Wonderful art style, character development and much love for the story

Would recommend

4 stars

As a big fan of Blue Lock and Nagi, I was psyched to see this volume available on Netgalley and jumped at the chance to read about Nagi's behind.
'What a pain, you read to much manga' This line made me laugh out loud.
I have found it great finding out about Nagi's backstory with Reo and how they both got invited to the Blue Lock programme
As well as that, I love seeing the different panels of manga and art within the book for the different scenes and Ego; he doesn't surprise me with his attitude
I cannot also wait to watch the anime to go with the manga series
#BlueLock #Manga #Nagi #Netgalley #CharacterDevelopment #ArtisticExpression #Backstory #ComicArt #VisualStorytelling #FanFavorite

episode nagi gives us into an insight of the lazy genius nagi seishiro and his best friend, mikage reo, who introduced him to football. they were one of the most powerful duos in blue lock, and also the most tumultuous but what episode nagi shows us is how deep and emotional their bond runs.

IT WAS AMAZING!!!

A spin-off of the original series that tells how the soccer talents came to be selected (I presume; I haven’t read the original.) High-schooler Reo Mikage wants to win the world cup more than become what his rich father wants him to be. With his dad’s money and connections, he starts a soccer club in his school, and recruits the best talent he can find, Seishiro Nagi, in the team too. Too bad the other boy has no interest in anything else than sleeping and playing video games.

Both boys are talented enough though, to garner the interest of an eccentric who selects 300 boys to compete against each other to become the best striker in Japan. No second bests accepted. Nagi isn’t even a little bit interested, but Reo talks him into it.

The first volume is fairly short and barely gets into the selection process. Those who have read the original know who will make it, but my guess is Reo and Nagi. The boys were an odd pair, but Reo’s determination to become the best made for Nagi’s lack of it, and to his credit, Nagi was willing to try so that Reo could shine. Art was airy and good. Recommended for the fans of the original series and those into football manga.

Thank you the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC. In exchange, I will post my honest review.

This is a prequel to the popular football manga called 'blue lock'. In this prequel we follow the journey of how Nagi came to project blue lock.

It was nice to see how the meetings from Reo and Nagi became the admission to project blue lock.

There were some awesome panels in this volume and I absolutely love the artstyle. I will continue reading this spin-off series.

I blazed through the first season of Blue Lock over the summer and absolutely was entranced by Nagi and Reo's relationship and dynamic throughout the series. I really wanted to know more about them too, and while I haven't had a chance to watch the movie yet, I absolutely leapt to read the manga when I saw this available. For those who don't know anything about Blue Lock, this is a great starting point since it focuses on two characters who have a history and are a big part in the main story, but have their own past which gets played out in this arc.

Even though this spinoff is drawn by a different artist than the creator, it still feels true to the original source material. For fans who have already seen season one and/or the movie, I feel like seeing this story played out in manga form (and from different POVs) is still a blast, and has a nice fast pace feel to it. You'll see many favorite characters show up and it's always fun to compare anime vs. manga stylistic choices. The soccer scenes are really fun to read and the translation here is nice too! (REO ALSO SAYS GOOD BOY.) Note that this is only one episode in a multi-volume part series!

This is a prequel manga for the soccer action series Blue Lock. I have been meaning to watch the anime of Blue Lock, but I haven’t had the chance to do so yet. It was a nice opportunity to read this ARC and become more familiar with the series.

Nagi is an interesting character and not what I would have expected. His goal is to be as lazy as life allows, and his two highest interests are gaming and napping. Reo’s personal goal is to accomplish something without the help of his wealthy parents, that goal is join Japan’s soccer team and win the championship cup. Reo is determined to become Nagi’s friend and motivate him to care about soccer as much as he does. I did feel that the beginning was a bit rushed, I’d like to know why Reo picked Nagi to play soccer with since he had no reason to think Nagi was a talented athlete. I’m hoping this is explored in the future.

The art is fantastic, and I definitely look forward to continuing the series.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for the ARC!

Thank you to Kodansha Comics and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this manga. I am glad that I read this because it gave me more information about other characters that I wanted to know more. I also liked the artstyle that was presented. However, I think I'm still apprehensive of the story.  Because of these points, I have to give this a 4 out of 5 stars.

I am giving this review based on the feedback of a couple of 8th grade students who flipped through the ARC with me (since I don’t know a bunch about the series). They absolutely loved it. I asked them to try to get more detailed in their feedback and name things they liked and didn’t like. They tried really hard to think of positives and negatives, and could not come up with any negatives. I do not understand the point system they used, so I can’t explain it, but I’ve included their fun feedback below.

