Isekai Quartet Season 2 release date in 2020, Isekai Quartet 2 adds The Rising Of The Shield Hero’s Raphtalia and Naofumi

Isekai Quartet anime key art
Isekai Quartet Season 2 will add new characters from The Rising Of The Shield Hero, but what about other Kadokawa properties like Sword Art Online or No Game No Life? Pic credit: Kadokawa/Studio PuYUKAI

Isekai Quartet Season 2 has been officially confirmed to be in production based on the final moments of Episode 12. It’s been announced that the new episodes for Isekai Quartet 2 will be airing on January 14, 2020.

What’s more, the official website also teases anime fans by asking, “What is the true identity of the ‘transfer student’ that Mr. Roswaal introduced?” The reason that the new anime season is not called Isekai Pentet is because the new characters are being listed as “guest characters” and not permanent additions to the main cast.

Isekai Quartet Season 2 has so many options for a sequel that it’s almost funny. After all, it seems like every day another new anime adaptation is announced for the ever-growing Isekai genre.

The prospects seem likely since Japanese publisher Kadokawa is intent on milking the currently popular Isekai genre for all it’s worth following the success of Re:Zero, KonoSuba, Overlord, and The Saga Of Tanya The Evil.

During the first quarter of 2019, Kadokawa’s financial results stated anime quarterly profits rose largely due to North American licensing income from Wise Man’s Grandchild and The Rising Of The Shield Hero. (Kadokawa video games like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice also “contributed significantly to profits”).

Based on these numbers, Kadokawa announced the intent to produce at least one Isekai anime adaptation per season (Isekai haters will probably groan aloud at this news).

The publisher intends on “expanding business development that makes use of abundant IP” and “focusing on creating and fostering new hit series” by various means.

As such, the Isekai Quartet anime is a blatant marketing platform for promoting ongoing popular series. Yes, there are general audience jokes, but many of the humor requires Wotaku-level knowledge (notice I didn’t say just “otaku”) of both the anime and the light novels/manga the series is based upon.

And then some of the jokes tease the eventual anime sequels. For example, Isekai Quartet Episode 5 seemed to foreshadow the future events of Re:Zero Season 2, which was confirmed to be in production in 2019.

The other characters are likely to return for future anime sequels. KonoSuba Season 3 seems very likely to be announced in the time frame of the KonoSuba movie release date.

Overlord Season 4 is likely waiting on the light novel series to provide a good stopping point for a two-cour season.

The Saga Of Tanya The Evil Season 2 is also a lingering possibility although Kadokawa remains silent despite the Tanya The Evil movie having released successfully months ago in Japan.

The box office earnings were 400 million yen (about US$3.58 million), which puts the Tanya film in the top 50 for anime movies that are TV anime adaptations.

Therefore, it’s not a matter of whether Kadokawa would want to produce Isekai Quartet Season 2, it’s a matter of how.

Isekai Quartet Season 2 Announcement
Isekai Quartet Season 2 was officially announced as “coming soon” at the ending of Isekai Quartet Episode 12. Pic credit: Kadokawa/Studio PuYUKAI
  • Updated December 6, 2019: Added exact Isekai Quartet 2 release date. Revised analysis of new characters.
  • Updated October 08, 2019: Shield Hero characters confirmed! Added Isekai Quartet Season 2 release time frame and video trailer.
  • Updated June 25, 2019: Isekai Quartet Season 2 confirmed!

This article provides everything that is known about Isekai Quartet 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.

Isekai Quartet 2 to add The Rising Of The Shield Hero chibi characters, but is SAO, No Game No Life, or Cautious Hero possible for Isekai Quartet Season 3?

In addition to promoting the existing cast of characters, the cast of Isekai Quartet Season 2 is going to be expanded to bring more comedic chibi characters to life.

It could even be argued that Isekai Quartet Season 2 should have been named Isekai Pentet considering how many TV shows are included.

The most obvious addition was Naofumi and Raphtalia from The Rising Of The Shield Hero (Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari) anime. It seems like an easy target since the series has become popular on streaming platforms internationally and the reviews are solid.

Plus, Kadokawa anime producer Junichiro Tamura was already talking about The Rising Of The Shield Hero Season 2 (click the link for more details) before both Season 2 and Season 3 were announced. Let’s just hope there are no painfully awkward jokes about rape and slavery.

The real question mark is whether other Kadokawa series like the Wise Man’s Grandchild (Kenja no Mago) anime or the Cautious Hero anime will win enough hearts to justify a chibi Shin Wolford or the goddess Ristarte her champion Seiya in future installments of the Isekai Quartet anime.

Yes, it could be funny to watch OP-yet-clueless Shin accidentally blow away random buildings (Megumin would be so jealous of those explosions!) or invent a magical way to turn water into wine, but the series has received mediocre reviews thanks to its relatively bland potato-kun protagonist and the plot didn’t pick up until the end.

On the other hand, reviews of Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered Bu Overly Cautious ((Shinchou Yuusha: Kono Yuusha ga Ore Tueee Kuse ni Shinchou Sugiru) have been fairly solid. Since this isekai misadventure is more of a straight comedy it’d probably be perfect for Isekai Quartet Season 3.

Isekai Sextet Fan Art
This “Isekai Sextet” fan art gives us an idea of what Isekai Quartet Season 2 could look like with the addition of The Rising Of The Shield Hero. Pic credit: Kadokawa/Studio PuYUKAI/Fan Art Additions

Unfortunately, the license for the That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime anime (see our article on That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime Season 2) is owned by Kodansha, not Kadokawa, so chibi Rimuru is impossible unless there’s a cross-promotional deal. But which anime series besides Shield Hero would Kadokawa want to promote?

Besides waiting until something newer becomes popular down the road, the obvious choice would be Shiro and Sora from No Game No Life. Anime fans have been clamoring for No Game No Life Season 2 after all these years.

Kadokawa is also behind Sword Art Online: Alicization (although some may argue that SAO doesn’t qualify as Isekai). Since the SAO: Unital Ring light novels are now providing a direct sequel to the Alicization story arc it’s likely that Sword Art Online Season 4 is right over the horizon.

Therefore, Kirito, Asuna, and Alice could be dropped in as a squabbling love triangle.

Finally, Kadokawa owns the license to the Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody anime. Although Death March Season 2 was practically teased by the way the anime ended, most anime fans would probably argue that chibi Satou would be the blandest possible addition to Isekai Quartet Season 3.

Isekai Quartet Season 2 release date set for January 2020

In early December 2019, the official website for the anime confirmed the exact Isekai Quartet Season 2 release date. the Isekai Quartet 2 premiere date will occur late night on January 14, 2020 (effectively January 15th), the winter 2020 anime season.

Even if we consider the anime as a standalone product instead of simply a marketing vehicle the second season had a good shot at being renewed from the start. The Isekai Quartet anime has been regularly in the top 5 most popular on Crunchyroll when it first aired.

The turnaround time was relatively quick for the anime industry but that’s because Isekai Quartet Season 2 is focused on existing franchises rather than boosting an entirely new set of characters from newer, popular series.

Let’s just be glad Kadokawa didn’t make anime fans wait impatiently for Isekai Quartet Season 2 just like they did for Re:Zero Season 2. Stay tuned!

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