Manga inspired anime film that opened in April 2024
© Muneyuki Kaneshiro, Yūsuke Nomura, Kōta Sannomiya, Kodansha
The seventh volume of Kōta Sannomiya’s BLUELOCK -Episode Nagi-, the manga spinoff of Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yūsuke Nomura’s Blue Lock soccer manga, announced on Friday that the spinoff manga will end with its eight volume, which will ship on August 12.
The spinoff manga focuses on Seishirō Nagi before he enters the titular Blue Lock facility. The manga launched in June 2022 and runs in Kodansha’s Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine. Kodansha USA Publishing is releasing the spinoff manga in print.
The spinoff inspired an anime film that premiered in Japan in April 2024. The film sold 337,000 tickets to earn 463 million yen (about US$2.99 million) in its first three days, and ranked at #2 in the Japanese box office in its opening weekend. The film opened in North America in June 2024. Crunchyroll began streaming the film with subtitles and with several dubs in October.
Kaneshiro and Nomura launched the original Blue Lock manga in Weekly Shōnen Magazine in August 2018. The manga won the Best Shōnen Manga award in Kodansha’s 45th annual Manga Awards in 2021. Kodansha USA Publishing is publishing the original BLUELOCK manga in English digitally, and is also releasing it in print.
The original manga inspired a television anime series that premiered in Japan in October 2022 on TV Asahi and its affiliates in the NUMAnimation programming block. The anime ran for 24 episodes. Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired, and is also streaming an English dub.
BLUE LOCK vs. U-20 JAPAN, the second television anime season, debuted on October 5, and aired for 14 episodes. Crunchyroll streamed the anime as it aired in North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East, and CIS.
Source: BLUELOCK -Episode Nagi- volume 7
