Itoshi Rin

General information

Rin Itoshi (糸いと師し 凛りん, Itoshi Rin?) is a contender of Blue Lock, who currently plays as a center forward for France's Paris X Gen in the Neo Egoist League. Rin is the younger brother of Sae Itoshi, who started playing football with him at a young age. He has played as a forward on every team he was on and has always been regarded as one of the top players. He is regarded as Blue Lock's best player until he is officially confirmed to be by Jinpachi Ego at the beginning of the Third Selection. Rin's main goal is to become the world's best striker. He used to be fixated on defeating his brother in football and in turn, getting revenge for abandoning their shared dream, but after the Blue Lock Eleven played against the Japan U-20 he let go of his revenge and decided to change so that he may become the world's best striker, defeating anybody in his path. Rin is an ideal candidate for the type of striker Ego strives to create.

Appearance

Rin is a tall (186 cm) teenager with a slim but muscular build. He is noticeably taller than Yoichi Isagi who is 5 months older than him. He has black hair with a bang going across his face more in his right eye than left eye, slim teal eyes, and distinct eyelashes that he shares with his brother Sae Itoshi. As a young boy, Rin looks largely the same, his facial features just become more distinct as he gets older. At Blue Lock, Rin wears the standard issued body suit (black with gray stripes) and tracksuit. During Second Selection, he wore Team Red's #1 jersey and wore Team A's #1 black jersey during the Third Selection. Only once the Japan U-20 match begins does he don an official blue Blue Lock player uniform with the jersey #10 and a captain's armband.

Personality

As a young boy, Rin was very innocent and in awe of his brother, Sae, wanting nothing more than to become a cool and strong player like him. He started playing football because his brother told him to, following his orders without question. As they played football together, Rin listened to whatever Sae said and adjusted accordingly. When Sae left for Spain, Rin found football was more difficult without his brother but strived to become just like him and replace him. This is where Rin's core style of play would begin to shift from his instinctive style to a more logical style.Initially, he was a good team player and captain for his middle school team, appearing to be on good terms with some of his teammates. However, due to his fallout with his brother, he has become cold, blunt, and overly serious. He is entirely focused on soccer, to an almost obsessive degree and is also very egoistic, as he is always putting his goals first over everybody and their motivations. Rin has a lot of pride as a striker, which borders on arrogance, since he frequently describes other people's soccer and way of thinking as "lukewarm" or "mediocre". These mannerisms and behaviors came from his brother; in an attempt to be like his brother, Rin copies his words and embodies his mindset.

Personality

Rin seems to respect almost nobody. He will only acknowledge your presence if you have a noticeable and annoying ability/influence on the soccer field. He seems to have no friends, only rivals (with only Isagi and Bachira seemingly being on generally even terms with him). By the time of the Japan National Representative match, he is more noticeably talkative with the team, giving instruction on the pitch and conversing with Isagi specifically. Rin commits to a routine of aftercare at the end of each and every day, to improve his physique, and he is often found in the training room doing drills or weights. Despite his arrogance and aloofness, Rin truly lives and breathes soccer, dedicating every waking moment to improving himself. This mentality combined with his personality is what makes him the top candidate for Blue Lock's supposed best striker. Everything Rin does is to enable him to beat his older brother and end the rivalry, but after Rin moves past his revenge against his brother and his rivalry with teammates, he reaches a clarity in his decisions. He now aims to free himself from anything that ties him down and establish his own identity as an egoist without relying on his brother, teammates or rivals.

Archetype

Playmaker: A player who controls the flow of the team's offensive play, and is often involved in passing moves which lead to goals, through their vision, technique, ball control, creativity, and passing ability. Whether on offense or defense, Rin's playstyle consists of him grasping the abilities of both his teammates and his opponents and forcing out their best plays and abilities. He either manipulates them in his efforts to score goals for himself, or he aims to crush them at their strongest.

Skills. Superior Football Technique

Rin is one of two players in Blue Lock who has top tier stats, along with Ryusei Shido. During the Third Selection, he scored an average 2.5 goals a game, which was the highest among the Top 6. His spatial awareness, ball control, power, and kick accuracy are only rivaled by a handful of players. Though Shido can be described similarly, the thing that makes Rin the best in Blue Lock is his willingness to cooperate with and create chemical reactions with his teammates, while Shido scores goals completely independently. Rin's experience and techniques are advanced enough that he is able to play the role of captain, act as the focal point for an offense, play in defense and even overcome high-level defenders, using their own strengths against them.

