Blue Lock Season 2 Episode 4: Reo's Awakening

Key insights

• Reo's development and his newfound determination to improve his football skills as he embraces his new style of play, the Chameleon.
• Reo's realization that he wants to become someone Nagi will pursue shows deeper character development.
• The animation quality of this episode has been improved compared to the past, indicating possible improvements in future episodes.

The new episode, titled “Chameleon,” begins with Reo finally able to stand up for himself and telling Nagi to keep an eye on him and that he's happy to finally be able to play with him again. The Team A trio Isagi, Hiori and Nanase discuss how Isagi was able to score a goal. The analogy Hiori's description of reflective thinking is the same as the ability of good players to analyze which piece to place where in the heat of a game of Tetris. It was amazing. Fans of the classic can easily understand that once the game gains momentum, you hardly have any time to think or even react. For the rest, just place the tiles as quickly as they appear in the right place that your mind and body suggest together.

Seeing the trio just chilling together and not arguing about who is better but actually complementing each other is a nice change of pace in the series where everyone argues about who is better; not that the fans don't love it; The entire series is about being the best and showing your ego, and that's why everyone loves it, but it's also pretty nice to see some friendly interaction with each other every now and then.

The second game begins

Born genius versus lazy genius

The game starts well, Reo takes the lead and tries to coordinate with Nagi, but has no idea that they are playing against the best of the best in Blue Lock. Team A mounts a counterattack with each player showing off their skills, but the star of the first half is Yukimiya, who grabs the ball, dribbles past everyone, including Shidou and Rin, without breaking a sweat, and has a great one Hits scored. But just as Jyubei appears to counterattack, Nagi appears and intercepts the ball, scoring a fantastic goal for Team B.

Reo realizes that Nagi is not the always bored person he forced into football for its own sake, but that he is actually much better now and enjoys football. Such bittersweet moments are what fans appreciate about the show. Because as strong as these players are, they are still human and some of them are friends or rivals, even if they want to play side by side to develop.

Born with everything

And yet nothing you really want

Reo realizes that the top six want absolutely nothing other than to be the best striker in the world. He is aware that he is not like that. He knew that even if he lost at Blue Lock, he would still have a great life since he came from a very successful and wealthy family and was good at every other job he ever did. Reo still remembers his father telling him that he was born to be a successor in the company and that few people go on to become football players. “There’s no way it can be you,” he was told.

Reo says everything he just thought was stupid and grins like a madman. For him, defeat means going back to life as usual – boring. As the camera focuses on Nagi, Reo thinks that what he wants is right here: “It's nowhere but here.” Reo is ready to play his last soccer game and passes to Yukimiya.

Reo's awakening

Highlight of the episode

As soon as Reo gets possession of the ball and starts passing it back and forth to Nagi, Shidou tries to stop him. No longer content with being the all-rounder, Reo proudly says that he can play any position on the field and declares himself the master of all trades. Although Nagi was open to a pass, Reo decided to play like the best players, surprising them all and approaching the net as he tried to score a goal himself. Reo kicks with all his might and scores the second goal for Team C, mimicking the same shot as Yukimiya. Reo calls his new play style “The Chameleon”.

Even if Team B loses the match and Reo thinks he is still not good enough to beat the top 6, he now knows how to develop further. Nagi approaches Reo and supports him in his goal. However, Reo knows he still can't play the kind of football Nagi wants. He tells Nagi to leave him behind and continue to look down on him as he works to become someone Nagi will pursue. Nagi understands and goes away. Although his backstory wasn't really shown in detail, it was a good start. At this point, fans of the duo can only hope that they delve even deeper into their bond in the future.

Slightly better animation quality

End on a strong note

While the production and animation quality hasn't really improved, it's a bit better than previous episodes, perhaps because Isagi didn't place puzzle pieces throughout the episode, or perhaps they actually put a bit more effort into this episode, but all in everything Everything was better than what we had been shown before. “Reo’s Awakening” was also well done, the soundtrack was on par with Season 1 of Blue castle. As fans speculate, things can only go up from here, and we can only hope things get better once the third pick sheet is complete.

In the post-credits scene, we see Itoshi Sae enter the JFC, making fun of the U-20 team, saying that they are just a bunch of high school students and that he is no longer interested in playing for them team, but JFC manages to convince him that he can replace any striker with anyone he wants in Japan. Sae says he wants an idiot from Blue Lock, which makes it very interesting as he sees someone worthy enough for the Blue Lock project; Would it be Isagi or perhaps his own brother? Well, we still have to find out.

The best moments in Blue Lock

That would of course be an additional time bonus

As always, the best thing about the episodes are the funny moments in injury time. Yukimaru calling Nagi a sloth was spot on, and Nagi calling him a tarsier was completely out of place, but that's why Nagi is so adored by everyone. Reo being a chameleon and Jyubei being a glamorous stick insect while Barou and Tokimitsu being a pair of gorillas and Isagi being a beetle were all funny, but calling Rin a failed poison experiment was the best, and the funniest thing was that Rin actually took part in the game and She corrected that Isagi was not a beetle, but a larva eaten by a bird.

Overall, the pace of the episode was slightly better than the previous two episodes, and with the intense match between Blue Lock and the U-20 team coming up, things are starting to look better for the series. Hopefully they will focus all of their production budget and quality on the upcoming game.