Blue Lock – 18

「主役の座[ステージ]」 (Shuyaku no Stage)
“The Stage for the Lead”

Episode 18 of Blue Lock aims to give Barou the center stage as he borrows all of the screen time. But as he tries to contend with the prospect of being rendered obsolete by his beefed-up teammates, he realizes how he should weaponize his ball-hog tendencies.

NOT THE BEST IDEA

It was kind of a bland end to a match that could’ve been far spicier. I mean, with Nagi and Reo set up as direct competitors, how do you not have them interacting with each other!? How is Reo’s jealousy presented as merely just stern faces at whichever opponents have the ball? This was Reo’s match to lose, so he’d have even more of a reason to lose his cool and start going off the rails the moment Nagi moves past him or Isagi relies on Nagi for a goal.

My expectations were high with Reo slowly becoming a frantic yandere, tearing off toothbrush bristles in a “he loves me, he loves me not” game. His strategy meetings either have him declaring Isagi as his mortal enemy for stealing Nagi away or wanting to take anyone else but Nagi to punish him for betraying him. He had Lady Macbeth levels of derangement, but none of that came out during the match.

I’m like, what the heck? You have an obvious bombshell you’re treating as a secret ingredient you only want to flash on trace occasions. Drop that baby down! Have Reo froth from the mouth about getting NTR’d out of rising to the top with his only friend. Have him deliberately foul Isagi for taking his man. Have Reo grit his teeth as Nagi comes near him. Why build him up to be unhinged if he’s perfectly hinged by the time the game starts? Why introduce an element to the match that’s barely elaborated on?

DUNKEH! YOUR BLUE LOCK IS NOT LIKE CAKES!

Instead, they just lean on a dissatisfying conclusion to Barou’s development. He learns nothing about himself aside from unlocking a new talent. Being degraded by Isagi only made him feel like he was Isagi’s bitch by simply passing the ball like a normal person. Instead of “victory by any means”, his takeaway is “I’ll be a bitter drunk if I wind up being a cooperative teammate”.

Yeah, it’s cool that he’s beefed up now, but now his takeaway is that he’ll continue being uncooperative. He’ll just stop sucking when he’s uncooperative. Gee, why didn’t you think of that before? Just not suck? It REALLY took envy to get to that destination?

It doesn’t tackle his biggest issue that his lack of reliable teammates conditioned him to make people feel dependent on him because they weren’t able to carry their own weight on the field. Naturally, seeing Isagi and Nagi dunk on him should shame him into realizing he’s on a soccer team and not just kicking goal kicks for fun.

Shouldn’t losing the first two times have been a wake-up call and not being called a “donkey” who allowed his teammates to score instead of him? He kept blaming other people’s failings as instrumental towards his own personal failure as a useless ball hog, but instead of realizing it takes a village, he’s still just gonna remain stagnant as a useless ball hog who now has a hidden talent. It’s a pretty shoddy conclusion.

He was halfway through accepting that being part of a team means not wasting his talents on being a selfish screw-up. He’d be closer to being sent home and living a future of resentment if he sabotaged himself out of winning by his own ego like the last two times he screwed up. Because if they lost, it was either Nagi or Isagi being chosen, not a liability like Barou. I suppose it’s nice that it worked out, but it felt more like plotkai allowing him to score the winning goal on his own than an earnest effort to integrate his own talents into the team’s dynamic.

Additional Time: