nagi seishiro and his unstable self image -an analysis
nagi's self image isnt just a straightforward 'im amazing' or 'im worthless' . its ever changing and alternating.
the first thing i want to note is how throughout episode nagi , but also a little bit in the main manga, we see nagi struggle with identifying his feelings, what he truly desires, his ego — everything, really. (im not gonna go into details of why this might be, thats for another time) but these moments presented to us already gives us an idea that nagi already has a shaky sense of his own self which i believe will correlate to everything im about to say next.
for someone presented as an unbothered king that does not care about anything, i think its very interesting how interested he seems to be in finding out the essence of his being, who he truly is etc. he's still trying to figure out who he is — unlike all his peers who seem to have their goals sorted out already. but i digress, lets move on.
arrogance + self centeredness
i know those adjectives sound negative, but i promise you its not like that. nagi is arrogant to a certain degree, and arguably quite self centered and heres why i think so:
firstly, he's a soccer genius. despite playing for only a few months at the time(start of bluelock), he had never lost a single match. this likely made him quite confident in his skills, as he even straight up said to ego that he can easily imagine scoring the winning goal at the world cup — which is no easy feat and a bold claim on his part.
and mind you, he wasnt always fired up about soccer in the beginning. he only did after finally losing a match. he has said multiple times he craves the feeling of winning, rather than soccer. winning is what gets him fired up, because according to him, it makes him feel like "a god" and that gives him pleasure. i feel this really ties in to the self centered part of him , in a way.
there is a lot more i can think of really, but this is getting long. tldr nagi has an arrogant streak to him and he likes to feel like he's the best (he doesnt like losing & craves feeling like a god)
self doubt and self loathing — insecurity
despite him being arrogant and feeling like hes the best at times, he can also do a complete 180 and feel like he's the most worthless being in the planet ( hence, unstable self image)
we first see his self-doubt and insecurities depicted as he asked reo multiple times throughout the manga if reo ever plans to replace him. he even once stated he thinks reo is weird for putting up with him — which tells us he has some sort of underlying insecurity of the way he acts. this is a stark contrast to the confident nagi we often see on the field ( however for his last match — we did see him shaken up and worried )
but what about his self loathing?
after getting locked off, he blamed himself. the same nagi who once felt like a god and carried arrogance for his soccer abilities blaming himself. he called himself disgusting and a creep just for wanting to go back. even going as far as to say 'you make me sick' to himself. and again, this is such a huge contrast to the previous panels. from 'i can easily envision scoring the winning goal in the world cup' a statement filled with confidence and cockiness, to directing the hateful words of 'how uncool can you be? you make me sick.' to himself.
to conclude, nagi has a very poor sense of identity and a self image that is constantly shifting, which i think makes him stand out especially since these shifts are pretty drastic. and when you consider the fact that him being unfazed by most things is a highlight of his character on a surface level, it rlly makes this whole thing even more ironic











