Review
Alright, so today we are back with Blue Lock, and we will go over chapter 252, which is pretty insane. So be sure to stick to the end to see what happens.
Recap of the Previous Chapter
So let’s begin by reading the text at the top, which will help us remember what happened in the last chapter. It says: “Hori perfectly reads Rin’s intentions and swoops in to make the block, with the game getting more chaotic by the second. Who will emerge as the frontrunner for the game’s protagonist?”
Chapter Highlights
Now let’s get into chapter 252, with the ball still high up in the air from Hiori’s save. Look at that, even in the sky, Ri and Isagi can’t just seem to let go of each other. Raise screams at the team to get to the ball before PXG does, and Nanasi doesn’t really know what he is doing, but we will let it slide as he had an amazing performance in the last chapter.
Isagi is getting on his feet and says that Hori is amazing and that he actually managed to read Rin’s plan. Hori saw that Isagi was most likely going to lose to Rin, and without any wasted moves, he moved to block the shot course. Isagi thinks that it’s because he understands his playstyle that they are able to move and act so effectively.
Isagi says that ever since the match started, everyone has hit their top gear. As a result, all of their plays are super high level, and everyone has actually managed to play exactly how they imagined that they would. It looks like Isagi has stars in his eyes as he says that it’s amazing and that this is without a doubt the greatest match that he has ever played.
Key Moments in the Match
Now, let’s get away from Miyagi and see who actually managed to pick up the second ball. It’s none other than the crow himself, Karas Taito, who, despite having Nes and Hori on his tail, manages to trap the ball with his chest flawlessly. Kaassu smiles as he looks at Hori and tells him that he’s gotten more aggressive since the last time the two of them met.
Hori, who is trying to focus on getting the ball back, asks if Kaassu hates it. However, Kaassu says that he doesn’t hate it at all but instead tells Hori that he sure took his time getting to this point and calls him a slowpoke—a real backhanded compliment.
Now that they have stopped flirting with each other, we see Reich, who says that PXG is coming towards them and tells Bastard Munchchon to stay alert for which system they are attacking them with. Isagi is looking at Kaassu and says that he needs to predict it and quickly figure out the best possible football that everyone can produce.
At this moment, he basically wants to see where everyone would position themselves and play if they were at their peak. Hori is closing in on Kaassu, but just then, he passes the ball backward, which no one saw coming. We then see Loki sitting comfortably in his master chair as he says that right now, everyone is hyper-focused on the situation in front of the goal, and that this is the perfect moment for a trickster like Charles to come into play, which is exactly what is happening.
The back pass from Kaassu was directed for no one else than Charles, who was right behind Hori and Kaassu. Charles has this immense and intense aura around him as he, of course, has one of his teeth sticking out like everyone in Blue Lock. But I would like to say that Corona started that trend anyway.
Charles says that it’s time to wreak havoc on his devilish content, and we can clearly see in Isagi’s face that he knows they are doomed as he says that they were so focused on themselves and reading the situation that they totally lost track of the Playmaker of PXG—Charles.
The Turning Point
And now with him loose, he is beginning to load up a pass. We can even see that his eyes begin to almost spin. A quick side note: why do his eyes look so insanely cool right now? They honestly look like they are spinning. Anyway, Charles finally passes, and it goes through four Bastard Munch players and is headed to Rin, who is still in his battle with Asagggi.
But just as the pass goes right by them, the ball suddenly starts to float over them. Both Rin and Isagi are shocked, and Isagi says that Charles passed a lob pass with the perfect amount of backspin and that he wasn’t aiming for Ri at all. The ball is still soaring through the air, and Isagi says that he could have never expected a 30-meter-long pass, but if it’s not Ri, he wonders what it’s for. It seems like he forgot the literal demon of Blue Lock who is running for his life towards the ball.
