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BLUE LOCK UNVEILS NEWEST KEY VISUAL AHEAD OF SEASON 2 CLIMACTIC MATCH

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NEW PROMOTIONAL VIDEOS AND TEASER BUILDS EXCITEMENT AS THE BATTLE FOR BLUE LOCKS SURVIVAL BEGINS

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Today, BLUE LOCK unveiled a new key visual ahead of the highly anticipated match between the BLUE LOCK Eleven and the U-20 Japan National Team kicking off on Season 2, Episode 6.  The newly released visual features central players from both teams, including Yoichi Isagi, Rin Itoshi, Seishiro Nagi, Ryusei Shidou, Sae Itoshi, and Oliver Aiku, all showing their fierce and ego-driven expressions.

Alongside the new key visual, two kickoff PVs are being released simultaneously on the EMOTION LABEL CHANNEL’s YouTube channel, each showcasing the starting roster for both sides of the historic and intense showdown that’ll determine BLUE LOCK’s future. For the U-20 Edition of the PV, it’ll be the first time fans of the series hear the voices for the U-20 Japan National Team members Kento Chou, Teru Kitsunezato, Itsuki Wakatsuki, Haru Hayate, Miroku Darai, Kazuma Niou, Teppei Neru, and Gen Fukaku. As a bonus for overseas fans, a special teaser has also been unveiled, sharing highlights from the current season thus far and ending with the BLUE LOCK Eleven taking the field against their opponents for the biggest match of their careers.

▼ Kickoff PV for the U-20 Japan National Team Match: BLUELOCK Edition –
https://youtu.be/LxLOs0nh3vg
▼ Kickoff PV for the U-20 Japan National Team Match: U-20 Edition –
https://youtu.be/zeLigBy7OQo
▼ BLUE LOCK VS. U-20 JAPAN TEASER –
https://youtu.be/-3QKQ6xGRHc

With the reveal of the full U-20 Japan National Team, new character profiles have been unveiled, along with the voice actors of some of the anime’s newest characters. For the U-20 Japan National Team, the voice actors are as follows: Kento Chou voiced by Jun Kasama, Teru Kitsunezato by Gakuto Kajiwara, Itsuki Wakatsuki by Taito Ban, Haru Hayate by Kensho Ono, Miroku Darai by Yusuke Shirai, Kazuma Niou by Takuya Sato, Teppei Neru by Shunichi Toki, and Gen Fukaku by Chikahiro Kobayashi. Additionally, the character profile for Ryusei Shidou has been updated, showing him in the U-20 Japan National Team uniform.

“BLUE LOCK vs. U-20 JAPAN” airs weekly on Saturdays on Crunchyroll. For more information about BLUE LOCK THE Movie – EPISODE Nagi -, and BLUE LOCK vs. U-20 JAPAN, please visit the official website at bluelock-anime-en.com & X (formerly Twitter) accounts at @BLUELOCK_PR and @Blue_Lock_En.

Story:
BLUE LOCK follows the dreams of 300 high school students who aim to lead the Japanese Men’s National Team to the next World Cup championship as their ace striker! To become the best, they join the BLUE LOCK project, a high-risk training program where anyone eliminated is forever barred from joining the Japanese National Team. Pitting the best-rising players in Japan against each other, only the most confident and skilled will emerge from this program!

Thirty-five participants survived the grueling selection process and now they face their greatest challenge yet in this ego-driven frenzy, the U-20 Japan National Team! Can they meet this challenge and prove the value of the BLUE LOCK player improvement project?

The hottest battle in history is about to begin, where rising egoists will have the chance to leave their mark on the world of soccer!

