Blue Box anime announces consecutive two-cour run

Modified Sep 29, 2024 20:42 GMT

Blue Box anime announces consecutive two-cour run (Image via Telecom Animation Film)

Sunday, September 29, 2024, saw the staff for the television Blue Box anime series reveal that the upcoming project will run for two consecutive cours, meaning it’ll run for half a year continuously. The series should have something in the range of 24-26 episodes overall, but the exact number is unknown as of this article’s writing.

The makers of Blue Box anime confirmed this via the series’ official X (formerly Twitter) account and also shared a new key visual for the series featuring its most central characters. The series will begin airing in Japan this coming Thursday, October 3, 2024, on TBS and 28 other affiliated networks before becoming available to stream on Netflix internationally.

Blue Box anime to be released weekly through the Winter 2025 season following the latest news

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Additionally, the Blue Box anime also announced a biweekly podcast for the series, which will be hosted by cast members Reina Ueda and Akari Kito, who play Chinatsu Kano and Hina Chono, respectively.

The podcast will start with its “0th” episode, which will become available for streaming on Tuesday, October 1 at 6:30 PM Japanese Standard Time (JST). A link is available to submit messages and other topics of discussion for the podcast.

In addition to Ueda and Kito, the series also stars Shoya Chiba, Chiaki Kobayashi, Yuma Uchida, Shogo Sakata, Anna Nagase, and Asaki Yuikawa. They play Taiki Inomata, Kyo Kasahara, Kengo Haryu, Ryosuke Nishida, Nagisa Funami, and Niina Shimazaki.

Given the recently announced two consecutive cour runs, it’s likely that an additional cast will be announced as the first season progresses, however, this is speculative as of this article’s writing.

Yuichiro Yano is directing the anime at Telecom Animation Film, with Yuko Kakihara overseeing the series' scripts. Miho Tanino is designing the anime’s characters. UNLIMITED PRODUCE by TMS is in charge of the planning and production of the series. The opening theme song is Same Blue by Official HiGE DANdism, while the ending theme song is Teenage Blue by Eve.

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The series serves as the television anime adaptation of author and illustrator Koji Miura’s original manga series of the same name. The story began as a one-shot manga in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 2020, followed by a formal serialization in April 2021.

The manga’s 17th compilation volume will be published in Japan on Friday, October 4. The 12th volume will be released in English by Viz Media on Monday, October 1. Shueisha’s MANGA Plus service publishes the series digitally in English, describing it:

“Taiki Inomata is on the boys' badminton team at sports powerhouse Eimei Junior and Senior High. He's in love with basketball player Chinatsu Kano, the older girl he trains alongside every morning in the gym. One Spring day, their relationship takes a sharp turn ... And thus begins this brand-new series of love, sports and youth!”