Crunchyroll to Stream BLUELOCK Season 2 Anime – News

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Crunchyroll announced during its panel at Anime Expo on Saturday that it will stream the second television anime season based on Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yūsuke Nomura‘s BLUELOCK soccer manga.

Crunchyroll will stream the anime in North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East, and CIS.

The anime will debut on October 5, and will air on a new programming block on TV Asahi that will air on Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. The programming block is titled IM Animation.

New cast members include Eiji Mikami as Yo Hiori, Kakeru Hatano as Nijiro Nanase, Satoshi Hino as Oliver Aiku, and Akihisa Wakayama as Shūto Sendō.

The anime’s 24-episode first season premiered in Japan in October 2022 on TV Asahi and its affiliates in the NUMAnimation programming block. Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired, and is also streaming an English dub.

The anime film of Kōta Sannomiya‘s BLUELOCK -Episode Nagi- spinoff manga premiered in Japan on April 19. The film sold 337,000 tickets to earn 463 million yen (about US$2.99 million) in its first three days, and ranked at #2 in the Japanese box office in its opening weekend. The film will premiere in North America on June 28. The spinoff manga focuses on Seishirō Nagi before he enters the titular Blue Lock facility. Kodansha USA Publishing announced in October it will start releasing the spinoff manga in print in fall 2024.

Kodansha USA Publishing is publishing the original BLUELOCK manga in English digitally, and is also releasing it in print. The company describes the story:

After a disastrous defeat at the 2018 World Cup, Japan’s team struggles to regroup. But what’s missing? An absolute Ace Striker, who can guide them to the win. The Japan Football Union is hell-bent on creating a striker who hungers for goals and thirsts for victory, and who can be the decisive instrument in turning around a losing match…and to do so, they’ve gathered 300 of Japan’s best and brightest youth players. Who will emerge to lead the team…and will they be able to out-muscle and out-ego everyone who stands in their way?

Kaneshiro and Nomura launched the manga in Weekly Shōnen Magazine in August 2018. The manga won the Best Shōnen Manga award in Kodansha‘s 45th annual Manga Awards in 2021.

Source: Crunchyroll panel at Anime Expo (Alex Mateo)