The timing couldn’t be higher for Blue Lock: The Film – Episode Nagi. Moreover arriving throughout a growth in sports-related anime, the UEFA Euro 2024 match is in full swing, so audiences are already football-obsessed.
The new movie offers an entry level and contemporary perspective on the beloved sports anime. As a substitute of Yoichi Isagi, we’re following the eponymous Seishirō Nagi, one other scorching shot within the Blue Lock programme vying for his likelihood on the worldwide stage.
His journey into the hardcore coaching regime, providing a slot on Japan’s under-20s squad, is markedly totally different from Isagi’s. Not a footie fan in any respect to begin, it’s solely when enthusiastic wealthy child Reo Mikage notices some fancy footwork and coerces him does he even humor the concept.
Episode Nagi, then, covers his descent into soccer obsession, in addition to the pair’s difficult relationship, since solely considered one of them is getting that coveted prize. It’s all to play for, and stars Bryson Baugus and Kamen Casey liked each second of attending to broaden their roles.
“I used to be thrilled that we received extra Reo Mikage. Selfishly, as an actor, I used to be simply excited to be entrance and middle – we’re sort of off the bench,” Casey, who voices Mikage, explains to Dexerto. “I’m tremendous pleased to be right here.You’re telling me, ‘Oh, man, we get to star on this factor. Whoa, whoa, then this present should be blowing up!’”
Though Nagi is the anime film’s namesake, Mikage brings the joy, no less than within the first half. Bored by his higher class lifetime of privilege, the aggressive, unpredictable nature of soccer provides him one thing to try for and be enthusiastic about.
Mikage and Nagi full one another
The time period “golden retriever vitality” was used within the sales space to explain Mikage’s vibe, as apt an outline as any, and it fully contrasts Nagi, who’s delicate spoken and resists bodily effort at each flip. He’s often underestimated, although Nagi’s extra perceptive than most.
“What [English dub director] Jonathan Rigg helped me remember, is that Nagi isn’t fairly so whiny all through your entire factor, it’s extra he’s received this curiosity,” Baugus, who portrays Nagi, says. “He’s alienated from the remainder of the world round him. He’s sort of aimless, however he’s additionally sort of like this ghost, roaming by the halls, curious concerning the people round him and all the things, like seeing what makes individuals tick.”
The pair have a enjoyable, flighty dynamic that makes them difficult opponents, as their fellow Blue Lock hopefuls be taught. The movie covers your entire first season, however focussing on their trials, providing outdated viewers better understanding of the roster, and newer ones a leaping on level.
Episode Nagi gave the forged a second likelihood
Sure scenes have been re-recorded, and each Baugus and Casey welcomed the prospect to do extra takes, emboldened by a sense of “recontextualizing” the present thus far. “Getting some strains again from the primary season, now having extra perception within the character, and now even wanting to guard the character and understanding them extra, I used to be actually thrilled to have the ability to take a pair new cracks at it,” Casey states.
“I actually want I had had that chance to return and actually incorporate extra of Nagi’s quirks and traits into the sooner scenes with him. This film was similar to the right alternative to have the ability to try this,” Baugus provides.
Not like a number of typical anime heroes, akin to Blue Lock’s common hero Isagi, or Tanjiro from Demon Slayer or Deku from My Hero Academia, Nagi doesn’t suppose he must develop a lot initially. To be honest, he’s a lower above most on the pitch, however a part of the sports activities film is him studying he has to coach and enhance if he desires to win each time.
Blue Lock exhibits expertise gained’t win all the things
“[Nagi’s] an instance of the person who’s simply effortlessly good at one thing, however showcasing that it could actually get you far,” Baugus states. “It’s a must to begin placing in your individual efforts and beginning to discover your individual causes for having fun with it.”
With out spoiling something, as soon as Nagi begins doing that, he and Mikage aren’t fairly so tight any extra. There’s a second anybody who’s learn Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yusuke Nomura’s manga will know (Episode Nagi is an ongoing spin-off of Blue Lock, beginning in 2022), however even in case you’re savvy, the execution hits like a punch to the intestine.
“What I associated to is [Nagi’s] have to have his personal dream. Having that, and it’s going to occur this fashion, and the stubbornness we will have about making an attempt to make that occur,” Casey muses on a very heavy scene. “Then when Nagi breaks free from Reo’s thought of what the dream appears like, it fully folds them.”
An anime betrayal for the ages
CrunchyrollCasey gushes about attending to carry out that twist, calling it “stunning writing” and “a dream come true”. It’s the sort of scene the place everybody thrives; Taku Kishimoto’s screenplay adapts the fabric completely, Jonathan Rigg understood what was wanted within the dub, and Casey then finds the emotional nuance.
All the time in Nagi’s nook – as he must be – Baugus factors out what occurs isn’t out of malice, however “curiosity” and a need to have a extra private presence. Nonetheless you learn it, Nagi and Mikage have kicked off a rivalry that ought to permeate Blue Lock Season 2 and wherever the franchise goes after.
In league with Haikyuu!! and Slam Dunk, Blue Lock additional pushes our collective understanding of Shonen anime by pushing away from fixed fights into intense crew competitors. The stakes are nonetheless there, they simply aren’t so actually life and demise, as are the theatrics.
“[Blue Lock is] canine eat canine. This isn’t holding palms and going by the end line collectively. There can solely be one,” Casey explains. They’ve performed such an excellent job of doing the analysis on sports activities and the way they have been pulling quotes. You consider Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, like all these individuals, they don’t have counterparts. So how do you change into that? How do you change into that freaking nice? What’s it going to take?”
Sports activities anime are evolving Shonen concepts
Baugus provides that the ensemble casts convey a way of vitality much like among the main combat-oriented franchises.
“If any followers have had any hesitation about watching a sports activities present, they usually love stuff like Jujutsu Kaisen or Dragon Ball, or any of the usual Shonen battle manga, they’ll discover it within the extra team-focused exhibits like Haikyuu!!,” he says. “It’s a crew of protagonists versus a crew of antagonists, and the stakes are introduced in such a heightened manner that it feels simply as hype as Goku versus Vegeta.”
Or England vs France or Germany vs Spain, or any of the opposite matches within the UEFA Euro 2024. Blue Lock: The Film – Episode Nagi keenly appears on the sort of drive that will get gamers into these championships, considered one of an elite membership who get to symbolize their nation around the globe.
I ask who Baugus and Casey help, they usually’re united in backing the USA, however second could be Japan. Might Blue Lock encourage the subsequent striker for both nation? They might actually disrupt the anticipated order of issues.
“10 years from now, Blue Lock will hopefully encourage sufficient American and Japanese gamers that we’ll see a finals with them two towards one another,” Baugus says. Within the meantime, we’ve the movie, and that’s loads.
Blue Lock: The Film – Episode Nagi is in cinemas now. You’ll be able to learn our breakdown of the Blue Lock: The Movie ending if you wish to go deeper on what’s subsequent, and we’ve an upcoming anime listing for different releases to maintain up with.
