Summary
Italian football club giant Inter has announced a collaboration project with thefootball-centred anime and manga franchise,Blue Lock. The team has been getting ready for the upcoming 2023/24 season with the customary preseason preparations taking Inter to Japan. TheBlue Lockcollaboration project is a celebration of Inter’s Japan tour, and is a significant marker of the continuing acceptance of anime into the mainstream.
The Inter Milan Japan tour ran from July 23 to August 1, concluding in a 2-1 victory against French giant Paris Saint-Germain on the last day. The collaboration project is seen by Inter as the “merging of the art of manga, and football, to create something great.”
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Blue Lockis a manga series created by Muneyuki Kaneshiro and illustrated by Yusuke Nomura that follows the Japanese Football Association’s creation of a rigorous training program to locate and nurture the next striker for the national team. 300 youths enter, but only one can come out on top. The original manga series is serialized in Kodansha’s Weekly Shōnen Magazine and has run for 25 volumes since its inception in August 2018.
TheBlue Lockanime adaptation has one season out so far, which ran for 25 episodes from October 2022 to March 2023. Assuming a new visual identity based on manga, Inter’s collaboration with Blue Lock saw the release of various key visuals, including images ofBlue Lockmain charactersdressed in Inter’s official 2023/24 season match day kits, both Home and Away.
Throughout Inter’s preseason, their social media channels were draped in variousBlue Lock-themed visuals, with the first match against Saudi Arabian team Al-Nassr featuring a matchcard celebrating Inter’s new Away kit. There was also a dedicated installation in Tokyo, where Inter midfielder Nicolò Barella got the chance to meetBlue Lockauthors Kaneshiro and Nomura, with the former getting his own Inter Home shirt featuring his name and the number 23 – a nod at the year, but also a number worn byvarious notable players in history.
Over the course of the 2023/24 season, various collaboration events are expected to take place, accompanied by the release of original collaboration content, with a special Inter x Blue Lock shirt expected to hit the market over the coming weeks. As Inter puts it, theBlue Lockcollaboration is part of the brand’s journey into exploring areas of art and culture to reach new fans across the globe.
