The Strongest Sage Season 2 anime TV series will have Mathias “Matty” Hildesheimr and his friends Lurie, Arma, and Iris investigating a strange new type of demonic threat that threatens the annihilation of humanity. But when will Shikkakumon no Saikyou Kenja Season 2 come out?
The main staff and studio producing The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest Season 2 haven’t been announced yet.
For the first season, the anime TV series was produced by animation studio J.C. Staff, which in recent times is best known for the KonoSuba series, Netflix’s EDENS ZERO anime series, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, and One Punch Man Season 2 (and, hopefully, One Punch Man Season 3).
In the first half of 2022, Studio J.C. Staff also released the Date A Live Season 4 anime, How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom Part 2, DanMachi Season 4, Requiem of the Rose King, and The Executioner and Her Way of Life.
A new KonoSuba anime project was announced in 2021 (could it be KonoSuba Season 3?), as well as The Duke of Death and His Maid Season 2 anime.
The anime’s first season was helmed by director Noriaki Akitaya. In the past, the director helmed the Bakuman series, the Persona 3 movie, and was also an episode director on Code Geass. The director was also working on the Slow Loop anime in 2022.
Writer Hiroki Uchida handled the scripts and series composition. The writer is best known for the Gamers! anime and writing the screenplay for certain episodes for Date A Live Season 3. The writer was also working on the Requiem of the Rose King anime in early 2022.
The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest Season 2 OP (opening) and ED (ending) theme song music hasn’t been announced yet.
For the first season, The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest OP “Leap of Faith” was performed by fripSide, while the ED “Day of Bright Sunshine” was performed by Yuki Nakashima.
The first season’s finale, The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest Episode 12, was released on March 26, 2022.
The 12 episodes were released as two Blu-Ray/DVD volumes in Japan. Volume 1 came out on March 30, 2022, and April 29, 2022.
- Updated February 17, 2022: The Strongest Sage English dub release date confirmed.
This article provides everything that is known about The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest Season 2 (The Strongest Sage Season 2 / Shikkakumon no Saikyou Kenja 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 The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest English dub release date
The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest Season 1 anime was streaming exclusively on Crunchyroll and VRV (not Netflix, FUNimation, Hulu, or Amazon Prime Video).
On January 13, 2022, Crunchyroll confirmed that The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest dub will be released in English. The anime will also be dubbed in Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
- Kayleigh McKee as Matthias
- Lizzie Freeman as Alma
- Amber Connors as Lurie
Crunchyroll’s The Strongest Sage English dub release date was on February 19, 2022.
Presumably, The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest Season 2 English dub will be announced in the future if the second season is greenlit for production.
Shikkakumon no Saikyou Kenja Season 2 release date predictions: Is renewal unlikely?
As of the last update, NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan, Square Enix, Studio J.C. Staff, or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest Season 2 release date. Nor has the production of a The Strongest Sage 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 Strongest Sage Season 2 release date will occur in the future.
The story’s premise was an interesting twist on the OP protagonist trope since it had the main character Gaius working his way up to being powerful only to purposefully die and reincarnate just to attain his goal of gaining the most powerful magic crest. At least this story attempts to justify the wish-fulfillment with past hard work rather than endowing the character with sudden power with the stroke of the writer’s pen.
The idea that demons had infiltrated human society after magical reactors exploded and sent humanity back to the stone age was another interesting plot twist. Fantasy isekai anime will often make a big deal about wordless magic and other stats, but the main character’s advanced abilities are often heightened just because. In this case, the plot of Strongest Sage itself gave a good reason for the average human to be less powerful than the sage whose common knowledge had become legendary.
You would think that these innovations would lead to a good The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest review, but audiences have been giving lower than average scores. Perhaps anime fans are becoming jaded to the isekai genre in general, but they also actively dislike how quickly Matty gained prestige (recognized by the king even!) despite being a powerful mage reborn into the future.
