‘Granblue Fantasy’ Season 2 Release Date Confirmed: The Animation’s English Anime Spoilers Based On The Game
The second season has been confirmed! Granblue Fantasy Season 2 almost seemed inevitable considering the popularity of the video game series in Japan and Southeast Asia, never mind the international popularity of the anime on Crunchyroll and other video streaming platforms. The real question is when exactly we’ll be able to watch the episodes of the second season of Granblue Fantasy: The Animation.
After all, even the beginning was delayed. The first season ended at Granblue Fantasy Episode 13 on June 25, 2017 but originally the anime was supposed to air at the end of 2016. Anime studio A-1 Pictures made up for the delay with the production of an hour long Granblue Fantasy special called the Zankutinzeru Arc, which aired on Tokyo MX on January 21st. Fortunately, A-1 Pictures has already confirmed that the Granblue Fantasy Season 2 release date is on the horizon in the clouds.
Granblue Fantasy Game Enough Source Material For Season 3 And Beyond?
Personally, it was interesting to see how the video game mechanics were translated into an anime. The main character Gran did not have a voice since he represented the player so hearing his voice was a first. I also had a chuckle when the anime explained away how the Knickknack Shacks shopkeeper Siero always managed to keep up with the main party during their travels. “I’m both everywhere and nowhere at once,” the wee little Harvin said with a laugh.
Likewise, anime watchers should expect certain characters to keep popping up over and over based upon comments from Cygames.
“One of the big selling points of the game is the quantity of characters, and how well-developed they all are. Up until now, the systems of social games have made it hard to dig in to characters’ stories. But this time we’ve made it so that the same characters can appear again and again, playing new parts. It’s really unlike anything that’s been done before,” said Cygames art director Hideo Minaba.
The presentation of the Granblue Fantasy story pretty much always follows a sequence of islands, each of which contain a boss and a chance to gain another piece of the Sky Map necessary to unlock Grim Basin, the path to Estalucia, Island of the Astrals, where Gran’s father awaits. The chapters of the game roughly correspond to the episodes of the anime, with chapters five through eight covering the fiery Fremel island in the Valtz Duchy, and both chapter and episode 12 finished off with the Leviathan boss battle.
However, some of the anime events concerning the character Rosetta were out of order in comparison to the game, so there are notable differences. In the anime, Gran and his friends encountered Rosetta on the island called the Lumacie Archipelago, an island that the main characters revisit many times in the chapters of the game’s main quest. In the anime they also already met the primal beast Yggdrasil before fighting Leviathan, so the anime covers 16 chapters in total.
Nobody likes waiting for the source material to be finished, so this is great news for anime fans since there’s over 80 chapters in the Granblue Fantasy game. Assuming the pacing remains about the same, and there’s not too many anime-only extra episodes, that means there’s enough source material for around seven seasons! However, that’s assuming the Granblue Fantasy Season 2 episodes number only around 12 episodes. It’s always possible A-1 Pictures could release a two-cour anime season with 24 episodes.
Granblue Fantasy Season 2 Release Date
As of this publishing, anime production company A-1 Pictures has confirmed the Granblue Fantasy Season 2 release date is coming but has yet to specify an exact time frame for the second season. However, there can be reasonable speculation about when the Granblue Fantasy Season 2 air date may occur.
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Based on the timing of the October announcement on Twitter, it seems reasonable to predict that the second season will air in 2018. It also seems reasonable to expect a longer, two-cour season of 24 to 26 episodes.
With some anime, it can be argued that the sole purpose of the anime is to serve as a glorified advertisement for the light novel or manga. With the Granblue Fantasy anime, the opposite is true, with over 10 million gamers having downloaded the Android and iPhone game. Still, the anime does manage to stand on its own merit.
According to MyAnimeList, back in April, the Granblue Fantasy Blu-Ray sales in Japan were in the top two, with the DVD sales beating even Yuri On Ice. Some fans believe the high Blu-Ray sales were due to bundled extras like game codes, but to put things in perspective the sales were four times the number of the third most popular anime at the time. Unfortunately, by the middle of June, the disc sales had dropped significantly, but the anime still placed in the top 10 for both formats and remained popular on streaming services.
Cygames and A-1 Pictures will eventually announce the Granblue Fantasy Season 2 release date, but in the meantime, fans can look forward to a Granblue Fantasy OVA episode titled “EXTRA 2” that will ship on October 25, 2017 with the final, seventh volume of the Blu-Ray/DVD box sets.
