Side Character Spiral: Shouei Barou

The best thing about the unexpected is that it's, well, unexpected.

The first post I ever wrote here at MangaCraft included a hefty segment where I shouted about my love of Shouei Barou, from Blue Lock. And Barou is a unique case because I felt like I was in his arc with him. When he first joined the story, I hated him. He was so one-dimensional and predictable. Unlike Genya, he didn’t inspire a greater curiosity. He was just… annoying.

But then the slightest thing changed. When he found himself on a team with Blue Lock protagonist Isagi, we learned that Barou is a clean freak. He needed everything neat and tidy and strictly enforced this. It wasn’t explicitly an unexpected trait, we weren’t led to believe one thing or another about his personal hygiene, but to see him have any trait other than selfish was a keen reminder that every character is going to have layers whether we see them or not. And Barou’s first layer had just been revealed.

Character of the Day: Shouei Barou, Blue Lock

Minor Blue Lock spoilers ahead.

So we’ve already kinda gotten into it, even with this swanky header introducing today’s character, but my man Barou is coming to life. After being revealed as a clean freak, something I definitely associate with myself, Barou begins to unwind a bit, realizing that if he wants to be the best soccer player, he has to keep learning, improving, and—the word of the series—devouring.

Now what makes this stand out is that, while he does back off his stolid determination and selfishness just slightly, he never loses it. If anything, he actually fortifies it, but in the right places. He will bulldoze anyone and everyone to accomplish his goals. Literally. Only now he sees how he can use others.

That may not sound all that intuitive, but let me assure you that it actually kind of is. A character who is both unchanging and changing? That’s Barou. But that’s not where it ends. Underneath all of that are two things. The first is a stern humor in his reluctance to relent even as he technically relents (a little), which pairs so well with the rugged determination that’s rampant at Blue Lock.

The second thing, though, is in his surprise appearance when the crew goes bowling. Turns out Barou is a master bowler, and it doesn’t dig any deeper than that. As soon as the bowling is over, Barou essentially gets forgotten about again. Remember this panel, my favorite of all time?

Which is what makes Barou Blue Lock’s tonal secret weapon. His surprises. Everyone has established quirks, traits and behaviors. Nagi is lazy and plays video games, for instance. So everything that Nagi does is couched in that. Barou is the anti-Nagi. He is constantly popping up, doing things you wouldn’t expect. Well, I shouldn’t say constantly. It’s happened twice, but the series is still so young that it’s setting up the expectation that, when you least expect it, Barou will be there, doing something new. Probably also something at least mildly funny and unexpected.

What does all this mean?

Characters who are surprising are very often the characters that linger. They’re the ones we remember because they’re the ones that present the opportunity to see something different than what we expect. Which is pretty much the definition of surprising, pardon the redundancy.

But the thing about creating a surprising character is that, it isn’t in their ability to unexpectedly appear, or reaffirm something we know they’re capable of, that makes them enjoyable, but rather their ability to do something you don’t expect them to be doing, without us having a reason to think they couldn’t do that particular thing.

That may have sounded convoluted.

An example. Meelo, from The Legends of Korra. The youngest Airbender, maybe the first fartbender, and not altogether a surprising character once you get to know him. But there’s a moment that will forever live in my brain. I don’t remember the specifics and I’m not going to go find this moment but the gist is that Meelo is asked to sketch someone. As viewers, we know Meelo. He is constantly farting and snotting, which sets the bar low for what we may expect from his artistic prowess.

But then he shows his sketch and it’s this gorgeous pencil drawing that looks even better than the show animation because it’s realistic and lifelike.

Coming from Meelo.

The fartbender.

While outlandishly hilarious, we also have to ask ourselves, have we ever been lead to believe that he didn’t have that ability? Not at all.

That is the kind of surprise that induces readers/viewers to have a strong, lasting reaction, and that is the kind of surprise that Shouei Barou is proving himself capable of.

Now, I’ll add that the drawback to writing about a character in a series that hasn’t finished is that… things could change. For better or worse. But as it stands, Barou is uniquely situated as a vessel of the unexpected in a story that has a lot of the expected. Not in a bad way, it’s just a byproduct of the story, but in a way that goes against the grain in all the right ways.

So what do we take from Barou? Exactly this: just like plot twists, character surprises reenergize readers. It gives them something else to think about. It shows them something else that your characters are capable of, but also that you’re capable of. Because Barou is capable of surprises, it makes me wonder who else might be capable of surprises.