The ever-popular football (soccer) anime, Blue Lock just wrapped up its extremely successful first cour on a cliffhanger, leaving fans craving for more. The greatly popular anime series began airing around the start of the FIFA World Cup, greatly boosting views for the football series and pulling in tons of new views. The series was even brought up multiple times during Japan’s surprise breakthrough tournament run, the Japanese team at one time beating Germany in Blue Lock-inspired jerseys!
With such a popular series ending its cour, many fans will be left wondering what to watch now, especially after that nail-biter of a cliffhanger. However, the search ends here as Anime Senpai has put together the ultimate list of Football anime to pick up while we enthusiastically wait for what is sure to be an amazing second cour of Blue Lock!
Area No Kishi
Also known as, The Knight in the Area, this 2012 football anime tells the story of a teenage boy chasing his goals of professional football after having given up already. Fueled by his dreams of playing for Japan’s national team, his prodigy of a brother, and his childhood friend, who already plays nationally for Japan’s women’s team Kakeru Aizawa pushes to his limits and beyond to reach his goals.
An emotional rollercoaster with a focus on football and teenage adolescence, Area No Kishi is the perfect watch for all football fans!
Giant Killing
Following the failing East Tokyo United team, Giant Killing is an underdog story that despite the name has nothing to do with Attack on Titan. Instead, the story focuses on the struggling ETU team that is losing all support and morale as they are once again ranked lowest in their league and are on a five-game losing spree. Desperate the board of directors hires the once great, eccentric and now-retired, Takeshi Tatsumi to coach the team. The team has got a lot going against them but as the ultimate underdog, they hope to prove everyone wrong.
A story full of ups and downs and just all-around great moments, Giant Killing is definitely something to check out!
Clean Freak! Aoyama-Kun
Up next we’ve got a much more comedic series with, Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-Kun, commonly referred to as Clean Freak! or simply Aoyama-Kun. Though a bit more comedic than our other entries Aoyama-Kun is just as good as a football anime than any other. Once again focusing on an underdog team with the main character, who you guessed it, is an insane clean freak. Nonetheless, Aoyama still plays his heart out, trying his best to stay clean while bringing his team to victory.
Quite the funny anime I’d recommend this series to anyone looking for something lighthearted, funny, and brief, as this series is only 12 episodes!
Ao Ashi
Our next series, Ao Ashi, tells the story of Ashito Aoi the star player of his local junior high school football team located in rural Japan known for his amazing footwork and selfish play style. During an important fate-deciding game Ashito ends up getting ejected from the game with a red card due to violent behaviour and without their star, the team quickly falls. After the game, Ashito is approached by a youth coach who saw the whole game and invites him to his tryouts in Tokyo. Surrounded by others with star talent Ashito has to fight and prove himself for the first time as he tries to secure a spot on the team and as such achieve his football goals.
A story similar to older sports anime such as Captain Tsubasa and nearly the complete opposite of Blue Lock this series delivers a feel-good football-centric anime. There’s no additional drama or extra plot here, this is strictly a team football show and a good one at that. Having only recently begun airing and a manga chapter count of over 300 chapters, expect great things from this series!
Blue Lock
And finally, we have Blue Lock itself! Look no further for a series to watch following the end of Blue Lock’s first cour than the action-packed series itself! Though the series’ first cour has officially come to an end the series’ second cour begins in just two weeks meaning that you’ll have plenty of Ego’s insane training program and much much more coming your way. For those who have read ahead in the manga, you can attest to just how great the rest of the second selection and beyond truly is!
Blue Lock’s second cour begins January 7th, 2023 and will continue right where episode 12 left the series, with an imminent battle between Isagi’s trio and Rin’s higher-ranked trio! Get excited!
That’s all for our list, but do you think we missed any? Let us know if you’ll be checking out any of these exciting football series. Tell us in the comments section down below and feel free to drop some of your personal favourites in the comments section below! As always, we here at Anime Senpai love hearing from our readers.
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