Jingo Raichi

A tall, powerfully built young man, Raichi wears flat, pale blonde hair that recalls Seishiro Nagi's. In the manga's color pages his eyes glow amber, ringed by unusually dark, thick lashes. Rows of sharp, shark-like teeth make him look menacing, an impression that hardens whenever he scowls or bellows, yet in his calmer moments he reads as a genuinely good-looking player. Inside Blue Lock he wears the issued black bodysuit with gray stripes and the tracksuit.

His shirt shifted stage by stage: Team Z's blue number ten with gray-capped cleats in First Selection, Team Red's ninety-five in the Second, and Team B's white ninety-five in the Third. Held in reserve against the Japan U-20, he threw the long Blue Lock jacket over his Blue Lock Eleven kit, and in the Neo Egoist League he starts for Bastard Munchen in their black, red, and gold colors under the number twenty-two.

Raichi ranks among the hottest heads in Blue Lock, and early on his confidence tips well over into arrogance. He bristles at taking orders and made a habit of talking down to teammates, coming off as pompous through the opening chapters. Repeated humbling at the hands of the program's talent gradually knocked the edge off; he learned to fill his role as best he could, not only to survive but to grow alongside everyone else. It still grates on him when players he once dismissed improve faster than he does, and he is quick to remind anyone below him of their place.

The final match of First Selection marked a turn. Willing to set aside his craving to play striker, he used his brash energy to fire up his team, showing he would change himself if it meant winning. By the Neo Egoist League he has calmed considerably and become the heart of Bastard Munchen, forever barking callouts and using his booming voice to lift himself and those around him. He now listens far more readily, taking direction from the likes of Isagi to serve a specific job and even apologizing when he falls short, though a botched play from a teammate can still set him yelling. Like every Blue Lock striker, he stays thoroughly self-centered, convinced that anything good the team achieves traces back to him.

Raichi is cast as a defensive midfielder, and more precisely a box-to-box engine who covers nearly every phase of a match, surging forward to back the attack one moment and dropping into his own box to defend the next. His endurance, tenacity, and demanding marking make him a pivot a formation can be built around.

Stamina is his defining weapon, and the story treats it as all but bottomless. Reo Mikage first shrugged off Raichi's marking as a mere nuisance, only to watch his own playmaking wilt as Raichi kept running at full tilt and never tired. That inexhaustible motor, welded to his marking, keeps him a threat at both ends, and his endurance outstrips even peers who are technically sharper than he is. Raw strength backs it up, letting him bully the ball off opponents in one-on-one duels and get the better of powerhouses like Aoshi Tokimitsu.

Man-marking is his craft: he leans on his frame and sheer presence to smother a target out of the game, and his aggravating streak often goads opponents into rash, illegal reactions, as when Reo fouled him for a yellow card. Noel Noa rated the ability highly enough to make him the heartbeat of Bastard Munchen. He also employs a Stalking Horse Defense, forgoing a standard mark to patrol a two-meter half-circle staked out ahead of his man, sharply raising his odds of intercepting a pass or lifting the ball outright. Riding on grit, stamina, and dueling strength, he first used it to bottle up Marc Snuffy and force a pass.