500 likesBlue Lock Chapter 350: Coach Ego Benches Rin, the Team's Untouchable No. 1
Blue Lock's latest chapter (350) had coach Jinpachi Ego go fully unhinged again — benching Itoshi Rin, the series' perennial No. 1, right after Japan's loss to France, while Isagi volunteered for the bench himself. The most-liked Japanese reactions split three ways: a genuine re-reading of Ego's philosophy (the top comment realizes his "if you doubt me" line isn't "if you can't follow my theory" but "if you don't believe Blue Lock can make you the world's best"); a wave of dark glee at the untouchable Rin finally getting dropped; and a flood of in-jokes only Japanese readers catch — most of all the panel parodying "The one who's cut is Kaz, Kazu Miura," the coach's infamous real-life line dropping the national-team king from the 1998 World Cup squad. The recurring theme was relief: after months of "this had turned into a normal soccer manga," fans felt Blue Lock remember it was always supposed to be an insane death game, and it lands on the kind of one-line verdict that only a Japanese fan refreshing the chapter at midnight would write.