Will the Lycoris Recoil Season 2 anime TV show continue the story of LycoReco girls Chisato Nishikigi and Takina Inoue in the Lycoris program of the DA (Direct Attack) organization? Will Lycoris Recoil 2 feature that mysterious boy in the Lily Bells, the male counterparts to the Lycoris, or will the sequel be based in Hawaii?
The main issue is that the Lycoris Recoil anime TV series is an original story. Yes, there are two Lycoris Recoil manga (main story adaptation and a LycoReco cafe spin-off). There’s even a Gaiden/side story light novel called Lycoris Recoil: Ordinary Days, but they are adapting the anime, not the other way around. (See below for more details about the books.)
The financial numbers certainly justify having Lycoris Recoil renewed for a second season. During the first week of sales in Japan, the Lycoris Recoil Blu-Ray/DVD Volume 1 sold 23,283 copies (21,185 BD copies and 2,198 DVD copies). That makes it the best-performing series of 2022, beating even My Dress-Up Darling (10,130 BD/DVD copies), Princess Connect! Re:Dive Season 2 (9,283 BD/DVD copies), and Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club Season 2 (16,731 BD/DVD copies).
(Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba -Mugen Train- TV edition Volume 1 is technically #1 with 30,167 copies sold in January 2022, but the actual episodes premiered in 2021.)
Additionally, Lycoris Recoil: Ordinary Days Volume 1 sold 57,301 copies in its first 10 days, which put the book at #1 on the Oricon charts in September 2022.
As Anime Geek predicted, a new Lycoris Recoil anime project was announced on February 11, 2023. A special event in Tokyo was planned for that date and some of the creators and cast were involved.
The exact format of the new project was not specified. Besides a second season, it’s possible that Aniplex could plan out a Lycoris Recoil movie or perhaps OVA episodes based on the book spin-offs.
READ: Engage Kiss Season 2 release date predictions: Sequel announcement reportedly in January 2023
Thankfully, the Lycoris Recoil sequel is possible since the story writers left an open door for a continuation. Based on the events of Lycoris Recoil Episode 13, super-terrorist Majima is still alive and he didn’t restore balance to the world by completely destroying the DA organization.
Even though all of the Lycoris girls were exposed to the public eye and then set up for execution, Team LycoReco managed to restore the staus quo by convincing (mostly) everyone that it was just an action-filled publicity stunt – fake news for the win?! (Never mind the fake Lycoris Recoil movie.)
The finale also rounded out the character of the main villain. Despite being willing to go to extreme lengths, his goal of “always siding with the weak” and his dislike of authoritarian governments made him a slightly sympathetic character. He’s still a villain since he’s an “ends justify the means” type of guy who has a bizarre obsession with facing head-on his greatest fear in deadly combat, but at least his motives go beyond the cookie-cutter villain tropes and stereotypes.
The Alan Institute is left standing even with one of its leaders dead. Mr. Shinji Yoshimatsu escaped with merely a flesh wound only to have Sensei Mika end his former lover for the sake of Chisato’s life. And since the fate of that shadow organization hasn’t been resolved it’s possible that the Alan operatives will continue to be antagonists in Lycoris Recoil Season 2.
As expected, the first season didn’t have Chisato die by the time the credits rolled. There were many other character deaths but with the exception of Mr. Yoshi almost none were from the main cast.
There certainly were many death flags for Chisato so it wasn’t surprising that the script resolved the problem with her artificial heart replacement being located in Mr. Yoshi’s chest. It’s good that Chisato wasn’t forced to give up on her principles, but the manner in which it was resolved was still fairly predictable and took away from the impact of the first season’s ending.
Still, the story of the first season was primarily about Chisato’s back story, her conflict with Majima, and how the Alan Institute’s vision for talents was influencing the world. With that backdrop settled, it’s possible that Lycoris Recoil Season 2 could develop the concept in a new direction similar to how the Psycho-Pass anime continues to branch out after 10 years (see our article on the Psycho-Pass: Providence movie).
As of the last update, Studio A-1 Pictures, producer Aniplex of America, or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed the Lycoris Recoil Season 2 release date. Nor has the production of a Lycoris Recoil 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 Lycoris Recoil 2 release date will occur in the future.
The first season will need to be financially successful enough to stand on its own. In that regard, the Lycoris Recoil reviews have been well above average. The personality-filled characters had chemistry and the combination of slice-of-life elements and action-based plot was executed well. Some of the episodes were considered by fan polls to be the number one anime episodes of Summer 2022.
On the negative side, the anime was rarely featured in the Top 20 of Crunchyroll’s most popular anime list. There were even days when it was necessary to manually search on the Crunchyroll app just to find the TV show!
