TL;DR The Blue Lock Season 2 anime was confirmed to be in production alongside a Blue Lock movie called Blue Lock: Episode Nagi. Anime Geek predicts that the Blue Lock Season 2 release date will be in late 2024 due to the historical release pattern and the time typically required for anime production by Studio 8bit. Read more below for a much deeper dive!
The Blue Lock Season 2 release date is coming up in the future. What’s more, a film called Blue Lock: Episode Nagi is coming out.
The Blue Lock movie release date is set for Spring 2024 in Japan.
The 2nd season of anime TV series will have Yoichi Isagi joining a team of 5 to play against five world-class players before entering the Third Selection that’ll determine the fate of the Blue Lock Project itself.
But when will BLUELOCK Season 2 come out? Anime Geek is predicting that the Blue Lock Season 2 release date could be in 2024 at the earliest. (Please see the predictions section below for more details.)
And will Blue Lock 2 be a Disney+/Hulu streaming exclusive now that Japanese publishing company Kodansha and Walt Disney Company have formed a long-term partnership? And what does this partnership mean for the Blue Lock English dub that was previously handled in-house by Crunchyroll?
Blue Lock Season 1 had 2 consecutive cours in Fall 2022 through Winter 2023. The Blue Lock Season 1 Part 2 release date for Episode 13 was on January 7, 2023.
The first season’s finale, Blue Lock Episode 24, was released in March 2023.
The 24 episodes were released as 4 Blue Lock Blu-Ray volumes on January 27, 2023, March 24, 2023, May 26, 2023, and July 28, 2023, respectively.
Crunchyroll has been advertising the anime specifically as “BLUELOCK” whereas Kodansha USA lists the Buruu Rokku manga with the English title “Blue Lock”, which is why the two versions of the TV show’s title are used interchangeably in this anime news article.
- Updated December 21, 2022: Blue Lock manga circulation reaches 16 million copies.
- Updated December 14, 2022: Added BLUELOCK stage play info and December 2022 Oricon data.
This article provides everything that is known about Blue Lock Season 2 (BLUELOCK Season 2) and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.
BLUELOCK Season 2 release date predictions: Is 2024 likely?
As of the last update, Studio 8bit, publisher Kodansha, producer Bandai Namco Filmworks, producer Toy’s Factory, producer/licensor Crunchyroll, or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed the Blue Lock Season 2 release date. Nor has the production of a Blue Lock anime sequel been announced.
Once the news is officially confirmed this article will be updated with the relevant information.
In the meantime, it’s possible to speculate about when, or if, the BLUELOCK Season 2 release date will occur in the future.
The Blue Lock review scores have been exceptionally good for a team sports anime. Recent soccer anime like Shoot! Goal to the Future, Futsal Boys, and the oddball Tribe Nine have been critically panned with below-average review scores. Not only is the Blue Lock story riveting, but Studio 8bit is known for making anime like That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime Season 3 and the Blue Lock animation quality definitely helped carry the series forward.
While not scoring as highly as the acclaimed Haikyuu!! anime (Haikyuu!! Season 5 when!?), Blue Lock is comparable to the Ao Ashi anime (we’re predicting Ao Ashi Season 2 will be renewed), but the former has a greater appeal to a general audience.
Back in January 2021, Attack on Titan author Hajime Isayama even stated, “This is a manga that all Japanese should defiantly read!”
That’s because the story of Blue Lock is seemingly designed for anime watchers who don’t like team sports anime. The genre tends to have certain plot beats, tournaments, and characterization so it’s often only what takes place off the field that sets a series apart. Blue Lock upends this basic formulaic structure by having individuals viciously compete against each to become the best egotistical striker in what’s supposed to be a team sport.
The power of friendship and comradery is now a liability, not a weapon that allows a last-minute save. The first episode made this abundantly clear by ruining a famed U-18 striker’s career in a game of soccer tag.
The emotions are raw and the stakes are high since a single loss can mean the end of everything, not just a temporary setback in a player’s growth. These football players have inner demons that are flashily displayed on-screen for audiences to see and they wield “weapons” like superheroes in the classroom environment of My Hero Academia.
Rather than visually developing how players evolve their moves as is typical in the team sports genre, these footballers are already gifted with inner talents that need to be honed into overpowered weapons that dominate on the pitch. There are no coaches training to teach them further about football unless you count the rants of Ego Jinpachi. Even the main protagonist Yoichi Isagi is gifted from the outset with the playmaking ability to “smell the goal” based on his almost-otherworldly heightened situational awareness.
While all of this is considered innovative to general anime audiences, it’s probably appalling to many team sports fans, never mind the football superfans who avidly watched every round of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. Ego literally claims that forward-center strikers are the only important position in football/soccer, which is the rough equivalent of claiming that spikers are the only important role in volleyball.
