The following contains spoilers for Episode 10 of Blue Lock, “Just the Way It Is,” now streaming onCrunchyrollandNetflix.
Japan may be out of theWorld Cupin real life, but this week’s episode ofBlue Lockhelps to ease that blow. Clearly this program is exactly what the Japanese national team needs if they are going to become World Cup champions in the future! Episode 10, “Just the Way It Is,” had some amazing plays, tactics, and goals in it - and an unexpected change of heart.
As forBlue Lock’s rankings in theFall Anime Rankingson MyAnimeList, nothing has changed since last week. The soccer anime is sitting in the tenth position with a rating of 8.24, and is still the highest ranking sports anime airing right now. The first major arc is coming to a close as we reach the halfway point of the season, and this final match has been really gripping.
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A Second Awakening
Episode 9, “Awakening,” was all about Team Z’s members pushing themselves beyond what they thought their limit was in their battle against Team V, and several of the characters had their own awakenings as they realized just what they were capable of. Episode 10, though, saw another character’s awakening, but this time it was not to Team Z’s advantage. It was Nagi, the incredible goalscorer from Team V!
Previously, Nagi has always been portrayed asincredibly lazy. He is a talented striker for sure, but he only scored goals whenever the ball was given to him and opportunities made for him. After all, he won’t even walk half the time due to his laziness, and Reo has to carry him. However, when Reo showed his frustration and stress at possibly losing the game, Nagi came alive. He started to make his own opportunities, and unleashed a wealth of secret weapons and skills against Team Z.
It seems that Nagi does care about Reo after all, even though it never seemed that way before. With Nagi suddenly a formidable opponent all his own on the pitch, Team Z had to push themselves harder than ever to keep the score tied.
All or Nothing
With the clock running down, Episode 10 was tense. All the players on Team Z realized that they could not simply defend and counter any longer, and despite being a man down (thanks toKuon’s betrayal), they had to attack and attack and attack. And that was exactly what they did! Finally, it was the opportunity that Isagi needed to realize how to use his secret weapon of spacial awareness to help the team.
Isagi has the ability to visualize the entire pitch at once, and can use it to predict where players will be and what tactics they will use. This week, he finally started to perfect that technique, and was able to use it to stop Nagi’s attack when no one else was able to. While it did not let him score his own goal yet, we have high hopes that he will be doing exactly that next week. Isagi has not scored a goal inseveral episodes now, and as the main character, we really want to see him succeed!
Redemption
While we have been wondering exactly what was going to happen with Kuon, who sold out his team in previous weeks with the hope of going forward without them, we did not predict that he would have a redemption quite like he did this week. First, we got to see a little more of hisbackstory, and understand more about why he was willing to do anything to succeed in the Blue Lock program. At his high school, he was the only person who was taking soccer seriously, which frustrated him greatly.
All Kuon has wanted was a place where he could be serious about soccer and finally reach his potential on a team. And watching Team Z play, finally working together and making incredible moves, he realized that this could be exactly that place. He could move on with the team, instead of alone. So he sacrificed himself to stop a seemingly unstoppable play by Nagi, slamming into the other boy and earning a red card. Team Z had already been playing without him anyway, and getting sent of the pitch was a small price to pay for the assault being interrupted.
Now, though, the only way for Kuon to move to the next stage is for all of Team Z to move forward. He has placed his trust and his future back into the hands of the people be betrayed, but earning a bit of face back in the process. It adds anotherinteresting layerto Kuon’s character and keeps making him even more complex, which we love to see.
Episode 10 ended on another major cliffhanger, and the final match will be moving into a third episode. There is barely any time left on the game clock, though, so whatever is going to happen will have to happen fast. It could be either team moving forward in the program, though we are confident it will be Team Z with all of our beloved characters, of course! Exactly how they do it is yet to be determined, but we have our money on a last-minute, great goal from Isagi to prove he is the main character here.
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