The anime adaptation of Kazue Kato’s Blue Exorcist will return early next year.
The brief trailer, available on Aniplex’s official YouTube channel, confirms that the third season of the dark fantasy series will premiere in January and that the plot will adapt the “Shimane Illuminati” arc from Kato’s manga . The promotional video also introduces the anime’s new aesthetic; Upcoming production company Studio VOLN has replaced A-1 Pictures, the veteran animation studio behind the first two seasons of Blue Exorcist.
Kato’s ongoing manga first appeared in Shueisha’s Jump Square in April 2009, and to date, the series has published 29 volumes of content. The story focuses on Rin, a seemingly normal high school student who discovers he and his twin brother are actually the sons of Satan. After demons murdered his guardian and father, Rin began attending True Cross Academy to learn how to control his blue flame powers and hope to one day defeat his father. Since its release, Blue Exorcist has garnered a large fan base and the series, along with Yūsei Matsui’s Assassination Classroom and Katsura Hoshino’s D.Gray-Man, is one of the best-selling manga in history. , with more than 25 million copies sold worldwide.
The anime adaptation has had a tumultuous production history. The first season of Blue Exorcist actually premiered in April 2011, with the tie-in film released the following year. The second season did not premiere until January 2017.
While the Blue Exorcist anime is being produced by a new studio, many of the original voice cast will return for the Shimane Illuminati Saga; most notably Nobuhiko Okamoto (Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma) and Jun Fukuyama (Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War) will once again play Rin and his twin brother Yukio. Other members of the cast of Blue Exorcist Season 3 include Kana Hanazawa (Bungo Stray Dogs) as Shiemi Moriyama, Kazuya Nakai (Death Note) as Ryuji Suguroi and Yuuki Kaji (Attack on Titan) as Miwa Konekomaru.
Blue Exorcist isn’t the only major anime series releasing another season in its Winter 2024 lineup. Notably, the second season of JCStaff’s Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy and the fifth season of Pierrot Kingdom will premiere in January next. Furthermore, the Winter 2024 lineup will feature highly anticipated new shows such as Pon no Michi, the Fire Force director’s latest project, and Studio Trigger’s Delicious in Dungeon.
The Blue Exorcist anime is currently available to stream on Crunchyroll.
Source: YouTube
