The By the Grace of the Gods Season 2 release date is on January 8, 2023, the Winter 2023 anime season.
The 2nd season will have a total of 12 episodes released as two Blu-Ray volumes.
The main By the Grace of the Gods Season 2 trailer PV was released on December 16, 2022:
FUNimation had previously claimed that Kami-tachi ni Hirowareta Otoko Season 2 would be streaming on their platform. But since then FUNimation was purchased by Sony and merged into Crunchyroll. During New York Comic Con 2022, Crunchyroll confirmed that the new episodes will be streaming on Crunchyroll, instead.
However, in Japan, the ABEMA TV station will be streaming each episode 1 week early, which means anime fans will need to watch out for spoilers from Japanese fans.
The By the Grace of the Gods Season 2 OP (opening) theme song music “Way to go” will be sung by MindaRyn, while the ED (ending) “Drum Shiki Tansaki” will be performed by Azusa Tadokoro.
The By the Grace of the Gods Season 2 anime will have Ryoma going on his first solo adventure to open up a second slime laundromat shop. Next up is Eliaria, friends/adventurers serving up unique food at festivals, training new adventurers… and preparing for a wedding!?
New fox girl character Miyabi Saionji will be voiced by Japanese voice actress Yuiko Tatsumi.
The anime’s first season was produced by a relative newcomer on the scene, Studio Maho Film, founded in only 2018.
Their first anime production was If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord, while the I’m Standing on a Million Lives anime and the KamiHiro anime both came out during the Fall 2020 anime season. The I’m Standing on a Million Lives Season 2 release date was in 2021.
For the first season, the project was helmed by director Takeyuki Yanase, who also directed the In Another World With My Smartphone anime. Writer Kazuyuki Fudeyasu is the scriptwriter and story editor.
Artist Kaho Deguchi (If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord) is the character designer and chief animation director. Composer Hiroaki Tsutsumi (Dr. STONE Season 2, Jujutsu Kaisen, Monster Musume) created the music.
For the first season, the By the Grace of the Gods OP (opening) theme song music was “Yasashii Sekai” by Azusa Tadokoro, while the ED was “Blue Rose Knows” by MindaRyn.
The first season was streaming with English subtitles on FUNimation Now, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video. FUNimation’s By the Grace of the Gods English dub was a SimulDub schedule that premiered on November 1, 2020.
In Japan, the By the Grace of the Gods Blu-Ray/DVD will be released as three box set volumes on January 13, February 10, and March 10, 2021.
The finale, By the Grace of the Gods Episode 12, was released on December 20, 2020.
- Updated December 16, 2022: Added main trailer PV.
- Updated November 25, 2022: Exact release date confirmed.
- Updated November 12, 2022: Added By the Grace of the God Season 2 OP/ED info.
- Updated October 7, 2022: Crunchyroll confirmed to be streaming By the Grace of the Gods Season 2.
- Updated September 16, 2022: By The Grace of the Gods Season 2 release date confirmed for January 2023 by new trailer PV.
- Updated June 4, 2021: By The Grace of the Gods Season 2 anime TV series confirmed to be in production!
Updated January 19, 2021: Added By The Grace of the Gods Blu-Ray Volume 1 sales numbers.
This article provides everything known about By the Grace of the Gods Season 2 (Kami-tachi ni Hirowareta Otoko Season 2/KimiHiro 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.
By the Grace of the Gods Season 1 review
Unfortunately, the first season suffered from early middling reviews because critics dismissed the anime as another generic isekai adventure.
The critics have a point since the anime does spend the first several episodes covering the usual isekai tropes only to have the main protagonist Ryoma magically run into just the right people so he’ll gain fame throughout the world.
The pacing is relatively slow, there’s really no tension, and while the overall tone is light-hearted, there’s very little comedy like in Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear or BOFURI. Just when the TV show is starting to feel slightly crappy, the main protagonist spends an entire episode cleaning up a giant pile of literal s**t.
The problems get worse from there. While the anime adapted the main plot points it skimmed or skipped the character beats which formed the soul of the book’s story.
It also didn’t help that the animation by relative newcomer Maho Film was just about average. They obviously tried to save money by relying on 3D animation for horses and many monsters.
However, the resulting quality was still leaps and bounds above the Arifureta anime, which has already been greenlit for Arifureta Season 2.
On the plus side, the way Ryoma died was unusual, and the plot’s singular focus on slime abilities can’t help but be compared to That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime.
Like Rimuru, Ryoma is slightly OP due to his magical affinities, but he still needs to work hard, and it’s his imagination as a slime tamer that’s his real weapon. Arguably, this TV show could be nicknamed the Slime Rancher anime.
Despite the light-hearted nature of the first five episodes, the exploration of Ryoma’s past life briefly delves into darkness, and the goblin battle in Episode 6 was surprisingly gory (Goblin Slayer would approve).
Ryoma also needed to rely on slime strategy and his friends, not just sheer overwhelming power.
Considering that the director is the same guy who directed Isekai Smartphone, one welcome positive is that the narrative of the By the Grace of the Gods anime didn’t devolve into fan service and harem antics.
