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Grand Blue Dreaming Anime Gets 3rd Season
posted on by Alex Mateo
The official website for the second television anime season based on Kenji Inoue and Kimitake Yoshioka's Grand Blue Dreaming manga announced on Tuesday that the series is getting a third season. The season will take place in Palau, marking the first time the setting has been outside Japan. The website unveiled a visual:
The second season ended with its 12th episode on Monday (effectively, Tuesday). The entire season was leaked online in July. The final episode in the leak listed a third season.
The new season begins when Iori returns to Izu after the end of his diving license training in Okinawa, and a letter from his little sister Shiori arrives.
The new cast members include:
- Aya Yamane as Sakurako Busujima, a first-year college student
- Sumire Morohoshi as Shiori Kitahara, Iori's younger sister
- Yoshino Aoyama as Naomi Otoya, a high school student in charge of the kitchen at Iori's part-time job.
The returning cast members include:
- Yūma Uchida as Iori Kitahara
- Ryōhei Kimura as Kohei Imamura
- Hiroki Yasumoto as Shinji Tokita
- Katsuyuki Konishi as Ryūjiro Kotobuki
- Chika Anzai as Chisa Kotegawa
- Maaya Uchida as Nanaka Kotegawa
- Toa Yukinari as Azusa Hamaoka
- Kana Asumi as Aina Yoshiwara
- Takuya Eguchi as Hajime Nojima
- Junya Enoki as Shinichirō Yamamoto
- Natsuki Hanae as Yū Mitarai
- Robert Waterman as Kenta Fujiwara
- Jun Fukuyama as Captain Kudō
- Shinji Kawada as Toshio Kotegawa
- Nana Mizuki as Kaya Mizuki
Zero-G returned to animate the new season, but the studio Liber also joined the production. The returning staff members included director/scriptwriter/sound director Shinji Takamatsu, character designer/chief animation director Hideoki Kusama, chief animation director Yōichi Ueda, color key artist Aiko Matsuyama, and sound production studio Saber Links.
Reiji Kasuga replaced Studio Jack's Minoru Akiba as the art director, and jimao designed the props instead of Hiroshi Ogawa. Naoyuki Katō was the compositing directory of photography instead of Hideki Imaizumi, and Shun Tokuda replaced Masaki Utsunomiya on editing. Yukari Hashimoto (Mr. Osomatsu, Sarazanmai) composed the music instead of Manual of Errors Artists.
The Japanese reggae group Shōnan no Kaze returned to create and perform the opening theme song "Seishun Towa" (Eternal Youth) for the anime, but this time with the dance vocal unit Atarashii Gakkō! Shōnan no Kaze also created the "Grand Blue" opening song specifically for the first season.
Kodansha USA Publishing is releasing the manga digitally in English, and it describes the story:
After moving out on his own to a seaside town, Iori Kitahara makes a college debut he never anticipated. A new chapter of his life unfolds, full of diving with beautiful girls and shenanigans with a gaggle of lovable bastards! Idiot-expert Kenji Inoue and au naturel authority Kimitake Yoshioka bring you a glorious college tale filled with booze-fueled antics!
Inoue and Yoshioka launched the manga in Kodansha's Good! Afternoon magazine in April 2014. Crunchyroll previously released chapters of the manga as they debuted in Japan. Kodansha published the manga's 24th compiled book volume on April 7. Kodansha USA Publishing released the 22nd volume on June 24.
The manga inspired a television anime that premiered in July 2018. Amazon Prime Video streamed the anime worldwide as it aired. The manga also inspired a live-action film that opened in Japan in August 2020.
Sources: Grand Blue Dreaming anime's website, Comic Natalie