Skills. Perfect Kick Accuracy

Rin's primary weapon is his highly accurate kick. His shooting/passing accuracy is near perfect, as demonstrated when he kicked two balls in such a way that they travelled different trajectories, yet still hit each other in midair. Rin's kicks are so accurate that he is able to score from long distance; Isagi implied that he could potentially score from anywhere below 35 meters, free kicks and even directly from corner kicks. Even when being physically pressured by players like Ryusei Shido or Tabito Karasu, he is able to make a pinpoint shot. Oliver Aiku notes that his shot power and accuracy decrease when he uses his left foot, but in most conditions where Rin can get off a shot, it is on target. Rin needs space and range to set up his shooting pattern, the denial of which can result in his shot being off. However, he uses his other weapons to find himself with plenty of both, making him one of the top scorers in Blue Lock.

Skills. Spatial Awareness

Rin analyzes the entire field, including the positions of himself, his teammates and his opponents, in order to determine the best play. Rin's tactical ability and spatial awareness are at such a level that only Isagi can understand, counter, and rival his analytical ability. Rin is routinely able to predict the positioning and movements of other players, including Isagi, setting up traps and baits to lure them into unfavorable positions, intercepting their plays and setting up his own. Spacing: By reading the weapon of his opponent, as well as the positions of other players on the field, Rin spaces himself in such a way as to allow for him to predict and respond to whatever they decide to do. Synchronization: Rin is also able to use his spatial awareness defensively; through reading and understanding the core of his opponent's football, he can overlap his thoughts with theirs to predict what they will do next. He used this to halt the combined offense of Sae and Shido during the U-20 match. However, focusing solely on playing defensively makes it difficult for him to join the offense to score his own goals.

Skills. Off-the-Ball Movements

: A term used to describe the moments where players are not in possession of the ball. Rin makes use of these movements to position himself in an opponent's blind spot, as well as to maneuver into goal scoring positions. He does this after determining the field of view of the players on the pitch, similar to Isagi. Positioning: Rin has incredible positioning, constantly moving to areas where he can receive the ball in space and still be able to score a goal. If Rin realizes that he will not receive a pass, he always positions himself in a place where he would be able to score if he should receive the ball by chance. He demonstrated this positioning during the Second Selection, as well as during the U-20 match. Rin also uses this defensively in combination with his spatial awareness. After using his spacing, Rin gives himself enough room to predict where the opponent will likely break through, then uses his positioning to intercept them. Super-Speed Interlock: By using the movements of another player as a precursor, Rin moves into a position where he can meet a quick cross in an open space. He used this in conjunction with Bachira to score against the Team World Five.

Skills. Dribbling

Rin has demonstrated the ability to move the ball at high-speed and with great control, in order to advance past either one player or multiple. Whilst Rin is not a specialised dribbler, he has a well-rounded style that involves utilising feints, hand blocks, technique and physicality at a high-level.

Skills. Puppet-Controlling Soccer

A playstyle Rin developed to compensate for the absence of a playmaker, where he uses his high-level technique to control and manipulate what his opponent thinks. After identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each player on the field, Rin uses his superior technique, tactical and physical ability to manipulate them into scenarios that will result in a goal. He can do this by using his own abilities against the opponent, or by combining his strengths with his team's. This style of soccer, pushes his team's abilities to their limits and beyond, resulting in highly complex and effective passages of play that often result in a goal.

Skills. Flow State

Flow, as described by Ego, is the state of "total immersion" or "being in the zone". It is the mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. The trigger for Rin's flow state is the impulse to destroy a strong opponent whilst simultaneously risking himself. This typically takes the form of bringing out the best/strongest weapon of his opponent and then focusing on a play that crushes it. Pure Destruction: An incredibly aggressive playing style, where Rin attempts to draw out his opposition's strongest weapon and defeat them at their strongest. During the final minutes of the Japan U20 match, Rin was able to completely defeat Teppei Neru, Miroku Darai and Kazuma Nio in quick succession, using each of their weapons against them. In this state, Oliver Aiku observed that he would have 0% chance of defeating Rin by himself and a 50% chance with Shido assisting. Rin was also able to neutralize Sae's dribbling as seen in the last minute of the U-20 Match by keeping up with his techniques to bait out Sae's favorite move (the cross elastico nutmeg), before shutting it down. During Paris X Gen's game against Manshine City, Rin was able to take over the game to score a hattrick, defeating Nagi in a trapping duel to score the winning goal.Finally, after fully understanding the trigger to his flow state, Rin entered flow against Bastard München where he is currently competing with Isagi and Kaiser to dominate the game.

