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The second season of the BLUELOCK anime, based on Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yūsuke Nomura's popular soccer manga, has been officially titled BLUE LOCK vs. U-20 JAPAN. The announcement came on Sunday, accompanied by a new visual showcasing the season's theme.

The upcoming season will feature 14 episodes and will center around the high-stakes match between the BLUE LOCK team and Japan's U-20 National team, with the future of the BLUE LOCK project on the line.

In addition to the title reveal, four new visuals were released, highlighting the BLUE LOCK U-20 team uniforms.

©︎ Muneyuki Kaneshiro, Yusuke Nomura, Kodansha / 'BLUE LOCK' Production Committee

The new season is set to premiere on October 5, airing on TV Asahi's new Saturday night programming block, IM Animation, at 11:30 p.m. Crunchyroll will stream the series across North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East, and CIS.

New cast members for this season include Eiji Mikami as Yo Hiori, Kakeru Hatano as Nijiro Nanase, Satoshi Hino as Oliver Aiku, and Akihisa Wakayama as Shūto Sendō. The opening theme song "Bōjaku no Charisma" will be performed by Unison Square Garden.

The first season of BLUELOCK, consisting of 24 episodes, debuted in Japan in October 2022 on TV Asahi's NUMAnimation block. Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired and continues to offer an English dub.

Recently, the anime film adaptation of Kōta Sannomiya's *BLUELOCK -Episode Nagi-* spinoff manga opened in Japan on April 19. The film was a box office hit, selling 337,000 tickets and earning approximately 463 million yen (about $2.99 million) in its first three days, and secured the #2 spot at the Japanese box office during its opening weekend. It premiered in North America on June 28. This spinoff explores the backstory of Seishirō Nagi before his involvement with the BLUE LOCK facility. Kodansha USA Publishing will begin releasing the spinoff manga in print in fall 2024.

Kodansha USA Publishing also continues to release the original BLUELOCK manga both digitally and in print. The series, which began serialization in Weekly Shōnen Magazine in August 2018, was awarded Best Shōnen Manga at Kodansha's 45th annual Manga Awards in 2021.

Source: Press release
Image via BLUELOCK anime's X/Twitter account
©︎ Muneyuki Kaneshiro, Yusuke Nomura, Kodansha / 'BLUE LOCK' Production Committee