Another complaint is how the story is executed. The anime heavily relies on Matty acting as the narrator with long inner monologues providing exposition. While that’s in line with the books, fans of animated works prefer their anime to show, not tell.
But some of the negative reviews probably came from manga/light novel readers who heavily disliked how the anime’s first episode heavily condensed the opening story arc of the first several chapters. Some of the later book story arcs were outright skipped in order to reach the best climax offered by the beginning light novels. (See the manga/light novel comparison section below for more details.)
This bad reaction from source material readers could impact the Blu-Ray/DVD sales in Japan. It also doesn’t help the streaming revenue if the book-reading fandom dissuades anime-only audiences from wanting to watch.
Regardless of any controversy, the anime’s first season sometimes made it up onto the Top 10 of Crunchyroll’s popular anime list, but it was usually buried next to popular anime from previous years. By comparison, other fantasy anime like Ranking of Kings and In The Land of Leadale were often near the top next to Demon Slayer and Attack On Titan.
Therefore, it seems unlikely that the anime production committee will have The Strongest Sage Season 2 renewed. Even assuming that the anime defies expectations, Studio J.C. Staff is booked out years in advance for anime projects, so the wait for Shikkakumon no Saikyou Kenja Season 2 would be multiple years.
The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest manga, light novel series compared to the anime
The story for the anime is based on The Strongest Sage With the Weakest Crest light novel series by author Shinkoshoto and illustrator Huuka Kazabana. Shinkoshoto is also known for creating the My Isekai Life manga/light novel series, which also received an anime adaptation in 2022.
Like many isekai books, the story began life as The Strongest Sage With the Weakest Crest web novel that was self-published on Shousetsuka ni Narou (Let’s Become a Novelist). Started in December 2016, the web novel was deleted by the author after being completed, but it had 341 chapters in total including the prologue.
SB Creative’s GA Novel imprint began publishing light novel adaptation in 2017. As of January 15, 2022, the light novel series was up to Volume 14.
In July 2017, author Shinkoshoto teamed up with artist LIVER JAM&POP (I can’t even make this stuff up) to begin serializing The Strongest Sage With the Weakest Crest manga in Square Enix’s Manga UP! magazine. As of December 10, 2021, the manga was up to Volume 17.
Unfortunately, an official English translation of the light novel series hasn’t been announced yet. However, unofficial fan translation projects have finished translating the entire web novel into English.
North American publisher Square Enix is handling the official The Strongest Sage With the Weakest Crest manga’s English translation. By March 8, 2022, the English books were up to Volume 8, with Volume 9 scheduled for release on November 22, 2022.
In September 2020, Shinkoshoto released the spin-off side story light novel series The Strongest Sage of Annihilation Magic: The Unskilled Sage, Mastering Magic and Becoming the Strongest, which is up to Volume 2. Artists Yue Ling and Ponjea have been adapting it into a manga series in Square Enix’s Manga UP! magazine and it’s already up to Volume 5.
The spin-off series does not have an English translation yet.
The first episode brings to mind the Arifureta anime’s first season. It skipped the introductory chapters in a rush to reach the moment when the main character gained his true potential.
Similarly, The Strongest Sage Episode 1 skips straight from Gaius casting Reincarnation to the end of manga Chapter 3. To put this content skip in perspective, chapters aren’t short in the manga since they number around 55 pages each (later volumes tend to have fewer pages).
Gaius’ suicide at the beginning would have been more relatable if the anime had imparted more details other than the fact that he offed himself since his crest, or mark, capped his potential. Anime audiences are never told that Gaius’ main goal in life is to challenge powerful monsters in Outer Space, which meant that his goal of seeking more power was simply a means to an end, not the end goal itself.
The anime only briefly references in a montage how Mathias Hildesheimr awakened his identity and knowledge as the Sage as a six-year-old boy. While he had gained the crest of close combat as he had wanted, he was born as the third son of Duke Castor.
