Does Blue Lock have a villain? Explained

Blue Lock is a sports series that follows athletes who do whatever it takes to achieve their goals. Isagi's journey to becoming a more individualistic player, Barou's decision to remain "king," and Nagi's simple desire for a good time, have resulted in fans asking themselves if the series has a villain.

Villains are different from antagonists as the former wishes to do evil while the latter just has a goal that is different from the protagonist's. It's important to make this distinction while analyzing if Blue Lock has a villain.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for the Blue Lock series.

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Blue Lock does not have a villain as all the characters are just opposing forces

Rin Itoshi is one of the main antagonists in the Blue Lock anime (Image via Eight Bit)

Blue Lock's plot is very simple: the best young football strikers in Japan are selected for a special project, with only one emerging as the winner and earning a chance with the Japanese Under-20s national team. Isagi and the rest of the characters have to go through unconventional tests to demonstrate the strength of their egos and drive, which highlights the series' emphasis on a self-centered approach.

Simply put, there is no villain in this series because all the characters are just opposing forces. They are all antagonists to Isagi's goal as only one of them can reach the top. However, the manga also shows how characters like Rin Itoshi, Shouei Barou, or Seishiro Nagi start as antagonists and then join forces with Isagi, and the opposite goes for characters like Meguru Bachira and Hyoma Chigiri.

While the series focuses on Yoichi Isagi, the main character, the truth is that every single character in the Blue Lock project has the same goal. Some of them are driven to spite their brother (Rin), while others wish to come back from an injury (Chigiri), or simply validate their ego (Barou), but they all want to be the best.

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The nature of the series and football

Isagi playing with Barou and Nagi, two antagonists turned teammates (Image via Eight Bit)

This is a story of young football strikers wanting to be the best, so the perspective of heroes and villains or good and evil doesn't apply here. The only difference between the majority of the cast and Isagi is that the latter is the main character, so the rest become the opposing forces and, therefore, the antagonists.

It's not too different from people supporting a football team and wanting them to win. Blue Lock does a very good job of adding a lot of ego and charisma to the characters, which leads to individuals such as Rin, Barou, and Chigiri being just as interesting as Isagi and, perhaps, even more so.

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Final thoughts

Yoichi Isagi and Rin Itoshi (Image via Eight Bit)

This series doesn't really focus on good and evil but rather on the ambition of being the best and what it takes to reach that goal. It offers a unique take on the concepts of ego and selfishness, leading all the characters, from Isagi to Itoshi, to defy different tropes of sports anime, thus becoming a hit series.