Warning: Contains spoilers for Blue Lock The Movie – Episode Nagi.Shortly after Blue Lock finished its first season, two new projects were announced to be in development: Blue Lock season 2, and a film adaptation of Blue Lock The Movie – Episode Nagi. Episode Nagi is a spinoff manga centered around Seishiro Nagi, and in addition to showing new events, it also shows how some stories played out from Nagi’s perspective as a means of further fleshing out his character.

Unfortunately, Blue Lock The Movie – Episode Nagi doesn’t live up to its hype or the hype of Blue Lock, in general. The film isn’t without its good moments, mostly when it sticks to its premise of showcasing Nagi’s perspective, but through a combination of bad pacing, lackluster animation, and overall baffling direction, Blue Lock The Movie – Episode Nagi largely fails as both a Blue Lock story and an adaptation, in general.

Only someone who’s truly a diehard fan of Blue Lock is bound to get something out of the film, and even then, it probably won’t be that much.

Blue Lock The Movie – Episode Nagi Works When It’s Doing Something New

Blue Lock’s Supporting Cast Gets New Depth

Blue Lock – Episode Nagi’s biggest selling point is retelling the story from Nagi’s perspective, and Blue Lock The Movie – Episode Nagi is at its best when it sticks to that idea. Episode Nagi features many new scenes with Nagi from before his time in Blue Lock, the most notable being Nagi’s first soccer match and the revelation that Nagi knew about Isagi from the very beginning of the Blue Lock program. Those moments do a great job of fleshing out both his character and Blue Lock, as a whole, and overall, they’re some of the biggest highlights of the film.

The increased focus on Nagi’s character also shines when the story finally gets to the Blue Lock program. Once the story got to that point, Nagi received even more development with the increased focus on his gradual growth into an egoist, and that leads to a complete reworking of one of his most selfish moments when it’s revealed that Nagi only abandoned Reo in the second selection because he thought it would help their shared goal of becoming the best. Moments like those were highlights of the Episode Nagi manga, and it was great to see them translated into animation.

Telling things from Nagi’s perspective also allowed for additional focus on characters involved in Nagi’s arc. Zantetsu receives a lot of development to explain his motivations for playing soccer and why Nagi and Reo care about him, and for Reo, Blue Lock The Movie – Episode Nagi goes into his perspective on Nagi abandoning him to show just how hurt he was by it, which made his attitude in their reunion all the more understandable. Moments like those truly make the movie’s hook of retelling Blue Lock from a new perspective shine, and they’re easily the best parts of the film.

Blue Lock’s Animation Is No Better or Worse in Film

Blue Lock Still Falls Short in Its Visuals

Unfortunately, the character writing is essentially the only place Blue Lock The Movie – Episode Nagi shines, as is a tradition for a franchise that has redefined many shonen tropes. Everything else about the film largely falls flat. Blue Lock The Movie – Episode Nagi’s animation, for example, is no better or worse than the Blue Lock anime, as while there are a few moments of standout visuals and animation, most scenes are marred with lackluster visuals made even worse with still shots and ugly 3D models. Anime films typically have better animation than their TV shows, so Episode Nagi not having that is disappointing to see.

Episode Nagi’s animation also spells a bad sign for Blue Lock season 2. An uptick in animation was the biggest thing people were hoping to see in season 2 after season 1 repeatedly fell short in that regard, but if Episode Nagi’s animation was only on par with season 1 at best, then that means Blue Lock season 2 might not have the improved animation people were hoping to see. There hasn’t been a trailer for Blue Lock season 2 yet, so it might be too quick to judge, but it’s a bad sign of what to expect, regardless.

Blue Lock’s First Movie Fails as an Adaptation

Original Manga Written by Muneyuki Kaneshiro & Illustrated by Kota Sannomiya

Another point against Blue Lock The Movie – Episode Nagi is how much it fails as an adaptation of the Blue Lock – Episode Nagi manga. While the biggest hallmark of the manga is retelling the story from new perspectives, Blue Lock The Movie – Episode Nagi cuts out a lot of the manga’s take on the story, whether it’s what Nagi and Reo were doing before Blue Lock or what they were doing during. Even for people who didn’t read the manga, it leaves Nagi feeling notably shallow as a character, and that’s supposed to be what the movie was avoiding.

Going off of that, one of the best parts of the manga was how it showed what Nagi, Barou, and Chigiri did after losing Isagi to Rin’s team, but Blue Lock The Movie – Episode Nagi skips over everything Nagi’s team did in the second selection just so the film can end where season 1 did. At only 90 minutes, there wouldn’t have been time to adapt everything in the manga, but if that’s the case, then it would have been better to stop at a point that didn’t leave out so much content.

Blue Lock the Movie – Episode Nagi’s Pacing & Direction Ruin Its Story

Blue Lock’s Film Ruins a Great Manga

What ultimately killed Blue Lock The Movie – Episode Nagi, though, was its poor pacing and overall direction. Going along with how the film cut out a lot of content from the manga, once Nagi and Reo get into Blue Lock, Episode Nagi speeds through the story to get to the same place Blue Lock season 1 ended, with the characters and story receiving no more depth than what was presented in the anime as a result. There are a few moments in the first half that avert that, but once the second half starts, things start to become incredibly tedious.

The poor direction of the film doesn’t help with matters, either. While there are a few creative shots and camera angles now and then, for the most part, the film does nothing different from the anime and even reuses shots from the anime at various points with little to no difference. Oftentimes, Blue Lock The Movie – Episode Nagi feels less like an adaptation of the manga and more like a compilation film of season 1 created to get people ready for season 2, and with how much the spinoff manga added to the Blue Lock franchise, that’s nothing but disappointing.

Overall, Blue Lock The Movie – Episode Nagi falls short in almost every regard. There are many good moments of animation and character work to be found, but the poor handling of the source material leaves Blue Lock The Movie – Episode Nagi feeling incredibly shallow as a film, even though the point of the story is to add more depth to the franchise. Someone might get something out of it if they’re a diehard Blue Lock fan, but even then, Blue Lock The Movie – Episode Nagi’s poor production and direction hardly makes it feel like it was worth the wait.