Rin and Sae's toxic brotherhood in Blue Lock calls back to Sasuke and Itachi's bond in Naruto

Modified Sep 15, 2024 19:40 GMT

Rin and Sae — Sae and Rin Itoshi as seen in the Blue Lock anime (Image via 8bit)

With the Blue Lock manga seeing Rin Itoshi dealing with his brother Itoshi Sae's phantom, the manga has once again reminded fans about the toxic brotherhood between the two Itoshi siblings - Rin and Sae. While shonen anime depicting sibling relationships is quite normal, Rin and Sae's relationship is quite similar to the most famous brotherhood depicted in Naruto.

As fans must remember, Sasuke Uchiha was the deuteragonist in Naruto and acted as a rival to the protagonist Naruto. While he wished to surpass Naruto, it was never his main goal. Sasuke's goal, similar to Rin's, had always been to "kill" his brother. However, this goal never stemmed from their relationship but from the hatred that came from the betrayal of their trust.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers from the Blue Lock manga.

How is Rin and Sae's brotherhood in Blue Lock similar to Sasuke and Itachi's in Naruto?

Itachi and Sasuke Uchiha as seen in Naruto (Image via Studio Pierrot)

As fans might remember in Naruto, Itachi and Sasuke had a good relationship in the beginning. Itachi knew about his clan's plans to act against the Hidden Leaf Village. Hence, despite working undercover on that mission, Itachi grabbed hold of any opportunity to spend time with his loving younger brother.

All of this changed when Itachi was forced to massacre his clan. To put a stop to violence, Itachi was forced to become a villain and take down all of his clan members. Fortunately, he was able to strike a deal with the village leaders to spare his younger brother Sasuke.

Rin and Sae Itoshi as seen in the Blue Lock manga (Image via Kodansha)

However, Sasuke Uchiha never knew of Itachi's past and undercover actions. Thus, from a very young age, Sasuke planned on killing his older brother to avenge his brethren. He used to look up to his brother Itachi. Hence, to see him betray his trust and go after his family and friends destroyed Sasuke from within. These developments saw Sasuke do all that he could to become strong to one day kill Itachi Uchiha.

As one can guess, Blue Lock's story developments did not see any massacres take place. However, similar to the Uchiha siblings, the Itoshi siblings' brotherhood broke due to the change in the elder brother Sae's nature from the perspective of the younger brother, Rin.

Sae and Rin Itoshi as seen in the Blue Lock manga (Image via Kodansha)

Sae and Rin Itoshi shared a loving brotherhood with each other. Sae always tried to protect Rin and made sure he felt accepted despite his destructive nature compared to the children his age. After years passed by, it was Sae who introduced Rin to football. But not only did Sae introduce his younger brother to the sport but he also embedded him with a goal of becoming the best striker alongside him.

All of this changed after Sae Itoshi went to Spain to play for Reale's youth team. Upon witnessing world football, Sae could no longer dream of becoming the best striker. Thus, he changed his dream and planned on becoming the world's best midfielder.

Rin Itoshi as seen in the Blue Lock manga (Image via Kodansha)

However, Rin could not accept this as they had dreamed of becoming the best strikers together. Thus, Sae changing his goal mid-way meant that he was breaking the promise they had made. In fact, Rin had only started playing football so that he could be next to his brother Sae on the world stage.

Nevertheless, Sae's personality towards his brother completely changed. He no longer shared a loving relationship. Instead, he cursed his brother, calling him an "eyesore," "worthless," "defective," etc. Therefore, after deeply thinking about all that he had gone through in an attempt to be with his brother Sae, Rin decided to "kill" his older brother for ruining his life.

This broken relationship was also evident during the U-20 Arc when Sae Itoshi asked Rin to shut himself away in his room and die so that he wouldn't be made aware of his worthlessness. Out of all the things that Sae said to Rin, this had to be the worst.