Ah, sports manga. Truly my new obsession that I am both heavily invested in and yet terrified of approaching too casually. Look, I want to be a Haikyuu! fangirl, just like everyone else on Anime Twitter, but there’s so much backlog I have to cover to comprehend how the story is going down entirely. Honestly, while I prefer having things be finished before I start them so I can binge to my heart’s content, I also like it when I can follow something from the beginning. Take Blue Lock’s weak Isagi, for example.

Blue Lock is just starting out, seeing how its main character Yoichi Isagi is still much weaker than your average sports anime protagonist. And honestly, for a sports manga that is more Shonen than anything, that’s strange to see. But I know why that’s the case. Having a protagonist start off inexperienced and weaker means you can build their strength up more naturally and give actual nuance to their character arc in the story. And for a good plot, that sort of natural progression does matter. 

After all, who doesn’t like seeing the underdog slowly rise to the top? It’s, like, one of my favorite tropes of all time. Being with a character from the very start, seeing their struggles as we follow the story and see if they ever make it or not, it makes the entire experience of reading a manga so much more immersive. And good character arcs can make or break something that is more rooted in reality than it is in fantasy. Because in typical Shonen, you can excuse less interesting characters for a hyped fantastical setting. But you can’t do the same thing for something as mundane as sports.

But this is where Isagi ends up making for a compelling character that you’re genuinely rooting for. Saince he’s the protagonist of an anime, you already know he’s going to achieve his goals. But the journey to it is why you’re tuning in. So, let’s discuss that and more in today’s segment of Character Analysis – where we take trending characters from across the Animesphere to see where they might end up leading us.

Yoichi Isagi: Starting From The Bottom?

Football can be a bloody sport. I mean, we’ve all seen the honestly traumatizing injuries that sometimes happen in FIFA matches. So, to play the sport, you need to be a little more confident and hardheaded than most. This is why Isagi’s almost naïve nature throws you off exponentially.

Like, he doesn’t go the plucky, cocky route that other Shonen protagonists take. Isagi starts off more innocent than anything, very good-natured and earnest about the sport. His cheery attitude towards things might frustrate some people, but he’s just very simple and hardworking towards his goals, which is to become the best Striker in the world.

So, when he’s ranked as the second lowest player in the Blue Lock training program, it’s easy for him to get disheartened. Because a lot of excelling in that program is based on how egotistical you can get, something that is in direct conflict with his mild-mannered nature. So, over the course of the series, we see him grow from this unsure beginner into a cold and ruthless player who isn’t afraid to step on others to make his dreams come true. And that sounds bad, but that’s just how competition works. You can’t kindly ask to be on top.

How Isagi Steadily Becomes More Assertive:

The way Blue Lock works is that it focuses on the individual rather than trying to encourage much teamwork. Because your singular strength and skills are what matters, and if you’re not a good player, then what team would bother with you, right?

So, through the training, we get to see a different side of Isagi emerge. He was never unsocial, but he did lack confidence, which he started gaining after pushing himself during the training. He becomes more assertive as the series goes on, even holding his own in a conversation with Rin Itoshi. And Rin is notorious for being the most talented person in Blue Lock, but also the most difficult person to engage with.

It’s clear we will see Isagi grow even more as the series continues and in a show that isn’t about how friendship lifts you up? It’s going to be an interesting thing to see.