Thank you so much for letting me read this manga. This story is enjoyable and also a little creepy, if I imagine having something like this in real life.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the authors for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review! I have read this before, but I really enjoyed it, so I wanted to skim through again and leave an opinion on more sites.

4.5⭐

Great start of a promising manga, I will definitely continue reading it. Wondering if this is inspired from Classroom of the Elite, as the main character is also quite skilled, yet starts from the lowest ranks and aims for the highest.

It is inspiring and motivational to see how these young people focus on their passion for football and train to become the best. Still wondering how the characters will develop psychologically, as I am not totally agreeing with the perspective that they are encouraged to have at the moment, but the idea that someone's dream can be shattered in seconds is indeed devastating. I learnt a lot about football-related references and I am looking forward to read about the following qualification rounds that the characters will have to go through.

Thank you NetGalley for providing an eARC! This manga is better than I imagined. The story is so good and how the final panels lead so well into volume 2 makes me excited. As a shojo reader I enjoyed this thoroughly and would recommend people with similar tastes as me to try this.

The beginning of this manga had me think it was similar to Haikyuu or any other sports shounen that was popular in recent years. I was, however, wrong. Blue Lock quickly takes a turn, abandoning all the team spirit and power of friendship the other sports mangas stand by and focusing more on an individual. 300 young strikers are taken into a revolutionary program that's supposed to help pick the best striker and give Japan a national championship. Out of the 300, only one can win. The boys are encouraged to be selfish, and ruthless and fight for their best interest. It's probably not for everybody but I enjoyed such a refreshing take.

The manga introduces us to a lot of characters that will probably be developed better in the next volumes but we can already see some interesting ones. The designs are not wild or fantasy-like but they are still distinct and it's easy to tell who is who. The main character has the potential to be a really interesting lead.

I'll happily pick up more volumes of Blue Lock as I'm very curious how will the story develop.

*A big thanks to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for the digital ARC!*

Blue Lock is, essentially, a competition survival-of-the-fittest style to determine Japan’s best striker for the World Cup team. A big emphasis is placed on finding your ego, and using that selfishness as motivation to succeed in the sport. As someone who spent years being part of a performance based sport, I can understand what author and characters are saying. To succeed in any sport, there does need to be a certain amount of selfishness. But not selfishness as in being a bad person per say, but in the way that you need to not be complacent in your skill. Knowing that you’re essentially proving everyday why you deserve the spot or position you got, and not someone else.

The overall message of this manga is vastly different from the “power of friendship and teammates” that can be expected from the average sports manga. And it is not a bad thing, as it truly makes this concept unique. Another thing I appreciate is seeing how people’s different backgrounds can affect their level of desire to achieve something. There is a character that refuses to follow the path in life that they were set up to follow, and that is why they want to go big in their soccer career. On the other hand, there are also characters who simply got invested in the sport after watching professionals play, and then decided they wanted to dream big. Those are all legit reasons to want to pursue greatness, and I wonder if that will be more emphasized in future volumes.

However, maybe I’m not the right target audience for this type of manga because as much as I enjoyed a majority of aspects of the story, it didn’t quite vibe well with me. I can see the appeal, but there is something a bit too harsh, in my opinion, about the Blue Lock training and philosophy that reminded me a bit of my lowkey-highkey toxic coaches. Nevertheless, if curiosity gets the best of me, I wouldn’t be opposed into reading future volumes.

This digital ARC was obtainable via NetGalley for an honest review!

"Blue Lock" was the first sports anime that I fell in love with! I was very surprised because I know nothing really about soccer or sports in general. "Blue Lock vol. 1" reminded me again why I loved the show. Meguru Bachira and Yoichi Isagi are definitely some of my favorite characters from this series. <3

"Blue Lock 1" is a thrilling and engaging read that will have readers on the edge of their seats. The story follows Yoichi Isagi, a talented soccer player who is scouted by the national team to participate in a unique training program called "Blue Lock." The program aims to create the world's deadliest striker by pitting the players against each other in a cut-throat competition.

One of the things that stood out to me about this manga is the way it portrays the intense pressure and expectations that professional athletes face. The characters are all driven by their desire to succeed and prove themselves, and the stakes are incredibly high. The art is also impressive, with dynamic action sequences and expressive character designs that capture the intensity of the sport.

That being said, there were a few moments in the story that felt rushed or underdeveloped. Some of the characters didn't receive as much attention as I would have liked, and there were a few plot points that could have been fleshed out more. However, these issues didn't detract too much from my overall enjoyment of the story.

Overall, "Blue Lock 1" is an exciting and promising start to a new sports manga series. I look forward to seeing where the story goes next, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys soccer or high-stakes competition stories. 4/5 stars.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me this eARC to review.

I really like the art of this manga and I love how unique (or atleast unique to me) this concept is. I want to read more of the volumes and watch the anime as this got me very invested and my heart racing while I read the sports intense part of the volume. Highly recommend this for sports fans!

Not normally a fan of sports manga because if there is SUPER melodramatic and long-winded genre within the manga world it is sports manga. This is not an exception - in order to give the national team a change at the world cup, the Japanese soccer federation basically kidnaps and tortures 300 high school soccer players in a training facility weirdly called "Blue Lock" (why?). There are a lot of angry faces, a lot of getting smacked in the face by footballs and of course the character who is the underdog but will CLEARLY win all the prizes. Meh.

The art in this manga is beautiful, but the story was just blan. I was really bored within the first 40 pages and skimming through to see if anything could hold my interest. I don't think sports manga's are my things. I won't be continuing with the series and will be avoiding sports manga going forward.

