Blue Archive

It was first released in February 2021 for Android and iOS devices in Japan by Yostar and self-published worldwide in November of the same year by Nexon, with a global release on Microsoft Windows in July 2025 via Steam, barring Benelux, Vietnam, and Germany and Yostar-managed regions. The game is free-to-play with gacha game mechanics as a means to obtain new characters and improvise strategies via team building. Two short-length original net anime productions were released between July and November 2022; a full-length anime television series adaptation, announced in 2023, was produced by Yostar Pictures and Candy Box, and was broadcast from April to June 2024.

Blue Archive is a tactical role-playing game that allows the player to form and mobilize units of up to six members (two "Specials" and four "Strikers") with which to participate in various military campaigns. Students' strengths can be enhanced in various ways, such as by increasing their levels, weapons, armor and skills. More students can be recruited through the gacha system using in-game currency, which may be purchased through in-app purchases. The units are mobilized on a turn-based hex map and battle initiates when they encounter an enemy or vice versa. In combat, Strikers march along a straight path and occasionally do combat with enemy groups. They also fire automatic attacks and can hide behind objects to decrease their chances of getting hit. Specials do not engage in direct combat but increase the Strikers' stats and support them from the backlines instead. The player has no conventional method of control over battles with the exception of using students' skills that cost the team's regenerable synergy bar to use. Students and enemies both have rock-paper-scissors-based attacks and defenses, which determine their strengths and weaknesses. Students get rescued by a helicopter and cannot participate in later battles if they lose all of their health.

Blue Archive takes place in the academic city-state of Kivotos, which was established by the union of thousands of academies. The citizens of Kivotos are composed of three races: Humanoids, which include subraces ranging from the common human to resembling angels, demons, elves, bioroids, and kemonomimi retaining lesser features of various animal races such as ears and tails; intelligent werebeast citizens of various races; and highly advanced robots with human levels of intelligence and individuality. Due to possessing Halos, humanoids are surprisingly strong and durable enough to resist and survive serious injuries like gunshots and explosions, though they can only be killed by destroying their Halo through certain means. As a result of this, every student possesses some kind of firearm and/or ordnance as a means to protect themselves and fight back against other students, with frequent campus shootouts happening quite a lot across Kivotos. The city is ruled by the General Student Council (GSC), a federal committee led by a President, who governs the city from the Sanctum Tower with access to every student's register. Despite the GSC having the main authority within Kivotos, many of the schools operate and lead their districts with virtually autonomous independence with almost every school district having a rich, long-lasting history to them, with the three most powerful schools being Millennium Science School, Trinity General School, and Gehenna Academy. Before the events of the game, the GSC President summons the player character, a teacher with the education status of Sensei, to be the advisor of SCHALE, an extrajudicial organization established by the president herself. She then proceeds to disappear, which is followed by a rise in criminal activity and military presence in the city. As Sensei helps the students, clubs, and academies of Kivotos with their various problems, the Sensei must also deal with school rivalries, criminal warfare, corrupt corporations, rogue AIs, paranormal creatures, mysterious groups, and insidious cults that threaten Kivotos, often with the assistance of their highly advanced smart-tablet known as the "Shittim Chest" and its sentient AI named Arona.

The main story is divided into several Volumes, which focus on a specific group (and sometimes, one or more of its members) in their respective school, in which each volume is also divided into chapters that tell a relatively complete story on their own. There are currently six main story volumes after the prologue, the first four of which lead up to the story's first climactic volume titled "Volume F" that ties those initial volumes together as the first overarching story arc closes and allows future volumes afterwards to exist and evolve, narratively.