Soccer tactics, formations, and skillsets are certainly used as “weapons” against their opponents. But no one in the sports world literally refers to an individual athlete’s best talent set as an overpowered “weapon”. And if inner demons ever lurk on the football pitch it’s because footballers are working under pressure to beat these inner demons, not because they have literal monsters whispering ideas to them during play.
People would say, “Blue Lock is real,” during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, but that’s only due to Japan unexpectedly winning against fan-favorite Germany, not because the anime provides a realistic depiction of the sport. Thus, it could be argued that the presentation of the sport amounts to misinformation.
To be fair, the story itself pretty much admits that it’s crazy from the outset. Blue Lock takes the sports genre and throws all familiar tropes out the window. It’s edgy on purpose.
Ego points out that Blue Lock is an experiment and the idea is to reduce the game down to the basics, or zero, and see what happens when 300 egotistical players are pushed to their limit. Still, can you imagine 300 teenagers really volunteering to throw away their future to cultivate one amazing Ace Striker just for the potential of Japan winning the World Cup?
Speaking of which, the entire premise is based on real life and vice versa. Japan lost the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018, placing 16th in the global rankings, and that’s why fictional Japan is trying something crazy like the Blue Lock project. And these ideas have filtered out into real life.
During World Cup 2022, Japan’s Blue Lock-like uniforms by Adidas were purposefully created that way.
Nicknamed Samurai Blue, Japan won 2-1 against Germany after coming back from behind in the first half, which is exactly like the Blue Lock rounds. A SPY x FAMILY Anya Forger cosplayer even became famous for celebrating this unexpected win.
Even though Japan eventually lost to Croatia by 3-1 many still celebrated. After all, with a global ranking of 24, Japan had little chance of making it past the group stage. Japan still did well since the game was tied 1-1 when the game went to penalties. But when team captain Yoshida Maya missed his penalty shot attempt the Samurai Blue’s dreams of making Blue Lock real were all over.
Interestingly enough, Yoshida is typically a center-back, not a forward (striker). This fact could be interpreted as reinforcing Blue Lock’s theme that Japan needs to develop a powerhouse striker or it could be used to highlight that a game’s outcome is definitely influenced by other factors besides strikers. After all, Japan was holding its own until the penalty kicks.
Thanks to all the World Cup hype the Blue Lock manga was given a big boost worldwide. Even before the anime and the World Cup began, the manga was very popular since it reached the milestone of 10 million copies in circulation by July 2022. The official Blue Lock Twitter even claimed, “We will work harder and harder egotistically to reach our goal of 100 million copies!!”
Very few manga series can make boast of selling 10 million copies even before the anime adaptation works as marketing to propel the franchise to the top. In recent times, there was a handful like, SPY x FAMILY, Chainsaw Man, Jujutsu Kaisen that could make a similar claim, but most mega-popular series were like Tokyo Revengers, which had 8.5 million copies in circulation before the anime propelled the manga to 65 million copies.
In October 2022, Blue Lock was number 4 on the Oricon Top 20 manga charts, whereas other team sports manga like Ao Ashi, Haikyuu!!, and Slam Dunk were ranked 11, 12, and 13, respectively. Blue Lock maintained #4 in November 2022 while the other sports manga slipped down the charts. For the entire year, Blue Lock was the 7th best-selling manga in 2022 with 3.5 million copies sold, but a significant percentage of those sales (almost a third) were made in October (644k) and November (735k).
On December 14, 2022, it was reported by Oricon that Blue Lock circulation had increased by 2 million copies in just 2 weeks! On December 17, 2022, it was reported that the manga had 16 million copies in circulation for Volumes 1 through 22.
The first season was regularly featured in the Top 20 on Crunchyroll’s popular anime list in Fall 2022. Therefore, considering that all the financial data is solid, Blue Lock seems like a shoo-in for renewal like SPY x FAMILY Season 2, Chainsaw Man Season 2, My Hero Academia Season 7, or even Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun Season 4.
It’s always possible that the producers intend on renewing this series regularly. The only question is studio availability since anime productions are scheduled out years in advance. The anime industry as a whole is working at overcapacity and it’s only expected to become busier in the coming years.
While not nearly as busy as MAPPA, Studio 8bit has multiple big projects on its plate already. That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime Season 3 and The Irregular at Magic High School Season 3 were both confirmed to be in production in 2022 and it’s very likely that Studio 8bit is animating them. Since the company averages three anime projects released per year it seems unlikely that there will be a quick turnaround on Blue Lock despite its popularity.
Therefore, unless the producer shifts the main staff to a studio that has an opening in its schedule, it’s predicted that the Blue Lock Season 2 release date will be in the second half of 2024 at the earliest.
