There’s something deliciously absurd about the premise of Kill Blue. A hitman—utterly lethal, consistently unflinching—wakes up in the body of a teenager and is forced to do the one thing arguably more terrifying than his old profession: attend secondary school.
The production committee has confirmed: the anime adaptation of Tadatoshi Fujimaki’s manga will hit Japanese television screens this April via TV Tokyo. The announcement arrived alongside a second promotional trailer and a fresh key visual.
The Soundtrack
The soundtrack reveals an interesting gambit.
- Opening track:
ATTITUDE
by aespa, the South Korean powerhouse - Ending theme:
KILL SHOT
by RIIZE, marking their debut in Japanese animation
Whether this represents genuine artistic synergy or a calculated move to capture crossover audiences remains to be seen seems rather more probable to be the latter.
Behind the Scenes
Studio CUE, established in 2023 through a partnership between developer DMM and former Production IG creatives, is taking its first swing at helming a television series.
- Director: Hiro Kaburagi
- Character design: Miho Daidoji
A relatively untested studio tackling material from the mind behind Kuroko’s Basketball—it’s either a stroke of genius or a considerable gamble.
The Voice Cast
The voice cast reads like a who’s who of current industry favourites.
- Shunsuke Takeuchi voices the adult Juzo Ogami
- Yuko Sanpei handles his younger incarnation
- Takeo Otsuka, Atsumi Tanezaki, Yumi Uchiyama, and Shoya Chiba round out the ensemble
- Daisuke Sakuma of Snow Man adds idol appeal
The Source Material
Fujimaki’s original manga serialised in Weekly Shonen Jump from April 2023 through September of last year, concluding at 13 volumes. A spin-off light novel, Kill Blue Secret Report, released this past December.
The premise is elegantly simple: Juzo Ogami, a legendary assassin with an unblemished record, finds himself inexplicably transformed into a pubescent boy. His investigation leads him back through the gates he thought he’d left behind forever—school.
The comedy writes itself. A man accustomed to stalking targets through shadowy corridors must now navigate hallway gossip, mathematics exams, and the peculiar social hierarchies of adolescence.
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