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Blue Lock’s anime has largely been regarded as a disappointment by fans and critics alike. The anime constantly fails to capture the dynamic action and gorgeous artwork of the manga, and it’s only gotten worse with season, as most episodes are infamously filled with bad CGI, lazy still shots, and all-around ugly visuals that make season 1 look great by comparison.
Blue Lock’s anime has largely been a failure, withBlue Lockseason 2being the breaking point for many, but that won’t stop more content from being produced. Series producer Ryoya Arisawa recently took to Instagram to answer questions from fans, and most notably,Blue Lock’s producer said that he hopedBlue Lockwould have enough support to get renewed for a third season. ConsideringBlue Lock’s success, a third season is more of a matter of when, not if, but whether that’s something to look forward to is another question, entirely, even with the story it would tell.
Why Blue Lock Season 3 Is All But Guaranteed
Blue Lockproducer Ryoya Arisawa is hopeful that the anime will get a third season, and there’s little reason to think it won’t happen. For starters, theBlue Lockmanga is still one of the most popular manga in the world; the manga is consistently on the best-sellers list in and out of Japan, and most recently,Blue Lockwas confirmed as the fifth best-selling manga of 2024 according toOricon’s 2024 sales report. With that much success,Blue Lockis still a franchise worth capitalizing on, so it would make sense to continue that with a third season.
The biggest reason whyBlue Lockmight receive a third season, of course, is due to the success of season 2. As much as people might dislike season 2, it’s still a major hit on a financial level thanks to merchandising, and the shortcomings with season 2 haven’t stopped countless people from watching every episode worldwide, even if the reactions aren’t all positive.The problems withBlue Lockseason 2 have done nothing to stop it from being one of the biggest anime of fall 2024, so it’s bound to be popular enough to warrant a third season.
Blue Lock Season 3’s Story Is Too Good Not To Be Animated
Blue Lock’s Neo Egoist League Arc Explained
IfBlue Lockseason 3 does happen, the one thing to look forward to would undoubtedly be its story. The arc to follow the U-20 arc is the Neo Egoist League arc, and not only is it the longest arc covering almost half the manga, butBlue Lock’s Neo Egoist League arc sees the cast enter the international stage by playing with professional teams to further hone their skills and become recognized around the world. It’s an excellent escalation of the story’s themes and overarching narrative, and seeing it animation has the potential to be great.
Regarding the writing, the characters are also a big draw to the Neo Egoist League arc. Between the incredible development afforded to Isagi, Kunigami, and Rin and the amazing presence and depth given to Kaiser through his rivalry with Isagi,the Neo Egoist League arc has some of the best character work not only inBlue Lock, but in any manga to be published in recent years, overall. There’s an incredible amount of depth to the writing of the Neo Egoist League arc, and that would be great to see, even if the visuals don’t live up to it.
What Blue Lock Needs To Fix To Make Season 3 Work
Blue Lockseason 3 is likely inevitable at this point, and a lot has to be done to make it work. Changing the art style to better match the manga is one thing, butBlue Lockneeds to completely overhaul its animation if it wants season 3 to live up to the source material, as it needs more moments of actual animation as opposed to lazy still shots completely lacking energy. Season 1, as lackluster as it was, did a good job of that more often than not, so that’s what the staff should strive for with season 3.
At the very least, the staff seems aware that the animation needs to improve. In the same interview with Ryoya Arisawa, while Arisawa wasn’t directly critical ofBlue Lock’s animation, he said thathe [Arisawa] “wasn’t satisfied” withBlue Lock’s animationand that they needed to continually strive to match the writing, sofans can expectBlue Lock’s staff to put more effort into the animation with a hypothetical season 3. Even then, it’s unlikely to be the kind of anime a story likeBlue Lockdeserves, but anything better than season 2 is still something to look forward to.
Blue Lock
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Blue Lock is a sports-centric animated series based on the manga series of the same name. The show follows the Japan Football Association trying to recover from their poor showing in the 2018 FIFA World Cup by hiring a football genius, Ego Jinpachi. With his new intense training regimen, Jinpachi invites the best football players in Japan to compete to become the team’s new star player - and high school student Yoichi Isagi may be exactly who he’s looking for.
