Blue Orchestra (青のオーケストラ) is a Japanese web manga series written and illustrated by Makoto Akui. It has been serialized in Shogakukan's Ura Sunday website and MangaONE app since April 2017. An anime television series adaptation produced by Nippon Animation aired from April to October 2023. A second season aired from October 2025 to March 2026.
By December 2021, the Blue Orchestra manga had over 3.3 million copies in circulation. In 2023, the manga won the 68th Shogakukan Manga Award for the category.
Plot
Hajime Aono, a boy who loved to play his violin and one who used to win many prizes in violin competitions, had greatly admired his father a professional violinist. After a bittersweet divorce of his parents, caused by headlines of his father's scandalous affair, Hajime swears to never touch the violin again. In his last year of middle school, Hajime comes across an aspiring violinist Ritsuko Akine, who loves to play in the infirmary. After meeting a few times, and Hajime showing interest in her 'horrible' playing skills, he is set up to teach her by a teacher. This teacher later pushes him to regain his talent by joining the orchestra club at a prestigious high school, which have won national competitions eight years in a row. Once persuaded, Hajime and Ritsuko manage to get accepted to this prestigious school after diligently studying. After his opening ceremony into high school where the orchestra club gave a performance, he has a look around the orchestra club along with Ritsuko where he meets Nao Saeki, a violin genius who has achieved the top score in many competitions and was admitted to the school purely on musical talent. From there on, they compete in their violin skills within the orchestra club.