Aoashi

Alternate Title

アオアシ

Synopsis

Ashito Aoi is a junior high school student living in Ehime and the ace player of a weak soccer team. After losing his last tournament of junior high school, he runs on the beach to vent his frustration and happens to meet a man named Tatsuya Fukuda. It turns out Tatsuya is the coach of the youth team at Tokyo City Esperion FC, one of the top clubs in the J-League, which trains high school students. Seeing infinite potential in Ashito, Tatsuya invites him to try out for the youth team, which he plans to take all the way to the top. Ashito accepts his invitation and heads to Tokyo, where he first must pass the selection exam…

Background

Aoashi began as a Japanese manga series by Yugo Kobayashi that began serialization in Shogakukan's seinen manga magazine Weekly Big Comic Spirits in January 2015. As of February 2022, 27 collected tankobon volumes have been published by Shogakukan’s Big Comics label. The manga won the 65th Shogakukan Manga Award in the general category in 2020.

A TV anime adaptation was announced in May 2021. It is being produced by Production I.G and features Akira Sato as director and Jun Soga as assistant director, with Masahiro Yokotani handling series composition, Asuka Yamaguchi, Manabu Nakatake, Saki Hasegawa, and Toshie Kawamura handling character designs, and Masaru Yokoyama composing the music. The anime’s opening theme song is "Mushin Hakusu" by Alexandros, and the ending theme song is "Blue Diary" by Rinne. The anime will premiere in Japan on April 9, 2022 on NHK Educational TV and will be streamed overseas through Crunchyroll.

Characters

Ashito Aoi (Voiced by: Kouki Ohsuzu)
Ashito’s position is "genius forward." He is the self-proclaimed "reincarnation of Ronaldo in his prime.” He met Tatsuya in Ehime, opening the door to him joining Esperion Youth. He is a self-confident straight shooter, but he has a short temper. His soccer skills are rough, but he is opening up to new possibilities with his natural strength of will and innate vision.

Eisaku Otomo (Voiced by: Tatsumaru Tachibana)
Eisaku is from the same selection group as Ashito and Soichiro. He is a mood maker who pays attention to the whole team. He is a midfielder who gets nervous before a game, but when the game starts, he controls the team with his calm and collected judgment. He is usually a good-natured guy who tries his best to be popular with girls, but his efforts usually amount to nothing.

Soichiro Tachibana (Voiced by: Seiichiro Yamashita)
Soichiro is from the same selection group as Ashito and Eisaku. A former member of the powerhouse Yokoyama Musashino Soccer Team Junior Youth, he felt that his growth had stopped over the years, and he wants to join Esperion Youth to stop himself from becoming a failure. He is a serious person with a strong sense of responsibility, though he sometimes makes heated remarks by not reading the room. His position is forward.

Keiji Togashi (Voiced by: Taku Yashiro)
Keiji is the only one from Ashito’s age group who was scouted by Tatsuya for Esperion Youth. He is a former delinquent who is passionate with a deep sense of moral obligation. He is an aggressive defender with a physical and dynamic style of play, but also possesses a high level of basic skills and tactical understanding. Due to a past feud, he is rivals with Kanpei and Ryuichi, who were promoted from the junior youth team.

Kanpei Kuroda (Voiced by: Shun Horie)
Kanpei was promoted from the Esperion Junior Youth team. He is a midfielder with a calm and collected style of play. He is usually laid-back, mild-mannered, and friendly, but is a realist whose main priority is becoming a professional. Along with Ryuichi, he has a feud with Keiji, who has a different viewpoint on soccer.

Martis Jun Asari (Voiced by: Wataru Kato)
Martis was promoted from the Esperion Junior Youth team. He is a cool blonde-haired boy who has an English father and a Japanese mother. He is a defender who excels at offense. He is highly prideful and is not convinced that Ashito, who has inferior skills, should be on the youth team. As a result, he often acts condescending toward him.

Yuma Motoki (Voiced by: Junya Enoki)
Yuma was promoted from the Esperion Junior Youth team. He is very talkative, both in and out of games, and his trademark is his yaeba tooth. His position is forward, and even though he is a first-year player, he has the skills to be on the regular squad. He is a childhood friend of Anri, the daughter of the president of Kaido Electric, the main sponsor of Esperion, but she seems to dislike him.

Ryuichi Takeshima (Voiced by: Kentaro Kumagai)
Ryuichi was promoted from the Esperion Junior Youth team. He is a defender who specializes in defense, which is rare in Esperion's offense-heavy team. Eisaku holds a one-sided grudge against him because he brings his girlfriend to the field with him. He is Yuma's best friend. He and Kanpei have a feud with Keiji, who has a different viewpoint on soccer.