The problem with skipping the family introductions is that they will play a role in The Strongest Sage Season 2. The anime doesn’t even mention Mathias’ time in his hometown where his lousy brother Vivgel was supposed to inherit the title of head of the family just because he had a “superior” crest. Due to being arrogant, the relatively weak Vivgel was the brunt of jokes in the manga while the eldest brother Lake learned chantless magic.
Speaking of which, the tone of The Strongest Sage manga was also very light-hearted in comparison to the anime and even used background jokes. The first several anime episodes didn’t use any other jokes than Matt blushing and acting flustered every time Lurie Aventrot got too close.
By contrast, the manga version of Matty acknowledged Lurie’s beauty in the manga although he clumsily introduced himself upon first meeting. While he’s definitely interested, Matty remained outwardly stoic in the manga from then on rather than the “romance” being awkwardly pronounced all the time. It doesn’t even make sense for the anime to have Matty behave this way since he’s a confident adult in the body of a 12-year-old boy.
On the other hand, skipping the introductory chapters could be argued to be a wise choice by J.C. Staff. Besides the twist that a powerful sage purposefully killed himself to be reborn, the beginning of the source material (both manga and light novel) was fairly generic and the pacing felt rushed and uneven.
The story only became notable in manga Volume 2 once the mystery behind the “Failure” Crest and the lapsed magical knowledge was revealed to be the work of infiltrating demons spreading disinformation. Therefore, having the first episode skip ahead to the more interesting plot elements probably worked as a better hook for impatient anime-only audiences who might not want to wade through introductory generic isekai tropes… again and again.
Manga fans also agree that The Strongest Sage anime was better adapted than the dumpster fire that was the first episode of the She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man anime. That other anime opened with an anime original exposition dump where the actual novel adaptation didn’t begin until the ending of the episode.
Still, the overall adaptation pacing of The Strongest Sage Episode 1 adapted 7 chapters. To put that in perspective, Chapter 8 is the ending of manga Volume 2.
Thankfully, the adaptation pacing slowed down significantly in Episode 2, which adapted only 2.75 manga chapters (Chapters 8 through 10.75). Episode 2 still did skip a scene where Matty killed 17 wolves by magically controlling 17 arrows without a bow, a feat which had Arma Lepsius realizing just how big the skill divide was between her and Matty.
Similarly, Episode 3 adapted roughly 3 manga chapters (Chapters 10.75 through 13.75 ). One detail the anime should have mentioned when Matty was fighting the two demons is that Matty only had 10 percent of his magic power left after his party’s dungeon crawl. So he had to rely on wit and strategy rather than sheer power.
The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest Episode 4 continued this slow pace by adapting manga Chapters 13.75 through 15.
Besides the opening episodes condensing story content, later episodes needed to skip certain story arcs in order to reach the best stopping by Episode 12.
Episode 7 skipped the entire dungeon raid and Episode 9 created an abridged version of the Guild rank leveling quest by jumping straight to the duel with Rank S Adventurer Giluas. In the original story, manga Chapter 30 had Matty and the girls working their way up from the bottom by literally taking ALL of the available quests at the same time. Skipping this mini-story arc was a wise move since it was just Matty’s group being OP by quickly whacking monsters and fulfilling the quest conditions with items already in storage.
The anime also skipped the B-Rank Promotion Test arc in manga Chapters 31 through 33 where Matty’s group traveled to Fredia Territory. There they suppressed an abnormal monster outbreak in the Testra Plains under the supervision of a nameless guild examiner.
Again, skipping this story arc wasn’t a big deal since it was mostly Matty being OP against thousands of monsters and a kaiju/Godzilla-like big boss. The most notable wrinkle was the introduction of a parasite-type monster that would have emerged from its magic cacoon and caused devastation if Matty hadn’t intervened.
Episode 10 stuck closer to the manga, but the major exception was that Matty’s group skipped straight to the ore factory by bypassing the adventurer’s guild. This meant skipping the very cute demon guild receptionist that was introduced at the ending of manga Chapter 35.