Will Crunchyroll lose Blue Lock streaming to Disney Plus?
The first season of the Blue Lock anime was streaming on both Crunchyroll and VRV in the USA and Canada whereas it was only available in limited territories on Disney+ and Netflix. Otherwise, Crunchyroll was the primary streaming licensor since it covered North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East, and CIS.
Disney has been partnering with Kodansha ever since 1950 when they created a manga adaptation of Disney characters. The expanded collaboration of the 70-year deal between the two companies means that Disney will be licensing exclusive anime titled based on manga produced by Kodansha.
Presumably, Hulu USA will be streaming all of the anime series based on Kodansha properties in the United States whereas Disney+ will be streaming these series to other worldwide territories. This was how the release schedule of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War was handled since Hulu USA had established a marketing presence in the anime fandom whereas Disney+ USA had never carried a single anime title.
For example, the Tokyo Revengers Season 2: Christmas Showdown Arc anime being released in Winter 2023 will be a Disney+ exclusive, but it could be on Hulu USA for the United States territory. Thus, it would seem reasonable to assume that a similar streaming deal will be worked out for Blue Lock Season 2.
At the same time, Crunchyroll was one of the co-producers on the anime production committee for Bluelock Season 1. That simply means that Crunchyroll paid for part of the cost of the project, not that they were involved in the animation work.
For those who don’t already know, an anime production committee is an organization that splits the cost and thus the risk of making an anime project. The committees are formed by corporations with a vested interest in the project such as publishers, studios, TV stations, etc. If the project is successful, the profits are split up, but if a project fails miserably the committee structure is a security net that prevents a single company from going bankrupt.
Thus, it’s unknown if Crunchryoll’s role in Blue Lock Season 1 will supersede the Disney/Kodansha deal that should affect all of their manga properties that are adapted into anime, which would include Blue Lock Season 2. Committees are often formed on a per-project basis so it really depends on the contractual terms of the deal with Crunchyroll.
Disney+/Hulu Blue Lock Season 2 English dub release date predictions
The real question is what will happen to the Blue Lock English dub. Funimation was being phased out by Sony after they purchased both Crunchyroll and Funimation. By mid-2022 Crunchyroll began switching from remote recording to in-studio recording again (most of the work is done in their Texas studio).
It’s unknown whether or not Disney might continue to use the Crunchyroll recording studio for their exclusive titles or whether they’ll establish a separate recording unit in the American midwest. Since voice actors are typically contractors let’s just hope they resume their roles in future sequels even when Crunchyroll is no longer the primary or only streaming licensor.
Crunchyroll’s Blue Lock English dub release date was on October 22, 2022, which was only 2 weeks behind the first season’s premiere on October 9, 2022. Crunchyroll also produced Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German dubs.
Here was Crunchyroll’s Blue Lock dub cast:
- Ricco Fajardo (Mirio in My Hero Academia) as Yoichi Isagi
- Derick Snow (Shinra in Fire Force) as Ego Jinpachi
- Drew Breedlove as Meguru Bachira
- Alex Hom (Yoshida in Higehiro) as Rensuke Kunigami
- Aaron Dismuke (Senku in Dr. STONE) as Hyouma Chigiri
- Lee George (Appare in APPARE-RANMAN!) as Gagamaru
- Alejandro Saab (Miyamura in Horimiya) as Sae
- Matthew David Rudd (Atsushi in Shoot! Goal to the Future) as Baro
- Kasi Hollowell (Olivia in The Greatest Demon Lord is Reborn as a Typical Nobody) as Anri
The Blue Lock Season 2 English dub release date hasn’t been announced yet.
BLUELOCK Season 2 anime TV spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)
Yoichi Isagi has finally cleared the Second Selection, but at the expense of his pride and a close defeat. Is it fate that brought Isagi and Rin Itoshi closer together? And will Isagi be able to overcome his doubts and face what awaits him in the Third Selection?!
Isagi forms a team with 5 other players: Meguru Bachira, Rin Itoshi, Jyubei Aryu, and Aoshi Tokimitsu. They enter training with several world-class players in a 5 vs 5 match to prepare them for the Third Selection.
These older, more experienced players don’t take things too seriously since they’re primarily visiting as a side job (or to hook up with kimono-wearing Japanese women). Team World Five even make fun of the Blue Lock team!
Rin feels the sting of their crude joshing since he can fully understand and speak English. Angered by the older men’s insults, Rin brags that Team Blue Lock will crush them so badly that the mere thought of Japan will give them PTSD.
The adult players are not laughing long since Team Blue Lock scores the first goal. But then Team World Five begins to take the game more seriously since their contract with Ego states they don’t get paid if they lose! Can the younger Blue Lock players hold their own and prevent a one-sided massacre?