And on the day of the finale, the TV show was buried below even older anime. However, in Japan the final episode was trending on Twitter.
As such it’s difficult to say whether the anime production committee (Aniplex, BS11, and ABC Animation) will have Lycoris Recoil renewed for a second season since international streaming revenue is the biggest factor influencing financial success nowadays. Presumably, the producers haven’t pre-planned the Lycoris Recoil Season 2 production out in advance since they would first want to see whether the financial numbers from the first season justify a Lycoris Recoil sequel.
Anime studios like A-1 Pictures and the main staff are contractors. They are booked out years in advance for anime projects.
As such, even if the second season is greenlit for production, the Lycoris Recoil Season 2 release date will be several years in the future.
- Updated February 15, 2023: New anime project confirmed. Added trailer.
- Updated September 27, 2022: Added Lycoris Recoil BD/DVD sales numbers.
- Updated September 24, 2022: Lycoris Recoil special event in February 2023 announced. Lycoris Recoil: Ordinary Days manga announced.
This article provides everything that is known about Lycoris Recoil 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.
Crunchyroll’s Lycoris Recoil English dub release date is confirmed for August 2022
When Crunchyroll began streaming the Lycoris Recoil episodes in Summer 2022 there were only English subtitles. But then Aniplex of America produced the Lycoris Recoil dub.
Here is the main Lycoris Recoil English dub cast:
- Lizzie Freeman (Hotaru Hiraiwa in Akebi’s Sailor Uniform) as Chisato Nishikigi
- Xanthe Huynh (Haru Okumura in PERSONA5 the Animation) as Takina Inoue
- Jennifer Losi (Naomi Randall in Scarlet Nexus) as Mizuki Nakahara
- Lisa Reimold (Kinako in Tokyo 24th Ward) as Kurumi
- Bob Carter (Bojack in Dragon Ball Z: Bojack Unbound) as Mika
- Kayleigh McKee (Bat in The Detective is Already Dead) as Kusunoki
Crunchyroll’s Lycoris Recoil English dub release date was on August 20, 2022.
Lycoris Recoil Blu-Ray/DVD release date confirmed
During Summer 2022, Lycoris Recoil Season 1 was streaming weekly on Crunchyroll, VRV, and Netflix Japan (not Netflix USA, Hulu, Disney+, HIDIVE, or Amazon Prime Video).
The 13 episodes were released as 6 Lycoris Recoil Blu-Ray/DVD volumes. Here is the BD release schedule:
- Lycoris Recoil Blu-Ray Volume 1: September 21, 2022
- Lycoris Recoil Blu-Ray Volume 2: October 26, 2022
- Lycoris Recoil Blu-Ray Volume 3: November 23, 2022
- Lycoris Recoil Blu-Ray Volume 4: December 21, 2022
- Lycoris Recoil Blu-Ray Volume 5: January 25, 2023
- Lycoris Recoil Blu-Ray Volume 6: February 22, 2023
The first season’s finale, Lycoris Recoil Episode 13, was released on September 24, 2022.
2 Lycoris Recoil manga adapts the main story and gives us more LycoReco cafe fun
The Lycoris Recoil manga began serializing in Media Factory’s Monthly Comic Flapper magazine on September 5, 2022. The Lycoris Recoil manga is being drawn by artist Yasunori Bizen and it will adapt the main story of the anime TV show.
An English translation of the Lycoris Recoil manga hasn’t been announced yet.
On September 24, 2022, it was announced that a second Lycoris Recoil manga will begin serialization in Kadokawa’s ComicWalker and Nico Nico Manga starting in October 2022. The second Lycoris Recoil manga series will be drawn and written by Kanari Abe, whose previous manga include Crazy Public Health Doctor Mya—ko (Myaako-sensee), Sister-in-Law!, and the Encouragement of Climb Comic Anthology.
The second Lycoris Recoil manga is intended to focus on Chisato and Takina having fun at the LycoReco cafe.
Lycoris Recoil: Ordinary Days light novel provide more slice-of-life side stories
ASCI Media Works’ Dengeki Bunko will publish the Lycoris Recoil: Ordinary Days book on September 9, 2022.
The light novel is being written by Ben-To author Asaura, who came up with the basic concept of the Lycoris Recoil story.
As the title suggests, Lycoris Recoil: Ordinary Days will focus on side stories that add to the main plot. It probably won’t be a sequel since there are many time gaps in the main anime timeline. It’s possible that some of these stories were unused storyboards that were cut from the main anime.
The first volume contains two stories: Lycoris Recoil Café e Youkoso! (Welcome to the Lycoris Recoil Café) and Donna Gochumon mo… Omakase are♪ (Whatever the order… I shall leave it to you♪).