Trivia

He says he doesn't cry. His favorite food is ochazuke, especially ochazuke with bream. His favorite manga are Dragon Head and Ciguatera. His favorite animal is the owl. His favorite movie is "The Shining". His favorite song is Prayer X. The first thing he washes when in the bath is his eyes. He is unfriendly or blunt. He is fluent in English. He spends his holiday either by playing horror video games or immersed himself in horror movies. He is not good at calligraphy. If it were his last day on Earth, he would fight with his brother. He doesn't remember how many Valentine chocolates he got last year because he declined all of them and gave them back. His morning routine consists of: opening the window to let in fresh air, taking a deep breath, stretching, morning yoga, meditation, revisiting his feelings of sadness and rage, and finally starting his day. When Rin asked what he does for luck before a showdown, he said, "Think about beating nii-chan [Sae]. I can't lose to all of the other small fry."

Relationship with Sae Itoshi

Sae is his genius and just as arrogant older brother. Sae is regarded as a genius and monster in the professional world despite being a few years older than him. They used to be quite close with each other in their childhood. Sae was admired by Rin and he was the reason Rin started to play football. Sae and Rin used to play together and won many games together, they even made a promise to become the two best strikers in the world. However, they got separated when Sae was scouted to play in the inferiors of the Real Madrid. Four years later, Sae and Rin met again while the last one was training late. Sae then tells him that he will become the best midfielder instead of the best striker of the world, thing that greatly affected Rin since his reason to play football had been his older brother. Sae then challenges Rin to play a 1vs1 and tells him that if he defeats him he will retake that dream with Rin. Sae utterly defeats Rin and says he feels disgusted with him and the football of Japan, also telling Rin to never use him as a reason to play football ever again, leaving his younger brother behind while he stays in the field shocked and later at his home swears to destroy Sae. As a result, Rin became highly and sometimes scarily motivated to defeat his brother in football. He claims that they are not on bad terms but the mere thought and mention of Sae seems to highly upset the usually calm and collected Rin. They haven't seen each other in years, not till the match between Japan U-20 and Blue Lock Eleven. Sae is absolutely indifferent to Rin and doesn't speak to him until they have a 1vs1 in which Sae tells him that he will never be able to defeat him as long as he keeps considering himself as "Sae Itoshi's younger brother". And while Rin tries his best to prove that he is better than his brother, Sae doesn't pay him attention.

Relationship with Yoichi Isagi

Isagi claims Rin is his rival and the person he wants to surpass. Rin said that Isagi is nothing to him, although it is implied that they're at least competitive. Following Blue Lock's win against U-20 Japan brought by Isagi, Rin grew a huge resentment toward Isagi for stealing not only the final goal but also Sae Itoshi's acknowledgment as a true striker (something he craved more than anything else). Rin claming that he will "kill" Isagi, thus making him his primary target, his rival. Throughout the Neo Egoist League, his singular focus was to get stronger so he may finally "kill" Isagi once and for all in the final selection's final match. Ultimately, after finally discovering his ego, Rin no longer saw Isagi as a threat and instead saw him as another stepping stone once more.

Relationship with Ryusei Shidou

Rin has an antagonistic relationship with Ryusei. Despite having nearly the same superior football skills and techniques, Rin and Ryusei can be described as polar opposites and it is extremely difficult for them to play on the same team since they both are top players and egotists who have different approaches to the game. It is very surprising they were not only able to win every game in Third Selection as the main duo of Team A, but also have won every game so far in the Neo Egoist League on PXG. When they are not fighting during the game they are starting physical altercations with Ryusei being the instigator. Ego also stated that they were unable to spark a chemical reaction with each other even once during their matches and thus could never be on the same team together. Their tense opposition made Ego decide to replace Ryusei on the Blue Lock 11 lineup and was a backup wild card of "Joker" just in case Rin Itoshi could no longer play. Out of nowhere, Ryusei was chosen to assist and play with Sae Itoshi in his mission to test out the players and system of the Blue Lock Project, which scorned him even further. Yet, they managed to put aside their hatred towards each other and managed to work well in the Neo Egoist League. Given they were incapable of working well together, both players were given their own respective formation by their Master Striker Julian Loki, as a result both players managed to shine in their respective moments. However, in the final match against Bastard München, they both agreed on Julian's unpredictable plan on having the two of them in the same formation, showing how much growth they've achieved since their first clash.