The Virgin Road: The Executioner and Her Way of Life Season 2 TV show will have Menou and Akari taking on the Human Error the Mechanical Society. But when will Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road Season 2 come out?
On August 22, 2022, an interview with director Yoshiki Kawasaki, anime series composition writer Shogo Yasukawa, and light novel writer Mato Satou was released by Anime News Network. In a message to overseas fans, the director encouraged audiences to pick up the original novel or the manga adaptation, but he also suggested that Virgin Road Season 2 might be possible.
“If you want to see the story continue in anime form, it might be a good idea to send messages to the publisher and production committee,” director Kawasaki said. “If the books sell well and your voices are heard, and there’s a gap in the schedule at the production studio, then a second season might happen.”
To put this comment in perspective, the Virgin Road manga and light novel series had a cumulative 300,000 copies in circulation in March 2022.
Writer Yasukawa also commented, “If there’s ever a second season, I’ll be sure to write lots of Akari and Momo conversations.”
The studio and main staff making Virgin Road Season 2 hasn’t been announced yet.
For the first season, the anime project was produced by Japanese animation Studio J.C. Staff, known for the original Sorcerous Stabber Orphen anime, the KonoSuba movie (Studio Drive is producing KonoSuba Season 3), A Certain Scientific Railgun, and One Punch Man Season 2 (and, hopefully, One Punch Man Season 3).
In 2022, Studio J.C. Staff also released notables such as How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom Part 2, The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest, and DanMachi: Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Season 4. The Duke of Death and His Maid Season 2 release date and the DanMachi Season 4 Part 2 release date were both in 2023.
The Virgin Road Season 1 anime project was helmed by director Yoshiki Kawasaki. This anime project was the animators’ first time being the lead director, although Kawasaki was an assistant director for Ascendance of a Bookworm and an episode director for anime such as Kemono Jihen and Strike Witches: Road to Berlin.
Writer Shougo Yasukawa (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean, Food Wars!) handled the series composition. Artist Keiko Tamaki (Cells at Work!) was the character designer. Composer Michiru (Ascendance of a Bookworm, Dance Dance Danseur, Tomodachi Game) created the music.
The Virgin Road: The Executioner and Her Way of Life Season 2 OP (opening) and ED (ending) theme song music hasn’t been announced yet.
For the first season, the Virgin Road: The Executioner and Her Way of Life OP “Paper Bouquet” was performed by Mili, while the ED “Serenade by Lamplight (Touka Serenade)” was performed by ChouCho.
Licensed by Sentai Filmworks, the first season of the anime was internationally streaming exclusively on HIDIVE (not Crunchyroll, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, or VRV). The Virgin Road: The Executioner and Her Way of Life English dub release date on HIDIVE was on May 20, 2022.
The first season’s finale, Virgin Road: The Executioner and Her Way of Life Episode 12, was released on June 18, 2022.
- Updated August 25, 2022: Added interview quotes.
This article provides everything that is known about Virgin Road: The Executioner and Her Way of Life Season 2 (Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road 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.
Virgin Road: The Executioner and Her Way of Life Season 2 release date predictions: Sequel faces a difficult road
As of the last update, Warner Bros. Japan, SB Creative, Egg Firm, Square Enix, Studio J.C. Staff, or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed the Virgin Road: The Executioner and Her Way of Life Season 2 release date. Nor has the production of a Virgin Road 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 Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road Season 2 release date will occur in the future.
The Virgin Road: The Executioner and Her Way of Life reviews have been either love it or hate it. Perhaps the low scores are a gut reaction to the way the opening episode subverted isekai tropes by having Menou assassinate the apparent OP isekai protagonist Mitsuki. (It also didn’t help that Momo was annoyingly clingy right off the bat and her character wasn’t given enough screen time to explain this bizarre behavior.)
The story is essentially an isekai version of Talentless Nana (Munou na Nana) since it’s all about a child assassin who was indoctrinated into believing that Lost Ones with unregulated superpowers must be discreetly eliminated if they pose a catastrophic threat to the world. Others note how Menou is an unlikeable person due to this very plot twist that defines the story’s uniqueness.
To be fair, it should be noted that the unlikeable Menou became effectively emotionless as a child due to being a survivor of the Sword of Salt. And it’s hard to initially like a character whose existence is centered on brutally murdering any Japanese high schooler unlucky enough to be isekai’d into her path.
