General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Blue Thermal (ブルーサーマル -青凪大学体育会航空部-)

Blue Thermal (ブルーサーマル -青凪大学体育会航空部-) is a 2022 Japanese animated film about university students devoted to competitive gliding, directed by Masaki Tachibana and adapted from Kana Ozawa's manga of the same name¹^•². It runs 103 minutes and was released theatrically in Japan on March 4, 2022¹^•².

Key fact	Detail
Release	March 4, 2022, Japan; distributed by Toei; rated G²
Length and format	103 minutes, color, DCP³
Source material	Manga Blue Thermal -Aonagi University Sports Aviation Club- by Kana Ozawa (Shinchosha, Bunch Comics)²^•⁴
Director and writers	Masaki Tachibana (director, co-writer) with Natsuko Takahashi (co-writer)⁵
Animation studio	Telecom Animation Film, known for the Lupin III series²
Lead voice cast	Mayu Hotta (Tamaki Tsuru), Nobunaga Shimazaki (Jun Kuramochi), Junya Enoki (Daisuke Sorachi)³
Music	Score by Shogo Kaida; theme song "Blue Thermal" and insert song "Beautiful Bird" by the band SHE'S⁶

Spoilers

Story

Tamaki Tsuru, a freshman at Aonagi University who devoted her high school years to volleyball, moves from Nagasaki to Tokyo hoping for a campus life filled with club activities and romance. Soon after enrollment she damages the aviation club's glider during a trial session with a general circle, and to pay for the damage she becomes the club's odd-jobs member⁷^•⁸. The glider she injures is said to be worth 15 million yen⁹.

Reluctant at first, she is captivated the moment she takes her first flight in a glider piloted by club captain Jun Kuramochi, and she joins the club in earnest⁷. Under the guidance of the senior member Daisuke Sorachi, who looks after her but often clashes with her, she grows attached to gliding and becomes an important presence in the club². At a joint training camp with another university she reunites with her estranged older sister Chizuru, who remains cold toward her and denies her place in the world of the sky, shaking Tamaki's confidence before her first tournament, the rookie competition⁷. Encouraged by Kuramochi's words to fly as herself, she competes, narrowly misses the championship, and vows to win next time⁷. The story then takes a turn when Kuramochi, the club's absolute ace, suddenly disappears, and Tamaki learns from the alumnus Yo Asahina about the ordeal imposed on him, leading her to make a promise with Asahina to save him⁷.

The title refers to a thermal, the updraft that occurs under a blue sky and pushes a glider higher; in the story it is the miraculous current the flyers seek¹^•⁸.

Production

The film adapts Kana Ozawa's manga, whose author is reported to have experience in a university aviation club²^•¹⁰. Director Masaki Tachibana began his career as a production assistant in 1996 and worked on series including Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C., Evangelion: 2.0, and the award-winning Tokyo Magnitude 8.0; he is also known for the Princess Principal series and Barakamon⁵^•³. Tachibana co-wrote the screenplay with Natsuko Takahashi, and Miho Tanino handled character design and chief animation direction⁵^•⁴.

Real-world grounding. The gliding field Tamaki visits is modeled on a real location in Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture; under Tachibana's direction after location scouting, the sky's color, height, expanse, and cloud shapes of the site were reproduced in the film⁹. The Kumagaya city government ran a special feature on the film in its public relations magazine at release¹¹.

Actress Mayu Hotta took her first voice-acting role as Tamaki, performing the character's Nagasaki dialect²^•⁹. At a pre-release stage event on February 28, 2022, she said she could not believe the voice on screen was her own until she saw her name in the credits, and fellow cast members praised her performance⁶. The band SHE'S, who performed the theme song live at that event, wrote the song around the idea of a thermal as something that pushes a person upward through darkness⁶.

Reception

Japanese review aggregators show a moderately positive response. Eiga.com records an average of 3.6 out of 5 from 69 user reviews, Filmarks 3.4 from 2,254 reviews, and Kinenote an average of 71.6 points from 80 users¹⁰^•¹²^•⁴. Reviewers repeatedly singled out the flight sequences: one Eiga.com review praised the hand-drawn gliders, drawn with reference to 3D models, and the sense of floating they convey¹⁰. A five-star Cinematoday review called the film a youth ensemble drama overwhelmed by the beauty and exhilaration of the sky seen from the cockpit, while noting plot developments it compared to a Korean drama¹³. On Rotten Tomatoes, critics were mixed: Kevin Carr gave 2.5/4, Carla Monfort of Espinof 2.5/5, and Anime News Network a C+¹⁴.

The film circulated internationally on the festival circuit. It screened in the Anima't section at the 2022 Sitges Film Festival⁵ and toured the United Kingdom in early 2023 as part of the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme, with screenings at venues including the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, Tyneside Cinema, and Dundee Contemporary Arts¹. It was also shown at the Japanese Film Festival in Australia¹⁵.

Home media and streaming

A DVD priced at 4,180 yen and a Blu-ray at 7,480 yen were released on July 13, 2022⁶. In Japan the film has been available on subscription and rental services including U-NEXT and Hulu (flat-rate streaming), Prime Video, TELASA, and J:COM STREAM (rental or purchase)¹⁶.

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Animated and short films › Japanese anime features › Released 2014 to 2026

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

Notice something wrong?