Blue Lock The Movie: Episode Nagi review – Football reimagined as a heightened form of futuristic warfare

It is not unheard of for distributors to schedule soccer content during the big tournaments. Rarely, however, has something so strange played alongside the European Championship or World Cup. To be clear, Shunsuke Ishikawa’s adaptation of a popular manga by Muneyuki Kaneshiro – also a hit TV series – observes the familiar tropes of contemporary Japanese anime. The visuals are boldly declamatory. The translated dialogue has a faintly AI quality. “Those who call others idiots are the real idiots,” someone says. “Don’t underestimate soccer!” we hear more than once. I wouldn’t dream of it.

The strangeness comes, however, from the deconstruction of the beautiful game. Some original school of off-centre philosophy here is being applied to the analysis of what makes a striker special. I would admit that such players are often at home to ego, but Blue Lock seems to believe that is the defining characteristic. So much so that self-absorption – or Freud’s mediating personality segment – becomes something of an obsession. You don’t get that in Escape to Victory.

We begin with a friendship between two contrasting chums. Reo Mikage, scion of a mighty financial empire, is bored with comfort and seeks to make a name for himself in some competitive environment. He decides to ally with schoolmate Seishiro Nagi, an apparently gifted athlete whose only desires are to sleep past noon and play video games until dinner. Reo promises a “life more interesting than any nap” (as if) while he investigates a path to the next World Cup.

Here we arrive at the strange institution that is Blue Lock. Run by a messianic bore in a head mic – somewhere between Elon Musk and Steve Jobs – this body devotes itself to the production of Japan’s next great footballers. Gareth Southgate could learn something from this Jinpachi Ego (check out the surname). There is no room here for waistcoats and cosy celebrations of diversity. Blue Lock is run more like a less deadly version of Squid Game.

Anyway, though largely for already-persuaded aficionados, Blue Lock The Movie: Episode Nagi has enough imaginative zing to make up for its somewhat monotonous storytelling. This is football reimagined as a heightened form of futuristic warfare. Those who already know they like it will like it very much.