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BLUELOCK Season 2 Anime Streams Player Intro Videos, Reveals 9 More Cast Members
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The official website for BLUE LOCK vs. U-20 JAPAN, the second television anime season based on Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yūsuke Nomura's BLUELOCK soccer manga, revealed more cast members and two new videos on Sunday. The videos introduce players on "Bluelock Eleven" and "U-20 Japan," respectively.
The website also revealed a new key visual for the U-20 Japan players.
The new cast members include:
The anime debuted on October 5, and it airs on a new programming block titled IM Animation on TV Asahi on Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. The new season will have 14 episodes, and "will focus on the match between BLUE LOCK and the U-20 National Japan team, in which the survival of the BLUE LOCK project is at stake." Crunchyroll is streaming the anime in North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East, and CIS. Crunchyroll is also streaming an English dub.
Other 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 premiered in North America on June 28. The spinoff manga focuses on Seishirō Nagi before he enters the titular Blue Lock facility. Kodansha USA Publishing is releasing the spinoff manga in print. Crunchyroll is streaming the film.
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: BLUELOCK anime's website, Comic Natalie
