Zane Amano

Zane Amano (天野ザネ *Amano Zane*) is the protagonist in Blue Lock, New World God.

Amano is a young man, who played as a offensive midfielder for the community football team. When he arrived at the Blue Lock facility, he became a member of Team Z for the First Selection. His main goal is to become the greatest striker of all time.

After the Blue Lock Eleven played against the Japan U-20, Amano is ranked as one of the top players in Blue Lock and plays as an forward on Bastard München during the Neo Egoist League.

Unlike his fellow competitors who were handpicked by Anri Teieri after watching them play, Amano, like Isagi, was chosen personally by Jinpachi Ego himself after seeing him play. Amano is an ideal candidate for the type of striker Ego strives to create.

## Appearance

Amano is a tall teenager with a lean and muscular build, developing a stronger, more defined looking physique. He has short messy black hair that is slightly combed to the right and ocean blue eyes.

At Blue Lock, Amano wears the standard-issued body suit (black with blue stripes) and tracksuit. During the First Selection, he wore Team Z's blue #15 jersey and wears Team Z's gray-capped cleats. During the Second Selection, he wore Team White's #10 jersey and later switched to blue. He then later switched to Team A's black #10 jersey and Team C's white #10 jersey during the Blue Lock Eleven tryouts. Amano dons an official blue colored Blue Lock player uniform with the #15, that looks very similar to the ones seen in the first cover spread minus the Japan flag during the Japan U-20 match. As a regular for Team Germany, Amano wears the red and black with gold stripes Bastard München uniform as #15.

## Personality

Amano is easygoing and has a generally friendly, cheery personality, but his simple and lazy habits often get on the nerves of the people around him. He likes to help others on his team, though his eccentric and competitive playstyle often leave him in high stake challenges. At the beginning of Blue Lock, Amano is massively unsure of himself and his skill due to being the third lowest ranked player in Blue Lock initially and his conflicting ideas of football. As time goes on, Amano develops a more assertive presence on and off the field, becoming part of the foundation for Team Z and garnering the respect of some of the best players in Blue Lock who mostly have heavily assertive or dominant personalities.

In contrast to his friends, Amano was quick to accept the ideology of Blue Lock having never been "dulled" by the Japanese ideology. After the loss against Team X and with subsequent wins thereafter, Amano became more confident and aggressive in his playstyle needed to survive in Blue Lock. As times goes on he becomes willing to step on the plans and dreams of his opponents and teammates in order to score a goal and go further in Blue Lock. When it comes to football, he is ambitious and calculated, willing to change and adapt, to get the right "chemical reactions" out of his teammates, to stay a step ahead of their opponents, and ultimately be the best player on the field, staying true to his commitment to becoming the world's best striker. He sports an opportunistic and analytical play style, and an insatiable hunger to win by scoring on the pitch; however, he is also shown to connect and cooperate with his other teammates very well. Importantly, Amano has often valued and recognized the strengths of others' play, but as he proceeds through Blue Lock, he is able to identify and harness his own strengths to score.

Upon his second meeting with Rin, Amano further believes that Rin would never win in the long run as he attempted to try the same tactics again. Amano is still prone to being nervous before his between his matches such as: During the Second Selection, the beginning of Third Selection or the Japan U-20 match and was slightly nervous whilst being interviewed after his decisive goal. However, in each case Amano was able to fully realize his ego, and confidently stake his place among the best in Blue Lock, declaring that he would lead the Japan U-20 to victory in the World Cup.

After the beginning of the Neo Egoist League, Amano's ego is much more noticeable than before, feeling completely insulted when Yukimiya questioned Isagi's decision to make a pass despite not playing himself making Amano so heated he called him "blind to reality". The conversation enraged Amano and nearly provoked him to the point of getting into a fight with Yukimiya inside of the dressing room. He is also entirely capable of showing frustration when things doesn't go like he planned, in the Bastard München vs Ubers match he was frustrated when he attempted to stop Baro's shot.

