Blue Lock

## Blue Lock *Blue Lock* by Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yusuke Nomura is one of the most inventive sports manga of the past decade — a tournament arc dressed as a philosophical treatise on ego, ambition, and what separates elite athletes from the rest. Since its debut in Weekly Shonen Magazine in 2018, it has become a sports manga phenomenon, inspiring a successful anime adaptation and spin-offs. After Japan's national soccer team is eliminated from the World Cup, the Japanese Football Union takes drastic action: they hire eccentric genius Jinpachi Ego to run Blue Lock, an experimental facility housing 300 of Japan's best high school strikers. The premise is brutal — the players compete in a series of elimination matches, and the last man standing will become Japan's greatest striker. Those eliminated are banned from ever playing for the national team. Isagi Yoichi, a selfless playmaker who recently cost his high school team a shot at nationals by passing instead of shooting, is one of the 300 recruits. Blue Lock forces him to confront a terrifying question: does he have what it takes to become the world's best egoist striker? The manga is serialized in Weekly Shonen Magazine; English volumes are available through Kodansha USA.