Abydos High School is in deep debt, and its five remaining students have formed the Foreclosure Task Force. They have been fighting off gangs attacking the school for a long time, and ask SCHALE for help. They investigate and eventually learn that the company the school is in debt to, Kaiser Corporation, orchestrated the events by having the school take out a loan larger than it could afford in the wake of a natural disaster, forcing the school to sell much of the Abydos District land. Kaiser Corporation hired the gangs when the Foreclosure Task Force did not give in and sell the land the Abydos High School is on. As punishment for the Foreclosure Task Force's spying, the Kaiser Corporation requests payment by the end of the week and increases the debt. Hoshino, a member of the Foreclosure Task Force, runs away and joins the Kaiser Corporation in exchange for debt forgiveness. However, she was actually tricked into allowing a mysterious organization that the Kaiser Corporation works with, Gematria, to experiment on her and her Mystic power. With the help of Problem Solver 68, a group of delinquent students from another school that the Kaiser Corporation had hired to attack Abydos High School, the Foreclosure Task Force rescues Hoshino. Later, the Foreclosure Task Force had their debt significantly reduced. After the events of Volume Final, a long forgotten member of Gematria, Underground Dweller, starts manipulating reality to retrigger Hoshino's trauma related to Yume, the previous Abydos' Student Council president's, pushing it to its limits under the guise of a Dungeons and Dragons game. It culminates into the awakening of Horus of Dawn which also summons a God known as the Fury of Set, both threatening Kivotos. Together, SCHALE, the Foreclosure Task Force and Anubis are able to reach Hoshino, bring her back to her senses and beat the Fury of Set and the Underground Dweller. Later, the Foreclosure Task Force officially becomes newly recognized as Abydos' Student Council and Anubis returns to a familiar, nostalgic feeling Abydos under her old name.

Sensei receives a request from the Game Development Department at the Millennium Science School to try and prevent their club from being disbanded due to having less than four members and failing to produce a video game per their club's stated purpose. The Game Development Department decides to explore a ruined section of the Millennium District to look for a special program that can help them make their game. Instead, they find a robot girl named Aris, who develops an obsession with video games. The Game Development Club arranges for Aris to be recruited as their fourth member, steal the program from their school's vault, and be able to create their game in time and avoid dissolution. Sometime later, Aris is kidnapped by Millennium's student council president, Rio, who reveals that Aris is actually the leader of DIVI:SION, an army of hostile robots programmed to destroy Kivotos. Sensei, the Game Development Department, and allies stage a rescue mission and prevent Rio from dismantling Aris. Meanwhile, Aris overcomes her programming, wanting to become a hero instead of being a villain, and DIVI:SION is shut down. Aris returns to the Game Development Department while Rio resigns from her position.

SCHALE receives a request from Nagisa at Trinity General School to help root out a traitor who threatens to disrupt the signing of the Eden Treaty between Trinity and Gehenna Academy. Nagisa had already gathered all the suspected traitors in the Make-Up Work Club, whom she plans to have all expelled. Sensei refuses to help Nagisa and instead tries to help the Make-Up Work Club despite Nagisa's meddling. Eventually, it is revealed that the real traitor is Nagisa's friend Mika, who is working with the rogue Arius Squad from the Arius Satellite School. Arius attempts to sabotage the Eden Treaty signing, but Sensei and the Make-Up Work Club are able to thwart their plans, forcing them to retreat. Arius Squad's leader Saori then approaches Sensei and begs for their aid in rescuing her friend Atsuko, whom Gematria member Beatrice plans to sacrifice for a ritual. Sensei is able to convince Arius Squad and Mika to work together to rescue Atsuko while Trinity raids Arius. Beatrice is forced to admit defeat and flees while Mika is pardoned.