This was not what I expected but it did not disappoint. Blue Lock is a very interesting and cool take on a sports manga. If you want a sports manga that is more high stakes then this one is right up your alley.

While the premise of this manga is a ridiculous blend of Haikyuu and Battle Royale, the art style is absolutely stunning and I actually really like how unhinged all the characters are. I feel a lot of people might judge <i>Blue Lock</i> too harshly based on how disconnected from reality it is, but I honestly think that the extreme setting of it brings something new to a sports title. I mean, after awhile all shonen sports series do start to blend together.

I don't know if this title will be at the top of my "to continue" list, but I will absolutely keep my eyes out for it as it progresses in the English release.

sadly, before i could download this title, netgalley took it off their catalog. that means i can’t review this one. HOWEVER, i will be checking in with my library to see if i can get a copy and review it that way.

This was such a bonkers manga. I thought it was going to be just a straight up soccer competition which I guess it was but it wasn't like any other sports competition manga that I've ever read. I think to compare it to other sports manga would do a disservice to this book completely. The creepy cartoonish way that the coach stretches feels like it belongs in a horror manga instead. I would highly recommend that everyone check this out - I think there's something in here for eveyone.

Blue Lock takes the genre of sports and deconstructs it into something new. We are following the story of a training facility called 'Blue Lock' and 300 high school students competing to become world-class strikers. The theme of ego and selfishness are the main components of the story and the philosophy on becoming the best striker. In comparison to other sports manga, this shows a special approach to the genre and how you develop as an athlete.
The first volume arouses your interest and makes you curious about the future of the story.
(I read all available chapters afterwards)

Blue Lock is a sports manga for soccer fans and sports manga fans alike.
300 talented, young soccer players endure a training camp to become Japan's best striker. The Blue Lock training facility is an intense one. The world building is superb in this volume! The Blue Lock facility is an interesting concept--a rigorous training facility where anything goes.
Even if you're not a fan of soccer, due to the detailed explanations given, the story is easy to follow.
I enjoyed this sports manga and I'm definitely curious to see what volume 2 brings.

AN AMAZING SPORTS MANGA! The story is refreshing, and the characters are interesting, driven and determined! Isagi is perfect as a main character and I can't wait to see how his charcater will develop in this experiment he is going through, sort of feels like he is gonna change the rules of the game at some point so I am excited to see him being a hero on hiw own terms and not with the notion that the experiment is trying to implement in the head of 300 high schoolers.

I did not have time to read this sport manga but I feel like if you enjoy soccer you might like this one.

Disappointed with the state of Japanese football, coach Jinpachi Ego decides to set up the Blue Lock programme. A prestigious programme, Blue Lock puts the top 300 youth strikers through their paces in an intense and hardcore training programme, aiming to separate the wheat from the chaff and ultimately end up crowning one player as the top striker in Japan.

Our protagonist is Yoichi Isagi, who is a well meaning striker on his high school football team. Yoichi costs his school a place in the national tournament due to his hesitation to take a shot at goal and his choice to pass to a teammate who then missed. Yoichi struggles to come to terms with the choice he made, and his whole mindset changes with regards to his feelings towards football. He’s always been very much a team player, but he starts to wonder if he should be more selfish when he’s playing and take the chances for himself.

Yoichi eventually gets recruited into Blue Lock, where playing alongside the best strikers in the world reinvigorates his love for football and makes him want to try as hard as he can to improve. Unfortunately, in comparison to his peers, Yoichi is really not all that. Ego’s vision for Blue Lock is very much to push the players as hard as he can, to breaking point. Everything in Blue Lock is based on rankings – what you eat, where you live, and how long you last in the programme. Yoichi finds himself in the bottom 11 ranked players fighting for his chance to be the best striker in Japan.

As a lifelong football fan, Blue Lock is really fun to read. There’s a lot of mentions to real life strikers which makes it really entertaining to compare the tactics and plot to real life occurrences. It’s also really interesting to see how the whole plot of the manga is to train the strikers in Blue Lock to only look out for themselves, and it’s basically the antithesis of any team game where the philosophy is very much based on playing as a team. The Blue Lock programme promotes the idea of ego and, what we’d call in the UK, glory hunting.

Blue Lock is a really interesting premise, and has a lot of potential. There are obviously a lot of potential rival characters for Yoichi to bounce off of, as well as a lot of self discovery ahead of him. Already in the few chapters of volume 1, Yoichi has come to realise that he’s perhaps not as weak as he believes himself to be.

It does feel like not a lot happens in this first volume of Blue Lock, but there’s a lot of set-up for onward plot and action. More and more characters are being introduced outside of the Blue Lock programme, and it’s interesting to see the perspective of outsiders on this very unyielding and unprecedented training programme as well as meeting the players who will undoubtedly make up the rest of the Japanese team with the Blue Lock graduates.

Whilst the first volume feels a little slow, Blue Lock shows a lot of promise, and one not to miss for fans of football.

This is really interesting. It has the vibe of a dystopian horror manga but it's a sports story! The main thesis is that to produce a world class soccer striker, the Japanese have to train teenagers with soccer talent to be cutthroat, egotistical, and far less cooperative. And the volume and extremity that they go about the training is pretty shocking, perhaps by my perspective now as a parent. I also am not sure about the somewhat mystical, egotistical perspective they have about strikers, especially in the age where top teams are playing with false nines and no traditional strikers. Even though it's not really foregrounded there's some interesting places to think about what you give up (time, life, humanity) to become truly great. And the art is great - the Svengali coach is so cartoonish horrific (his body stretches as he rants) and the soccer action is actually drawn quite well. Fun start to this series.