The 2022 FIFA World Cup is gaining headlines for its unexpected turns and the biggest upsets in the history of football. One of the teams that have been in the headlines for all the right reasons is none other than the Japanese men’s Football team.
This team, which the football fans thought to be underdogs, shocked the world by beating Germany in their opening bout, and things are not the same anymore. The dust hadn’t even begun to settle when Japan did it again! This time it’s Spain.
But what’s more interesting than that is Japan’s iconic 2-1 win against Spain shares a striking resemblance to Blue Lock anime led by Team Z. The Japanese Football team had an astonishing comeback after Álvaro Morata scored the first goal for Spain. In the 48th minute, Japanese winger Ritsu Doan gave his team a ray of hope to stay longer in the game.
Moments after the first goal, Japan secured a dramatic win thanks to the combined efforts of winger Kaoru Mitoma and midfielder Ao Tanaka. Worthy of mention is the alignment of events leading up to the win mirrors exactly how Blue Lock registered their win against the opponents. Consequently, among all anime fans worldwide, the “Blue Lock is Real” chatter spread like wildfire.
See for yourself if you can catch the similarity between the two completely different works of entertainment.
Every goal scored by Japan seems almost identical to how Team Z performs in Blue Lock anime. Episode 3(Soccer’s Zero) of Blue Lock finds Team Z in a tough spot when it’s trying to catch up against Team X at a score of 5-0. Isagi, one of the characters, passes the ball to his left to his orange-haired teammate Rensuke Kunigami gets the ball and scores a powerful shot for Team Z. Kunigami’s efforts manage to beat the stretched arms of the goalkeeper.
Ritsu Doan, Japan’s orange-haired winger, does a similar action while scoring. Doan cuts in from the right and scores a brilliant long-shot goal on his left foot that escapes the keeper’s gloves.
But this is where comes the fun part. The winning goal takes the inspiration from the anime a little more than the first shot. In episode 4, ‘Premonition and Intuition,’ the clock is winding down as Isagi looks at the target. All hope seems lost as his shot lands wide, threatening to go behind for a goal kick, but Gin Gagamaru keeps the ball in play and scores from an incredibly tight angle around the post.
Similarly, the moment-defining goal for Japan turned out to be a mirror image of this goal from Gagamaru; instead, the substitute Mitoma kept the ball in play by mere millimeters as the ball was squared to Tanaka for their second goal.
And then it happened, the anime community took the world by storm as the search volume for “Blue Lock Is Real” exploded By 1004.55% after Japan won against Spain, qualifying for the final 16.
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According to Google, here are the search trends for “Blue Lock Is Real”:
The searched keyword, “Blue Lock is real” shot up by 1004.5% while “Is Blue Lock Real” registered a surge of 1008.18% on 1st December 2022. And to literally no one’s shock, the trend hasn’t slowed down yet.
Take a look at Google Search Data on which regions searched for “Blue Lock Is Real” the most:
| Country | Search volume (%) |
| Singapore | 100% |
| Thailand | 45% |
| Malaysia | 41% |
| Phillippines | 39% |
| Canada | 36% |
| United States | 25% |
| Australia | 22% |
| India | 21% |
| United Kingdom | 20% |
| Indonesia | 12% |
But wait, here are more keywords that fans searched for after Japan Vs. Spain reached its epic conclusion. Take a look:
| Keyword/Term | Increase in search volume (%) |
| Blue Lock is real meme | 150% |
| Blue Lock characters | 130% |
| Blue Lock real players | 80% |
| Is Blue Lock real in Japan | 50% |
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At the time of writing, Japan sits at the top of Group E.
Japan is now all set to face Croatia on Monday, 5th December, in the final 16. Whereas Spain will play against Morocco on Tuesday, 6th December.
Well, this was it, folks! Did you see the epic Japan Vs. Spain match? How about Blue Lock? It’s about time you sit down and start going through the fast-paced episodes. Who knows what will happen next? Let’s keep up the hopes high! Until then, share your valuable opinion about the last game in the comments below, and visit averagebeing.com for more exciting anime updates!