Those who love the story point out that Menou’s character development from being a blank slate to forging her own path is the crux of the story since she’s leading her next intended target, Akari Tokitou, to her intended doom. The characters all have layers, from Menou’s tragic backstory to Momo, whose jealousy and history belies the first impression of a sweet priestess girl. The story also becomes more interesting once Akari’s true intentions and abilities are revealed
It’s also one of the very few isekai stories where the story takes place from the perspective of the residents of the fantasy world. This is worth a discussion on its own, never mind when anime-only audiences discover that the Humar Errors like Pandemonium and Mechanical Society are essentially generic isekai protagonists reframed into eldritch horrors.
Although Pandemonium has an unhealthy obsession with acting out B horror movies, she embodies the “I was isekai’d as a Demon King” trope since she was the origin of all monsters in this fantasy world with her [Pure Concept of Evil] ability, while Mechanical Society personifies the “isekai’d into a RPG world” trope (explaining why gets into Virgin World Season 2 spoilers).
Regardless of the praises, it’s undeniable that the review scores have been lower than average compared to other Spring 2022 isekai anime. Even Skeleton Knight in Another World did better and it has a fairly bare-boned plot! (Pun intended) These scores are fairly ironic since such a basic isekai concept as Skeleton Knight is mocked by Virgin Road’s Mechanical Society arc!
Another negative factor is that Sentai Filmworks limited the anime’s global reach to HIDIVE, which works as an advertisement for the platform but probably limited the streaming revenue in comparison to Crunchyroll.
In the August 2022 interview, director Kawasaki indirectly confirmed that Virgin Road Season 2 was not secretly greenlit for production. He even noted that it would need to be squeezed into a gap in their production schedule. Anime studios are booked out years in advance, so this admission tells us that even in the best-case scenario the Virgin Road Season 2 release date would need to be scheduled several years out after the pre-production phase begins.
Therefore, despite the anime being one of the better isekai stories in recent years, it seems that The Executioner and Her Way of Life faces a difficult road to being renewed for a second season by the anime production committee. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Virgin Road: The Executioner and Her Way of Life light novels, manga series compared to the anime
The story for the anime TV show is based on The Executioner and Her Way of Life (Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road) light novel series by writer Mato Sato and illustrator Nilitsu. Published by SB Creative’s GA Bunko imprint, the books are up to Virgin Road Volume 7 as of April 14, 2022.
The original author teamed up with illustrator Ryo Mitsuya to adapt the story into the Virgin Road: The Executioner and Her Way of Life manga series. Serialized in Square Enix’s Young Gangan magazine since June 2020, the manga is only up to Volume 4 as of June 23, 2022.
North American publisher Yen Press is handling the official The Executioner and Her Way of Life English translation for both the light novels and manga series. The English books will be up to Volume 6 as of March 21, 2023, whereas the English manga released its first volume on September 20, 2022. The Virgin Road manga’s English translation was up to only Volume 2 by March 21, 2023.
Like all anime TV shows that are based on a light novel series the anime’s story was condensed and rearranged in order to fit into the time constraints of the episodic format. According to series composition writer Shogo Yasukawa, the original light novel creator was directly involved during this process.
“The original novelist Mato Satō participated in every script meeting. He did it remotely for the most part, but sometimes face-to-face. Because of his diligence, we were able to work together quite closely,” Yasukawa said. “When it comes to adapting light novels for screen, there are many cases where you simply have to cut down on lines, but he was very precise in pointing out the most absolutely important parts of the original light novel. Thanks to him, I think we were able to do justice to the most vital parts even in an abridged form.”
As the anime writer points out, regardless of the original author’s involvement, limited screen time means that a lot of exposition and dialogue is skipped by necessity. For example, one of the biggest changes near the beginning was that Momo’s backstory was skipped by Episode 3 and pushed back to Episode 5.
This change was apparently done so that her history was directly connected to her motivation for going on a rampage when her precious ribbons were burnt. Although Momo’s flashback was eventually animated it was only partially adapted and it was very brief, which left her feeling one-dimensional as an obsessive character. Without knowing her fully detailed past, it’s difficult to understand her behavior toward Menou.
The anime even removed some jokes and memorable lines. For example, at one point when Menou fought Orwel Menou commented about wanting to put a leash on Akari, and Akari replied by saying she’s not ready for kinky stuff… yet!? And this joke should have continued into Episode 8:
“Not in front of other people! Save it for when we’re alone! I know we’re attached at the hip, but I’m not ready to do this in public! It’s embarrassing!” Akari said in light novel Volume 2.
