BLUE LOCK Season 2: Episode 12 FULL LENGTH Reaction!
Added 2024-12-22 18:00:11 +0000 UTC*SHIRTLESS HEADPHONE WARNINGS - I SCREAM A LOT IN THIS*
It's the penultimate week for Blue Lock but the game is still going strong! And WOW, is it a wild ride this episode with flashbacks leading Aiku to be the "wall" Blue Lock has to break down and Barou going WILD...in more ways than one!
The shipping is all over the place this week and I am HYPED!
LINK TO PIP REACTION: https://share.vidyard.com/watch/YVhDe3aW1bEeTkEw3XkkKq?
Thank you for watching with me and for all the support!
Comments
Hey! So sorry - I had told Discord but I'm still in the final editing stages of the episode! My Editor had crashed so I started the re-upload - it will be up later this afternoon/early evening. Apologies for the wait but it is a BIG file!!
Romaniablack
2024-12-29 20:39:44 +0000 UTCI'm sorry, but when will the reactions for the final episode of Blue Lock be up?
bubu
2024-12-29 20:27:33 +0000 UTCOohhhhh okay -- that makes sense! *takes notes* and ahhhh, that makes sense about his ethnicities - I knew you wouldn't lead me astray! Thank you, Whim! :D
Romaniablack
2024-12-27 18:17:47 +0000 UTCBtw, scoring striker and assisting striker are not official terms or anything, just me differentiating between two styles of playing striker. Yep, Aiku being a mix of those ethnicities was revealed in his introduction in ep 5 when Isagi read out Aiku's profile.
Whim
2024-12-27 18:08:19 +0000 UTCOh thank you! The jacket ended up being a fun decision for the week so I’m glad it worked out! And Barou-coded yesssss the stars aligned this week! Oohhh, I may have to check out those other works this next year as part of the Blue Lock hiatus! We shall see! Hahaha go off on Aiku! 😀Ahhh, the #9 connection is really good to note, so thank you for that! I guess for me, I was definitely giving the coach more of the benefit of the doubt - maybe it was me hoping that besides Ego, there’d be “one” coach in this series that’s not stereotypically “evil.” As a coach myself, I’ve been longing for that this series and it’s probably my only disappointment with Blue Lock, in that it plays into that stereotype so heavy-handed at times (every coach is using and abusing these kids, y’all). That is a good explanation of assisting vs. scoring striker - I did not know that! The use of color in the flowers scene is SO GOOD! I agree! And interesting about Oliver’s name and the symbolism with it! Nice! Oohhh, that is interesting about the football players reacting! Yeah, I only know my soccer from watching Blue Lock, so it’s good to get that perspective. My own competition with forensics is sort of the opposite of soccer - there are “conventions” and “rules,” for sure, but it is more open to change and freedom of expression in competition. I did feel for Aiku too; that is a sad fear to hate or lose passion for something you once loved. That’s also a great callback to Anri’s speech as well! I do love the connection to Oikawa and his Worthless Pride!! I love Oikawa a teeny bit more because…he’s a diva, ahahahaha, and Aiku is not really. But that’s my own personal preference. But I still love the “talent blooming connection!” So thank you! A lot of what you talked about with Sae and Isagi and Aiku I definitely felt during the discussion as well. I do love a good jazz score! I’ve always connected with some good jazz music and its symbolism, as you talk here, so it’s good to see it displayed in this episode, like you pointed out as well! 😀I didn’t know what Aiku was a mix of - have they said that in the episodes? Probably, haha!! I couldn’t remember but guessed with his name. Reo and Nagi living out their OTP fantasy, y’all. And ooooofffff, I hadn’t made the connection to Nagi calling Isagi boss, the first person he’s said that to other than Reo. Honestly, though, Reo has grown so much (and knows that RinSagi is likely a thing) that he’s probably okay with it. #growth Ahhhh, the Rin and Isagi moments and Barou shipping them and being the best wingman was just *chef’s kiss* But YES, equating Isagi to the #1 player in Blue Lock is WILD. I like the idea of BachiSagi as platonic soulmates (maybe with more on the side) but the passion of RinSagi is too much for me to resist! From an audience perspective, we all know to expect Sae to be a hindrance, so that was me projecting on Isagi. But, the Additional Time this week was my favorite so far! I love Nagi and Hiori working together on their fan fiction! ;) I would honestly not be surprised with Hiori being an otaku! 😛Thank you for the kind words and comment! I can’t believe this coming week is our last for Blue Lock for a while! Well, outside the extras I have all of next year to eventually get to!
