REVIEW: ‘Blue Lock,’ Episode 3 — “Soccer’s ‘Zero’”

After the first two episodes largely served as introductions to the characters and premise of Blue Lock, Blue Lock Episode 3 finally brings the fast-paced action to the forefront. Created by Eight Bit, Blue Lock is a new soccer anime that is taking the anime world by storm.

Blue Lock Episode 3 presents the first real challenge of the Blue Lock program. After all of the individual players are ranked and sorted into teams, now they must face off in order to see who advances and who will have their career ended. Each team is placed into a group of five, with every team playing each other. The top two teams in each group automatically advance, but there is a twist added in by Ego that makes it much more complicated. Whoever scores the most goals in the group, regardless of how their team finishes, will also move on. This adds an extra layer of selfishness that Ego hopes will bring out the vicious qualities he is looking for in a top striker.

I love that Blue Lock Episode 3 takes a relatively mundane premise of group-stage soccer and livens it up. The idea that the top scorer will move on completely decimates any chance of teamwork on some of the worse teams. Since Isagi is on Team Z, the worst team in the entire Blue Lock program, it’s clear right away that many of the players care more about scoring their own goals instead of helping the team. I’m really interested to see how Isagi, someone who clearly cares about the core teamwork concept of soccer, struggles to adapt to this more cutthroat type of thinking.

The first game we actually get to see is between Team Z and Team X, but “game” is really a loosely defined word since it’s more like a complete free-for-all because of the top scorer rule. We get plenty of inner monologues from the different characters, which add depth to their characters as well as add some moments of humor and levity. I really appreciated how Blue Lock Episode 3 shows just how much success means to these players. It isn’t just a game for them, this is essentially a life-or-death situation.

The on-field action this episode is some of the best animations I’ve seen in quite some time. Barou Shoei, the “villain” of the episode from Team X, is as visually formidable as he is on the pitch. You can see and feel the fear on the faces of Team Z thanks to the exceptional animation quality. It really helps amp up the energy and the fluid animation during the actual soccer action makes for an almost perfect combination.

Blue Lock Episode 3 is the turning point for an anime that was billed early on as one to watch. After a quick introduction, Blue Lock Episode 3 takes viewers straight into the action with high stakes and large personalities. Blue Lock manages to keep the sports genre feeling fresh all while still giving pure sports fans what they love most.

Blue Lock Episode 3 is available now on Crunchyroll.