BLUE LOCK CHAPTER 1: DREAM

Chapter 1 opens with Yoichi Isagi, a hardworking but uncertain high school striker, playing the most important match of his life. In the final moments he breaks through the defense and has a clear chance to score, but he hesitates. Instead of trusting his own instincts, he passes to a teammate, who misses the shot. The loss leaves Isagi crushed and questioning whether he has the “killer instinct” needed to change a game on his own.

Soon after the defeat, Isagi receives a surprising invitation from the Japan Football Union. When he arrives at the designated facility, he discovers that 300 of the nation’s top young strikers have also been summoned. The atmosphere is tense and electric, each player is talented, ambitious, and confused about why they’re there.

They are introduced to Ego Jinpachi, an intense, blunt, and unconventional coach. Ego explains that Japan consistently fails on the world stage because it lacks a truly dominant striker, someone selfish enough to seize every opportunity and decisive enough to shape a match alone. His solution is the radical training project known as “Blue Lock.”

Ego states the rules clearly:

• Only one striker will emerge as Japan’s future superstar.

• The remaining 299 players will permanently lose their chance to represent Japan as forwards.

The chapter ends with Isagi stepping into the Blue Lock facility, unsure but hopeful, sensing that this brutal environment might be the key to unlocking the decisive, ego driven striker hidden within him.