SCHALE is assigned a task to suppress Rabbit Squad, who are protesting the closure of SRT Special Academy. After subduing and listening to their reasonings, Sensei decides to try and assist the Rabbit Squad, but is initially met with distrust. After much effort and malarkey, Rabbit Squad eventually come to trust Sensei after assisting in saving their camp from a rainstorm, and they begin to investigate mysterious cases of Kaiser Corporation attempting to evict the residents of their district. They uncover a conspiracy where the Valkyrie Police School was secretly buying weapons from Kaiser Corporation which caused a scandal and halts Kaiser's redevelopment plans. After the events of Volume Final, General Student Council Chief of Defense Kaya attempts to overthrow the General Student Council with the help of Fox Squad, who hopes she can restore the SRT Academy. This culminates in Kaya ordering Fox Squad to destroy a train station in a staged terrorist attack, but they are thwarted by Rabbit Squad. Seeing the error of their ways, Fox Squad surrenders and turns over evidence that incriminates Kaya, leading to her arrest.

With a prophecy predicting Kivotos' impending doom, SCHALE sends a warning to General Student Council Vice President Rin, who tries to organize a meeting. However, other members of the General Student Council censure Rin under the belief she is overstepping her authority, which leads to Kaiser attempting to overthrow the General Student Council and seize Kivotos for themselves. SCHALE, Rabbit Squad, and Valkyrie are able to thwart Kaiser, but massive structures called False Sanctums begin appearing all over the city. While SCHALE organizes the majority of the students to mount a defense against the False Sanctums, they also commandeer a spaceship to attack a space station that appears to be the origin of the False Sanctums. Once on board, they discover that the masterminds are Phrenapates and Anubis, alternate universe versions of the Sensei and Shiroko respectively working for a greater power called the Chroma. SCHALE is able to defeat Phrenapates and Anubis, and they follow Phrenapates' last request to rescue Anubis as the space station explodes, leading to the False Sanctums disappearing. Kivotos begins to rebuild, and Anubis leaves to begin a fresh start.

Sensei receives a call to return to Hyakkiyako over a strange letter the student council Ying-Yang Club has received from Nature's Beauty, a club only known in legend. While searching, Sensei meets Yukari, an eccentric miko who rejects her spiritual duties in favor of becoming an official member of the Hyakkaryouran, the highly skilled task force of the region. However, the club is at risk of being disbanded after the disappearance of both its president and vice-president as she tries to do whatever she can to desperately keep it together, however futile it seems. During the festival, Sensei finds vice-president Nagusa and tries to convince her to come back, but to no avail as she deems herself unworthy of the title of president after a failure of a previous mission lead to tragedy. Later on, Shuro of Nature's Beauty, a girl who uses people's failures against them, reveals herself, takes Yukari hostage and summons the ghost story known as Myouki Kurokage to burn Hyakkiyako to the ground. Sensei faces Shuro and reunites the Hyakkaryouran members to fight for their friend. Together, they manage to save Yukari and Hyakkiyako with Nagusa finally accepting the role of president. Meanwhile, Shuro runs away back to her leader, a woman named Kokuriko. Some time later, the Ying-Yang Club summons Sensei and the Hyakkaryouran to assist in investigating paranormal entities in the northern autonomous district of Ebisu Satellite School, the same area where Nagusa last saw Ayame, Hyakkaryouran's president, before she was presumed dead. Viewing this as a chance to find a cure for Nagusa’s spiritual affliction, Sensei joins the group in traveling to Ebisu. There, they are unexpectedly reunited with Ayame, who seemingly appears to be in good health. As they delve deeper into the investigation within a mansion once owned by Yukari’s former family, the Kadenokouji, Yukari discovers that Kokuriko was once a miko and the president of Hyakkaryouran before founding Nature’s Beauty. Soon after, Kokuriko, along with Azami and Ayame—revealed to have been corrupted by Nature’s Beauty after concealing her inner pain—ambushes and captures Yukari and the rest of the group. Although Ying-Yang Club president Niya is also captured by Ayame, she had already saw the Phantom's deception and warned others in advance, enabling the Ninjutsu Research Club to deliver her message to proceed with the Waraku Festival to disrupt Nature’s Beauty’s phantom gaze. Taking advantage of this, the Hyakkaryouran slips back into Hyakkiyako and rescue Niya. Despite facing their inner doubts, Nagusa manages to overcome her demons and defeat Ayame in a long-awaited succession contest for her to step down from her duties and free her from her burden. Though Hyakkiako is saved, Ayame remains in a deep sleep while the Hyakkaryouran waits for her return.

