Update: A leaked scan of Weekly Shonen Jump has confirmed Dr. STONE Season 2 (click for more information). Details are still incoming. The remainder of this report remains as originally published.
Has the Dr. STONE Season 2 anime been accidentally confirmed by China? A social media post on Weibo may have jumped the gun a bit on the official announcement of Dr. STONE Season 2.
Earlier today, a rumor started circulating on Reddit and Twitter that the “Dr. STONE S2 anime has been decided”. While this rumor is unverified, the official Dr. STONE account for the Chinese Weibo website did indeed have a post discussing Dr. STONE Season 2.
The timestamp was for 7:39 AM EST (8:39 PM China time) on December 11, 2019. Shortly after the rumor started circulating in the Western world, the post on Weibo apparently was deleted. (Or, at least I can’t find it anymore on the Dr. STONE Weibo page.)
What’s really interesting about the Weibo post is that it claimed the second season of Dr. STONE will be a “continuous broadcast”. Could it be possible that Dr. STONE Season 2 will be similar to the Black Clover anime, which jumped straight into Black Clover Season 3 without taking a major TV broadcasting break?
It would make sense for the Dr. STONE anime series to be a continuous broadcast. Not only is the anime popular on streaming networks, but the story of Dr. STONE Episode 24 would also leave audiences hanging right in the middle of the Stone Wars arc without providing any plot resolution if that’s the ending.
Now, the translation is a little tricky since the Mandarin Chinese being used (期) could mean a period, phase, stage, term, time, or scheduled time. While I translated that as Season 2, it’s possible that the Weibo post was referring to a Phase 2 for the anime series. That’d mean the first season is receiving a third cour as a continuation, which wouldn’t be considered Dr. STONE Season 2 per se.
Whatever the case, we’re likely to find out for certain in the coming week. Previously, Weekly Shonen Jump announced that the Dr. STONE manga series will be making an “important announcement” on December 16, 2019.
In addition, there will be a Dr. STONE stage presentation at Jump Festa 2020 on December 22, 2019. Of course, it’s possible the announcements will only be manga-related…
Let’s just hope Dr. STONE Season 2, or a renewed continuous broadcast starting with Dr. STONE Episode 25, is announced soon. Stay tuned!