All in all, it’s predicted that the first season’s finale, The Strongest Sage Episode 12, will find a stopping point corresponding to manga Volume 13: Chapter 40 (light novel Volume 6).
It’s the best stopping point since it finishes the first season with a big battle against the resurrected ancient demon Zaridias after Matty, Lurie, Arma, and Iris become Rank A adventurers and track down the magic detection device. Since this battle is literally the only time Matty is in any serious danger the anime needed to rush through the source material to reach this point.
Still, the first season arguably really needed to have an Episode 13 in order to give room to flesh out the beginning. The capital invasion in Manga Volume 7 (light novel Volume 3) made a good mid-season climax, but the first season would have been better if the pacing was slower and several of the episodes skipped the OP/ED videos to give the single-cour anime more runtime.
The good news is that there are plenty of light novels available as source material to make The Strongest Sage Season 2 anime.
The bad news is that English-only book readers won’t be able to read ahead in light novel Volume 7. At the rate the English manga is being published, manga Volume 13 probably won’t be released until late 2023.
The Strongest Sage Season 2 anime spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)
Note: This article was initially published before the Saikyou Kenja Episode 12 release date and will be updated over time. This article assumes that the second season will pick up the story in the light novel Volume 7.
After uncovering the demonic conspiracy, Matty successfully defeated them and then buried Zaridias, the worst demon in the neighboring country. What awaited him on his triumphant return, however, was not a moment of peace.
Zaridias may have been powerful, but there are more Demons of Chaos in the world. Matty was summoned by the King and told that a city on the border had been attacked by a strange creature.
The Kingdom had captured one of these humanoid magical wooden dolls that was powered by many magical circles engraved into its body. Upon analyzing it, Matty horrified everyone by stating it was powered by siphoned human life force.
In order to stop this autonomous invasion, the puppeteer and the power source must be destroyed. Matty decides that the only way to stop this autonomous invasion is to destroy the puppeteers and their power source – the source of their life force.
The kingdom sends a small elite team of knights in order to investigate in the Reria Barony that’s near the kingdom’s border. Matty has already earned an esteemed reputation in the capital but in order to give Matty the authority necessary to investigate the rural areas he is given the title of Baron.
Unfortunately, Matty can’t avoid a run-in with his annoying brother Vivgel, who has already earned a bad reputation throughout the Eis Kingdom for his antics. He’s still obsessed with his crest and considers Matty a failure despite all facts to the contrary.
But an alliance of border nobles has gathered to put down the new threat. And the Commander is none other than Matty’s father, Castor Hildesheimer, and his brother Lake Hildesheimer.
The team determines that they must infiltrate the Saihil Empire to root out the Demon puppet master. But it turns out that the Demons are using manipulated humans to manage the autonomous dolls and carry out their other plans.
The enemy’s goal is to poison the country’s water distribution system in order to absorb the life force of the population. The enemy even has access to ancient technology and magic, including Matty’s teleportation circles that he built in his past life.
Matty is surprised to discover that the enemy is also using Earth Demons. There are many races of demons such as the Fog Demons and half-demons, but the Earth Demons were supposedly wiped out in the wars of the distant past.
It turns out that both the Earth Demons and a human king named Greville have been resurrected. But Matty can’t understand how or why the Greville he knew from the past would ever work with demons.
With trickery, Matty gets the Earth Demons to reveal that they were resurrected by “stars that fell from the sky”. This revelation excites Matty since it proves that more powerful beings exist in outer space.
Then a hologram of King Greville reveals him as the mastermind. Greville pronounces that he will be waiting for Matty to come.
Matty decides that the party will take on this new threat alone since he doesn’t know what dangers await them. In order to prepare and level up, they’ll be traveling to the gamble dungeon Irias in the Eis Kingdom.
Unfortunately, anime fans will have to wait until The Strongest Sage Season 2 release date to watch what happens next. Stay tuned!