How Barou became the King of Blue Lock: A Comprehensive Analysis
To be King. For Barou Shouei, football isn’t just a sport, but a way to become the King.
And for what it’s worth, Barou will always have this persona, he will always be the King of Blue Lock. The recent chapters have made it clear that although there are plenty of geniuses, the King is Barou and Barou alone, as we saw right before the match between “Bastard Munchen” and “Ubers.”
Barou currently has the highest offer out of all the players in Blue Lock, which is 100 Million Yen per year. This amount is twice as much as our protagonist, Isagi Yoichi.
Granted, Rin and Shido have played one less match but the manga has made the point it was trying to make that Barou is and always will be the King.
In this post we’re going to explore his character arc and how he evolved from a dictator to a real king.
You see, Barou Shoei had always been the field’s leading actor. He had enough talent that he genuinely believed it was true…
When it came to soccer, he saw everyone else as mere supporting characters. And in his favor, all of his teammates acted like that. They always praised him and expressed how glad they are to be on his team. So much so that Barou eventually gave up on trying to understand others.
That’s why, the only thing he really cared about was improving himself.
But it can’t be that simple, right?
The thing is, Barou genuinely enjoyed the feeling of dragging others off the stage. He played soccer merely for the pleasure of feeling superior. Sounds childish, but aren’t most of the reasons humans pursue things childish in nature?
However, in chapter 64, for the first time in forever, the King was dragged from the lead role.
His instincts screamed: he could feel it in his soul that the lead role right now is Isagi, not him. That’s why he ended up doing something that he previously thought was impossible. He passed to someone. He passed to Isagi. Albeit, automatically and unconsciously.
Unlike his characters, he surrendered the ball to Isagi, which is kind of a surrender of himself.
Barou had been completely dragged off the stage. He has suffered a brutal, humiliating loss.
Now, obviously, passing to your teammate is what you do when you play football, but since this is Blue Lock, the context behind giving a pass has been blown out of proportion, especially in Barou’s case.
For someone like him to surrender the ball to someone else was not a joke.
The moment he made that pass, he wallowed in despair, and realized that Blue Lock’s lead actor is Isagi.
“I’m not a King after all.”
That’s what Barou says to himself.
So dramatic, I know.
In fact, when the ball returned to his majesty’s feet, however, he had accepted that he isn’t the lead role, things had changed. His perspective had widened but he also felt himself shrinking.
Isagi and Nagi were shining too brightly in comparison to him after all.
This is where Barou finally realized how all of his teammates felt, how Naruhaya felt when he had to pass to him.
He was going to do it.
Barou was going to pass again, but his conscience stopped him.
This was a crossroad - it wasn’t logical, it was his intuition.
If he made this pass, everything would end.
If he entrusts the ball to them, he may get saved for now, but that is just a way to escape reality for those whose dreams have been shattered and don’t want their lives negated.
This realization is followed by a scene of an old Barou watching Isagi shine on the World Stage while drinking a can of beer.
Think about it, guys.
Barou hates passing so much that just the thought alone gave him glimpses of future PTSD.
And so, on this crossroads, instead of passing to Isagi or Nagi, Barou awakens, he rejects the future his conscience just showed him and chooses to carve his own path to the goal.
Chapter 66 is when Barou becomes a Villain.
He’ll steal the ball from his teammates if he has to, he’ll devour them if he has to, but he will make his way to the goal all by himself.
In hindsight, Barou’s loss to Isagi was symbolic.
He added the villain role to his philosophy and also matured as a player.
Which brings us to the second half of this analysis.
In chapter 216 of the manga, Marc Snuffy declares that out of all the strikers in Blue Lock, heck, in the entire Neo Egoist League, Barou’s mindset and specs boast the highest numbers as a striker.
It was hard for Snuffy to convince Barou to try out his philosophy.
After all, Barou doesn’t want to compromise on his philosophy, not even if he is talking to a world class Striker.
In his mind, the one who’ll have to adjust is Marc Snuffy, not him.
This is Barou we’re talking about, a guy so deeply, so firmly obsessed with his Kingly ways that there is no room for a compromise. None.
When Marc tells him the story of how his best friend ended up taking his own life because he wasn’t the same genius he once used to be, Barou remains resolute in his conviction.
Marc Snuffy asks him,
“Will you be able to love yourself when you are no longer viewed as a genius?”,
and then invites him to be his successor.
But Barou refuses.
After all, he is different from Snuffy or his friend, and he sure as hell isn’t a coward who is afraid of the future.
Notice how there is a stark contrast here in Chapter 215-216 in comparison to what we saw happen in Chapter 66.
Barou’s character sure has come a long way.
Or should I say, it has finally been actualized.
But later, Lorenzo’s story about how Marc saved him from the streets and turned him into a world class defender, especially Lorenzo’s words about how “Marc won’t abandon the less fortunate” catch Barou’s interest.
He decides to give it a shot.
He’ll work with Marc, but not to become his successor.
Rather, he’ll become a striker that surpasses Marc.
Marc will help him become King of the footballing world.
Talk about ambitious.
Barou refines and evolves under Marc’s guidance.
All in all, Marc’s guidance and Barou’s innate nature result in the current Ubers.
A team with super high-level teamwork, and a team that serves Barou as their one true striker.
The same Barou that once wallowed in despair just because he gave up the ball to someone else is now shining in front of the world as the key striker of Italy’s Ubers during the Neo Egoist League.
Barou’s enhanced specs.
Not to mention, his split-second blindshot that has only been made possible because Ubers are capable of such high level teamwork. This is what has resulted in the current Barou being worth 100 Million Yen.
Kind of smells like we’re talking about One Piece bounties.
Overall, Barou is a character that has interested me since day one.
Think about it.
Does Barou really have a special weapon other than his mentality other than his one burning desire to be King?
He doesn't have eagle eyes like Isagi.
His shots aren’t as precise as Rin’s nor are they as powerful as Kaiser’s, but as Marc Snuffy said, he still holds the highest specs out of anyone in the league. This is simply because of all the work Barou has put into himself over the years.
Yes, it’s not some one-of-a-kind talent. It’s simply hard work.
Doesn’t matter if he is inside or outside the field, he is still the same King.
The man is a perfectionist after all.
It’s going to be super interesting to see how Isagi ultimately overcomes the current Barou. For what it’s worth, we’re still in the middle of their match at the time of the writing of this post.
If you’re from the future, you may be grinning or laughing hysterically, but I’m hundred percent sure that Barou will continue being the King till the end of the story and beyond.
He was born to play this role.
So there you have it guys, this was a comprehensive analysis on how Barou became the King of Blue Lock.
That’s all folks.
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