Isagi still can’t believe it as he says that Shida is the only one who reacted to Charles’s pass and wonders if they practiced this beforehand. But then he notices something important, which he himself can’t believe at first. He sees that Shida isn’t even looking at the ball, meaning that Charles and Shida basically did what Isagi and Hijri did for the last goal in the users’ game.
Even Charles himself is a bit surprised as he says that someone actually caught up to his past. After that, Shida looks back for the first time and is also surprised that it actually came exactly as he wanted it to. As this is going down, Isagi wants to have a timeout to process all of this as he wonders how they managed to do this, saying that they didn’t even make eye contact. He thinks that it might be improvised and that it might be the result of both of them being able to bring out their best simultaneously.
The Spectacular Goal
After that, we finally leave Isagi, who talked a bit too much about this chapter, and instead go over to the demon who was able to jump just in time and get a header. Real quick, why does Shida look so majestic when he is literally in the sky? Just look at him! Bro even got his own wings on his back. Anyway, Shida’s header goes into the goal flawlessly as Gagamaru tried, but understandably couldn’t save that sort of goal.
And with that, Shida has just managed to get PXG’s first goal of the game, which puts them in the lead. And I know that I said that Shida looked really majestic in the chapter before, but why does he look so goofy here? It looks like he is just going to split down onto the ground after this. Anyway, it looks like Isagi has realized something as he says: “So that’s the key to winning this match!” The key is that they are going to have to consistently clash and cross their visions of themselves as the best players in the world.
After that, we see both Shida and Charles celebrating their spectacular goal, with both of them speaking in emojis for some really weird reason. With Charles saying a demon face emoji and Shida a heart emoji. I guess that sounded so goddamn weird saying, but we move. I forgot to say, but both of them of course have their tongues out. You know, just normal Blue Lock stuff over here.
Conclusion and Thoughts
The text at the bottom says: “Taking advantage of the chaos, Charles gets loose and unleashes a killer pass to Shida, who fires it in the back of the net to open the scoring. In this unpredictable match, the key to victory is being able to clash and cross the best winning vision they can come up with.”
I can’t find what the next chapter is going to be called, so I can’t speculate on it, but I’m sure that it will be awesome like this one. Anyway, let’s get into this crazy chapter and let’s start from the top with Karas and Hori. Every time I see these two having some sort of interaction, I just love it. It might be because of how much impact Karas had on Hiori’s life, and you could call him the reason he is still here and fighting.
Seeing them now just going at each other but still keeping a friendly spirit, unlike Ri and Isagi, is refreshing. I’m also glad that Hijri found his spark before this match so that Karas can really feel what Hori goes for, because before, it was Kaassu who was ahead of them, but now they are definitely more of an even match. I just love how well the character developments have been put into place.
Hori has progressed so much from the days of just simply being a support role, and now he is not just a person who is placed onto the field to only pass the ball. No, he is definitely a key player on the team, and I believe that they could really rely on him to do some work.
Now for Isagi. My boy has got a lot on his plate and is going to have to figure out how to do it with all of this commotion. The first key is to realize what happened. In the last match, he had the best one-on-one with Ri, but now they have to reconsider all of their strategies. This will become a challenge for Isagi to handle with everyone else shining in the limelight.
And of course, we have to take into consideration Shida, who is going to need to grow even more. He needs to have more moments to shine to really justify the sort of position he is in, but I would definitely like to see how far he can go. It’s nice to see all of these players growing up, and now that I think about it, the fact that every time Isagi believes that he can finally take a breath, something new comes around and he gets flung right back into the competition.
As for Charles, he is going to be a wild card in this game, and it’s nice to see how he moves to adapt to his environment. It has always been easy for him to read everything, and now that he has actually been able to produce that sort of play, I’m curious to see how Isagi reacts. But ultimately, my overall thoughts are just how amazing this chapter was. The excitement levels have definitely gone up, and I’m excited to see what happens next. But what do you all think? Let me know in the comments!