Blue Lock’s anime is surprisingly very well adapted and remains faithful to its source material. Many of the panels in the manga are adapted nearly 1 to 1 in the anime scenes, and the show really has done a great job of bringing the action to life. However, there are still some differences between the anime and manga that are worth mentioning.
While some are more minute than others, the changes between the anime and manga adaptations tend to be positive, such as additional content or great animations that bring the work to life. Still, the beautiful art-style and original content in the Blue Lock manga makes it worth the read, even with the anime's faithful adaptation.
10 The Opening Scene
In the anime, the series starts with Isagi’s losing match against Kira to go to the nationals. In the manga though, the story opens with Anri in a meeting with Japan’s top soccer executives. In it, she’s shown trying to convince them to hire a Jinpachi Ego to train the next generation of strikers that can bring Japan into a World Cup.
While the anime’s introduction is more upbeat and exciting, especially with the added effects of animation and music, the manga’s decision to start with a bit of world-building draws the reader into the story in its own way. However, as an anime wants to attract a wider audience, it was the right decision to begin the show with the soccer action that Blue Lock is known for.
9 Honda & Kagawa
When the players first meet up in Blue Lock to listen to Jinpachi Ego’s talk, the anime’s rendition of this scene is very faithful to the manga. However, there is one interesting difference. In the manga, Kira argues that Jinpachi Ego’s individualistic style of play is an insult to great Japanese players like Kagawa or Honda.
In response, Ego states that neither of those players have ever won a World Cup, and that makes them trash. While it is definitely fitting of Ego’s character and does a lot to show his personality, the anime left this bit of dialogue out – perhaps to avoid being overly critical of the real life players mentioned.
8 Use Of Profanity
While it’s not frequent, the manga does have some instances of profanity. Though the anime is very true to the manga's dialogue, profanity has for the most part been switched out for more kid-friendly language.
In a show like Blue Lock, the use of profanity isn’t necessary to make it more enjoyable. However, the manga does manage to maintain an edgier, more realistic tone thanks to simple additions like the occasional curse word. It’s an aspect that further differentiates Blue Lock as a darker series in comparison to most other sports manga.
7 Slice-Of-Life Scenes
After most episodes there are extra comedic scenes and slice-of-life moments between the players that the manga doesn’t have. Aside from the great action sequences during matches, one of the places that Blue Lock shines is in its slice of life moments depicting the downtime in between games.
It's in these moments that the personalities of each player gets to shine, and personal relationships are built that add to the drama occurring during their games. When a character is built up as likable only to get mercilessly eliminated later on, it makes the stakes that much higher for Isagi and his new friends.
6 Great Camera Movement
Unfortunately, the anime has begun to receive some criticism as it’s gotten further into the first season about the quality of the animation in comparison to the first few episodes.
Whereas the awesome moving camera angles and action really added to the experience in the first couple episodes, the more recent episodes have been much more stiff with many scenes even consisting of mostly still images. Fans have expressed their hopes that perhaps 8bit is saving its budget to use on some of the more epic matches coming in future episodes, but the reality of that is yet to be seen.
5 Missing Supernatural Imagery
Blue Lock has an interesting way of adding in supernatural imagery to make its otherwise ordinary moments feel as intense emotionally for the audience as they would feel for the players. Things such as Bachira’s monster, or Isagi’s “road to the goal” appearing as skulls and death, give what would be otherwise ordinary moments added weight.
While many of these scenes were included in the anime, others were omitted. This may be because they could have seemed out of place in animation or were too dark for the show’s target audience. One such example of this is when Isagi compared Barou to a “missing arm” on his team with Nagi, which was accompanied in the anime by an image of a warrior facing down a scary monster with one of his arms missing.
4 Scenes With Anri & Ego
Some of the added touches of the anime come in the form of brief snippets of Anri and Ego discussing what’s occurring during some of the matches. This gives insight into how they perceive the situations occurring throughout the matches which wasn’t present in the manga.
The added tidbits also give the sense that the two are always watching and fully aware of every move the players make. Not only that, but they help make Ego’s position on matters such as Kuon's betrayal even more explicit by showing how he allows the situation to commence in order to assess how players will react.
3 Great Music & Voice Acting
It should go without saying that the music, sound effects, and voice acting are anime-only features. However, they don't always serve to make every show better; especially if voice actors are poorly cast or the music doesn't fit the mood of the series.
Luckily, in Blue Lock the sound design is largely welcome as the music has a modern feel and the voice acting is generally well done. Fans have shown the soundtrack a lot of love on social media, and there are already plenty of remixes of Blue Lock's music online for fans looking for nostalgia accompanied by a modern beat.
2 Creative Panel Usage
One of the most interesting aspects of Blue Lock’s manga is the way panels flow and meld into each other. In some points, the characters even break out of the panel entirely to display intense movement or in-your-face action.
The anime has some awesome animated sequences, but these usages of manga as a medium are sometimes difficult to translate into a television show. Still, that doesn’t take away from the anime’s action which generally does a good job of depicting the series’ characteristically intense soccer matches.
1 CGI
One of the biggest points of criticism from Blue Lock's manga fans are the anime's use of CGI at some points. While it is not always very frequent or noticeable, it definitely appears in some unfortunately places during key action scenes.
Fans on Twitter have taken to creating memes out of some of the worst examples of CGI in Blue Lock, but it's really not as prevalent as some other big name series. In fact, there are points where CGI actually serves to add depth to some scenes and landscape, but when applied to the characters themselves it only takes away from the beautiful art styling present in the manga.