STAFF:
Original story: Muneyuki Kaneshiro Manga: Yusuke Nomura (serialized in Kodansha’s “Weekly Shonen Magazine”)

General Director: Yuji Haibara
Director: Shintaro Inokawa
Series Composition/Screenplay: Taku Kishimoto
Story supervisor: Muneyuki Kaneshiro
Character Design / Chief Animation Director: Kenji Tanabe
Chief Animation Director: Tomoko Mori, Sorato Shimizu
Action Director: Tadami Okimura
Chief 3D Layout Artist: Mio Sakuma
Prop and costume design: Tomoko Mori, Kaho Iida
Animation Special Effects: Akane
Color Design: Sakura Komatsu
Art Setting: Mio Sakuma
Art Director: Masakazu Miyake
Background: Creative Freaks
Director of Photography: Yasuhiro Asagi
Photography: Chiptune
3DCG Director: Tomoki Yamashita, Yuji Haibara
3DCG Chief Animator: Norimitsu Hirosawa
3DCG: Aura Studio
Special Compositor and Graphic Work: Yuji Haibara
Special Effects Processing: Kanako Yamada
Edit: Mai Hasegawa
Sound Director: Fumiyuki Go
Sound Production: Bit Groove Promotion
Music: Jun Murayama
Producers: Ryoya Arisawa, Naoya Sato, Yusuke Kawakatsu, Hiroshi Yanai
Animation Producer: Hidenori Kosuge
Animation Production: Eight Bit
Production: “BLUE LOCK” Production Committee

Music:
Opening Theme Song: “Bojaku no Charisma” by UNISON SQUARE GARDEN
Ending Theme Song: “One” by Snow Man

Cast Information
Yoichi Isagi – Kazuki Ura
Rin Itoshi – Koki Uchiyama
Meguru Bachira – Tasuku Kaito
Seishiro Nagi – Nobunaga Shimazaki
Ryusei Shidou – Yuichi Nakamura
Tabito Karasu – Makoto Furukawa
Eita Otoya – Kengo Kawanishi
Kenyu Yukimiya – Takuya Eguchi
Yo Hiori – Eiji Mikami
Nijiro Nanase – Kakeru Hatano
Hyoma Chigiri – Soma Saito
Reo Mikage – Yuma Uchida
Shouei Barou – Junichi Suwabe
Ikki Niko – Natsuki Hanae
Junichi Wanima – Ryota Suzuki
Jyubei Aryu – Katsuyuki Konishi
Gin Gagamaru – Shugo Nakamura
Jingo Raichi – Yoshitsugu Matsuoka
Gurimu Igarashi – Aoi Ichikawa
Zantetsu Tsurugi – Kazuyuki Okitsu
Aoshi Tokimitsu – Shinnosuke Tachibana
Anri Teieri – Eri Yukimura
Jinpachi Ego – Hiroshi Kamiya
Sae Itoshi – Takahiro Sakurai
Oliver Aiku – Satoshi Hino
Shuto Sendou – Akihisa Wakayama

About BLUE LOCK:
BLUE LOCK is a TV animation series based on the popular manga of the same name, which is published in Kodansha’s “Weekly Shonen Magazine”. The BLUE LOCK manga has sold more than 40 million copies (as of August 2024) and won the 45th Kodansha Manga Award in the Juvenile Division. The first film version, “BLUE LOCK THE MOVIE -EPISODE NAGI-,” premiered in April 2024. In addition, the second season of the TV series will be broadcast from October 2024.

About Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc.
We at Bandai Namco Filmworks develop and produce film video titles. We not only distribute them through various media such as television, movie theaters and Internet streaming but also bring them to fans throughout the world by licensing and managing their copyrights, developing and marketing film video-related merchandise and other services. As a comprehensive entertainment enterprise handling the A to Z of film & video business, we continue to create “Awesome works” and make them readily available to everyone.

For more information, visit:
Official website: https://bluelock-anime-en.com/
Official X (Twitter): @BLUELOCK_PR (https://twitter.com/BLUELOCK_PR) 

Official English Account

Instagram:@blue_lock_en(https://www.instagram.com/blue_lock_en/)X:@Blue_Lock_En(https://x.com/Blue_Lock_En)TikTok:@blue_lock_en(https://www.tiktok.com/@blue_lock_en)

Additional image assets are available to download: HERE

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SOURCE Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc.