It’s still kinda creepy that Eliaria, aka Priestess Lite, is obviously taken with Ryoma since he’s a grown middle-aged man isekai’d into the body of an 11-year-old boy.
Fortunately, while the anime gives that impression, there’s no need to worry since the two characters only have a non-romantic friendship in the books.
All in all, this anime probably appeals most to audiences who prefer their isekai/fantasy adventures to be mostly wholesome. Based on that consideration, it fits in more with Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear or Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina (although the latter anime’s subject matter tends to get very, very dark in certain episodes).
Even then, the anime failed to focus on what’s important when it came to adapting key plot elements, including any mention of Ryoma’s abusive father and how evil adventurers shaped his mindset, which meant the anime failed to properly convey the major character developments integral to good storytelling.
Thus, the anime was plot-driven while the books were more character-driven, which leaves the anime feeling soulless compared to how it should have been (see the light novel comparison section below for more details).
Why the Kami-tachi ni Hirowareta Otoko Season 2 release date is in January 2023
On November 25, 2022, the exact By the Grace of the Gods Season 2 release date was confirmed to be on January 8, 2023. The production of a Kami-tachi ni Hirowareta Otoko Season 2 sequel was announced on June 4, 2021. The premiere time frame was announced by a new trailer PV on September 16, 2022.
When Volume 1 of the Blu-Ray/DVD box set went on sale in Japan it sold only 664 copies. While streaming revenue is now the most important factor for financial success, the low numbers are still considered an indication of the popularity, or lack thereof.
Although By the Grace of the Gods Season 2 is greenlit for production, anime productions are scheduled years in advance. It’s possible the second season was secretly planned out in advance, but that scenario seems unlikely considering how the I’m Standing on a Million Lives Season 2 anime was announced immediately to the public.
Therefore, Anime Geek predicted that it’ll be at least a year or two wait for the By the Grace of the Gods Season 2 release date, which meant 2023.
By the Grace of the Gods manga/light novel series compared to the anime
The story for the anime is based on the By the Grace of the Gods light novel series by writer Roy and illustrator Ririnra. Like many isekai light novel series, the story was first self-published as a free web novel before being picked up by a Japanese publisher.
Hobby Japan first began publishing the Kami-tachi ni Hirowareta Otoko light novels in September 2017, and the series is already up to Volume 11 as of December 2021. Historically, new books come out twice a year, once in the spring/summer and once in the fall, but it’s possible the pandemic slowed down the writing process since only one book came out in 2021.
J-Novel Club is releasing the official English translation of the light novel series in North America. As of August 1, 2022, the English By the Grace of the Gods book series was up to Volume 11 already.
The By the Grace of the Gods manga adaptation by artist Ranran began being serialized by Square Enix’s Manga UP! in November 2017. As of February 7, 2022, the manga was up to Volume 8.
Square Enix is releasing the English By the Grace of the Gods manga in North America. But it’s only up to Volume 6 as of Novembr 8, 2022.
When light novel series are adapted into the anime format, they are almost always abridged or condensed due to time constraints. Usually, the main plot beats are kept intact, but sometimes even major details and events need to be skipped.
For example, Episode 3 had Ryoma and the Jamil family traveling to the town Gimul. But in the books, they actually visited a second town first where Ryoma protected a naive Eliaria from small-time criminals while the guards purposefully hung back. He even killed a bandit in the woods and collected a bounty.
The anime also failed to mention that Ryoma received a blessing for wine from the gods due to his impressive ability to drink back on Earth. The discussion with the gods also skipped how the earth gods tended to put unfair trials on people when such trials were intended to bring forth a hero when a nation was in danger.
When Ryoma shows off his archery skills to Adventurers Guild Master Worgan the Earth guy with a shotgun is mentioned. The end of the tale was how he ran out of ammo eventually since he wished for a shotgun yet failed to wish for a method to create more ammo.
The anime completely skipped the explanation and motivation for cat beastkin Miya buying a house right up next to a landfill. She’d been living in there for YEARS, and that decision caused friction within the beastkin party.
The latrine cleaning episode cut out some of the adventurers and limited their interactions, including when Ryoma met his guards.
In the books, the dangerous “miasma” was actually deadly contagions in the feces that leveled up his slimes’ disease resistance past the maximum. Ryoma used his Earth knowledge combined with magical skills to develop the biohazard protection gear necessary to combat this plague.
That type of story simplification is actually a big deal since the books spend many pages describing Ryoma’s research efforts and how he duplicates items from Earth using his new skills. While light novel readers will be annoyed by these changes, at least his slime research wasn’t skipped.
Episode 6 was a highlight due to the largescale goblin battle. The problem is, that’s not how the goblin raid took place in the light novels. As a result, the anime condensed a story arc that was originally more about character development than monster hunting.
The monster subjugation and the resulting goblin siege was more complicated in the books and involved hundreds of people working together for several days. They also realized there was a second goblin village that had a goblin king.