Granblue Fantasy Anime Story Spoilers
There were 14 episodes in total for the first season, but only 12 were the main storyline. As previously noted, the chapters and episodes seem to be mostly correlated, with Granblue Fantasy Episode 13 being the obvious exception. The episode “Extra 1: Another Sky” was a gaiden side story that is unique to the Granblue Fantasy anime since it focused on Djeeta, the female version of Gran that players can choose in the game. This alternative reality largely served as an excuse to sneak in the fan service that comes with every anime beach episode. Still, Djeeta almost seemed better with the sword than her male counterpart.
Once the main adventure resumes with Gran, the next set of islands include such exotics places as the Albion Citadel, the Mist-Shrouded Isle, Golonzo Island, and Amalthea Island. In these islands the crew of the Grandcypher takes on primal beasts such as Celeste, a fog-based creature that entraps sky ships. Anime audiences should also learn more about the Black Knight Apollonia, her true motives, and her mysterious connection to Lyria. The Black Knight’s two mercenaries Sturm and Drang will of course provide amusement and help when they’re not otherwise annoying Gran and friends.
The second season should also introduce Prime Minister Freesia von Bismarck of the empire as the main villain. Freesia may answer to Erste Emperor Loki, the last living Astral, but she’s largely responsible for the corruption in the empire, willing to use others as disposable pawns, perform horrific experiments, and even inject herself with unstable substances to gain power. She is seeking a primal beast called Akasha in hopes of using its powers to rewrite history, wipe the Astrals out of existence, and prevent the War from ever happening in the first place. Needless to say, she doesn’t care what happens to others when achieving her goals.
Emperor Loki is quite aware of his minions’ hatred of him, and their desire to be rid of him, but this ancient being just enjoys watching the chaos. To a certain extent this distant attitude is why Gran’s friends even escape at all from certain deadly scenarios. Loki also keeps a blue wolf-like primal beast named Fenrir as a pet and this loyal experimental creature is quite befuddled by her master’s actions.
By the ending of the first season, almost the entire Skyfarer crew of the Grandcypher has been assembled. Eugen the crafty old veteran soldier was the last to join in Episode 12 and even in the anime it’s pretty obvious his family history will play a major story role. But it’s the mysterious beauty Rosetta who should be joining up near the beginning of Granblue Fantasy Season 2.
In the game, Rosetta literally announces out of the blue she’s decided to tag along on their journey, makes jokes about Io and Katalina’s lack of womanly maturity, and boards the Grandcypher while ignoring any dissenting opinions. After watching Episode 13, it’s possible the anime will treat the character in a different manner, but her appearances should still make things more interesting on the ship. Anime audiences will eventually learn about her history, which is much longer than her youthful appearance would suggest.
The final main character first appears on Amalthea Island, the headquarters for the Order of Enforcers and their Fourth Fleet of sky ships. The girl wants to protect the skies but her dreams have her at odds with her father, Walfried. Lecia won’t know whether to trust Gran at first because of their association with another character the Enforcers consider a criminal.
We’ll also be introduced to Captain Monika, a pint-sized powerhouse who is one of the Enforcers’ elite fighters. There’s also Imperial Vice-Admiral Gandharva, a former Enforcer who wants revenge on the Enforcers since Lecia’s father forced him to resign because Gandharva was using violent brute force to rise through the ranks. The Black Knight will also find herself at odds with the Enforcers.
Lecia does not fully join the crew until chapter 44 in the game, but it’s very likely Granblue Fantasy Season 2 will introduce the character sooner rather than later assuming the Grandcypher visits Amalthea Island in the second season. There’s also many side characters who will be featured on the islands, and several were introduced by Episode 12 of the anime, with some of them fighting as allies to the Grandcypher crew.
For example, there’s Admiral Adam, a man-made golem who has served the Imperial Army since the dawn of Erste Kingdom. Adam may be furiously loyal to Erste in general, but he realizes Erste has been corrupted from within by Fresia and he doesn’t hesitate to take on an entire Erste army to defend the Grandcypher. We’ve already seen Harvin in combat in the anime but the merchant Siero may also join a battle since she is playable in Trial Battle mode and also plays a story role in a future battle against the Erste Imperial Army.
Overall, the anime adaptation of the Granblue Fantasy game should be quite interesting if the pacing is done right. There are many characters to be developed, and the main plot goes way beyond repetitious island-hopping and searching for pieces of the Sky Map. We’ll just have to wait and see where the Grandcypher takes audiences next in Granblue Fantasy Season 2!
[Featured Image by Cygames]