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Toku launches Makimoto Flows, a visual builder for speech AI pipelines, taking its open-source initiative beyond transcription

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Developers can chain transcription, summarisation and call tagging on one canvas, test each step and export the pipeline as code, with every step processed in Singapore

SINGAPORE, Oct. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Toku Ltd. (SGX: TKU), a Singapore-headquartered AI-powered customer experience (CX) platform, has launched Makimoto Flows (“Flows”), a visual builder within its open-source conversational AI initiative where developers assemble speech AI pipelines block by block and test each stage on a recorded call. Flows is now live at makimoto.ai.

On the Flows canvas, developers connect blocks to build a speech AI pipeline and test each step individually. The Transcribe block converts audio into text using Kawa, the Summarise block generates a topic and short summary from the transcript, and the Tags block classifies each call across seven categories, including customer sentiment. Developers can see how audio moves from transcription to analysis, and control how each stage connects and runs. Every block runs in Singapore, so audio, transcripts and the resulting analysis stay in-country.

The Chained Analysis starter template puts these blocks together in one click, and developers can adjust any block and rerun it to compare results. Each block maps to a Makimoto API endpoint, and any flow can be exported as ready-to-run Python code, so developers can take the same capabilities into their own code for applications such as call recaps and call triage.

“Developers should have control over how their voice AI works, from the models they use to the way each stage connects. That is the principle behind Makimoto. Flows puts the orchestration layer in front of them: they can build a pipeline, run a recorded call through it and see what each step produces before anything reaches their customers. Models will keep changing. The ability to compose them, and to know where they run, is what lasts,” said Thomas Laboulle, Founder and CEO at Toku.

Flows builds on the composable architecture Toku set out when it introduced Makimoto in April 2026, and takes the initiative beyond transcription. Kawa, released on schedule on 1 July 2026, established the transcription layer through a Singapore-hosted API; summarisation and tagging endpoints followed in September; Flows now lets developers compose them visually. Next, Makimoto plans to add audio preparation blocks, starting with noise filtering, giving developers more control over how recordings are processed before transcription.

By pairing open-source development with enterprise-grade deployment, Makimoto complements Toku’s existing customer experience platform and supports long-term innovation opportunities across the Group’s AI roadmap.

Developers can create a free account at makimoto.ai, open the Chained Analysis template and run a sample recording, or one of their own call recordings, through it; each account includes 1,000 free minutes. Feedback reaches the Makimoto team directly from the portal.

About Toku

Headquartered in Singapore, Toku Ltd. (SGX Catalist: TKU) is a cloud-native, AI-powered customer experience platform purpose-built for enterprises operating in complex, multi-market environments. With deep roots in the APAC region and an expanding global footprint, Toku’s modular 360° CX Platform orchestrates customer interactions across voice, chat, email and digital channels while managing regulatory, linguistic and infrastructure complexity at scale.

Built on end-to-end ownership of its technology stack, from carrier-grade connectivity to AI applications, Toku delivers enterprise-grade security, reliability and deployment flexibility in commercial cloud, private data centres and hybrid environments. Its AI capabilities include transcription, summarisation, sentiment analysis, conversation analytics and governed virtual agents, designed to integrate seamlessly with enterprise systems and customer data.

Trusted by leading enterprises and public-sector organisations, Toku helps organisations streamline operations, scale customer engagement and deliver consistent experiences in fragmented markets worldwide.

For more information about Toku, visit toku.co.

About Makimoto

Makimoto is Toku’s open-source initiative, operated through Makimoto Technology Pte Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Toku Group, dedicated to building composable conversational AI infrastructure for Asia-Pacific. Its releases include Makimoto Kawa, a Singapore-hosted transcription API; summarisation and tagging endpoints; and Makimoto Flows, a visual builder for composing speech AI pipelines. For more information about Makimoto, visit makimoto.ai.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding Toku’s expansion plans, business strategy and planned product releases. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Toku undertakes no obligation to update these statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

Sponsor’s Statement

Toku Ltd. (the “Company”) was listed on Catalist of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (the “Exchange”) on 22 January 2026. The initial public offering of the Company was sponsored by PrimePartners Corporate Finance Pte. Ltd. (the “Sponsor”). This press release has been reviewed by the Sponsor. It has not been examined or approved by the Exchange and the Exchange assumes no responsibility for the contents of this press release, including the correctness of any of the statements or opinions made or reports contained in this press release. The contact person for the Sponsor is Ms. Ng Shi Qing, 16 Collyer Quay, #10-00 Collyer Quay Centre, Singapore 049318, sponsorship@ppcf.com.sg.