This list is limited only to major characters that have appeared in both the game and the TV anime and does not include those that have appeared only in the game and/or had made cameo appearances in the TV anime. All character names culturally sort family names before given name, including in official English language display. Names with slightly differing native pronunciations from the official English translation will display romaja.

The game was first introduced by Nexon Games (formerly NAT Games) and Yostar by its initial name, Project MX. The announcement, alongside the first promotion video and arts was released in February 2020. Yostar announced the mobile game and held closed beta tests for the Android version in July 2020, where it is now known by its current name as Blue Archive. Initially scheduled to be released in 2020, it was later moved to February 4, 2021. A worldwide version of the game was announced in August 2021, surpassing one million pre-registrations ahead of its release. The version, which includes English as well as Korean, Traditional Chinese and Thai language support was released on November 8 of the same year by Nexon. On November 11, 2022, Nexon updated the ratings of the worldwide version of the game to "Mature" from the original "Teen" rating, while releasing a separate "Teen"-rated version of the game exclusively in Korea, particularly due to its rating issues in Korea. The "Teen" rating version has some content changes compared to the original release, mostly of some Live2D's. A Simplified Chinese version of the game for China release has been revealed in works in March 2023, as the Chinese authority released a statement regarding passing of the games to be played in the country. The game website later went live alongside the first preview on March 31, 2023, with pre-registrations are open on the same day. A closed beta test was done between June and July 2023, and on August 3, 2023, the game finally went live in China as an open beta. The Chinese version is published by Yostar and includes Chinese voice dub for the characters, including the main stories. Yostar later ported this game to HarmonyOS NEXT in November 2024, which is a mobile operating system from Huawei and first revealed at Huawei Devices's Official Bilibili account page, and it was available in mainland China. In October 2023, Nexon announced that the Global version would be available in the Galaxy Store for Samsung phones. This version was released on October 31. According to an interview in Taiwan in December 2023, PD Kim Yong Ha explains that they have planned ahead for two years and is expecting 15-years minimum of development with their approach. He also said that for the time being, they are focusing on remediating crash issues that commonly happened in the game, with the reason being that their 3D model has become more complex as time continues. He also said that there is no plan for any PC version of the game for now. The lineup change of the development team happened in 2024 which saw Byeong-lim Park, once the co-director for the Japanese version of the game left the team to handle a new project alongside two other founding members, Cha Min-seo and Im Jong-gyu. Positions such as main scenario writer and art director changed hands from Isakusan and Hwangsang to Oh Hyun-seok and 9ml respectively. Kim Yong Ha returns to head director position of the game after being in a "supervising role" for a while. While he admits that the sudden announcement of staff changes may concern the players, Yong Ha in an interview assured that the changes will not affect the game in any drastic way. Nexon reported the game has announced Korean original voices were added to Blue Archive Global version starting on July 23, 2024, on its 3rd anniversary for global. The following year, Nexon announced full Korean voice over for every scene in the main story starting from summer 2025, with Volume 1 updates being released on July 8 of that year and more planned afterwards.

Two short original net animation have been released individually as promotional material of the game. Both titles were produced by Yostar Pictures and released in their official YouTube channels. The 1.5th Anniversary Short Animation was released on July 16, 2022, as a special 9-minute animation for its summer events and half-anniversary event, featuring Abydos High, Allied Hyakkiyako, Trinity General, and Gehenna Academy students on their quest of preparing for their summer activities. Beautiful Day Dreamer is another short animation title, featuring the Game Development Department (GDD) from Millenium Science School. The title was released on November 22, 2022, with a duration of around 9 minutes. The 2.5th Anniversary Short Animation was initially scheduled to be released on July 23, 2023, but was confirmed on a December 24 livestream session that it was ultimately cancelled due to quality issues.

