It was revealed on June 24th that TV Asahi will be launching a new nationwide anime slot, "IMAnimation," to be broadcast every Saturday at 11:30 pm in October. The first part of this will be the second season of the TV anime "Blue Lock," based on the soccer manga currently being serialized in "Weekly Shonen Magazine" (Kodansha), which will begin airing on October 5th. The second season of "Blue Lock" will be 14 episodes in total. This was announced at the "TV Asahi Anime Lineup Announcement" held on the same day.
Additional cast members for "Blue Lock" were also announced, including Satoshi Hino and Akihisa Wakayama. They will play new characters appearing in the second season, with Hino playing Oliver Aiku, captain of the U-20 Japan national team, known as the "Diamond Generation" for their impenetrable defense and abundant talent, and Wakayama playing Shuto Sendo, a highly skilled player who is the ace of the U-20 Japan national team and a regular forward in the first division of Japan's domestic league.
Check out the cast's comments on MANTANWEB!
"Blue Lock" is a manga written by Muneyuki Kaneshiro and illustrated by Yusuke Nomura, and has been serialized in "Weekly Shonen Magazine" (published by the same publisher) since 2018. A national project called Blue Lock (Blue Prison) is launched to create an "absolute ace striker" who will lead Japan to victory in the FIFA World Cup, and 300 high school students are gathered to fight. The unique characters and innovative setting of the 300 strikers fighting for survival in a battle royale have made it popular. The comic has sold over 30 million copies in total.
The first season of the TV anime aired from October 2022 to March 2023. The animated film "Blue Lock: Episode Nagi" (directed by Shunsuke Ishikawa), based on the spin-off "Blue Lock: Episode Nagi" starring the popular character Seishiro Nagi, was released in April and has been a huge hit, grossing over 1.7 billion yen.