Romaniablack
2024-12-26 18:34:59 +0000 UTCThis episode went by SO FAST! Which is great, but I’m also sad as it’s the penultimate week for the series! Barou getting a yellow card as the “stripper king” - hilarious! These referees dealing with these hyper horny teenagers on the field; I hadn’t thought of it that way but that’s hilarious! I knowww, I wanted to slap Isagi for about crumpling under Sae as well! He does get into his head a LOT and too much at times - I love Rin breaking through his fog to help him, there! And yes, I want a callback to Hiori’s lesson as well! Nagi and Reo - and Sae and Ryusei - are an OTP at this point…will Isagi and Rin get there? Everyone seems to be rooting for them hahaha!! Barou was really out there matchmaking for the ages! Best Wingman of the season?? I’m honestly not ready for this season to end. 🙁I know I have other Blue Lock things to keep me busy in 2025 while I wait, but it is sad knowing that the hype will reach its fever pitch next week! Thank you for the comment and kind words! We’ll see how this goes!
Romaniablack
2024-12-26 17:32:39 +0000 UTCI definitely misunderstood that part in the episode – the “style” aspect I’ve been associating differently than how I think the game is actually played, so thank you for explaining that! And Sae’s boss music being the same as Rin’s…these brothers, I tell you! And YES, the Rinsagi shipping was ON POINT. Bless. Hahaha! Thank you for the comment and kind words!
Romaniablack
2024-12-26 17:27:26 +0000 UTCThanks for the comment! The mods clipped out parts of it for me to read - to avoid spoilers, but I will definitely read and respond to it for the episode coming up! Thanks!!
Romaniablack
2024-12-26 13:48:07 +0000 UTCLove the punk leather jacket look! And the red inside, quite Barou-coded I’d say! This ep is probably my fav so far this season and my fav Additional Time. Enjoyed the reaction and discussion! Btw, besides Blue Lock of course, my favorite of Kaneshiro’s works is the manga “As the Gods Will.” That’d be my recommendation. (And I’d also recommend “Bokutachi ga Yarimashita” (We Did It) by Kaneshiro.) I really love Aiku’s backstory so I’ve got a LOT to say about it! Please forgive my ramblings. Young Aiku’s wearing the #9 jersey, which is usually given to the pure striker or center forward who is often the highest scorer on the team. Aiku from a young age knew what kind of soccer player he wanted to be. When his coach told him to focus on assisting the strikers, I believe the coach was just thinking about how best to currently use Aiku to make the team win. The coach wasn’t really thinking about Aiku’s talents or personal growth in the long run. The coach didn’t change Aiku’s position; the coach made Aiku change his playstyle from a scoring striker to an assisting striker. An assist is a pass that leads directly to a goal. It’s similar to how Isagi was more of an assisting striker in high school as seen in s1 ep1 in the nationals qualifier where Isagi passed to another striker on his team instead of taking the shot himself. And also like Sae in middle school, where Sae and Rin were both strikers, but it was Sae who often fed passes to Rin. I adore the flowers scene. Love the use of color to distinguish the colorful tulips from the white. (Loved your discussion of how this can be applied to Shidou.) Tulips symbolize “perfect and deep love.” The name Aiku means “an empty love,” and Oliver means “an ancestor’s descendent,” so his full name means “an ancestor’s descendant’s empty love.” I interpret this as young Aiku not receiving love since he was pruned and wasn’t allowed to blossom, and despite that, Aiku now wants to give his love to other strikers and encourage them to bloom like he said in his monologue at the end of the ep. To add to my thoughts, I wanted to share two quotes from AkinReacts, who are two semi-professional footballers, from their ep 12 reaction. When Aiku said “And soon you notice all the flowers are identical,” AkinReacts said, “This is football right now. Imagine if Messi was born in today’s age. They’d suppress him and say make sure you pass the ball and move, pass the ball and move. He would never be the guy he is today. You’re not letting them have the freedom, and it all starts from the youth system. Youth systems now, academies all of that, they have patterns of play. Everyone’s the same, it’s robotic.” And they also talked about how real Aiku’s backstory is: “I know so many footballers have so much potential but people don’t see it as development anymore in the youth system, they see it as we need to win as a team. It’s not about developing the players.” I hope you don’t mind me dumping these quotes from others, but I thought it was enlightening and really interesting how this issue is prevalent today and around the world. I like how the framed photograph of Aiku’s team winning nationals is visualized: the players don’t have faces and the colors are all grayscale and washed out. Very connected to the white tulips imagery and how the team and its players lacked any semblance of personal identity. I enjoyed hearing your comparisons of Aiku and Sae (and Niko). I really like this parallel between Isagi and Aiku: Isagi fell short of making it to nationals and was unknowingly held back by his coach’s philosophy. Aiku won nationals but did so reluctantly following his coach’s philosophy. Young Aiku was aware that he wanted to be a scoring striker but he was shut down by his coach. Isagi, on the other hand, wasn’t conscious of the coach and his team holding him back. He was only taught that way to play soccer until Ego appeared. It broke my heart when Aiku said he had forgotten how to bloom and he didn’t believe he could become the best striker. For me, one of my biggest fears is me ending up hating what I love doing or am really passionate about. So I feel for Aiku gradually losing that spark. I appreciate the maturity and awareness Aiku has when he said he didn’t want to blame the adults; he acknowledged that his dream dying was his own fault. And instead of trying to revive a long dead plant by continuing to follow his coach’s carved out path for Aiku to become the best striker, Aiku planted himself a new seed, a new dream to become the best defender in the world. This made me think of Anri’s speech in s1 ep2 about having the courage to dream a new dream. And Aiku proved that he did have the talent to become an amazing defender. I love that Aiku went from assisting strikers as a striker to crushing strikers as a defender. He’s channeling his disdain for how Japan mass-produces these boring strikers into motivation. It reminds me a little of how Niko was initially pained that he wasn’t chosen as a striker for the U20 match but after playing he realized how fun it is to trample a striker as a defender. There may be a teeny ounce of bitterness or saltiness in there haha. Similar to how Oikawa could have gone to nationals if he went to Shiratorizawa, Aiku could have possibly become the world’s best striker if he continued to follow his coach’s advice, but no, because of Oikawa’s and Aiku’s “WORTHLESS PRIDE” and it wasn’t the way they wanted to play, they could not do that. Maybe it could’ve been the “objectively correct” or “most successful” choice, but that just wasn’t who they were and they wouldn’t have been happy. About Aiku’s end of the episode monologue.. IM SO HAPPY you made the Aiku and Oikawa comparison about talent blooming! I knew you’d love that! Btw I like that Isagi’s and Rin’s high school soccer club jerseys were blue, and young Aiku wore red jerseys. It’s a nice little nod to their current jersey colors. In addition, I like how on young Aiku’s jersey and tracksuits, the logo is a cherry blossom flower! I want to make a comparison between Sae, Isagi, and Aiku. Before the match started, Sae criticized Sendou