Ahead of its highly anticipated return, Ao Ashi Season 2 has announced a special collaboration with Japan’s Sports Agency (Japan Sports Agency / スポーツ庁), celebrating the values of perseverance and personal growth through sports.
Alongside the announcement, a brand-new collaboration poster featuring the anime’s main visual has also been released:
The collaboration was announced through the anime’s official social media accounts with the slogan:
“Think. That one step can move the future.“
The newly revealed poster uses the main visual from Ao Ashi Season 2, paired with a motivational message designed to encourage everyone striving through sports, from aspiring athletes to dedicated competitors.
According to the announcement, the collaboration aims to inspire people to keep pushing forward and highlights the determination and growth that define both sports and Ao Ashi.
Promoting the Spirit of Sports
The collaboration brings together one of Japan’s most celebrated football anime with the country’s Sports Agency, an organization that promotes sports participation and healthy lifestyles across Japan.
By featuring Ao Ashi’s themes of teamwork, perseverance, and continuous self-improvement, the campaign delivers a message encouraging people to take that next step toward their goals, both on and off the field.
No additional collaboration activities have been announced at the time of writing.
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Season 2 of Ao Ashi is set to premiere on October 4, 2026. As previously announced, the animation studio has changed to TMS Entertainment.
This season will have a total of 24 episodes. They also announced the theme song artists for this anime’s first cour (first 12 episodes). The opening song will be performed by 10-FEET, and the ending song will be performed by Ai Higuchi.
The main cast announced for this second season:
Director: Kazuki Yokoyama (changed from Akira Satou)
Series Composition: Masahiro Yokotani
Character Design: Manabu Nakatake, Asami Taguchi, Junko Yamanaka
Sound Director: Shoji Hata
Music: Masaru Yokoyama
About Ao Ashi
Ao Ashi is a Japanese soccer manga written and illustrated by Yugo Kobayashi and based on a concept by Ueno Naohiko. This manga was serialized in January 2015 in Shogakukan’s seinen manga magazine, Weekly Big Comics Spirits. It is revealed that this manga will have a total of 40 Volumes. This manga also won the 65th Shogakukan Manga Award for the general category in 2020.
This manga also received an anime adaptation by Production I.G and was released in April 2022. This anime series is also receiving a second season by TMS Entertainment, which will be released in October 2026.
Shogakukan Asia licensed this manga in Southeast Asia. Crunchyroll describes the plot of its anime as:
“After a loss in his last junior high school soccer tourney, Ehime Prefecture’s ace player, Ashito Aoi, is devastated but in every loss there’s a victory. Tatsuya Fukuda, manager of an organization that trains students for one of the leading clubs in the J-League, sees Ashito’s raw talent and offers a tryout to his group. Together they’ll bring the youth club and Aoshi’s talents to new heights!“
Source: X
