Blue Lock’s creator draws a new illustration to celebrate Japan’s victory against Spain in FIFA World Cup 2022

Blue Lock’s illustrator Yusuke Nomura has drawn another illustration to congratulate the Japanese team for their impressive victory against Spain in the final round of group-stage matches in the FIFA World Cup 2022.

The illustration features Blue Lock’s Protagonist Yoichi Isagi with an aggressive but enthusiastic expression. The text in the drawing congratulates the Japanese team for advancing to the Knockout stage of the tournament, with best wishes for future endeavors.

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Blue Lock’s illustrator draws Isagi to congratulate Japan for their victory against Spain in the FIFA World Cup 2022

Yusuke Nomura has previously stated that his objective while creating Blue Lock was to endear the sport to the Japanese audience. He has been actively supporting the Japanese team and celebrating their victories. The mangaka has previously drawn an illustration after Japan’s victory over Germany, also featuring Yoichi.

Due to the anime’s first cour coinciding with the Qatar World Cup, the fandom became especially interested in the Japanese team’s progress. Following their victory over Spain, the fandom trended “Blue Lock is real” on various social media. Several fans have compared Ritsu Doan to Yoichi Isagi and Hyoma Chigiri after witnessing the player’s performance.

Nomura's previous illustrations (image via Sportskeeda)

Blue Lock is not the only fandom to have become involved in the FIFA World Cup 2022. The animanga community at large, especially fans of Captain Tsubasa, has taken a keen interest in the progress of the Japanese team. They have gone so far as to jokingly call Japan’s defeat against Costa Rica “necessary for character development”.

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The match

While Spain started the match in a comfortable position with Morata’s header in the 12th minute, they found themselves at a disadvantage in the second half. After Ritsu Doan’s equalizer brought Japan back to the game, Ao Tanaka scored a controversial second goal for his team in the 51st minute. Before the goal, it appeared as though the ball had gone out of the field, but VAR allowed the goal after confirming that the ball stayed connected to the white line.

With this victory, not only did Japan progress to the Round of 16, but they did so as the champion of Group E. Despite their unfortunate loss in the match against Costa Rica, they defeated two well-known European names, Germany and Spain, with identical 2-1 scores. Japan’s victory also proved disastrous for Germany, who went home despite their 4-2 victory over Costa Rica as Spain ranked higher on the table due to a bigger Goal Difference.

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Final thoughts

Both series connect sports to animanga (Image via Sportskeeda) Nomura's previous illustrations (Image via Sportskeeda)

Blue Lock as a manga strives to do for football what Haikyuu did for volleyball in Japan, which is to make the sport both popular and emotionally investing for the Japanese people. While one may argue that a manga or anime’s influence cannot be that far-reaching, the volleyball statistics before and after Haikyuu’s serialization suggests differently.

As a manga, Blue Lock is more experimental than other football manga but more realistic than series like Inazuma Eleven. The manga was fairly popular, but the anime adaptation has given it a considerable boost. Japan’s ongoing success at the FIFA World Cup 2022 continues to correlate with the series, especially given that the team’s jersey was designed by Yusuke Nomura in collaboration with Giant Killing’s Tsujimoto.

The jersey designed by Nomura and Tsujimura (Image via Adidas)

Hopefully, Japan will continue to advance in the FIFA World Cup 2022. Their next match is against Croatia on Tuesday, December 6, at 12 am JST. Hopefully, following their performance in that match, fans of both the sport and Blue Lock will receive more such artworks from mangaka Nomura.