Of course, the real point of this match was to pick the members for the Japanese team in the eventual U-20 World Cup. The adults were analyzing their opponents and then they’ll report to Ego their thoughts on Team Blue Lock’s abilities.
The only problem is that the Japanese Football Association isn’t exactly happy with how Ego just blew through over 500 million yen (about $3.7 million USD) in setting up this world-class match. The President doesn’t see any results, the students’ parents are upset, and the budget is soaring, so there’s talk of ending the Blue Lock Project immediately.
With the Football Association dead set on stamping out Blue Lock, Ego fires back at them with a challenge: let Ego’s ragtag team of high schoolers have a match against the Japanese National U-20 team… which now includes Rin’s brother Sae Itoshi for the first time. But that means the Third Selection will be moved up to 3 weeks out and the match will determine the existence of the Blue Lock Project itself!
Unfortunately, anime fans will have to wait until the Blue Lock Season 2 release date to watch what happens next. Stay tuned!
Blue Lock manga ending soon?
The story for the anime TV show is based on the Blue Lock manga by writer Muneyuki Kaneshiro and illustrator Yusuke Nomura. Serialized in Kodansha’s Weekly Shounen Magazine since August 2018, the series was up to Blue Lock Volume 21 as of October 17, 2022.
A spin-off called Blue Lock: Episode Nagi began being serialized by artist/writer Kouta Sannomiya in Kodansha’s Bessatsu Shounen Magazine on June 9, 2022.
North American publisher Kodansha USA is releasing the Blue Lock manga’s English translation in the United States and Canada. In March 2021, the manga volumes began to be released digitally, but in June 2022 the volumes received physically printed tankoubon books. By June 27, 2023, the printed edition will be up to Volume 7, but the digital release is already up to Volume 16 as of November 15, 2022.
It’s possible the Blue Lock manga’s ending is coming up. Without getting into major spoilers, the chapters released in 2022 had the Blue Lock Project reach one of Ego’s milestone goals which should mean the endgame is being planned. Thus, Blue Lock’s final story arc could be coming up around the corner unless the manga creators have plans to extend the story in unexpected ways.
Blue Lock manga compared to the anime
The adaptation pacing varied greatly from episode to episode since action-packed chapters tended to have less dialogue. Regardless, the anime stayed true to the source material since it only adapted an average of 3.5 chapters per episode.
All in all, it’s predicted that the first season’s finale, BLUELOCK Episode 24, will find a stopping point corresponding to Blue Lock Volume 11: Chapter 86.
It’s the best stopping point since it’s the aftermath of the Second Selection and while Isagi lost to Rin due to “luck” yet he’s still chosen to move forward to the winner’s gate and the Second Selection Clear Room. The episode’s final scenes will probably have some anime original content in order to offer a solid ending since the manga’s final pages immediately transition into the next story arc.
The good news is that there is plenty of source material available for making BLUELOCK Season 2. Better yet, English-only manga readers who wish to read ahead of the anime can jump straight ahead to the digital edition Volume 11.
Blue Lock Season 2 studio and staff
The main staff and studio that is making Blue Lock Season 2 haven’t been announced yet. In the best-case scenario, the main staff will return.
For the first season, the anime TV series was produced by Studio 8bit, which is best known for making notables such as The Irregular At Magic High School, Comet Lucifer, Knight’s & Magic, Encouragement of Climb, and Infinite Stratos.
The first season was helmed by director Tetsuaki Watanabe (Powerful Pro Baseball: Powerful Highschool Arc) and assistant director Shunsuke Ishikawa (episode director on Princess Connect! Re:Dive, Sword Art Online: Alicization). Writer Taku Kishimoto (Ranking of Kings, Ranking of Kings: Treasure Chest of Courage, Moriarty the Patriot, Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro) wrote the scripts and series composition.
Character designer Yuu Shindou (Fruits Basket reboot) was also the chief animation director, with Hisashi Tojima (Moriarty the Patriot) serving as the chief action director. Composer Jun Murayama (Wondering Witch: The Journey of Elaina) created the music.
Blue Lock Season 2 OP and ED theme song music
The Blue Lock Season 2 OP (opening) and ED (ending) theme song music haven’t been announced yet.
For the first season, the Blue Lock OP “Chaos Ga Kiwamaru” was performed by Unison Square Garden, while the ED “Winner” was performed by Shuugo Nakamura, the Japanese voice actor who plays Gin Gagamaru.
The Blue Lock Part 2 OP “Judgement” was performed by ASH DA HERO, while the ED also hasn’t been announced yet.
Let’s just hope the wait for the Blue Lock Season 2 release date isn’t too long. Stay tuned!