Sports Anime fans are about to get a kick… finally, after much anticipation and want from manga readers worldwide, Blue Lock has been announced to have an anime adaptation, scheduled to air in 2022.
Blue Lock is a Japanese manga written by Muneyuki Kaneshiro and illustrated by Yusuke Nomura. This manga follows football player and striker Yoichi Isagi when he is chosen to join the Blue Lock Project, a facility where three hundred strikers across Japan are pitted against one another, the winner (and survivor) of which will become the Japanese National Team’s striker.
That’s right, this is a literal game of win or die! Running this dystopian-like project is the dominating coach Jinpachi Ego, who is driving forward for Japan to win the World Cup. Be warned, this is not your typical slice-of-life sports anime like Haikyuu!! – this is Battle Royale style shonen and sports at it’s most brutal!
On August 12th it was announced that the anime series will be produced by Eight Bit (also known as 8bit), the studio behind That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. The series will be directed by Tetsuaki Watanabe with Shunsuke Ishikawa serving as assistant director. Taku Kishimoto overseeing the series’ scripts, Masaru Shindō providing the main character designs and serving as chief animation director, Hisashi Tojima serving as chief action director, and Jun Murayama composing the music.
Blue Lock has been one of the most popular sports manga in recent years. It was one of the Top 3 Sports Manga Series of the ‘Nationwide Bookstore Employees’ Recommended Comics of 2020’ by Honya Club and won the 45th Kodansha Manga Award in 2021.
With a huge fan-base and undeniably high expectations, let’s hope this anime shoots above and beyond those expectations. We will have to wait and see!
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