Blue Lock

, stylized as BLUELOCK (or BLUE LOCK), is a Japanese manga series written by Muneyuki Kaneshiro and drawn by Yuusuke Nomura that has been serialized in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine since August 1, 2018. The manga has resulted in 26 tankōbon as of September 14, 2023 with a future volume in December 2023. A spin-off manga Blue Lock: Episode Nagi also written by Muneyuki Kaneshiro and illustrated by Kōta Sannomiya that has been serialized in Kodansha's Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine since June 9, 2022 resulting in 3 tankōbon volumes through September 14, 2023. In early 2022, an anime adaptation by 8bit premiered on October 9, 2023 and is expected to run for 24 episodes.

Plot
The story begins with Japan's elimination from the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which prompts the Japanese Football Union to start a programme scouting high school players who will begin training in preparation for the 2022 Cup. Isagi Youichi, a forward, receives an invitation to this programme soon after his team loses the chance to go to Nationals because he passed to his less-skilled teammate - who missed - without trying to make the game-changing goal by himself.

Their coach will be Ego Jinpachi, who intends to "destroy Japanese loser football" by introducing a radical new training regimen: isolate 300 young forwards in a prison-like institution called "Blue Lock" and put them through rigorous training aimed at creating "the world's greatest egotist striker."