Blue Lock Season 2 Episode 7: Nagi the Goat

Key takeaways

• An intense rivalry between the U-20s and the Blue Locks sees Sae Itoshi showcase his exceptional skills on the field.
• Rinne leads the Blue Locks to improve their game plan, emphasizing relentless attacks to outsmart the U-20's defense.
• Nagi Seishiro stunned everyone with an incredible goal, highlighting his prowess and the team's continued improvement in offense.

A highly anticipated and intense showdown kick-off against Japan's U-20 team in Season 2, Episode 7. Blue lockTitle “Sai Itoshi.“As the episode's name suggests, it clearly focuses on showcasing the skills of Sai Itoshi, whose highly-anticipated debut in the U-20 team drew attention not only in Japan, but around the world.

Sae's arrival on the field brings great pressure and high expectations, but the Blue Lock XI welcomes the challenge – even more so for Rin. The determination in each and every one of them intensifies by the second, foreshadowing the unfolding of their hidden abilities.

The game continues

Ultimate Defense vs. Ultimate Offense

The tug-of-war between the teams continues as both the U-20s and Blue Locks have a lot to prove in this game. Both sides go forward with their star players – the Itoshi brothers – in the centre. While the U-20 team claims to have analyzed the data on the Blue Lock XI, the latter still manages to surprise the U-20s with his unpredictable skills, though nothing compares to Sae's performance.

“Lil Genius,” despite being the U-20's star player, initially tries to play as a team to determine his strength and passes to others. However, with little hope and even lower expectations from his teammates, he eventually runs into Sendo, who attempts a solid shot. Unfortunately for the U-20s, Gigamaru's impressive goalkeeping stops the effort. With no choice but to show his talent, Sae steps up, intercepts a cleared ball, and scores from an angle that would have seemed impossible for most players.

Not over yet

Improvisation is the key

Sai's goal amazes everyone with his incredible display of talent, especially the shocking Isagi. However, Rin remains undeterred and assures Isagi to focus, promising to turn the crowd's cheers into moans. The game resumes as Ego discusses with Enri that Blue Lock's original training script is no longer effective. He notes that improvisation is the key to victory and believes players should discover this approach themselves.

The team begins to follow Rin, who takes the lead in finding the game. Under his guidance, Blue Lock XI implements a new formation, emphasizing relentless attacks and continuing to shoot until they score, which looks incredibly smart in this scenario; If you can't jump over an obstacle, the next best thing would be to break it with brute force.

Goat and MVP

His name is Nagi Seishiro

Rin and Isagi led the charge as they continued to advance, using short passes to break through the defense. Bachira joins in as Rin uses a backheel pass on him. Nagi asks for a pass, but Bachira thinks it's best to pass Rin since he's their strongest player. Rin gets the ball and tries to copy Sai's goal, which is as good and great as his shot, eventually falling short and defending.

Nice to meet you, Japan. I am Nagi Seishiro.

However, Rin's improvement is the key to unlocking the entire team's offensive strategy. Yukimiya and Isagi continue to move forward with the crazy pass, but Aiku also stops. Next comes Otoya, trying a shot but also deflected. The ball bounces to Nagy, a lazy talent who has been somewhat underestimated by others at this point. Nagy lift-taps to keep the ball from clearing and jumps to shoot one of the craziest, if not the best, ever seen in the series, all while showing Japan what a great man he is, tying the score.

Nagi, the savior of animation

As the running memes suggest that every time Nagi or Bachira appears on screen, the animation improves, this is further proven here. Although it would be an overstate to say the animation or production was great or even better in this episode, it had some nice frames and scenes. However, Nagy's score definitely had good animation, and the entire sequence was very well done.

If this is any indication, we can still hope for the upcoming episodes Blue lock8-Bit may have focused all of their budget and time on the most important goals. But this is just wishful thinking and speculation at this point. It would be great if it were true, and fans can finally forgive them for killing off one of the best and most famous arcs in manga history.