for having a shallow dream, and Sae made a point about how deep his own desire is to be the best in the world. In the previous ep, Isagi was not satisfied with Ego’s reassurance about the future if they lose; they simply wanted to win this match. Isagi and the other Blue Lockers have that fire inside them. Same with Sae and the other U20 players, they weren’t going to be satisfied with letting this game end with a draw in spite of what their manager was suggesting. Similarly, after young Aiku won nationals, he wasn’t satisfied with the promise of living the usual pro soccer player life of money, marriage and contentment. Aiku wanted to begin playing soccer for himself and pursue a new dream. Thank you for appreciating the jazz music in this episode! Jazz was used in previous eps during some Aiku and the other U20 players scenes in the match, and in this ep a new calm jazz song played during Aiku’s backstory. This is what I could find about what jazz music symbolizes: Jazz symbolizes creativity, individuality, and freedom of the human expression. The word “jazz” derives from the slang “jasm,” which means energy, vitality, and spirit. Jazz represents deeply held values: teamwork, unity with ethnic diversity, the correlation of hard work and goal accomplishment, democracy, and the vital importance of really listening to one another. I think this is all very fitting for Aiku and also how he captains the U20 team. Also, about the “unity with ethnic diversity” part, I think it’s cool that Aiku is the captain of the Japan U20 team while him being a mix of Japanese, Swedish, and German heritage. Young Oliver Aiku is voiced by Natsumi Fujiwara - Damian Desmond (Spy x Family), young Fushiguro Megumi (JJK), Theo / Laughing Fox (86), and Abigail Jones (Great Pretender). Yesss Reo copying Nagi’s move, my heart was so full and happy. Your reaction was so relatable. On the flip side, we get Nagi saying “Yes boss” to Isagi. My jaw dropped. This was the first time Nagi has called anyone other than Reo “boss.” In the past, Nagi has called Isagi “striker” or “sir,” but now I guess Isagi’s been promoted to boss lmao. My Nagisagi ship is still living haha. Rin’s “ISAGI! LOOK AT ME!” was the line I most looked forward to hearing being voiced, and Uchiyama nailed it. At the beginning of the match, Rin told Isagi to keep his eyes on him. Yep Rin really meant what he said. “Rin is also Isagi.” That is the biggest compliment you can give to Isagi—equating him to the #1 player in the Blue Lock program. Barou saying Rin and Isagi are two hearts beating as one. I absolutely subscribe to the idea of Bachisagi being soulmates, and Rinsagi being twin flames. Bachisagi are two souls destined to be together. Rinsagi are like one soul split into two bodies. People in the fandom always joke that Rin and Isagi are the same person or are brothers, and I love that a character in canon pointed out how similar and in sync they are. Sae calling Isagi the heart of Blue Lock and complimenting his brain gave me chills. RIP to Karasu, who Ego said will be the heart of the team lol. I think you were a little harsh on Isagi. Sae never defended that close to the net before, so Isagi logically didn't considered it, and Isagi said Sae hid himself from Isagi’s vision. So, I think it’s more of a testament to how good Sae is than a discredit to Isagi. The Additional Time was so ridiculous and amazing. If Nagi is the fanfic writer (tags: AU, crackfic, OOC), then Hiori is the beta reader! Nagi wasn’t knowledgeable about maid cafes, and Hiori stepped in to explain it. This made me think about how Nagi and Hiori are both gamers, but Hiori was more familiar with maid cafes. So, maid cafes were traditionally associated with Akihabara (a district in Tokyo), the center of Japanese otaku culture and a major shopping district for video games, anime, manga, electronics and computer-related goods. Hiori is an otaku confirmed?!
