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BLUELOCK Anime Gets 2nd Series, Film With 6 More Cast Members
posted on by Egan Loo
The 24th and final episode of the current television anime of Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yūsuke Nomura's BLUELOCK soccer manga ended on Sunday with an announcement that production on a second television season and a film has been green-lit.
The film is based on the BLUELOCK -Episode Nagi- spinoff manga that has been running in Kodansha's Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine since last June. The manga focuses on Seishirō Nagi before he enters the titular Bluelock facility.
The anime's website also confirmed six new cast members:
Makoto Furukawa as Tabito Karasu
Kengo Kawanishi as Eita Otoya
Takuya Eguchi as Kenyu Yukimiya
Hiro Shimono as Julian Loki
Shin'ichirō Kamio as Leonardo Luna
Kodansha Comics 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. Kodansha published the manga's 17th compiled book volume in December 2021. The volumes have over 4.5 million copies printed. The manga won the Best Shōnen Manga award in Kodansha's 45th annual Manga Awards in 2021.
The BLUELOCK anime premiered in Japan on October 8 on TV Asahi and its affiliates in the "NUMAnimation" programming block. Crunchyroll is streaming the series as it airs, and started streaming the anime's English dub on October 22.
Sources: BLUELOCK anime episode 24, website
