Blue Lock manga illustrator Yusuke Nomura announced on June 13, 2023 on his official Twitter account that the manga will be on a break for a week as he contracted COVID-19.
The manga had recently gone on a hiatus due to Yusuke’s health issues, which he dubbed as normal issue. But as soon as he recovered and started working on another chapter is when he contracted COVID-19.
Due to this Blue Lock manga chapter 222 will be released after two weeks.
“Today, the latest chapter of “Blue Lock” is being released, but it will be on a one-week break again next week. The reason being, in the previous break, I had a normal health issue, and when I recovered and started working on the next chapter, I ended up contracting COVID-19…
COVID-19 is really tough. I couldn’t get up or move. I was bedridden for several days. (But now I’ve recovered.)
So, please look forward to the next chapter in two weeks! “
Blue Lock is a Japanese manga series written by Muneyuki Kaneshiro and illustrated by Yusuke Nomura. It has been serialized in Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine since August 2018, with its chapters collected in 24 tankobon volumes as of May 2023.
An anime television series adaptation produced by Eight Bit aired from October 2022 to March 2023. A second season and an anime film adaptation have been announced.
By May 2023, the manga had over 26 million copies in circulation, making it one of the best-selling manga series. In 2021, Blue Lock won the 45th Kodansha Manga Award in the shōnen category.
MAL describes the plot of the manga as:
After reflecting on the current state of Japanese soccer, the Japanese Football Association decides to hire the enigmatic and eccentric coach Jinpachi Ego to achieve their dream of winning the World Cup. Believing that Japan has lacked an egoistic striker hungry for goals, Jinpachi initiates the Blue Lock—a prison-like facility where three hundred talented strikers from high schools all over Japan are isolated and pitted against each other. The sole survivor of Blue Lock will earn the right to become the national team’s striker, and those who are defeated shall be banned from joining the team forever.
Selected to join this risky project is Yoichi Isagi, a striker who failed to bring his high school soccer team to the national tournament. After choosing to pass to a teammate who missed instead of scoring on his own, he could not help but wonder if the results would have been different had he been more selfish. Using this golden opportunity given by the Blue Lock Project, Yoichi aims to clear his doubts and chase his ultimate desire—to become the greatest striker in the world and lead Japan to World Cup glory.
Source: Twitter