Investor Relations Contact:
investor.relations@toku.co

Developers and Partners:
contact@makimoto.ai  

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SOURCE Toku Ltd.

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Conscious Spark LLC Launches Alphimiya® Neuro-Recalibration Framework Designed to Resolve C-Suite Revenue Plateaus

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New research-backed neuro-recalibration framework targets the autonomic nervous system’s threat response to managing high financial amounts, offering enterprise leaders a biological pathway to scaling.

ANTALYA, Turkey and ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., Oct. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Conscious Spark LLC, a research and advisory firm specializing in applied neuroscience for executive leadership, today announced the official launch of Alphimiya®, a proprietary C-suite neuro-recalibration framework designed to resolve corporate revenue plateaus by upgrading the biological capacity of enterprise decision-makers.

Developed to address the root causes of stalled enterprise growth, the Alphimiya® framework targets the human autonomic nervous system’s subconscious threat response to managing high financial amounts. When commercial leaders and CEOs attempt to scale past historical capital thresholds without recalibrating their stress response, the body’s natural survival mechanism triggers decision fatigue, strategic risk aversion, and systemic self-sabotage. Alphimiya® recalibrates this biological safety brake, enabling executive teams to hold, absorb, and scale larger financial volumes without physiological or operational friction.

“A corporate revenue plateau is rarely an operational or marketing failure; it is a biological safety brake embedded within executive leadership,” stated Dr. Ahmed Al-Nashi, Founder of Conscious Spark LLC. “When managing high financial amounts triggers an underlying physical stress response, the enterprise subconsciously contracts to remain in its perceived safe zone. Alphimiya® removes that biological friction, allowing C-level leaders to multiply revenue with calm, biological authority.”

The Alphimiya® framework restructures executive performance across three core operational pillars:

Sovereign Enterprise Scaling: Expands the nervous system’s tolerance for high-stakes capital, allowing leadership teams to scale revenue without experiencing executive burnout.

High-Value Deal Execution: Regulates autonomic stress responses during multi-million-dollar negotiations and volatile market entries, eliminating hesitation under pressure.

Restored Strategic Clarity: Removes chronic decision fatigue across C-suite teams, restoring mental focus and strategic presence inside and outside the boardroom.

By recalibrating the autonomic nervous system’s response to high capital exposure, Alphimiya® removes the subconscious biological brakes that lock corporate revenue at a standstill. Senior C-level executives and enterprise leadership teams seeking to evaluate their organization’s biological capacity can access the official executive briefing, case studies, and framework assessment directly at https://alphimiya.co/.

About Conscious Spark LLC

Conscious Spark LLC is a U.S.-registered firm specializing in executive education, training, and strategic performance consulting. Pioneering applied neuroscience for C-level leaders, founders, and commercial decision-makers, the firm utilizes its proprietary Alphimiya® methodology to enable leadership teams to recalibrate biological stress responses, resolve revenue ceilings, and build scalable corporations.

Media Relations Team
Conscious Spark LLC
Email: hello@consciousspark.online 
Website: https://alphimiya.co/

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SOURCE Conscious Spark LLC

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Daffodil Software Brings Multilingual Conversational AI to Aadhaar’s Udai Mascot

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GURUGRAM, India, Oct. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Daffodil Software showcased an AI-powered conversational experience featuring UIDAI’s Udai mascot at Aadhaar Samvaad 2026. Developed by Daffodil Software, the assistant is designed to help users access Aadhaar-related information through natural conversation, using official UIDAI as its reference knowledge base.

