Warning: Contains spoilers for Blue Lock chapter #303.At long last, Blue Lock is setting the stage for its massive World Cup arc. Everything in the manga has been building to this arc, and with the best players in the world set up as opponents for Blue Lock, it’s bound to go down as one of the best tournament arcs in modern manga, if not the best.

Blue Lock’s World Cup arc will be one for the ages, and it’s already starting on a high note. As the Neo-Egoist League arc came to a close, many fans started drawing theories about how the World Cup arc would play out, especially regarding how Nagi’s elimination from the Blue Lock program would be handled. Fortunately, Blue Lock chapter #303 wasted no time in debunking a major theory about its next arc, and overall, the story will be far better for it.

Blue Lock Makes It Clearer Than Ever That Nagi Isn't Coming Back

Nagi's Time In Blue Lock Is Over

From the very second major Blue Lock character Nagi was eliminated from the program, fans started theorizing on how he could come back, with the biggest idea being that Buratsuta, the one financing the Blue Lock program, would force Ego to bring Nagi back. Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened in chapter #303, but Ego refused to budge on his decision, and with the World Cup now fully underway, Blue Lock chapter #303 is the final establishment that Nagi will not return to the Blue Lock program.

As great as it would have been for Nagi to stick around, everyone asking for it missed the point of his elimination. Nagi’s elimination was the natural result of his ongoing lack of ego, so at the end of the day, Blue Lock reaffirming that Nagi won’t come back means that fans need to treat it far more seriously than they have been. The fact that an intentionally annoying character like Buratsuta was used as a stand-in for fans especially shows how irrational some people are being, and hopefully, this decision will stick.

How Nagi Can Still Have A Part In Blue Lock's Biggest Arc

Nagi Still Might Have A Role To Play In Blue Lock

Despite his failure, the Blue Lock manga is unlikely to get rid of Nagi anytime soon, but that begs the question of how he’ll stick around the story. While Nagi didn’t make the cut for the U-20 team, he just barely missed it by placing 24th, so Blue Lock could keep Nagi around by having him the U-20 team when someone above him drops out of the competition. That would be a very cheap way of keeping Nagi around while not giving him a chance to grow; however, with everything that’s happened, it’s very unlikely.

There’s also the possibility of Nagi abandoning Blue Lock altogether. The Neo-Egoist League gave players the chance to any team that was bidding on them, with Isagi and Yukimiya being directly offered to certain teams at different points, so with that in mind, Nagi could leave Blue Lock to an international team, even though it would inevitably put him in conflict with Blue Lock for the U-20 World Cup. The viability of that idea is also unclear, but given how important Nagi’s realized soccer was to him, it would hardly be out of the question.

Blue Lock's Story Needed To Beat Nagi Down To Make Him Grow

Why Blue Lock's Most Controversial Writing Choice Is Brilliant

Above all else, Blue Lock fans need to understand how important Nagi’s elimination was for his character growth. Nagi was a character who got by primarily on his natural talent, and when he reached the limits of where his talent could take him, his performance got progressively worse while his peers only got better at every turn. Nagi is one of the best players in Blue Lock, but Nagi would never be able to grow as a player unless he realized his way of doing things wasn’t working, and that’s why he had to be eliminated.

Naturally, the manga is already laying the groundwork for Nagi’s development. While Nagi initially seemed fine with his elimination, it wasn’t long before he was brought to tears over the realization that he wanted to keep playing soccer, a scene that paralleled Isagi’s frustrations in the first episode, and now that Nagi has a concrete desire to keep playing soccer, Nagi’s firm love for playing soccer will be what pushes him to fully capitalize on his talent. How that will play out is unclear, but whatever the case, it’s sure to lead to great developments in Blue Lock, going forward.