While Ryoma did help with the tactics (acid traps, etc.), much of the story was focused on introducing adventurers and how they worked together as team units.
Some of the parties were fairly weak, and they were surprised that Ryoma was being allowed to party with the Rank B beastkin since they assumed he was weak based solely on appearances.
Some of these interactions led to major character development for Ryoma. For example, Ryoma realized that he no longer had to live with pretenses like in his old life based on how he was now being treated.
There were also issues with older adventurers bullying younger poor adventurers. A man named Satch had started as an adventurer with good intentions, but once he hit C rank, he started to blame his failure to rise further on party members.
Satch fell into drunkenness and fighting, but then he started partying up with beginners and seemingly improved. The Guild Master allowed it since Satch seemed to be stopping the newbies from causing trouble, but it turns out Satch was doing worse things behind the scenes.
The Guild Master regretted what happened, which reminded Ryoma of his past life and how employees worked together.
When Satch was confronted, the older man angered Ryoma when he mentioned his parents. Ryoma ended up fighting the entire gang to protect the kids.
Afterward, Ryoma realized that he had let his emotions take control of him and let his fists do the talking. He was a 42-year-old man in the body of a child, but he felt that his actions were not that of a reasonable adult, and his retaliation made him no better than Satch.
This moment of self-realization made him ponder how the gods had wanted him to “live the way you want to live.” At first, he’d shut himself away from the socialization that he’d hate in his former life.
The duke’s family had pulled him out to see the outside world, but he realized he couldn’t let things stay as they were indefinitely.
While he was grateful to the Jamil family, Ryoma feared he was becoming spoiled and might slowly transform into a good-for-nothing person. As such, Ryoma decided to become self-sustaining and live independently from the duke’s family.
Needless to say, this type of emotional development was completely missing from the anime version. If Maho Films had added the goblin slaying action sequence by extending the other character-driven scenes, the anime would have been better for it.
Instead, the action-only scene comes off as a detriment since the missing character development destroys Ryoma’s motivation for desiring to become independent.
All in all, the anime’s pacing was fast but pretty standard for isekai adventures based on light novels. The first six episodes adapted two books, and By the Grace of the Gods Episode 7 began adapting Volume 3.
The ending of Episode 6 also corresponds to the middle of manga Volume 4 Chapter 20, where Ryoma expressed his desire to be independent of the Duke’s family. The anime reordered plot events since manga Chapters 21 through 28 intertwined the ongoing goblin extermination with other developments (as previously mentioned, specific character events were completely different).
The ending of manga Chapter 25 introduced the Limur Birds, Chapter 26 is when Ryoma began seriously developing his laundromat idea, and by the end of Chapter 28 the building construction was completed. Chapter 30 is when Ryoma met with the gods again and was warned that his mind was regressing back into a child’s (the anime also skipped several of the god’s stories about other human transferees from Earth).
Once the slime laundromat was introduced in Episode 7 the anime’s pacing slowed down significantly. The anime spent more time exploring the new characters being introduced in addition to the Quell Frog hunt and the Limur Bird taming.
Based on the anime’s pacing slowing down in the second half, the finale, By the Grace of the Gods Episode 12, corresponded to the ending of light novel Volume 3. It’s the best stopping point since it’s when Ryoma parts ways with Duke Jamil’s family and he says goodbye to Eliaria.
That means the By the Grace of the Gods Season 2 anime will begin adapting light novel Volume 4.
The good news is that there are plenty of light novels currently available to create By the Grace of the Gods Season 2. The bad news is that the manga won’t catch up to the anime until probably late 2021.
For those who want to read ahead of the anime, it’s recommended that English-only manga/book readers start from the beginning since the anime skipped too much characterization.
KamiHiro Season 2 anime spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)
The last time audiences watched the anime, Ryoma parted ways with the duke’s family. It’s time for him to begin a new life on his own, but when issues begin to take place at his laundromat, he solves them by installing security equipment in the store and becoming closer with his employees.
When it’s suggested that Ryoma starts training new staff so he can open a second laundromat in another location, Ryoma seeks out the ideal spot for his new store by going on a solo adventure for the first time!
After gathering unexpected earnings from his first solo trip Ryoma opened his second slime laundry shop. Upon returning home to Gimul, he receives a letter from Eliaria informing him that the town’s founding festival is coming soon. Ryoma decides to run a festival stall selling foreign food and unique drinks.
Ryoma is invited by Adventurers Guild Master Wogan to serve as an instructor in a training course for new adventurers. The training camp is being held at a poisonous insect field, and Ryoma teaches the newbs how to create a base and distinguish ingredients out in the field.
The students call for a mock battle between the instructors. Ryoma will demonstrate his skill in battle using the bow as his weapon.
Ryoma eventually reunites with the duke’s family at his mansion. Meeting up with fellow merchants, Ryoma is surprised to hear that someone he knows is unexpectedly getting married!
Ryoma is asked to help prepare for the wedding; for some reason, he finds himself developing a new line of slime products…
Unfortunately, anime fans will have to wait until the By the Grace of the Gods Season 2 release date to watch what happens next. Stay tuned!