BLUELOCK THE MOVIE-EPISODE NAGI-is a retelling of the early events of BLUELOCK through the eyes of Nagi and Mikage. However, that doesn't mean this is a summary or comprehensive film. Rather, a good 70% of the film is new animated footage as the story follows their first meeting, their growing friendship and the first challenges of the Blue Lock competition.
It's these additions to the story that are the most interesting. Not only do we get to see a completely different version of the soccer card game that started it all, but we also see how Nagi and Mikage deal with the other teams we've seen Isagi and his friends face off against in the first part of the TV series.
Of course, the real meat of the story revolves around the titular Nagi. We spend most of the movie inside his head—hearing his internal struggle to understand his opponents and himself. This shows us that his growth as a character isn't about flipping a light switch like in the main anime but is instead a gradual process culminating in his gameplay. him with Isagi (and the choices he makes afterward).
Throughout the movie, Nagi goes from being constantly bored to not feeling bored to boredom when he and Mikage become interested in soccer after clashing with Isagi. This greatly improves his character by making him more nuanced and relatable–it's important how he stands out in the series as a whole.
Mostly, BLUELOCK THE MOVIE-EPISODE NAGI-works as a standalone film. While knowing the rules of the various challenges in Blue Lock and how Isagi solves them would add another layer to the story, focusing on Nagi makes the film watchable even without that information .
…And then there's the last 10 minutes of the movie.
The climax of this movie is when Nagi has to choose between Isagi and Mikage. Everything in the movie is based on this choice. So the logical conclusion to the film is right after Nagi's take. However, instead of doing that, the movie becomes a montage cramming 12 episodes of action into 10 minutes. It's visual chaos. It's impossible to follow developments, and even important moments with Nagi and Mikage in the second half of the series are almost completely cut. Or to put it another way, this movie would be much better if it were 10 minutes shorter.
As for presentation, the movie looks very good—as good as the TV anime in most places and better than it in others. Nagi's fire and skull motifs look great, and overall the visuals show how invested Nagi is at any given moment in what's going on. The music, on the other hand, is largely forgettable, but it does its job very well.
In the end, BLUELOCK THE MOVIE-EPISODE NAGI-is a great companion piece to the original BLUELOCK and a pretty solid standalone film. It would have been even better if it weren't for the final minutes (and their unnecessary need to catch us up to the end of the TV anime's first season). Still, BLUELOCK fans will enjoy this game, even if it has a bit of a crash landing.