Momo’s angry scripture reading was skipped, although that was understandable since the scripture verses are so long:
Scripture, 1:4, Full Passage [“What are you doing?” asked the king. The woman answered, “I am digging a well.” The earth was dry. The ground was cracked. Sand was all around. The king thought this strange. There was no water in this ground. Why here, at the end of the world? The king said no water will appear. This vein has run dry. The oil, too. There is no peace. No order. What could flourish in this world? What could be planted? What could be found? What is left to be dug up…?” The woman answered, “It is not dead. This land is full of power. If I dig deeper and deeper, I will strike upon the light of great power. The truth of this world. The source. Salvation will spring from the ground’s lifeblood and into the heavens, connecting all across the dead. This land is full of power. If I dig deeper and deeper, I will strike upon the light of great power. The truth of this world. The source. Salvation will spring from the ground’s lifeblood and into the heavens, connecting all across the sky, and with the light of this planet create a wall that shall surely bring peace to all.” The king believed her. He had not been forsaken. He gathered the people, dug through the earth, saw the light, and knew. Of hope. Of that which connects. Yes the Lord’s will is relayed through all of heaven and earth, reigning far and wide.]
Virgin Road: The Executioner and Her Way of Life Volume 1 (light novel)
The anime would have also needed to spend even more screen time explaining that a solo scripture reading was highly unusual. Typically, quoting the entire scripture passage would be a ritual enacted by multiple people, which explains why Momo soloing the scripture is epic. But episodic time constraints would not work well with these scriptures since other content would need to be cut in order to make room, which is also why Menou’s full passage conjuring in Episode 11 was so quick.
Despite changes to the plot, light novel readers thought the anime actually did a better job foreshadowing the major plot twist in comparison to the light novels. Of course, watching the OP video gave some fairly large hints as to the nature of Akari’s [Pure Concept of Time] ability.
Episode 7 also skipped the Volume 2 Prologue chapter. Instead, an anime original scene showed Manon putting the little girl into the iron maiden for Momo to find later. This change was actually an improvement since the light novels spoiled the little girl’s identity whereas the anime created an air of mystery before the big reveal that this previously sympathetic character was actually Pandemonium.
The reason that the anime did such a great job adapting the source material was due to the pacing. While the Virgin Road anime wasn’t quite 86 anime-level pacing, it’s one of the few good ones that didn’t rush the story.
All in all, the first season’s finale, Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road Episode 12, found a stopping point corresponding to light novel Volume 2.
It’s the best stopping point since it ends with the big climax with Pandemonium. The post-credits scene also highlighted the coming conflict with Flare and how she already knew about the previous multiple time regressions caused by Akari.
Unfortunately, manga readers will need to wait to read ahead in the manga since the volumes available in Spring 2022 only adapted the first light novel volume.
Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road Season 2 TV spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)
To kill Akari, Menou scours the outer reaches of the West in search of a legendary blade that turns all it touches into salt. There, she stumbles across Sahara, a monk, who has a history with the young Executioner and begs her to take her life for reasons unknown.
Meanwhile, one of the Four Great Calamities begins to unfold in the undeveloped regions of the East and the Human Error slowly inches toward them, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake…
The Mechanical Society is a city where residents live under an artificial under the control of a shut-in gamer. Similar to the fog zone of Pandemonium, people who enter the city function but there is a form of mind control that slowly corrupts its victims.
The Mechanical Society transforms people into RPG characters where they can grow more powerful and “level up” by killing enemies, but the mind control slowly erodes people until they become puppet minions. And it’s this power that allows the Human Error to directly influence others… and Akari is even kidnapped by armed criminals!
Virgin Road Season 2 will reveal the origins of conjurings, the truth about the Four Human Errors, and the real reason Flare killed Menou in the previous time loops. Menou and Akari will even have a heart-to-heart talk after Menou learns the truth about Akari’s time loops from her own mouth.
Hoping to avoid a future where Menou dies trying to save Akari, the girl from Japan runs away with her sworn enemy. They ride the rails to a secluded village in the mountains where they believe they’ll be safe for a few days.
Unfortunately, they’re not the only ones who decided to stop off there. Manon and Pandemonium have arrived as well, and they aren’t alone. Akari had hoped keeping away from Menou would be enough to spare the girl she holds dear, but with Pandemonium in the mountains keeping the Executioner alive may require a more drastic course of action…
Unfortunately, anime fans will have to wait until the Virgin Road: The Executioner and Her Way of Life Season 2 release date to watch what happens next. Stay tuned!