It may have taken a while, but the Blue Archive anime is finally getting an official North American release. This begs the question of when a Blue Archive English dub will be released.
Given that the mobile game has a sizeable following, it’s surprising that the anime will only get an official English release this week, albeit with English subtitles and the original Japanese audio.
Blue Archive English Dub Release Date Predictions
Blue Archive the Animation is a new animated series by Yostar Pictures, the studio behind the Arknights and Azur Lane anime adaptations.
As with the studio’s other works, this show is based on a popular gacha role-playing game that was originally released in Japan in February 2021.
Similar to other hit gacha games such as Genshin Impact and Fate/Grand Order, the Blue Archive game features lots of well-known voice actors. The game’s VAs also returned to voice their characters in the anime.
Even though the game is available worldwide, there are no English dub voices in its NA release. Because of this, there’s a chance that the anime will not get an English dub version.
This is also the case with Arknights, which does not have a dub version, even though the first anime premiered in October 2022.
If Blue Archive ends up getting an English dub, chances are that it will be a while, potentially taking a year or more.
This isn’t unprecedented, as even older shows such as Natsume’s Book of Friends got a dub years after its initial premiere.
RELATED: Why Do the Characters in Blue Archive Have Halos? Possible Meaning and Importance Explored
The Blue Archive Anime Finally Gets Release Date in North America
Even if the English dub might not come out anytime soon (if at all), fans will be happy to know that the anime will finally get an official English release.
The game’s official English X (formerly Twitter) account announced that the anime will premiere on May 24 at midnight UTC (May 23 at 8:00 PM ET / 5:00 PM PT).
As for where to watch it, the announcement seems to confirm that the episodes will be released on the official Blue Archive YouTube channel.
Is the Blue Archive Anime Coming to Crunchyroll or HIDIVE Soon? Speculations Explored
Most of the big seasonal anime are released either on Crunchyroll or HIDIVE. From the looks of it though, this series will be one of the few to not get a release on those platforms.
It’s not clear why, but some fans have theorized on Reddit that the anime’s license may be expensive, or that the show featuring guns in a school setting may be problematic.
Are you planning to watch Blue Archive? Let us know in the comments.