Rin Itoshi ₊ ᰔ

Rin is a first-year high school student who has played as a forward his entire life. He is the younger brother of Sae Itoshi and he himself is emerging as one of the most promising talents in the football world. Rin's main goal is to become the world's best striker.

Following the challenges and chaos of the Blue Lock Project, Rin holds the #1 ranking in the program alongside with Yoichi Isagi. Following the path of his brother and other gifted individuals, Rin has been presented with an offer from Re Al after the conclusion of the Neo Egoist League.

Rin is a player who loves to play perfectly efficient football but isn’t hesitant to be daring and take surprising risks to fully embrace the live-or-die attitude he has grown fond of and appreciates. Rin once had the aspiration of being the greatest in the world alongside his brother, but after a disagreement, he became obsessed with beating his brother in football to demonstrate he can succeed without him. Nonetheless, participating in Blue Lock unexpectedly made Rin aware of new emotions and concepts, leading him to now play football for his own sake and to the utmost extent, unbothered by the chaos or craziness of his intensely aggressive playing style.

Following the end of the Neo Egoist League, Rin has qualified to become one of the 23 players for the new Japan U-20 entering into the upcoming PIFA U-20 World Cup.

male

16

187 cm

dark green

Turquoise

Itoshi family Sae Itoshi (older brother) Unnamed father Unnamed mother

Student

Blue Lock

Paris X Gen Japan U-20

Forward

Kick Accuracy Spatial Awareness Off the Ball Movements Dribbling Puppet Control Flow State Predator Eye

Rin is a tall 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.

As a child, Rin was quite naïve and admired his brother, Sae, desiring nothing more than to be a strong and impressive player like him. He began playing football at his brother's suggestion, obeying his commands without hesitation; however, Rin enjoyed breaking things, particularly his toys or those belonging to his classmates. While watching a superhero film, he was less interested in the primary hero and more fascinated by the final antagonist, believing that battling a more powerful foe and ultimately being defeated was impressive. He conveyed his wish to fight formidable foes, defeat them, and perish. While they played football, Rin paid attention to Sae's words and adapted as needed. When Sae departed for Spain, Rin realized that playing football was tougher without his brother, yet he aimed to emulate him and fill his shoes. This is the point at which Rin's fundamental playing approach began to transition from his intuitive style to a more analytical style.At first, he was an excellent team player and leader for his middle school squad, seeming to have a friendly relationship with several of his teammates. Nevertheless, because of his conflict with his brother, he has turned distant, curt, and excessively solemn. He is completely absorbed in soccer, to a nearly obsessive extent, and is quite self-centered, as he consistently prioritizes his ambitions over the aspirations of others. Rin takes great pride in being a striker, to the point of arrogance, as he often labels others' soccer abilities and mindsets as "lukewarm" or "mediocre". These mannerisms and actions originate from his brother; in trying to imitate him, Rin mirrors his speech and adopts his mentality.

Rin appears to have little respect for anyone. He will recognize you only if you possess a prominent and bothersome skill or impact on the soccer field. He seems to have no friends, just competitors, with only Isagi and Bachira appearing to be on more or less equal footing with him.

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.

Isagi claims that Rin is his rival and the person he wants to surpass. Rin stated that Isagi is nothing to him, although it is implied that they're at least competitive. Following Blue Lock's victory against U-20 Japan, achieved by Isagi, Rin developed a deep 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 claimed that he would "kill" Isagi, thus making him his primary target and rival. Throughout the Neo Egoist League, his singular focus was to become stronger so he could finally "kill" Isagi once and for all in the final selection's last match. Ultimately, after finally discovering his ego, Rin arrogantly no longer viewed Isagi as a threat, but rather as another stepping stone, which resulted in his humiliating defeat, when Isagi scored the winning goal against him. This made him acknowledge that Isagi has evolved into Blue Lock's "Demon King" and the epitome of what it means to be a "Neo-Egoist".

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.

Neo Egoist League (ネオエゴイストリーグ, Neo Egoisuto Rīgu?) is the final selection of the Blue Lock Project in preparation for the U-20 World Cup.

The Blue Lock Project (青い監獄ブルーロックプロジェクト, Burū Rokku Purojekuto?), or Player Improvement Project, is a special soccer project created by Jinpachi Ego and funded by the Japan Football Union with the intention of developing not only the best striker in the world, but a solitary hero for Japan that would lead the nation into finally winning the World Cup using Ego's extreme training regimens and coaching. Additionally, anyone who loses at Blue Lock would forever lose the right to play for Japan.

The Japan U-20 (or Japan National Under-20 Football Team) is a national association team of Japan of players who are under the age of 20 and is controlled by the Japan Football Association.

Paris X Gen (パリ エクス ジェン, Pari Ekusu Jen?) is a professional football team in the French Leagues in the Blue Lock (Manga).

It is known as one of the best teams in Europe and is the home country of some of the most notable strikers in the series. PXG is a team that is known for its talent and potential above all else. Rookies join this team full of talent and money in hopes of becoming a superstar themselves.