No Game No Life Season 2 release date: No Game No Life: Zero movie adapts light novels/manga, but will Shiro and Sora return for a NGNL anime sequel?
The release date for No Game No Life Season 2 is highly anticipated, especially now that anime studio Madhouse is starting to make a name for making anime sequels. The No Game No Life: Zero movie provided a prequel story that just whet fans’ appetites for watching more of Shiro and Sora’s main adventure. But why is Madhouse being such a Steph by making fans wait for the NGNL anime sequel? It turns out the way the story was published almost required a movie to be made before returning to the main story.
The story is based on the No Game No Life light novel series by author Yu Kamiya, who is also known for co-writing Clockwork Planet. Published by Media Factory, the books are up to Volume 10 as of January 2018. The latest NGNL novel focused on dwarves. A Gaiden/side story volume called Practical War Game was released in late 2016 and featured six side stories. The release date for No Game No Life Volume 11 has not yet been announced.
The No Game No Life manga is illustrated by Kamiya’s wife, Mashiro Hiiragi, who is also the illustrator for the light novel series. Even though the monthly manga started back in 2013, it has only been collected in hardcover tankobon format in two volumes.
However, a second manga series called No Game No Life, Please! by mangaka Yuizaki Kazuya is already up to four volumes. The manga finished in late 2017 and provides an original story based on Werebeast girl Hasuse Izuna.
The official English translation of the No Game No Life novel series is licensed for North American release by Yen Press. The English version has been coming out slowly and the series is only up to Volume 6 as of July 2017. No Game No Life Volume 7 is scheduled to release on October 30, 2018, and Volume 8 is set for February 19, 2019. There were fan translation projects, but most ended with Volume 6, as well.
This article provides everything that is known about No Game No Life Season 2 and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.
No Game No Life Light Novels Compared To The Anime
Reviews of the first season lauded the characters, story, and the pacing of the anime adaptation. The very first light novel volume was covered by the events of the first four episodes, while the second volume was finished with Episode 8. The third volume was adapted with similar pacing, although Episode 12, Rule Number 10, finished off by jumping ahead to an event which occurred in a later book.
When we last saw Shiro and Sora, they had just won the “world’s most brutal coin toss” against the Warbeasts and formed the Elkia Federation. Team Blank intends on challenging the god Tet by collecting all of the chess-shaped race game pieces.
The shrine priestess Miko ups the ante by summoning an Old Deus, one of the first-ranked old gods called the Exceed. This Old Deus resides within the priestess, having lost its status when Tet became the One True God at the end of the Great War.
While this scene was a great way to tease No Game No Life Season 2 with a cliffhanger ending, the issue is that it comes from the very end of Volume 6. Besides skipping way ahead in the plot, the scene also included more characters than were present in the light novels. Presumably, the second season would retcon that ending entirely, pretend it never happened, but then redo it again with the full reveal of the identity of the Old Deus from Volume 7 (see the spoilers section below for more details).
No Game No Life: Zero Story Jumped Ahead Of The Anime
Unlike many anime movies on a TV adaptation, No Game No Life: Zero’s plot was actually based on a single light novel volume instead of being an original story. Author Kamiya was up to only Volume 5 when the first season of the anime aired in 2014 and the publisher requested that he submit the manuscript for Volume 6 before the anime aired.
That explains why the ending of the first season drew upon Volume 6 for the dramatic ending. The book was also more of a prequel than a continuation of the main story, which is why Madhouse couldn’t immediately produce a second season. The book has the god Tet explaining his own origins and how the Ten Pledges came to rule Disboard after the tragic end of the Great War between the 16 races.
But the No Game No Life movie is mostly a story of forbidden love between two characters who resembled Shiro and Sora. The main characters of the film were Riku Dola and his wife Shuvi Dola, a young leader of a human enclave and a battle android called an Ex Machina that was built to kill gods but she desired to know the meaning of a heart. After suffering the effects of the Great War, Riku seeks an ancient relic called the Star Grail in order to bring peace to the warring world.
Without getting into too many spoilers, some fans found the No Game No Life: Zero movie shocking because it showed just how bloodthirsty and psychotic Jibril the Flugel was 6,000 years before she was bound by rules of the Ten Pledges. Since No Game No Life Season 2 will technically start in Volume 4, watching the movie may cast the actions of the current day characters in a new light.
Starting on August 28, 2018, fans who missed the theatrical release can buy the 2018 Blu-Ray/DVD, which comes with an English dub. HIDIVE has also announced that fans can watch No Game No Life Zero streaming starting on September 1 in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and other territories. The No Game No Life Zero movie streaming comes with an English dub as well as Spanish and Japanese audio with Spanish and English subtitles.
No Game No Life Season 2 Release Date
As of the last update, studio Madhouse or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed the No Game No Life Season 2 release date. Nor has the production of a sequel been announced. Once the news is officially confirmed this article will be updated with the relevant information. In the meantime, it’s possible to speculate about when, or if, the No Game No Life Season 2 premiere date will occur in the future.
The good news is that there is plenty of source material for studio Madhouse to create No Game No Life Season 2. Since one book was turned into the movie, six volumes are available for the second season, leaving room for the possibility of a 24-episode, two-cour second season. Even if a longer second season doesn’t happen, it’d also make sense for Madhouse to jump straight into No Game No Life Season 3.
