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Ash Da Hero Performs New Opening Theme for Blue Lock Anime

The staff of the television anime of Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yūsuke Nomura's Blue Lock soccer manga announced on Sunday that ASH DA HERO will perform the opening theme song for the second cours (quarter of a year) of the anime. The song titled "Judgement" will release as a single on February 22.

The five-member band formed in September 2021. The group previously performed an insert song for the character Langa in the Sk8 the Infinity original anime project.

The Blue Lock anime premiered in Japan on October 8 on TV Asahi and its affiliates in the "NUMAnimation" programming block. Crunchyroll is streaming the series as it airs, and started streaming the anime's English dub on October 22.

Tetsuaki Watanabe (Powerful Pro Yakyū Powerful Kōkō-hen) is directing the anime at 8-Bit with Shunsuke Ishikawa as assistant director. Taku Kishimoto (Haikyu!!, Silver Spoon, 2019 Fruits Basket) is supervising and writing the series scripts, and the manga's Kaneshiro is supervising the story. Yutaka Uemura (Saga of Tanya the Evil director) is the concept adviser. Masaru Shindō (Fruits Basket, Macross Delta, My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU) is the main character designer and chief animation director, and Kenji Tanabe and Kento Toya are also character designers and chief animation directors. Jun Murayama is composing the music. Unison Square Garden performs the current opening theme song "Chaos ga Kiwamaru" (Chaos Reigns), and Shugo Nakamura performs the current ending theme song "Winner."

Kaneshiro and Nomura launched the ongoing manga in Weekly Shōnen Magazine in August 2018. The manga won the Best Shōnen Manga award in Kodansha's 45th annual Manga Awards last year.

Kodansha USA Publishing is releasing the manga in English digitally and in print, and it describes the story:

After a disastrous defeat at the 2018 World Cup, Japan's team struggles to regroup. But what's missing? An absolute Ace Striker, who can guide them to the win. The Japan Football Union is hell-bent on creating a striker who hungers for goals and thirsts for victory, and who can be the decisive instrument in turning around a losing match...and to do so, they've gathered 300 of Japan's best and brightest youth players. Who will emerge to lead the team...and will they be able to out-muscle and out-ego everyone who stands in their way?

The manga is inspiring a stage play adaptation that will run at Osaka's Sankei Hall Breeze on May 4-7, 2023, and at Tokyo's Sunshine Theater on May 11-14, 2023.

The Shōsetsu Blue Lock Tatakai no Mae, Bokura wa. (Novel Blue Lock: Us, Before the Battle) spinoff novel series launched on October 17. The second novel in the series will release on January 17. The manga's staff also confirmed that a third novel is set for release in autumn 2023. The first volume of a separate novel series adaptation of the main manga shipped on November 17, and the second volume will release on January 14.

Source: Email correspondence