blue lock vol 4 by muneyuke Kaneshiro

Illustrated by Yusuke Nomura
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Team Z is fighting against elimination from Blue Lock in an intense match against Team V. They've been betrayed by one of their own, Kuon, who has decided that, as their top scorer, he will go on no matter what, so he'll save his efforts for when it matters more in later fights. Team V also has a superstar who started playing soccer only a few months ago, Seishiro Nagi, who is sort of bored with everything and takes all his cues from another teammate, Reo Mikage. Isagi uses his spacial awareness technique to see when Reo is going to use Nagi's insane speed, which negates both of them as threats on the field. Team Z fights back from a 0-3 score to tie the game at 3-3 and stun both Team V and Kuon, who thought Team Z had no chance in heck without him.

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It was really awesome to see Isagi bring his team together in volumes 3 and 4, and see how they figured out how to use everyone's unique talents, But, I'm also glad that Kaneshiro found a way to up the ante and derail Team Z's plans in an interesting way because too many matches of them winning as they did in volume 3 would have taken some of the high-stakes tension out of the volume. Some readers may have seen Kuon's betrayal coming, but I did not! 

Nomura once again fills plenty of pages with characters doused in sweat, and every page feels like a high-stakes battle manga with physics-defying soccer moves that make sense in the context of the sport.

Sara's Rating: 9/10
Suitability Level: Grades 9-12

Reviews of previous volumes in this series: vol 1, vol 2, vol 3

Publisher: Kodansha
Publication December 20, 2022
ISBN: 9781646516575

​Tags: Rating: 9/10, Suitability: High School, Manga, Sports, Action Adventure, Survival, Kodansha