From a financial viewpoint, the prospects are also very rosy. To put things into perspective, Madhouse produced Overlord Season 3 even though the sales of the second season were worse than No Game No Life’s first season. The No Game No Life: Zero movie also generated 700 million yen (about $6.3 million) at the box office. While that’s not much compared to an anime blockbuster like Your Name (25 billion yen) or Spirited Away (31 billion yen), the NGNL movie was popular enough to rank in the top 20 for movies for TV anime adaptations.
Needless to say, it would behoove the anime production committee to greenlight production of No Game No Life Season 2. Madhouse anime director Asuko Ishizuka worked on the No Game No Life anime and she will be showing up at Crunchyroll Expo 2018 at the beginning of September. Perhaps fans will get lucky and she’ll provide a hint about when NGNL Season 2 is coming down the pipeline. While 2018 is out of the question, let’s just say Madhouse’s release schedule for 2019 is a blank slate at this time.
No Game No Life Season 2 Spoilers
The second season will kick off with a more-lighted story where Sora and Shiro make plans in the Werebeasts’ Eastern Union for the inevitable beach vacation episode that features skimpy swimsuits aplenty. Following the alliance between humans and Werebeasts, Izuna Hatsuse is now a constant companion to Team Blank and they spend the night at her house.
While on vacation, they are visited by Plum, the last remaining male Dhampir on Disboard. The Dhampir are like a combination between succubi and vampires. They’re weak against sunlight and they live by consuming soul essence from bodily fluids from other races. In order for a Dhampir to reach adulthood, a young Dhampir must bite a willing subject and consume blood.
Unfortunately for Dhampir, mere survival is difficult because the Ten Pledges require them to win games in order to gain soul essence and blood. Dhampir females cannot reproduce if they don’t win games, so many are stuck as eternal loli.
Centuries ago, the Dhampir found a solution to this crisis by forming a mutually beneficial pact with the mermaid-like Sirens, who must reproduce by mating with other races in order to extract soul essence (they don’t use DNA so half-breed Sirens don’t exist). In exchange for giving blood to the Dhampir females, the Siren Empress, Laira Lorelei, had been reproducing with Dhampir males.
But 800 years ago Laira grew bored with life and encased herself in solid ice and put herself to sleep using the Ten Pledges. The mating pact continued, but other Sirens have trouble controlling their desires and thus many Dhampir males were dying during mating. The situation was so bad that Plum became the last remaining male.
The entire Dhampir species is facing extinction and even Plum is starving when he meets Team Blank, only surviving by licking the sweat off of Shiro’s foot. Plum has disguised himself as a female Dhampir and looks like a goth girl. He requests the help of Team Blank and so they set out to the Siren’s country, Oceando.
Team Blank may be ultimate gamers but the Sirens expose their ultimate weakness: they are terrible at dating sim games. In order to awaken the Siren Empress, they must enter Laira’s dream state and get her to fall in love with them in a realistic romance game. As a Dhampir, Plum is very powerful and can use a variety of magic. He’s able to shapeshift and create love potions, so they use deception in an attempt to fool Laira into falling in love, but even those tactics fail to awaken the slumbering Siren.
It turns out even the Sirens don’t know the exact conditions for winning the romance game in their Empress’ mind. So, the team splits up to investigate, with some traveling to Avent Hiem, home of Jibril the Flugel, and others go back to the previous human king’s hidden library.
The story continued in Volume 5 with Sora, Shiro, Plum, and Jibril meeting with Azriel, a Flugel leader who played a role in the No Game No Life: Zero movie. Meanwhile, Kurami and Fil are trying to overthrow the elven nation.
Team Blank challenges all of the Flugel to a game, hoping to convince Azriel to join the Elkia Federation. The goal of the game is to avoid capture while flying using Plum’s magic.
Unfortunately, even Avent Hiem’s amazing library does not provide a clue for how to awaken the Siren Empress. Sora and Shiro must figure out how to beat the romance game on their own so they can save the Sirens and the Dhampir from mutual destruction. Sora also finds himself in a “hairy” situation that results in an unexpected development.
Finally catching up with the ending of the first season, the Old Deus that the Werebeast priest Miko had summoned is named Horou. Blank challenges the Werebeast god to a game in which Miko uses her own life as a bargaining chip. If they lose the game, they will be forced into the Horou’s servitude. If they win, the Old Deus will grant them their wish.
Horou creates a life-sized board game where participants use dice to complete a series of tasks while traveling thousands of kilometers. The journey is certainly longer than any Monopoly game, but their time limit for winning is only a month. The gamers lose a whole day’s worth of memories, but they’re also told that a traitor who retained full memories exists has been planted amongst them by Horou.
The stakes are very high this time around. Horou is testing everyone by creating challenges where the winning conditions require that a friend be killed. One friend loses memories and then abruptly challenges Team Blank to a game within the game. It’s a recreation of the Great War where the loser commits suicide. Sora and Shiro must win this war simulation by leading humanity to victory. There will also be plenty of revelations since this part of the story touches on reincarnation in Disboard, the Star Grail, and how Tet’s existence came to be.
No Game No Life Season 2 might find an ending with Volume 7 in order to keep the same pacing, but ending with Volume 8 might be better since it completes the story arc related to Horou’s game. The book also finishes off with a cliffhanger that would be a perfect setup for No Game No Life Season 3. Let’s just hope fans don’t have to wait too long to watch the story on their TV screens. Stay tuned!
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