I know I’m not stating anything groundbreaking when I say Isagi and Ego share a lot of similarities, however, I do think that I can add “something” new to this topic.
We know that Ego Jinpachi personally selected Isagi Yoichi (yes I know he also selected a few other players, but he didn’t select any players who are still strikers) even though Anri, who is very knowledgeable in soccer and who selected players like Rin and Nagi, didn’t deem him worthy for the Blue Lock program. We also see that Isagi was the “first” character who reacted to Ego’s speech which detailed the type of striker Japan desperately needs.
While Isagi is the MC and will without a doubt occupy a lot of the screen time of the story, it is no less important that Ego is explicitly shown smiling when Isagi first “devoured” someone. By the same token, it is no less important that Isagi himself is the only person who personally and selfishly demanded something from Ego in the U20 game.
While the examples I just mentioned are very important, the core of this post is on the comparisons made in the NEL between Isagi and Ego.
Noel Noa, upon seeing Isagi first use meta vision, immediately thought that Isagi bought a ticket that granted him the potential to one day rival himself. At the end of the match and after hearing Isagi’s thought process, Noa now realizes that Ego’s and Isagi’s thought processes are virtually the same. This makes even more sense when he later states that Ego was the “first” person Noa considered a true rival.
Noa and Ego rivalry —> Isagi and Ego sharing the same mindset —> Noa thinks Isagi has the potential to one day rival him.
This comparison is even more highlighted when Snuffy comments on how Isagi and Barou remind him of Ego and Noa. Snuffy, the world’s best player (at least according to Noa), explicitly states that Isagi has a rather unique talent and that he reminds him of Ego. This is the point where I branch off and try and justify the title.
While we don’t know how old Ego and Noa were when they were rivals, for simplicity’s sake I will say they were the same age as Isagi and Barou (17-18 years old). With that being said, imagine this scenario. Ego and Noa are battling it out similarly to how Isagi and Barou just did but this time Isagi (Ego) lost to Barou (Noa). You can think of these rivalries as different timelines (I know it sounds funny but stick with me) in which the opposite result came to pass. I think Ego lost to Noa because he was one step short, and it’s that one step that Isagi possesses that allows him to succeed where Ego failed. The one piece that I think Ego was missing was Isagi’s genius level of adaptability.
Isagi verbatim states that, “for the sake of winning… I should destroy everything about me .” Naruhaya describes Isagi as a person who fights with the full resolution of destroying himself in order to create the best version of himself at all times. This is what I think separates Isagi and Ego and what could’ve been the deciding factor between Ego and Noa. However, I still haven’t painted the whole picture and would like to emphasize Noa’s comment after Snuffy compares Isagi and Barou to Ego and Noa.
Noa comments, “don’t lump us in, I want to see someone beyond that.” I interpret that statement as Noa, to this day, feeling dissatisfied with how his rivalry with Ego ended. I believe that Noa beat Ego but it wasn’t a satisfying victory in the same way that Barou wouldn’t be satisfied if he beat Isagi while Isagi wasn’t at his best. Ego probably exhibited similar Isagi levels of adaptability against Noa… until one day he didn’t. Ego might have had the same level of adaptability as Isagi but it was never polished to the extent that Isagi’s adaptability has.
This is why I think Ego has special interest in Isagi’s growth over anyone else’s growth. Blue Lock serves as a sharpening tool for Isagi’s adaptability in the same manner that a whetstone sharpens a knife’s edge. Ego wants to see if Isagi can succeed if his talent is polished since it will retroactively show him that he might have been able to beat Noa. Think of the advice “be the person you needed when you were younger” as adult Ego being the person that young ego (Isagi) needed.
