Blue Lock: Episode Nagi Volume 1 Review

Blue Lock is currently back on our screens for its second season, but the franchise has enjoyed a year of success as manga sales continue to grow month on month and the spin-off movie Blue Lock: Episode Nagi even made it into cinemas in the West. Today I’m here to look at the original manga that inspired the film to find out how it compares to the main series.

As you may have gathered from the title, Episode Nagi follows Seishiro Nagi and his best friend Reo Miage. The two attend high school together and Reo dreams of becoming a pro soccer player and winning the World Cup. To make his dream a reality, Reo quickly realises he needs a dependable partner to play alongside. Having witnessed Nagi’s quick reactions, Reo reckons he’s found the perfect diamond in the rough.

Unfortunately for Reo, Nagi is quite lazy and desires an easy life where he can play his mobile games peacefully without any strenuous activities. Still, Reo refuses to give up and slowly but surely his persistence pays off as Nagi reluctantly joins the school soccer team. And when the team beats a powerhouse that always goes to nationals, the two are invited to join Project Blue Lock.

Joining the Blue Lock project is where this series joins up with the beginning of the main series and we see familiar faces like Isagi, but wisely on the part of author Muneyuki Kaneshiro, we’re not re-treading too much ground as Reo and Nagi end up in a separate team to Isagi.

Naturally, Nagi can’t be bothered to take part in such a highly competitive environment that’s seeking to find Japan’s single best striker with everyone else falling by the wayside. But just like when he started playing soccer, he’s talked into it by Reo who proclaims they’ll make it to the top together as a team (even if that goes against the entire idea of the project). And maybe he will find friends and rivals as time goes on…

If you’re familiar with the main series then you’ll know more or less what to expect here. The beginning is fresh ground as it explores the backstory of our two main characters, but once they reach Blue Lock, they go through the motions of the training and get embroiled in a game of tag. The loser of this game is immediately expelled from Blue Lock, which also means their career in Japanese soccer is over forever. This is where we begin to see the high stakes and drama that has created such a large fandom over the course of Blue Lock’s run so far.

Blue Lock is a series written by Muneyuki Kaneshiro with artwork by Yusuke Nomura, but here in Episode Nagi artist duties have fallen to Kouta Sannomiya. By and large, this isn’t a bad thing as Nomura is certainly very accomplished when it comes to shonen action series like this, thanks to Tesla Note (which I was also fond of when it was running). I wouldn’t say the art is as dynamic as Nomura’s, but it is still more than up to the task of depicting this intense story. The character designs also look quite similar, so there’s no real issue flipping between Episode Nagi and Blue Lock.

Compared to the film, I found this more engaging too, as it doesn’t feel quite as rushed. I’m not sure if it will become more of an issue later as we’ve not reached the match between his team and Isagi’s group which I felt was poorly paced in the film. For now, at least I thought this was a good addition to the Blue Lock universe, particularly as Reo and Nagi have become such central characters in the main series, so having another avenue to explore their motivations and development is worthwhile.

I will say that this is also a pretty good introduction to Blue Lock if you’re a newcomer. It covers all the necessary information to understand what the Blue Lock project is and because it spends so much time developing Nagi and Reo early on, you don’t have to worry about missing out on important facts about the characters either. I’m not sure if it will remain as newcomer-friendly as time goes on, but at least for now, you can follow this without needing to read Blue Lock as well.

Blue Lock: Episode Nagi Volume 1 comes to the West thanks to Kodansha and has been translated by Nate Derr with lettering by Michael Marin (who takes over from Chris Burgener for the digital edition). The release reads well and thanks to having the same translator is consistent with the Blue Lock releases. There are some translation notes included at the back of the volume but not a great deal else in terms of extras, not even colour pages which is a shame as the opening spread was clearly printed in colour at some point in Japan.

The spin-off is ongoing in Japan with five volumes currently released. Here in English, Kodansha has Volume 2 scheduled for January with #3 following in April, so we’ll catch up quite quickly, should that schedule hold. The movie adaptation is now available on Crunchyroll who are also streaming Season 2 of Blue Lock currently if you’re looking to experience any of this in anime form.

Overall, Blue Lock: Episode Nagi is an entertaining spin-off for this popular sports series. Even with a change in artist, together with the original creator Kota Sannomiya has captured what makes Blue Lock so appealing. This is a must-have for fans of the franchise and also a welcome addition to anyone’s shelves who is looking to get into a new sports manga.

A free preview can be read on the publisher’s website. 

Our review copy from Kodansha was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.