Haikyuu!! vs Blue Lock: Which is a better sports manga?

With Blue Lock anime on-air for almost two months, fans of the series have begun claiming it to be one of the sports genres animanga out there, as they have been left captivated by the character designs and actions portrayed in the series. Several fans have also started reading the manga, which has led to them comparing it to one of the best sports genre manga Haikyuu!!

Haikyuu!! has been a popular animanga in the industry for quite a long time. The manga's final chapter was released on July 20, 2022, and ever since, the sports manga community has been waiting for a new series. While there are several series, with the recent anime adaptation, Blue Lock has managed to secure its place amongst the genre's fans.

Blue Lock could become the next big sports manga

While Haikyuu!! is yet to step down from its throne of the better sports manga amongst the two, Blue Lock could one day become a better sports manga than the former.

Haikyuu!! had first begun serialization on February 20, 2012, and has since revolutionized the sports manga industry as the manga series has been able to rope in more fans into the genre.

The series became instantly popular by using teamwork and interpersonal relationships as key factors, as the characters were seen as having the common goal of reaching the Nationals. This common goal led the teammates to cooperate and work together, which led the viewers to follow them on their journey, soon after which they became die-hard fans.

Hinata and Kageyama as seen in Haikyuu!! season 2 (Image via Production I.G)

Blue Lock, on the other hand, follows a different formula for its story as fans of the sports genre can compare it to Kuroko no Basuke, an anime that majorly focused on the deuteragonist's attempts to outperform the protagonist's former teammates to become Japan's number 1 high school basketball player.

The Blue Lock manga features an experimental project known as Blue Lock Project, which has pitted potentially the best 300 youth strikers in the country into a competition where one will have to defeat their opponents, and sometimes even their teammates, in a battle that may see the end of their career as a footballer.

Jinpachi Ego is the man behind the Blue lock Project as he aims to create the most egoist striker in the world, who could help Japan win the World Cup. According to his ideology, a striker cannot sustain without ego. Thus, his project has several levels that help a player create football from zero and help them reforge themselves as the best striker in the world.

The manga has several references to real-life players and situations and has realistic gameplay with a pinch of dramatization to help fans become attached to the series. Along with this, the manga series has a fantastic art style illustrated by Yusuke Nomura, which helps set the scene of a situation.

While the football-based series is yet to reach the level of Haikyuu!!, it certainly has the means to become the better sports manga over time. Thus, fans of the series will have to wait to see what manga author Muneyuki Kaneshiro has in store for the fans.