The struggle between Rin and Yoichi continues in Blue Lock Episode 22, as Bachira watches along from the sidelines trying not to be overtaken by the pair. Let’s see what he attempted next in this review!
Blue Lock Episode 22 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 22 Review does not contain spoilers –
Blue Lock Episode 22 Review- Voice
Many people online have a bunch of nice things to say about Blue Lock, and I’m one of them. I have praised the show multiple times in the past when it does things right. However, I have also never been silent when I disagreed with something that the show did or the manner that it did it in. This episode had the potential to be one of the best in the show so far, but things didn’t turn out this way. This one had some misses, and we have a lot to discuss. Put your pitchforks down until you hear me out, folks.
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Itoshi Rin isn’t a very well-written opponent because he is basically just a God on the field that you can only defeat by pulling something new out of your ass every time you face him. That is not a realistic portrayal of what football is like, and nobody in this world can anticipate everything as he can. Of course, Blue Lock isn’t meant to be a realistic portrayal of footballers and isn’t meant to be taken at face value. Fine then, let’s switch gears and look at the entertainment aspect of it, which is the only thing that matters here. Itoshi Rin also isn’t a very entertaining boss to overcome.
He is smart enough to read every move in the field until he isn’t. He is better than Yoichi in almost everything he does until he isn’t. It is not like the way Yoichi’s team have been able to take care of him so far does not make sense, as it totally does. Barou and Yoichi’s rivalry, Nagi’s skills, and their link-up plays have been able to defeat him fair and square. There’s something in common about all these- these were all tricks that worked on Rin once and will not work again because of how he is written. He is impossible to beat if not for randomness, which doesn’t make for effective matchups.
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The way the show has countered that so far has been through a bunch of wildcards, some of whom we have already talked about. Blue Lock Episode 22 featured possibly the biggest one of them all, Bachira, finally coming on his own. However, his awakening didn’t make sense in the same way Barou’s did, and the attention paid to him and his monster over the previous episodes did not pan out as well as one would imagine. His forsaking his monster in such a way feels out of character when that monster is why he became this good in the first place, no matter who he considers the monster now.
However, it wasn’t all doom and gloom, as Blue Lock Episode 22 wasn’t a bad episode by any means. Just because it didn’t pan out perfectly does not mean there weren’t great things about it. It is great that the show has found a great niche for every player in this math, and for the one that it hadn’t, it created a whole storyline out of. The animation and soundtrack were as great as always, and the episode absolutely flew by as it was still an entertaining watch. As we approach the end of this match, things are highly volatile, just as they should be.
Verdict
Blue Lock Episode 22 was an imperfect episode which saw some character writing come to question in an otherwise very entertaining and well-drawn-out match.
Click here to read the review of the next episode!