Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yūsuke Nomura’s Blue Lock soccer manga is getting a TV anime in 2022! A teaser visual, video and main cast have been revealed.
The unconventional story is set in the Blue Lock, a prison-like facility where three hundred talented strikers from high schools all over Japan are isolated and pitted against each other. The sole survivor of Blue Lock will earn the right to become the national team’s striker, and those who are defeated shall be banned from joining the team forever.
Kazuki Ura plays the protagonist Yoichi Isagi, who meets other talented soccer players in Blue Lock including Meguru Bachira, voiced by Tasuku Kaito; Rensuke Kunigami, voiced by Yūki Ono; and Hyōma Chigiri, voiced by Sōma Saitō.
The anime series is directed by Tetsuaki Watanabe and animated by 8-Bit with Shunsuke Ishikawa as assistant director. Silver Spoon script writer Taku Kishimotois supervising and writing the series scripts, and the manga’s writer Kaneshiro is supervising the story. Saga of Tanya the Evil Movie film Director Yutaka Uemura is the concept advisor.
▼ Celebratory Illustration
▍Teaser
▍Character Design
■ Yoichi Isagi – CV: Kazuki Ura
■ Meguru Bachira – CV: Tasuku Kaito
■ Rensuke Kunigami – CV: Yūki Ono
■ Hyōma Chigiri – CV: Sōma Saitō
▍Synopsis
fter reflecting on the current state of Japanese soccer, the Japanese Football Association decides to hire the enigmatic and eccentric coach Jinpachi Ego to achieve their dream of winning the World Cup. Believing that Japan has lacked an egoistic striker hungry for goals, Jinpachi initiates the Blue Lock—a prison-like facility where three hundred talented strikers from high schools all over Japan are isolated and pitted against each other. The sole survivor of Blue Lock will earn the right to become the national team’s striker, and those who are defeated shall be banned from joining the team forever.
Selected to join this risky project is Yoichi Isagi, a striker who failed to bring his high school soccer team to the national tournament. After choosing to pass to a teammate who missed instead of scoring on his own, he could not help but wonder if the results would have been different had he been more selfish. Using this golden opportunity given by the Blue Lock Project, Yoichi aims to clear his doubts and chase his ultimate desire—to become the greatest striker in the world and lead Japan to World Cup glory.
▍Staff and Production
Original Work: Muneyuki Kaneshiro/ Manga: Yūsuke Nomura [Serialized at Kodansha’s Weekly Shōnen Magazine]
Director: Tetsuaki Watanabe
Assistant Director: Shunsuke Ishikawa
Series Composition: Taku Kishimoto
Story Supervisor: Muneyuki Kaneshiro
Concept Advisor: Yutaka Uemura
Main Character Design/ Chief Animation Director: Masaru Shindō
Character Design/ Chief Animation Director: Kenji Tanabe, Kento Toya
Chief Action Director: Hisashi Tojima
Action Director: Hiromi Sakamoto
Prop Design: Hisashi Higashijima, Yuri Nakajima, Kaori Kyouzu
Special Effects Animation Director: Akane
Color Design: Sakura Komatsu
Art Design: Shinji Sugiyama
Art Director: Sawako Takagi
Backgrounds: Studio Wyeth
Director of Photography: Yoshihiro Asagi
Photography: chiptune
3D CG Director: Norimitsu Hirosawa
3D CG: Aura Studio
Visual Concept: Toshiyuki Yamashita (Hyperbole)
Special Effects Processing: Toshiyuki Yamashita, Rina Mitsuzumi
2D CG Monitor Graphics: Yasukazu Asano (emitai)
Editing: Mai Hasegawa (EditZ)
Sound Director: Fumiyuki Goh
Sound Producer: Bit Grooove Promotion
Animation Producer: Tsutomu Hirano
Animation: 8-Bit
▍Cast
■ Yoichi Isagi – CV: Kazuki Ura
■ Meguru Bachira – CV: Tasuku Kaito
■ Rensuke Kunigami – CV: Yūki Ono
■ Hyōma Chigiri – CV: Sōma Saitō