The curse of live-actions has claimed a new and predictable victim. Despite the most popular football franchise of recent years having many fans eating out of the palm of their hand, the new live-action adaptation of Blue Lock had a disastrous premiere in Japanese cinemas. The film, released last August 7, grossed only 277.6 million yen (about 1.7 million euros) and attracted 188,212 viewers in its first three days, figures that have already sounded the alarm in the production committee.

What is truly worrying about these numbers is the huge budget and corporate backing behind it. Despite being shown in over 400 theaters nationwide (including IMAX screens) and having the support of the prestigious CREDEUS studio—responsible for Japanese blockbusters like Kingdom—the movie sank to an embarrassing eighth place at the box office. It is clear that the immense ego of these strikers was not enough to survive against box office heavyweights like the unstoppable Chiikawa movie, Toy Story 5, or Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which ultimately stole all the attention from the youth and family audience.

To add insult to injury, comparisons with the animated version are inevitable and quite harsh. While the recent Blue Lock -EPISODE Nagi- anime movie comfortably exceeded 460 million yen in its opening weekend in 2024, this three-dimensional version fell ridiculously short. With the manga surpassing 65 million copies in print amid World Cup fever, it is clear that the lack of interest is not the fault of the original work, but the historical rejection that the Japanese public usually has towards these expensive live-action adaptations.

Main cast

• Fumiya Takahashi as Yoichi Isagi.
• Yusei Yagi as Rin Itoshi.
• Kaito Sakurai in a role to be confirmed.
• Kyohei Takahashi in a role to be confirmed.
• Keisuke Watanabe in a role to be confirmed.
• Taiko Natsuo in a role to be confirmed.

Seeing that not even a successful sports story with recognized actors could escape the public’s apathy, do you think Japanese studios will ever understand that fans would rather have a new anime season than see their favorite characters portrayed by real people?