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Blue Lock is a new action/sport anime coming in the fall season. It will premiere on October 8th, and with 24 planned episodes it brings with it a lot of opportunity for greatness and failure alike. The premise is that after a demoralizing season in 2018, Japan is seeking to create the perfect soccer striker to bring them back to the spotlight of international soccer. In order to do so, 300 of the best strikers in Japan have been selected to compete in a Squid Games-esque challenge.
While it is ostensibly about soccer, the manga heavily implies that it does not espouse the values that most sports tout. Despite this bold deviation from expectation, this manga was incredibly popular and this is a highly anticipated new anime. While 8bit Studios are a fairly well-established and proven group, the same cannot be said for the cast and crew of this series. This dichotomy guarantees that the series will be interesting, and could also be the show that in a few years the next wave of stars point to as their big break.
The Crew
Tetsuaki Watanabe is the lead director and, while he has gained some credibility from his work as an episode director on Haikyu!!, this will be his first outing directing an entire show. Additionally, this is his first work with 8bit studios. The assistant director, Shunsuke Ishikawa, has worked with 8bit before on That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, but has also only ever directed episodes of various tv shows. The music composer, Jun Murayama, has only four credits, although their career only began in 2020. The shining star of the crew comes from Muneyoki Kaneshiro, the author of the manga itself, who is involved in the anime as the primary story composer.
To complement the unproven directors comes a highly varied cast. In an unusual turn of casting choices, the vast majority of the known star talent will be voicing supporting roles. Yuki Ono, voice of Rensuke Kunigami, a supporting lead, has been in various shows since 2006, including Food Wars, Beastars,The Devil is a Part-Timer! and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Soma Saito, as Hyoma Chigiri, another supporting lead, has a nearly equally storied career, with appearances in Knights of Sidonia, Akame Ga Kill, and also JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.
However, the primary protagonist, Yoichi Isagi, and the secondary main character, Meguru Bachira, are voiced by Kazuki Ura and Tasuku Kaito respectively. Kazuki Ura has had one named character since his career started in 2018, and only four appearances in TV prior to 2022. However, while Kazuki Ura hasn’t done much in the past, he is expected to appear in three shows this year. They may very well have caught a rising star. Tasuku Kaito is a complete unknown with only an unnamed appearance as “schoolboy” in My Stepmom’s Daughter is my Ex this year.
What This Means for the Show
From cast to crew, 8bit studios are taking some major risks on this upcoming anime. However, with such successes as Encouragement of Climb and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, it is worth giving them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to their bold choices.
There is enough experience on the actors list that the newer members may be able to shine in their leading roles with their support. And the fact that the original author is involved directly in the adaptation into an anime lends a lot of credibility to the idea that this will do justice to what was an incredibly popular manga. This anime also has the ever-alluring promise of a new take on an old concept, in this case, the idea that ego, aggression, and competition, are the ways to excel at soccer, as opposed to the expected emphasis on teamwork and friendship. These factors together make Blue Lock a must-see for any anime fan.
Blue Lock can be streamed on Crunchyroll starting October 8.