“Very cool frienship dynamic
Lazy but talented human and rich but "needs hardwork" (disciplined?) human, reo and nagi are very cool buddies (+1)
Nagi acts like a sloth, lazy, very lazy but incredibly strong (sloths have 3 times the strength of humans)
I very much like the reference to the Honored One (gojo or buddha???) (+2)
Background characters actually exist (+1)
Grandma gran gran looks like a hunter x hunter character who also coincidentally had the same role of a butler to a character (+1)
In the big room scene, there are clear references to characters from the main series, including Bachira, Chigiri and Isagi himself.
(+1)
I do not like the other humanoids.
Im making up reasons for disliking”

As you can see, this will be a big hit for fans! Thank you so much for the ARC.

I was given this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This is definitely a must-read for blue lock fans. It explains a little bit of the origins of Nagi before he came to the blue lock facility. It has the same fast paced action and energy that you would come to expect with the main series of blue lock and the same consistently good art, despite the fact that it's by a different person. Definitely worth a read!

I LOVEDDDD reading this. As Nagi’s self proclaimed number 1 fan, I was so excited to see that the first volume of Episode Nagi was finally getting an english translation!! It was great to get inside his mind a little more and see what his journey at the beginning of Blue Lock was like.

Like stories that are focused on sports and following one's dreams? This is one of thoughts stories, a rich kid who wanted a dream of his own wants to be a part of the Japan soccer team and win the cup. He sees another kid who has some really good moves but no motivation to do anything but sleep and play games. He gets that kid to join a soccer team with him and they are an unstoppable team. Though can he keep him in the game to get the win?

With a new season of BLUE LOCK about to kick off, we’re craving more of our favorite soccer egotists. Now, you can finally own the inspiration for the anime’s movie in print with this new manga release! BLUE LOCK: Episode Nagi retells the beginnings of the BLUE LOCK program from a new point of view in this first chapter. The exercises and speeches are familiar, but we peek behind different doors as Reo Mikage and Seishiro Nagi fight their way to the top.

Muneyuki Kaneshiro continues to pen this spinoff of the original manga. Tesla Note artist Kota Sannomiya does fantastic work as the manga’s main artist, working from Yusuke Nomura’s character designs. If you’re a BLUE LOCK fan, this is a must-have. And even if you’re not, this side story might encourage you to pick up the main series.

A little bit rushed at the start, but once things calm down and you start to figure out who all the characters are it gets interesting. Great art.

How can I can I not give this five stars? Seriously! I love seeing Nagi’s & Reo’s POV! This manga reminded me that I still need to finish watching Blue Lock. My favorite part is when our characters show their egotistical side. Their visuals are always so good during those moments. I love watching them strategize as well. Sport manga can be really good. Blue Lock is a strong example of that.

Thanks NetGalley for the arc!

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC. My review is not influenced by this.

I have to admit something… I actually have not read Blue Lock. So my review is purely based on how good this first volume is without any knowledge of its main series.

Anyway, yes I loved it. I thought the pacing was great and the art was fantastic. I really enjoy the art style so I want to continue reading this series. The story was also good and the characters varied and interesting. This is a very fast paced maga so be wary of that.

I enjoyed the action scenes. I think they were drawn well. Very dynamic! Usually ‘’action’’ can be hard to depict in manga but this was done well.

A solid, if unneeded spin off. Basically this just focuses on Nagi's life before he joins the soccer of hell, and then also focuses on the current moments inbetween where our main characters were in the main series. You can piece most of this together but if you're a huge fan of the series and love Nagi this isn't a bad spinoff to fill in the holes.

I love Blue Lock so naturally I had to read Nagi’s story. He’s one of my favorite characters and his relationship with Reo is so cute and entertaining. I love how Reo helps to bring out Nagi’s potential and helps him to be less lazy. I’ll definitely be reading the rest of the series!

I really enjoyed this first volume. I wanted to try this series out and I loved it. The two MCs dynamic was so fun and I loved the football scenes. I will definitely continue this series and watch the anime. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an e-arc copy.

A prequel/spin-off to Blue Lock, this manga focuses on the character of Nagi, a naturally gifted soccer player who’s also extremely lazy, and his friend Reo, another talented soccer player who wants to prove he doesn’t need everything handed to him, as they enter the Blue Lock program to become the best strikers in Japan.

I knew of Blue Lock but never watched or read it. This was enjoyable with lots of soccer action scenes, albeit maybe a bit dramatic but I don’t know much about soccer so I can’t talk much about the realism and I think it’s meant to be fun rather than serious. I liked Nagi, how effortlessly talented he is but also super lazy, and his relationship with Reo was also entertaining to see develop. I always have trouble picturing action scenes in manga so this also had that going on, but I think if you like sports anime, you’ll enjoy this.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC!