Blue Lock

Yoichi Isagi loses his chance to compete at the national high school championships when he passes instead of shooting, only for his teammate to miss. That moment reflects the very weakness Japanese football is trying to overcome: a shortage of ruthless individual scoring instinct. Isagi is then chosen as one of 300 under-18 strikers by Jinpachi Ego, a man hired by the Japan Football Association after the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Ego’s goal is to drive Japan to World Cup victory by destroying Japanese football’s existing philosophy. Ego’s plan places the 300 strikers inside Blue Lock, a prison-like institution built to isolate them from the outside world. There, they must compete under extreme conditions to create the world’s greatest egotist—a striker consumed by personal hunger and scoring ability, the kind Japanese football has lacked. For Isagi, Blue Lock becomes a brutal trial and a chance to remake himself, as he battles hundreds of rival forwards to become the decisive striker Japan has been missing.