Blue Lock

A soccer manga about an elite Japanese training facility, Blue Lock, that pits high school athletes against each other in a cutthroat elimination contest to create the ultimate egoist striker.

I wasn’t sure about this series when it started in Weekly Shonen Magazine because the magazine already had a well established popular soccer manga DAYS. However the author Muneyuki Kaneshiro has made the smart choice of ignoring the usual focus on high school soccer leagues and creating an almost reality game show scenario where different athletes butt heads and compete against each other to become the best. The story starts with players setup into teams to fight against each other and eventually moves on to individuals playing against each other. The mix up of competition helps keep things interesting and moving at a good pace. Yusuke Nomura‘s art has also really improved as the series has progressed and now every chapter has some really stylish action scenes.

A very solid soccer manga that is trying something different and making it work.

~dakazu