REVIEW: ‘Blue Lock’ Season 2 Episode 1 — “Tryouts”

The hit soccer anime Blue Lock from Eight Bit is back and better than ever entering its second season. Blue Lock Season 2 Episode 1 has the Blue Lock program in danger of being canceled as the remaining 35 players take on the Japan U-20 team in a fight for survival.

The objective of the Blue Lock program is to find the best Japanese striker who can lead the team to success at the World Cup. That entire premise goes against what soccer is at its core; a team sport. By pitting the Blue Lock program against an established team we get to see the underlying conflict of soccer ideals actually take place. It is a great way to establish the core conflict of the season and continue the overarching story established in season 1.

Players like the main character Isagi Yoichi (Kazuki Ura) have grown tremendously in the Blue Lock program but now risk losing it all. It is an all-or-nothing match with their futures in the balance. Isagi wrestles with this and the pressure is clearly impacting the players.

It doesn’t help that, since they are all forwards, some of them will have to play as defenders. The idea of building the ultimate ego player to score tons of goals does not gel well with creating a cohesive unit. Even the way the team is structured is still predicated on those egos and makes it very challenging to organize. The players are just as flustered by the contrast of soccer ideology as the viewers are, and that is by design.

In order to find the best team, the top six players are selected and then the remaining 29 players are divided to create smaller teams based around three pairings of those top six players. Each of these smaller teams of five will get a chance to play each other and establish which pairing is the best choice to lead the line against the U-20s.

It is not shocking that the way to solve this issue is to create yet another tournament. Everything in Blue Lock so far has been based on elimination tournament-style games meant to see who can score the most goals. The variance of what the overall challenge is and how the teams are being divided does help keep it fresh, but it would be nice to eventually see something other than just different tournament styles.

The lower 29 players are not just in this as fodder, however. They are asked to use the top six players as stepping stones towards their ultimate goal of being the absolute best. The tournament is set up in a way to prioritizes individualism over teamwork, and none of the players are meant to be friends.

All of that is so antithetical to the way soccer is meant to be played which is what makes it so fascinating. Every step of the journey has been about the players learning how to forget what they know about soccer and focus on this new “me first” mentality. The looming match against the U-20s will decide which way is the “right” way to approach soccer, but by the time they get there the Blue Lock players might have completely forgotten how they used to play the game.

Blue Lock Season 2 Episode 1 does a good job of growing the personal relationships between the players once the premise is established. There is a palpable tension between the players even as some try to be more friendly. It is made clear that some of them, even though they are competitive, have not completely bought into the idea that everyone else is just a stepping stone. It should be interesting to see how that dynamic plays out as the competition continues to ramp up.

If there is any real complaint about Blue Lock Season 2 Episode 1 it is that there is barely any on-field action. It does make sense for a premier episode to spend time explaining the stakes, but it would have been great to at least see some serious play in the process. Some of the dialogue especially can drag on a bit and more interspersed action would have evened out the pacing a bit. It is never too dry or boring, and things will ramp up as the season progresses, but there is definitely a lot of exposition dumped on viewers to start the season off.

Blue Lock Season 2 Episode 1 is a great introduction to the new stakes as the Blue Lock program faces its toughest challenge yet. If the season continues to build on the solid foundation it will be just as intense and exciting as the first.

Blue Lock Season 2 Episode 1 is out now on Crunchyroll.