## Abilities

### Archetype

* **Creative Forward**: Creative forwards are strikers who are able to create goal-scoring opportunities for the team or themselves, often in situations where nothing seems likely. They can link up with and play in others, fashion chances for themselves, finish off team moves and hold up the ball.

Amano creates ideal plays and chance opportunities by using his spatial awareness to view the field as a whole and the players on it. With his understanding of all the players, he uses his off-the-ball movements to occupy empty spaces or create dangerous ones to form ideal plays for his teammates, chance opportunities using his teammates, and to score high-level goals for himself. Mixed with his reflex and enhanced vision, Amano is able to create plays only possible for himself or others able to understand his plays. Due to his relationships and game time with most of the prominent Blue Lock players, Isagi is able to bring the best out of his teammates by either forcing them to perform plays so he can attack or by pushing themselves to exceed Amano's evolving skill. By the time of the Neo Egoist League, players are willing to follow or use as a guide Amano's style of play, cementing his place at the top of Blue Lock.

## Skills

* **Perfect Ball Control**: The ability to control an awkward bouncing ball quickly and effectively gives the player with the ball the immediate advantage. His control is so advanced that near impossible for him to outright steal the ball in a one-on-one. Amano has exceptional ball control and demonstrates it constantly by setting up traps and scoring with near pinpoint accuracy. He constantly scores high-level shots, especially in unfavorable positions, when under pressure from tough opponents. One of his most impressive feats is when he performed a fake volley shot.
	+ **Elastic Dribbling**: This dribbling style relies on his supreme technique and creativity to get through other players' defenses.
	+ **Chop Feint**: A feint wherein Amano uses their off foot to shield the ball while knocking the ball in the other direction with their other foot, effectively misdirecting the opposing player.
	+ **Heel Flick**: Amano overcomes the opponent's defense by flicking the ball up and over them and recovering the ball on its landing, demonstrating strong technical ability.
	+ **Marseille Turn**: In order to get around an opponent, Amano stops the ball with the outside of his foot, shielding the ball from his opponent, before performing a roulette to turn past them.
	+ **Counter-dribbling**: Switching to a "passive" dribbling, Amano observes the defender's rhythm and motions before flowing past them in a counter. Amano's dribbling allows him to effortlessly blow past the likes of Isagi and Bachira within one fluid movement.
	+ **Elastico Nutmeg**: Amano performs a regular elastico to nutmeg a defender and go past them.
	+ **Rabona Nutmeg**: A technique where a player kicks the ball, with their kicking leg crossed behind their standing leg. Amano can use this technique to play the ball between an opponent's legs, before passing them.

* **Impact Shot**: An accurate and powerful shot, where Amano lands a strong kick perfectly on the ball's impact point, which launches the ball forward at high speeds. Due to his ball control, Amano doesn't have to overthink his positioning and next move and can just score a clean shot with no interference. It was noted by Nagi that Amano has no wasted motion when performing his shot, implying that Amano performs it with flawless technique and control.
	+ **Scissor Kick**: An acrobatic strike where Amano jumps parallel to the ground and launches the ball into the goal.
	+ **Bicycle Kick**: An acrobatic strike where a player jumps up in the air flipping around and kicking an airborne ball backwards in midair.
	+ **Trivela (Shot)**: Amano uses the outside of his foot putting spin on the ball, the ball curves nearly 90° before flying into the goal. Amano is able to do this and score from outside the penalty area, as demonstrated against Ubers.
	+ **Impact Drive**: Amano kicks the up into the air putting a forward spin on it, then the ball curves down over the goalie into the back of the goal. This shot was powerful and fast enough to score from outside the penalty area with little reaction from the other players on the field.

* **Spatial Awareness**: Amano instinctually begins to analyze the entire field, giving him a vast understanding of the game, including his opponents and teammates' weapons. Based on this understanding, this allows him to make complex plans. His spatial awareness is among the highest in Blue Lock, often rivaling and sometimes surpassing other player's own visions, such as Niko or Rin, but Isagi's is superior.
	+ **Adaptability**: By understanding the core of both his teammates and opponents football, Amano can adapt his style to either devour or counter their talent. Amano has "devoured" Baro's unpredictable movements and lack of ability to exploit his own blind spots, adapted so he could devour Rin's expert planning.
	+ **Spacing**: By reading the weapon of his opponent, as well as the positions of other players on the field, Amano spaces himself in such a way as to allow for him to predict and respond.