Daffodil Software has developed Udai, an AI-powered virtual mascot that helps users get clear, reliable answers about Aadhaar simply by talking to it. The assistant was showcased at Aadhaar Samvaad 2026, held in Kolkata on 29 September, coinciding with the 17th Aadhaar Day, where visitors watched it listen, respond, and gesture in real time in their own language.

For most people, questions about Aadhaar come up in daily life, and they usually need answers fast. Which documents do I need for an address change? How much does an update cost? How do I link Aadhaar to my bank account or mobile number? The answers exist, but finding them usually means working through long help pages and documents.

 Udai is designed to answer exactly these questions in a natural conversation, without anyone having to search through long help pages.

A conversation in the user’s own language

Udai speaks and understands 11 languages: Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Odia, and English. A user simply asks a question. Udai listens, works out the answer, and replies in the same language, with natural speech, matching lip movements and expressive hand gestures.

What sets Udai apart is how it is built. AI avatars rely on expensive, specialised graphics hardware to bring a face to life. Udai takes a simpler route. The character is created from pre-filmed footage, and its lip movements are matched to its speech in real time using lightweight processing that runs in a web browser.

The result is a smooth experience at 24 frames per second on ordinary servers, at a fraction of the usual cost per user. For a programme that serves hundreds of millions of people, that efficiency is what turns a nationwide rollout from an ambition into a practical plan.

“Our focus with Udai was to make Aadhaar-related information easier to access through natural conversation. Combining multilingual voice interaction with official reference content allowed our team to build an experience that is practical, approachable, and useful to users,” said Yogesh Agarwal, Founder and CEO, Daffodil Software.

Answers drawn only from official sources

The assistant uses official UIDAI material as its reference knowledge base: frequently asked questions, provisions of the Aadhaar Act, and government policy documents on Aadhaar services. It covers the topics users ask about most:

Enrolment and registrationAddress and demographic updatesFees, required documents and eligibilityeKYC and Virtual IDLinking Aadhaar with bank accounts, PAN and mobile numbersmAadhaar servicesGrievance redressal

Users don’t need to phrase their questions in any particular way. Udai understands everyday language, whether a question is spoken in English, Hindi, or asked in a mix of both, and finds the most relevant official information to answer it.

Built to be accurate, respectful, and secure

When a public service speaks directly to users, trust matters as much as convenience. Udai is protected by three layers of safeguards.

Accuracy first. Udai answers only from its verified knowledge base. Responses are grounded in a curated knowledge base of official UIDAI material. If a question falls outside Aadhaar, it guides the user back rather than offering an answer it cannot stand behind.

Respectful conversations. A screening layer catches abusive or offensive language in English, Hindi, and Hinglish before it reaches the assistant. Screening is designed to identify abusive language while supporting legitimate queries

Protection against misuse. Udai cannot be talked into abandoning its role, pretending to be someone else, revealing its internal setup, or answering beyond its approved scope. These checks work almost instantly, so users experience no delay.

What comes next?

Udai is planned to roll out in two phases.

In the first phase, the mascot will be placed in Aadhaar Centres. Visitors will be able to check information and understand processes on their own, such as which documents they need for an address change. This frees centre staff to focus on their core work instead of answering the same questions again and again.

In the second phase, Udai will come to the Aadhaar website and mobile app, taking the place of the current text-based chatbot, which was also built by Daffodil.

About Daffodil Software

Daffodil Software is a software engineering and AI solutions company serving businesses across industries. Its services span software consulting, product engineering, UI/UX design, AI/ML development, quality assurance, cloud and DevOps, and maintenance. The company serves sectors including healthcare, fintech, banking, technology, and digital commerce. Its client portfolio includes organizations such as the Reserve Bank of India, Mount Sinai Hospital, Maruti, Samsung, Pramerica Insurance, and Dangote Group. Daffodil Software has also been featured in industry research and recognition by Gartner, Everest Group, Zinnov, and Frost & Sullivan. For more information, visit https://www.daffodilsw.com

Media contact

Kunwar Pal Singh
media-relations@daffodilsw.com

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