The timing couldn’t be better for Blue Lock: The Movie – Episode Nagi. Besides arriving during a boom in sports-related anime, the UEFA Euro 2024 tournament is in full swing, so audiences are already football-obsessed.
The new movie provides an entry point and fresh perspective on the beloved sports anime. Instead of Yoichi Isagi, we’re following the eponymous Seishirō Nagi, another hot shot in the Blue Lock programme vying for his chance on the international stage.
His journey into the hardcore training regime, offering a slot on Japan’s under-20s squad, is markedly different from Isagi’s. Not a footie fan at all to start, it’s only when enthusiastic rich kid Reo Mikage notices some fancy footwork and coerces him does he even humor the idea.
Blue Lock: The Movie creates another football icon
Episode Nagi, then, covers his descent into soccer obsession, as well as the pair’s tricky relationship, since only one of them is getting that coveted prize. It’s all to play for, and stars Bryson Baugus and Kamen Casey loved every second of getting to expand their roles.
“I was thrilled that we got more Reo Mikage. Selfishly, as an actor, I was just excited to be front and center – we’re kind of off the bench,” Casey, who voices Mikage, explains to Dexerto. “I’m super happy to be here.You’re telling me, ‘Oh, man, we get to star in this thing. Whoa, whoa, then this show must be blowing up!’”
Although Nagi is the anime movie’s namesake, Mikage brings the excitement, at least in the first half. Bored by his upper class life of privilege, the competitive, unpredictable nature of football gives him something to strive for and be excited about.
Mikage and Nagi complete each other
The term “golden retriever energy” was used in the booth to describe Mikage’s vibe, as apt a description as any, and it completely contrasts Nagi, who’s soft spoken and resists physical effort at every turn. He’s frequently underestimated, even though Nagi’s more perceptive than most.
“What [English dub director] Jonathan Rigg helped me keep in mind, is that Nagi isn’t quite so whiny throughout the entire thing, it’s more he’s got this curiosity,” Baugus, who portrays Nagi, says. “He’s alienated from the rest of the world around him. He’s kind of aimless, but he’s also kind of like this ghost, roaming through the halls, curious about the humans around him and everything, like seeing what makes people tick.”
The pair have a fun, flighty dynamic that makes them tricky opponents, as their fellow Blue Lock hopefuls learn. The film covers the entire first season, but focussing on their trials, offering old viewers greater understanding of the roster, and newer ones a jumping on point.
Episode Nagi gave the cast a second chance
Certain scenes were re-recorded, and both Baugus and Casey welcomed the chance to do more takes, emboldened by a feeling of “recontextualizing” the show so far. “Getting some lines back from the first season, now having more insight in the character, and now even wanting to protect the character and understanding them more, I was really thrilled to be able to take a couple new cracks at it,” Casey states.
“I really wish I had had that opportunity to go back and really incorporate more of Nagi’s quirks and characteristics into the earlier scenes with him. This movie was just like the perfect opportunity to be able to do that,” Baugus adds.
Unlike a lot of typical anime heroes, such as Blue Lock’s regular hero Isagi, or Tanjiro from Demon Slayer or Deku from My Hero Academia, Nagi doesn’t think he needs to grow much at the start. To be fair, he’s a cut above most on the pitch, but part of the sports movie is him learning he has to train and improve if he wants to win every time.
Blue Lock shows talent won’t win everything
“[Nagi’s] an example of the person that’s just effortlessly good at something, but showcasing that it can get you far,” Baugus states. “You have to start putting in your own efforts and starting to find your own reasons for enjoying it.”
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Without spoiling anything, once Nagi starts doing that, he and Mikage aren’t quite so tight any more. There’s a moment anyone who’s read Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yusuke Nomura’s manga will know (Episode Nagi is an ongoing spin-off of Blue Lock, starting in 2022), but even if you’re savvy, the execution hits like a punch to the gut.
“What I related to is [Nagi’s] need to have his own dream. Having that, and it’s going to happen this way, and the stubbornness we can have about trying to make that happen,” Casey muses on a particularly heavy scene. “Then when Nagi breaks free from Reo’s idea of what the dream looks like, it completely folds them.”
An anime betrayal for the ages
Casey gushes about getting to perform that twist, calling it “beautiful writing” and “a dream come true”. It’s the kind of scene where everyone flourishes; Taku Kishimoto’s screenplay adapts the material perfectly, Jonathan Rigg understood what was needed in the dub, and Casey then finds the emotional nuance.
Always in Nagi’s corner – as he should be – Baugus points out what happens isn’t out of malice, but “curiosity” and a desire to have a more personal presence. However you read it, Nagi and Mikage have kicked off a rivalry that should permeate Blue Lock Season 2 and wherever the franchise goes after.
In league with Haikyuu!! and Slam Dunk, Blue Lock further pushes our collective understanding of Shonen anime by pushing away from constant fights into intense team competition. The stakes are still there, they just aren’t so literally life and death, as are the theatrics.
“[Blue Lock is] dog eat dog. This isn’t holding hands and going through the finish line together. There can only be one,” Casey explains. They’ve done such a good job of doing the research on sports and how they were pulling quotes. You think of Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, like all these people, they don’t have counterparts. So how do you become that? How do you become that freaking great? What is it going to take?”
Sports anime are evolving Shonen ideas
Baugus adds that the ensemble casts bring a sense of energy similar to some of the major combat-oriented franchises.
“If any fans have had any hesitation about watching a sports show, and they love stuff like Jujutsu Kaisen or Dragon Ball, or any of the standard Shonen battle manga, they’ll find it in the more team-focused shows like Haikyuu!!,” he says. “It is a team of protagonists versus a team of antagonists, and the stakes are presented in such a heightened way that it feels just as hype as Goku versus Vegeta.”
Or England vs France or Germany vs Spain, or any of the other matches in the UEFA Euro 2024. Blue Lock: The Movie – Episode Nagi keenly looks at the kind of drive that gets players into those championships, one of an elite club who get to represent their country around the world.
I ask who Baugus and Casey support, and they’re united in backing the USA, but second would be Japan. Could Blue Lock inspire the next striker for either country? They could really disrupt the expected order of things.
“10 years from now, Blue Lock will hopefully inspire enough American and Japanese players that we’ll see a finals with them two against each other,” Baugus says. In the meantime, we have the film, and that’s plenty.
Blue Lock: The Movie – Episode Nagi is in cinemas now. You can read our breakdown of the Blue Lock: The Movie ending if you want to go deeper on what’s next, and we have an upcoming anime list for other releases to keep up with.
