Blue Lock Episode 13 features our main characters having a three-on-three vs the top three guys in the selection. There is no way this could possibly go wrong. Let’s see how well it went in this review!
Blue Lock Episode 13 Overview
Blue Lock is the latest sports anime by the Anime Studio 8bit, previously known for producing critically and commercially acclaimed anime like That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime and Rewrite. The series is directed by Tetsuaki Watanabe, who has been a part of the productions of various anime in the past, such as Haikyuu and Kabaneri Of The Iron Fortress.
Hisashi Toujima serves as the action director for the series, and the anime is based on a manga written by Muneyuki Kaneshiro and illustrated by Yuusuke Nomura. Click here to read the review of the previous episode in the series.
– Blue Lock Episode 13 Review does not contain spoilers –
Blue Lock Episode 13 Review- Where Did That Come From
This was quite an exciting outing for this show. For one, this was the most confident Isagi had ever been going into a selection, giving this one quite a different vibe than the others. You got the feeling that this was either going to go right or go very, very wrong for our protagonists. There would be no other way out. No trips, tricks, or outsmarting the rulebook. As the episode title suggests, this would be a fight to the death against an enemy that we didn’t know much about. Well, their football skills, at least. Their personalities could be judged upon one look at them.
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Blue Lock isn’t known for the strongest personalities, but it does have a few great ones. All three of the members of our protagonist’s team, meaning Isagi, bachira, and Nagi, are well-written and realised multifaceted characters who have motivations and dreams. However, not everyone is blessed in this way, as proven by the opponents from this episode- Itoshi Rin and two other chumps whose names you also forgot by the time Blue Lock Episode 13 ended.
Their personalities are so one-note that they’d just as well have a board hanging from their necks at all times saying “stoic”, “self-obsessed” and “anxious” and not speak or make expressions at all. They make no difference to the main conflict of this episode, mostly because they’re the opposite of a Deus Ex Machina in the plot. They possess the exact amount of skill and the exact personalities needed to give Isagi and the group a tough challenge and nothing more than that. They are more tools than characters and nothing but a hurdle as of this moment.
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Now, I don’t doubt that these characters can be defined later in the series and that they, too, can get their spotlight, but today wasn’t that day. They made this particular selection process more of a formality than the actual competition, as the episode fell on the more predictable side of the show. This also was an episode where the football felt unbelievable to the point that I had to go on YouTube and see if plays like these were even possible. It seems like they are, but next to impossible in the environment of this selection process. Maybe the show isn’t as realistic as it wants to be.
Overall, while I didn’t mind this episode and had a lot of fun watching it, Blue Lock Episode 13 was a flat return to form for this show. An anime has failed somewhere if you’re having to Google if half the things featured are even possible, let alone prevalent in football. It had some great moments and a few lessons that were essential for the growth of Isagi into a striker. One just wishes there was a different way to deliver these lessons and moments.
Verdict
Blue Lock Episode 13 was a lesson in believability and stiff character writing. It managed to accomplish what it was going for, at the cost of necessary character development.
Click here to read the review of the next episode!