Whim
2024-12-24 22:24:06 +0000 UTCGosh, this episode felt like a blur now that I think about it. I remember being very hooked through it all while I watched it, on the edge of my seat and all, but then rewatching it with you, it felt like I blinked, and it was over; which is not a bad thing, but it was very intense. Barou getting that yellow card because he took his shirt off made me laugh so hard XD The referee had such a deadpan face, and it comes on the heels of Barou's *insane* explanation of Isagi and Rin being one in his mind, so it's just the perfect comedic timing. Look, I commend Isagi for his resilience and determination that he will score that goal before the match is over, but I was *screaming* at him when he was crumpling when Sae stopped him from his perfect little plan; like, Isagi has been so far in his head, panicking most of the time, that he has not really done much this whole match, and what he has done has felt half-cooked because he is just so insecure and panicking. I want Isagi to go back to that lesson he learned from Hiori at the beginning of the season and STOP THINKING and just let his body react, lighting fast and score the darn goal. Reo copying Nagi was so satisfying. Truly, couple's goals. Okay, so I've been on the fence about Rin/Isagi all of this time; like, I can see the vision, but I wasn't totally convinced yet. Until now. I can't believe that it was Barou, of all people, who ended up convincing me, but his insane explanation really did the trick for me, and now I'm a convert. I see it. For a second there, I had forgotten that net week is a double feature with the season finale... I'm not sure if I'm ready for that purely because it's been a lot of fun to see the insanity this whole match has been, because I'm pretty sure how this game will end.
Alexandra Q
2024-12-23 22:54:37 +0000 UTCI'm back and I'm ready to yap. Okay, so on Aiku as a kid, was not put in defence by his coach. the field is divided into thirds, the attack third, the middle third, and the defence third. Obviously players can really go anywhere (Gigamaru leaving the penalty box earlier) but they generally stay in their areas (Hiori reminding Otoya to not go too far forward). Aiku's coach was keeping him in the attacking and middle thirds, so him deciding to be a defender is different, he's keeping back (his position is even called middle back). He essentially went from wanting to get goals, to helping others get goals, to wanting to stop as many goals as possible. I do think that Sae being so... the way he is to Rin is to do with worry. Sae is two years older than Rin, and was away for four years, which means that Rin didn't get scouted like Sae did. If Sae was that good at like... 14 to be chosen to go international, what about Rin? He still wanted to be the (second) best striker in the world, but he wasn't scouted, and Sae saw what that world was like. Sometimes an older sibling will be cruel so save the younger some future pain, and I feel that that was what Sae was trying to do. Reo vs Ryusei will forever be interesting to me, as they were teammates during Second Selection, and Ryusei was the one to choose Reo over Kunigami. There is a possibility that, if Reo had chosen team A over team C during the Blue Lock XI tryouts, that Ryusei would still be with them and be working with Reo instead of Sae. But Reo will always choose Nagi, and therefore that timeline is not what we see, and we now have the Pink Bug Party. Even if I want to see Bachira and Ryusei on the same team. "I'm the protagonist." Sorry buddy, Episode: Rin hasn't been animated, you aren't the lead yet Rin. This was not the first time Nagi has shipped Barou and Toki, as he did call them both gorillas and paired them together then. There's a joke that Nagi ships them because they both talked shit about Reo, and this is how he gets revenge. I'm sitting here lookinh at the Isagi harem and just knowing how big it gets, while also shipping Hiroi and Rin. Blue roses and impossiblity huh? (screams in spoilers)
Moth (GreenAppleSause)
2024-12-23 07:49:33 +0000 UTCFor the Aiku part, he was always playing striker, but with more of an assisting style. The coach never made him play defender, and when the coach said Aiku could be the best striker, he did make sense since Aiku was playing striker all along, and he was playing as a very good one, just not the style he wanted to play. Strikers still assists, like how Sae assisted Rin a lot before he went to Spain, and he was still striker. Aiku changed his path to defender wasn't coach's plan at all, it's purely Aiku himself stop chasing his striker dream. Also I know I said it in discord, the Sae boss music is same as Rin's boss music in s1, the Itoshi really has the most aura. This episode is so Rinsagi shipping, "perfect for eachother", "totally in sync", "Rin is also Isagi", never thought a ship so good it seems like selfcest to other ppl
AnNaNN
2024-12-23 00:03:41 +0000 UTC