An anthology comic series named Blue Archive Anthology Comic, consisting of various short story comic from various artists, has been announced in production on July 24, 2021, and the first volume of the comic is released on July 26, 2021, by Ichijinsha. As of January 2026, eight volumes has been released. Another anthology comic series named Blue Archive Dengeki Anthology Comic is released by Kadokawa Corporation under Dengeki Comics EX label on February 3, 2023.

A spinoff manga titled Blue Archive: Problem Solver 68 Business Diary (Japanese: ブルーアーカイブ 便利屋68業務日誌, romanized: Blue Archive Benriya 68 Gyōmu Nisshi), focusing on the characters from the group Problem Solver 68. The manga is released monthly by Bushiroad in their website Comic Growl (formerly Comic Bushiroad Web) starting on October 14, 2022, with Kaede Nogiwa as the artist. The first volume of the manga has been released on June 8, 2023. As of June 2026, six volumes have been released. The series is licensed in English by Kaiten Books.

Another spinoff manga titled Blue Archive: The Grand Adventure of the Game Development Department! (Japanese: ブルーアーカイブ ゲーム開発部だいぼうけん！, romanized: Blue Archive Game Kaihatsubu Daibouken!) has been announced in production during the live stream on October 20, 2023, focusing on the characters from the group Game Development Department. Asato Mizu illustrated the manga and began serialization on Square Enix's Gangan Online manga website on December 31, 2023. The series' chapters are collected into tankōbon volumes. The first volume was released on June 12, 2024. As of June 2026, six volumes have been released. The series is published in English on Square Enix's Manga Up! Global website and app.

A few songs have been used throughout the game versions. "Clear Morning", by Yui Ogura is used as the main theme song for the Japanese version of the game, with the single is released on March 31, 2021. "Target for love" by Lee Jin-ah is selected as the worldwide version theme song of the game, with separate versions of Korean and English is used for international version respectively. For Chinese version, "Blue Canvas" by ClariS is used as a regional theme song. Other themes used in the game are "Kagayaki Summer Days" and "Our Quest", which are used in their short animation titles and sung by various voice actors of the game, "Memories of Kindness", the theme for Volume F ending sung by Kano in Japanese and Younha for its Korean and English versions. Younha also sings "Thanks to", which is a special theme song for its 1.5 anniversary event in South Korea in English and Korean.

The original soundtracks of the game are composed mostly by Mitsukiyo, Karut and Nor. Other composers do periodically contribute to its tracks such as Aiobahn for the crossover event with A Certain Scientific Railgun series. The official soundtracks in sets of albums titled Blue Archive Original Soundtrack, with first volume released on March 24, 2022. The latest volume, Vol. 5, was released on January 21, 2024.

While originally criticized due to lack of content and various in-game bugs that hampered the initial experience, the game has marked spikes in popularity later on with their improvements, with it now enjoying a huge successful fanbase especially in the Asia–Pacific region (such as Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea). The game has been a recent big hit at Comiket, with the data for its C102 event in Summer 2023 showing the game had the highest number of circles participating in the general net social games section, with 894 circles selling doujinshi products for the game alone. This is a spike of increase from 446 circles for their Winter 2022 event (C101). Due to its reception, the game moves from the general net social games section to their own section in the Winter 2023 Comiket (C103) onwards, with genre code 336. The numbers doubles to 1718 circles in C103 and expands to 1922 circles in C104. It was reported that some prominent staff like chief developer PD Kim Yong Ha and sound composer Mitsukiyo also visited the booths in the events and met the artists as a form of support. Based on a December 16, 2023 survey conducted by Nikkei Entertainment, the fanbase of Blue Archive within Japan has an average age of 24 years, and a male-to-female ratio that skews 80:20. The game also has attracted some well-known manga artists and animators to become fans and also produce fan art for the game. One of the most notable is Aki Hamazi, the author of Bocchi the Rock!, who participates in the C101 event with her own circle producing Blue Archive doujinshi. As her own work recently became much more popular, with the anime adaptation finished airing a week before the event, her activity attracted a lot of fans to line up at her booth. This prompted the organiser to move her booth outside the hall to avoid congestion and her booth quickly sold out just noon of the first day of the event. She continued her involvement in the next Comiket with Blue Archive doujinshi and has also contributed to some official promotional art of the game. The game also has generally received a positive reception, particularly among fans of the gacha and anime RPG genres. Its launch on Steam in July 2025 has further broadened its audience. However, Nexon terminated an in-game event that incentivized players to leave reviews on Steam, as it was discovered to potentially conflict with Steamworks documentation against artificially manipulating the review system. While the event was stopped and rewards were not distributed, the game's positive rating has largely remained.

