Blue Lock: How to Read the Manga Ahead of Season 3 (Neo Egoist League)

Blue Lock Season 3 lands on October 9, 2026, and it’s adapting the arc a lot of fans think is the best in the whole series: the Neo Egoist League. It’s also arriving in a summer where soccer is everywhere in the US, with the World Cup being hosted right here and a live-action Blue Lock film dropping in Japan in August. If the hype has pulled you back in, you’ve probably noticed the obvious problem: the anime is nowhere near caught up to the manga.

So here’s the honest map. Where the anime leaves off, where the manga picks up, where to read it in English, and just how far ahead the story actually is.

Where does the Blue Lock anime leave off?

Season 2 wrapped up the Blue Lock XI vs. Japan U-20 match. That match is the finale of Phase 1, the first big chunk of the Blue Lock project, and it closes out the U-20 arc.

In manga terms, the U-20 arc runs from chapter 109 to chapter 151. So if you finished Season 2 and want to keep reading without repeating anything, you start at chapter 152. That’s the first chapter of the Neo Egoist League, which is exactly what Season 3 is about to adapt.

What is the Neo Egoist League?

The Neo Egoist League (fans just call it the NEL) is Phase 2 of Blue Lock. The surviving players get split across teams stacked with new rivals, including a batch of world-class foreign strikers, and the whole thing plays out as a proper league instead of the knockout-style battles from earlier arcs.

It’s the longest arc in the series so far, and it’s where Blue Lock shifts gears. New positions, new player dynamics, and the kind of high-stakes matchups the earlier arcs were building toward. It’s also still going in the manga, so Season 3 is adapting a story that hasn’t even finished yet in Japan.

No spoilers here. The point is just that there’s a lot of it, and Season 3’s 13-ish episodes won’t come close to covering all of it.

Where to read the Blue Lock manga in English

Blue Lock is a Kodansha series (it runs weekly in Weekly Shōnen Magazine), so your official English options come from Kodansha:

• K MANGA is Kodansha’s own app, and it’s the fastest way to read. New chapters go up in English essentially the same time they release in Japan, so you’re not waiting on a translation gap. It uses a per-chapter points system, and it’s available in the US along with a long list of other countries now.
• Kodansha print and digital volumes are the other route. Kodansha USA publishes the collected volumes (including omnibus editions), which are great to own but lag well behind the current chapter, since they only come out a few times a year.

For a US reader, K MANGA is the simple answer for staying current. It’s legal and same-day, and the creator actually gets paid. The one thing it doesn’t fix is the sheer size of the backlog, which brings us to the real question.

How far ahead is the manga?

Season 3 starts you at chapter 152. As of mid-2026 the manga is past chapter 350, with 39 collected volumes out.

That’s roughly 200 chapters of story sitting ahead of where Season 3 begins, and the anime tends to adapt somewhere around 10 to 12 chapters per season. Do that math and the anime is years away from catching up. If you want to know how the Neo Egoist League actually plays out, the manga is the only way, and it’s a long, very bingeable stretch of it.

Reading raws and everything that isn’t simulpubbed

Here’s the honest part. For Blue Lock specifically, if you’re in the US, you don’t really need a workaround: K MANGA already gives you same-day English. Read it there and support the series.

Where a manga translator earns its place is everything K MANGA doesn’t cover. Plenty of series never get a same-day English release, or any official English at all, and that’s where the language wall actually bites. If you branch out from Blue Lock into raw Japanese chapters of a series that isn’t licensed, or into Korean and Chinese titles, a tool like Madomi translates the page in place, right on top of the original art, so you can read as you scroll. It’s a browser extension and a mobile app, and the free plan is enough to try it on whatever you’re currently stuck on.

We’ve written up that exact workflow for the series where it matters most: Witch Hat Atelier, where the English release genuinely lags, and Korean manhwa, where most of what’s being published never gets translated at all.

Start the manga where the anime leaves off

If Season 3 has you hooked, open chapter 152 and keep going. That’s the Neo Egoist League from the top, no rewatching, no filler. Read it on K MANGA to stay current, grab the volumes if you like owning them, and you’ve got a couple hundred chapters of the best arc in the series waiting.

FAQ

Where does Blue Lock Season 3 start in the manga? Chapter 152, the beginning of the Neo Egoist League arc. Season 2 ended at chapter 151, the close of the U-20 match.

Is the Blue Lock manga finished? No. As of mid-2026 it’s ongoing, past chapter 350, with 39 volumes collected. The Neo Egoist League arc itself is still in progress.

Where can I read Blue Lock in English legally? K MANGA (Kodansha’s app, same-day English chapters, available in the US and many other countries) and Kodansha’s print and digital volumes.

How many chapters ahead of the anime is the manga? Season 3 starts around chapter 152 and the manga is past chapter 350, so roughly 200 chapters ahead.

When does Blue Lock Season 3 come out? October 9, 2026. A live-action Blue Lock film is also set for Japan in August 2026.

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