* **Off-the-Ball Movements**: A term used to describe the moments where players are not in possession of the ball. Amano uses these moments to position himself where he can always receive a pass, whether in his opponents' or teammates' blind spots.
	+ **Positioning**: Amano has incredible positioning, constantly moving to areas where he can receive the ball in space and still be able to score a goal.

* **Metavision**: A term used to describe a player's evolved vision that gives them an omnipotent perspective of the field. Using his eyes to constantly take in information from his central and peripheral vision, Amano constantly collects data on every player, every play they make, and their positions on the field. After analyzing Michael Kaiser's goal formula, Amano adopted Kaiser's transcendent use of his vision into his own style of play and mixed with his spatial awareness, positioning, and reflex Amano is able to swiftly predict and shut down the plays of some of the best players in Blue Lock and even one of the best strikers in the world and further create ideal situations for his own goals using his teammates in a way that is only possible for him.
	+ **Meta Focus Point**: By "taking a step back and watching everyone," Amano, using his Metavision, can near-perfectly predict the movements of all players and the ball on the field, allowing him to position himself. He used this skill to great effect in the game against Manshine City.

* **Reflex**: Amano is able to reflexively take into account his position and his opponents to leverage his weapons for an ideal shot and or determine where the greatest threat is.
	+ **Total Defense**: By combining his Off-the-Ball Movements and Spatial Awareness, Amano is able to predict, react to and intercept any ball played into the defensive third. This was used to incredible effect against Ubers' highly coordinated assaults.

* **Flow State**: Flow, as described by Ego, the immerse state of total aggressive focus 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.
	+ **Instinct**: In this state Amano enters a state of calmness as his body moves on its own to make movements and plays while using the least amount of stamina as physically possible. This was first used in his duel against Chris Prince, allowing Amano to quickly defeat the professional striker.
* **Immense Stamina**: Amano is able to operate at full capacity throughout the entire game, whereas most players would sooner or later begin to feel the burn of the endgame.

## Trivia

* His blood type is A.
* His hometown is Saitama.
* His foot size is 30.48 cm.
* He has 1.9 vision is both eyes.
* His dominant leg is his right side.
* His favorite football players are Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar Jr.
* He started playing football at the age of 5.
* He thinks his strong point is his adaptability and his quick growth and thinks that his weak point is he doesn't really know how to talk to people.
* His favorite food is cheeseburgers. His least favorite food is Suppon.
* He thinks the best thing to have with rice is chicken katsu.
* His hobby is reading new manga and learning new football skills.
* His favorite season is autumn.
* He doesn't have a favorite song.
* His favorite movies are 13 Assassins and The Twilight Samurai.
* His favorite manga are Black Clover and Dragon Ball because he really enjoys the incredible fights.
* His favorite color is purple-pink and royal blue.
* His character color is electric blue.
* His favorite animal is the ezo red fox cause he thinks its cute.
* His favorite subjects are PE and science and his worst subject is math.
* He's attracted to large thighs, big butts and overall curvy bodies.
* He likes having friendly challenges with his friends. He doesn't like it when someone thinks their better than him without reason.
* His ideal type is someone who's kind, strong and has a wonderful smile.
* He swears he once read a basketball manga called "Red Chain".
* The first thing he washes when in the bath is his body.
* His father, who was born and raised in America, taught Amano the basics on how to speak English.
* The last time he cried was when he found out his parents died.
* He received Christmas presents from Santa until he was 8 years old. The last thing that he asked for from Santa was PlayStation 4 Pro.
* If it were his last day on Earth, he would lay down in the grass alone and watch the clouds on a partially cloudy day.
* If he received 100 million yen (~$739,000), he would donate a fourth of it to various homeless shelters.
* He spends his days off playing video games, reading manga, watching anime, or casually messing around with a football.