Their total revenue until October 2023 has reached over $400 million for all their versions. The Japanese version of the game contributed 75% of it. In August 2023, the game recorded $19 million for the Japanese version, and $4 million for their global version, the total revenue was $24 million. According to Nexon, Blue Archive has been considered one of their most-grossing games in their quarterly financial report, with remarkably being one of the dominant contributors of revenue in Japan in their Q2 Financial Report 2023.

The global version received censorship in some of their scenes in comparison of their Japanese version. In response to this, chief developer PD Kim Yong Ha stated that they needed to abide by "external requests" to be able to market their game in other regions, apologizing to the players for not keeping his promises. Censorship efforts at the time have since been reversed with the introduction of two separately rated versions, a "Teen" version exclusive to Korea and the Global version with Multi-language support and no cut content. In October 2022, the South Korea rating board, Game Rating and Administration Committee (GRAC), increased the age rating of Blue Archive from 15+ to 18+. GRAC was later audited by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and was found to be guilty in June 2023 for embezzlement worth of KR₩700 million (US$500,000) in taxpayer money. A few presses claimed this is an indirect result of Blue Archive players launching a petition calling for the rating board's investigation prior, which allegedly instigated Lee Sang-Heon of the Democratic Party of Korea to demand Korean National Audit to inspect the board independently. On October 18, 2024, the 3rd anniversary live listed Taiwan and Hong Kong as countries, which aroused dissatisfaction among a large number of players in the Chinese server. On the same day, the Chinese server issued a statement through Bilibili to express its firm support for the One China policy. On October 20, the global server issued the statement in Chinese, English, Thai and Korean on Twitter and Facebook. In turn, their statements aroused dissatisfaction among players in the global server.

An anime television series adaptation titled Blue Archive The Animation was announced on January 22, 2023. The series is produced by Yostar Pictures and Candy Box and directed by Daigo Yamagishi, with Hiroshi Ōnogi and Yamagishi overseeing series scripts, Shunji Maki serving as assistant director, and Hiromitsu Hagiwara designing the characters and serving as chief animation director. The anime adapts the two, pre-volume F chapters of the "Countermeasures Committee/Foreclosure Task Force" arc, with the cast reprising their roles from the game. It aired from April 7 to June 23, 2024, on TV Tokyo as part of their new unnamed Sunday midnight anime block and other networks. Medialink has licensed the series in Asia-Pacific (except Australia and New Zealand) and is streaming it on Ani-One Asia YouTube channel. Outside of Asia, the anime can also be seen internationally via its official English channel on YouTube. All Blu-rays were sold with English, Korean, Chinese and Japanese subtitles imbedded on their discs.

A series of artwork compilation book of the game titled Blue Archive Official Artworks is published by Ichijinsha under its DNA Media Comics label with its first volume releases on October 5, 2022. The first volume contains various designs concepts and profile of the characters and other related art materials throughout the first year events of the game, as well as guest artworks and staff interviews. The second volume which covers materials from the second year of the game was released on December 19, 2023. The book is also published in Traditional Chinese and Korean by Nexon.