Blue Lock is gearing up for an exciting second cour with even higher stakes for the players.
Crunchyroll dropped a trailer for the soccer anime Blue Lock’s intense second cour. The first half briefly recapped the first cour, starting with the initial weeding out of players from the 300 strikers participating in the Blue Lock project to the game between Team Z and Team V. The second cour, titled “The Second Selection arc” will see Team Z advance to the second selection where they’ll meet the top-ranked player Rin Itoshi. Things get tense when the players realize the winning team can “steal” one member from the losing team and advance to the next stage. ASH DA HERO will sing the opening for the second half of the anime, titled “Judgement.”
Blue Lock’s Surge in Popularity Coincided With the World Cup
As the World Cup took place around the time Blue Lock aired, the anime saw a huge surge in popularity. Anticipation was already building in the lead-up to the World Cup when Blue Lock’s artist Yusuke Nomura and Giant Killing’s artist Tsujitomo collaborated with Japan’s national team to pen their respective protagonists sporting the national team’s striking new uniform. When Japan beat tournament favorites and four-time champion Germany in a come-from-behind victory, the entire nation and anime fans exploded. Nomura uploaded a new illustration of Yoichi Isagi to celebrate the country’s win.
Japan continued to surprise the world by advancing to the Round of 16 after eliminating Spain in a match that paralleled what happened with Germany. Once again, Nomura drew another artwork in honor of Japan’s impressive win with Yoichi cheering the national team on with his number one sign. Even My Hero Academia’s number one hero, All Might, took time out of his day to congratulate Japan. Although Japan eventually lost to Croatia, their monumental wins against two strong nations allowed them to move up four places to rank 20th in FIFA’s men’s soccer rankings.
After suffering a devastating loss and ending up in 16th place at the World Cup, the Japanese Football Union in Blue Lock decided they had to do something, thus leading to the creation of the Blue Lock. Headed by the arrogant enigma Jinpachi Ego, the Blue Lock project locks 300 rising stars in an intense training regimen to create the world’s best egotist striker. Blue Lock follows Yoichi Isagi, who, after his team loses a game due to him passing the ball to his teammate, joins the project to become Japan’s top striker. Written by Muneyuki Kaneshiro, Blue Lock has over 16 million copies as of December 2022. Produced by Eight Bit, the first cour aired in October with 12 episodes.
The second cour of Blue Lock began airing on Jan. 7, 2023, on Crunchyroll.
Source: YouTube
