blue Lock’s second phase dissolved those initial teams entirely, forcing players to make new teams that are much smaller. These smaller teams necessarily force former teammates to fight each other, greatly raising the stakes and tension of the show.
Blue Lock Forces Isagi to Betray a Teammate to Move Forward
This is the sort of conflict that you would never see in a more standard sports anime like Haikyuu!!. Those shows typically revolve around a team learning to work with each other to grow stronger as opposed to individuals forced to betray each other to achieve their dreams. This is also what sets Isagi apart from other Sports anime protagonists as well. A more typical protagonist like Hinata would balk at having to turn on his teammates, but here Blue Lock’s Isagi acts as a deconstruction of this sort of character, instead accepting it as necessary for his growth. Given his surprising elation at crushing the dreams of other teams in Blue Lock’s first selection, he might not even feel remorse after he is forced to eliminate Naruhaya in this match, which would differentiate him even further.
If Isagi truly does feel no guilt after eliminating Naruhaya it will set him apart not just from sports anime protagonists but from Shonen heroes in general. Characters like Naruto and Luffy would die before betraying their friends, but Isagi is forced to if he wants to achieve his dream. By putting Isagi into this situation, Blue Lock is finally fulfilling its devilish potential and proving what makes it so unique.
Blue Lock is available to watch on Crunchyroll.