An English translation of the Lycoris Recoil: Ordinary Days book hasn’t been announced yet.
Lycoris Recoil director explains the creation of the anime and Chisato’s bullet vision
The Lycoris Recoil anime was an original story created by Studio A-1 Pictures, which has produced great anime TV shows and movies like Fairy Tail, Sword Art Online, The Seven Deadly Sins, Your Lie in April, and the 86 anime.
A-1 Pictures has many plans for the future. The Solo Leveling anime release date is in 2023. They also announced a Kaguya-sama movie that is titled Kaguya-sama: Love is War -The First Kiss Never Ends- (Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: First Kiss wa Owaranai). It’s also expected that Kaguya-sama Season 4 will continue the story after the movie adapts the next story arc.
The Lycoris Recoil anime was the directorial debut of Shingo Adachi. He has previous experience as a character design and chief animation director for Sword Art Online and Wagnaria!! (Working!!).
Ben-To light novel writer Asaura created the original story for the anime series. Imigimuru (This Art Club Has a Problem!) is in charge of character designs with Kimika Onai designing the character’s uniforms.
Composer Shuhei Mutsuki (SPY x FAMILY) created the music. Mutsuki is also known for his work in the anime series Fairy Gone and Three Leaves, Three Colors.
The Lycoris Recoil Season 2 OP (opening) and ED (ending) theme song music hasn’t been announced yet.
For the first season, the Lycoris Recoil OP “ALIVE” was performed by ClariS. Japanese singer, musician, and songwriter Sayuri perform the Lycoris Recoil ED theme song “Hana no To (Flower Tower)”.
In an August 2022 interview, Director Adachi said that in addition to being an episode director he was directly involved in writing the scripts, series composition, and storyboards. He had to decide the major plot developments and dialogue by himself. The project itself was led by Aniplex and before Adachi became involved Mr. Asaura already had a basic plot in mind involving the main five characters at Lyco-Reco Café (their names never changed).
Notably, the first Lycoris Recoil trailer PV videos focused on the slice-of-life story elements from the cafe. Thus, it was kind of a surprise when Lycoris Recoil Episode 1 opened with a scene explaining how Lycoris girls are essentially orphans raised as secret police to find and eliminate potential threats to Japanese society.
Adachi said that the original concept changed a lot over time. In fact, the government using female child assassins to enforce public order covertly originally was not part of this concept.
“At first, there was nothing concrete about the world setting and the basic concept was pretty much “a girl and City Hunter”. However, City Hunter’s Ryo Saeba character was an adult who could choose his own jobs freely, whereas underage girls couldn’t do that,” Adachi explained. “So the DA organization and its agents the Lycoris were invented as a reason why Chisato and Takina didn’t need to go to school and why they were being given dangerous assignments.”
Despite how the introduction of the Under the Dog and Gunslinger Girl-eque organization changed the tone of the story, the director didn’t want the concept to become as dark as the aforementioned series.
“I didn’t want to make it as dark as possible since I wanted to make it an easy-to-watch work that would make you laugh once every five minutes,” the director explained. “It’s important to draw action and gun movements correctly, but I’m aiming for a work that can be accepted by people other than gun maniacs.”
He also tried to explain Chisato’s god-like bullet time vision:
“It’s not about dynamic vision, it’s about observation. Chisato, who can detect the subtle movements of the eyes and muscles, can tell whether or not the other person intends to pull the trigger even if the muzzle is pointed at her. Even after deciding to pull the trigger, it takes time for the brain to issue a command for the fingertips to move, and it takes time for the trigger to be pulled and the bullet to come out of the barrel. If you can instantly understand what a person is going to do next, you won’t get hit by a bullet. If you think of a bullet as a ‘small dot’ that appears instantaneously and has lethal power it won’t hit unless the body is there when that dot appears… (laughs) The main character would need some kind of special talent, so at the planning stage, it was simply ‘good at handling guns. … I thought about what I could do to more clearly convey to the audience that ‘special talent’, but it was difficult… After thinking about various things, I can up with Chisato’s ability mentioned above.”
– Lycoris Recoil director Shingo Adachi
Talents are one of the main themes of the first season. The Alan Institute claims, “This is your talent, and this way of life is the best for you and the world!” The director points out that this ideal “helps some people, but you probably know that it’s not everything, right?” So Chisato’s talent had her pondering how that will affect her life and determined what answer she eventually gave to Alan Institute leader Shinji Yoshimatsu by the end of the first season.
But if Chisato isn’t fated to be the ultimate sight-based hitman, then what will she do with her new life in Hawaii?
We’ll just have to wait and see if the talented director creates a new main theme for Lycoris Recoil Season 2 that answers this question. Stay tuned!