Blue Lock is better than Ao Ashi in almost every category. Breakdown: The cast isn't even comparable. Blue Lock has 30+ relevant characters with unique designs, abilities, and ego's. Ao Ashi has a much smaller handful of important characters. The mentality is also far better. Isagi would rather die than give up on becoming the world's best striker. Blue Lock is built on ego, ambition, and devouring your competition. Meanwhile, Ashito's biggest character moment is giving up on his dream to become the best striker. The "Ao Ashi is more realistic" argument means nothing to me. If I want realism, I'll watch real football. Blue Lock's ego philosophy, meta vision, predator eye, full team of strikers, and more is what makes it unique and extremely entertaining. Then there's the art. Blue Lock has some of the best artwork in manga history, period. The panels, character designs, aura, and match moments are on another level. In fact, Ao Ashi can't even clean Blue Locks boots if we compare artwork. Ao Ashi is easier to animate because much of it focuses on school life, romance and dialogue. Blue Lock is almost nonstop football, with faster pacing, more action, and far more demanding match sequences. Despite that, the football animation scenes are far more entertaining in Blue Lock LOL. Ao Ashi is a better "life story". Blue Lock is a better sports animanga.

Yoichi Isagi is the best protagonist Blue Lock could've asked for. What makes Isagi special is that he isn't a genius, doesn't have a tragic backstory, and isn't driven by revenge or an obsession with another player. He just has a pure, raw, unadulterated love for football. It's simply his innate desire to be the best striker in the world. While others chase people, Isagi chases growth. He constantly reflects on himself, adapts, and pushes beyond his limits, even in the middle of a match. And when his teammates fall behind, he doesn't comfort them. He destroys them mentally and forces them to crawl back up. Isagi's only "rival" is the striker leading the match. They become his next target to devour as he seeks to claim their throne. One of the best new gen protagonists.

Blue Lock has the best art style in all of sports manga and top 5 in all of manga history. The quality never drops. Week after week, chapter after chapter, the consistency is unreal. @nomnii is one of the greatest artists. And these panels are from the most recent match.

Isagi spends 90 minutes battling Hugo, gets abandoned and called trash, finally finds a solution… Just for Rin to suddenly awaken after ghosting all game and steal the moment? Kaneshiro really needs to let Isagi succeed or fail on his own, stop forcing Rin into everything.