Nagisa Akutsu (Voiced by: Shunsuke Takeuchi)
Nagisa is the only member one year Ashito’s senior to pass the selection. He is a talented defender who was selected for the regular squad beginning in his first year. He is stoic and has a rough temper, and he often clashes with his teammates. Since joining the team, he butts heads with Ashito, whom he confronted during the selection process.

Haruhisa Kuribayashi (Voiced by: Yuichiro Umehara)
Haruhisa is a prodigy midfielder who made his J-League debut with a top team at the age of 16, and is regarded as "Esperion Youth’s crowning achievement." His skill surpasses that of the youth level, and his exceptional sense of the game make him a great influence on Ashito. He deeply trusts his coach, Tatsuya. His position is midfielder.

Taira Nakamura (Voiced by: Kensho Ono)
Taira is one year Ashito’s senior and was promoted from the junior youth team. He is a midfielder in the second squad. He has a caring personality and sometimes gives advice to Ashito as his senior due to his skills being lacking. He gets along well with his teammates.

Yoichi Kiriki (Voiced by: Kouki Uchiyama)
Yoichi is one year Ashito’s senior and was promoted from the junior youth team. He is a midfielder with excellent technique. He was selected for the Japanese national team in his age group, but he doesn’t like the fact that he has always been seen as the second best player to Haruhisa in Esperion ever since his junior youth days.

Eita Takasugi (Voiced by: Makoto Furukawa)
Eita is one year Ashito’s senior and was promoted from the junior youth team. His position is forward/midfielder. He is a powerhouse who was selected for the Japan national team in his age group and has the leadership skills to inspire his teammates.

Hana Ichijo (Voiced by: Maki Kawase)
Hana is Tatsuya's sister-in-law who professes to be "the world's first fan" of Ashito. She is a naive and outspoken young woman, but she is very caring and even helps out Esperion on her days off. She aspires to be a sports surgeon and is deeply knowledgeable about nutrition. She is devoted to supporting Ashito by preparing meals for him, but she doesn’t know much about soccer.

Anri Kaido (Voiced by: Reina Ueda)
Anri is the daughter of the president of Kaido Electric, the main sponsor of Esperion. She loves soccer so much that she watches from the sidelines as the youth team practices on the pitch, and her goal is to become a coach. She respects Tatsuya, the coach of the youth team, but is too shy to talk to him in person.

Tatsuya Fukuda (Voiced by: Chikahiro Kobayashi)
Tatsuya is the coach of Esperion Youth. Formerly a member of the Japanese national team, he is a "precocious genius” who had a promising future with experience playing in overseas leagues such as Spain, but due to an injury, he retired from the sport. He happened to meet Ashito in his hometown of Ehime and invited him to join Esperion Youth after seeing his talent. He is 34 years old, single, and has a boring appearance, but has earned the trust of the players with his exceptional coaching ability.

Nozomi Date (Voiced by: Hiroki Yasumoto)
Nozomi is the head coach of Esperion Youth. He is in charge of the second squad, which includes Ashito and his friends. He has been a close friend of Tatsuya’s since their days playing together. He is called the "Iron Mask" due to his calmness and composure, but he is also a leader who puts the growth of his players first, and is highly trusted by them. During his days as a professional player, he played as a midfielder for Esperion.

Music

• Opening Theme Song: "Mushin Hakusu" by Alexandros
• Ending Theme Song: "Blue Diary" by Rinne

• Anime Site (Japanese)
• Twitter (Japanese)

• Original Creator: Yugo Kobayashi
• Director: Akira Sato
• Series Composition: Masahiro Yokotani
• Assistant Director: Jun Soga
• Soccer Supervision: Jun Soga, Kenichi Takeshita, Kenji Iizuka
• Character Design: Asuka Yamaguchi, Manabu Nakatake, Saki Hasegawa, Toshie Kawamura
• Sub-Character Design: Eisuke Shirai, Miho Daidouji, Naho Seike, Yukiko Watabe
• Chief Animation Director: Asuka Yamaguchi, Manabu Nakatake
• Prop Design: Arisa Ito, Miori Tsuzaka
• Color Design: Emiko Ueno
• Art Director: Tsukasa Kakizakai, Yusuke Takeda
• Art Setting: Kazushige Kanehira, Osamu Ii
• 2D Work: Akiko Hamanaka
• Previsualization: Atsunori Maeshima
• 3D Animation: Shiguma Morimoto
• Director of Photography: Maiko Imazeki
• Editing: Yoshinori Murakami
• Sound Director: Shoji Hata
• Music: Masaru Yokoyama
• Animation Production: Production I.G