‘Princess Principal’ Season 2 Release Date: Blu-Ray Sales Justify Second Season, Director Talks At Anime NYC
The Princess Principal Season 2 release date should be on the calendar for any anime fan who enjoys original works. The story by Sentai Filmworks, Actas, and Studio 3Hz has been getting good reviews, and the finale in Episode 12 made it obvious the producers want to continue creating more episodes. Fortunately, Princess Principal Blu-ray sales in Japan did well enough for six Princess Principal movies to be greenlit, but will Ange ever return for a second season on TV screens?
Director Masaki Tachibana wants a second season of the anime. At the same time, he admitted that he would prefer to work on an anime movie since the budgets are not so tight.
“Movies tend to get more funds to work with, so they can spend more time on scenes,” Tachibana explained. “As opposed to TV anime, where you are on a much tighter schedule and cannot always perfect everything. In that sense, I would like to work on a movie.”
The first season has garnered a respectable MyAnimeList rating of 7.75. The special limited edition of Princess Principal Volume 1 also made the top 10 on the Oricon charts by selling 5,422 copies in the first week and has continued to sell thousands more. The second volume did similarly well at the end of October, selling 5,008 copies in the first week.
The anime series was released as six Princess Principal Blu-ray/DVD box sets.
- Princess Principal Volume 3: November 24, 2017
- Princess Principal Volume 4: December 22, 2017
- Princess Principal Volume 5: January 26, 2017
- Princess Principal Volume 6: February 23, 2017
The box sets come with six episodes of the Princess Principal Picture Drama. While not quite a full-blown Princess Principal OVA/ONA episode like the Ange Report, these short cases use voice acting combined with original artwork to tell a story. The first episode has the girls discussing in comedic fashion who would be the best fit for infiltrating a boys-only school.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vfS30lcJC4
Amazon Anime Strike The Determining Factor For A Second Season?
Studio 3Hz really needed a winner since their previous project, Flip Flappers, was a relative financial disaster, only garnering 883 copies sold in its first week. In prior years, it was conventional wisdom to anime fans that the current sales numbers of the Blu-ray/DVD volumes were enough to justify producing Princess Principal Season 2. However, companies like Netflix, Crunchyroll, and Amazon have changed the anime business model drastically for the better. Netflix alone made headlines for investing $8 billion into original content, and some of that money is filtering down to anime companies.
“Netflix is restoring it to a sane business model. You’re looking at maybe a 15 percent margin rather than a 5 percent loss,” said Toei Animation producer Joseph Chou, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “It’s not a bonanza or a bubble yet, but nearly all the studios are fully booked until 2020.”
Amazon Anime Strike managed to snag Princess Principal as an exclusive as well as popular anime like Re:Creators and Made in Abyss. While Anime Strike never said how much they paid anime production committees for exclusive streaming rights, and Amazon decided to put an end to the channel, the streaming platforms are a game changer in general. Therefore, it’s certain that the platform played a large factor in determining the fate of the Princess Principal anime.
Princess Principal Season 2 Release Date: Director Talks Second Season At Anime NYC 2017
As of this publishing, anime production company Sentai Filmworks has not announced anything official about the Princess Principal Season 2 release date, although this article will be updated as soon as the anime sequel’s premiere is confirmed. However, there can be reasonable speculation about when, or if, the Princess Principal Season 2 air date may occur.
Some fans were hoping that an announcement related to the second season could be made at an official “Princess Principal Stage of Mission” event that was held on April 29, 2018. Instead, they announced that Japanese audiences will be treated to six feature films that will release in movie theaters starting in 2019. It’s possible the sixth movie will bring the entire story to an end, but it’s also possible that a second season could happen in the future.
The anime was directed by Masaki Tachibana based on the series composition by writer Ichiro Okouchi, who is best known for helping create Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion (which will be receiving a third season called Code Geass R3: Lelouch of the Resurrection). Studio 3Hz and Actus handled the animation production.
The director was previously a key animator for Flip Flappers and Girls und Panzer der Film, although he did direct an episode of Ghost in the Shell: Stand-Alone Complex. Tachibana has also directed Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, .hack//Quantum, and BARAKAMON.
According to Anime NYC’s website, Tachibana did a talk show at this year’s event, which was held on November 17-19, 2017. There was an autograph signing session and an episode screening. The director also answered questions from the audience during a Q&A session, so it was almost inevitable that someone asked about Princess Principal Season 2. He claims that Bandai will pay for a second season if sales of the Ange figures are good.
“We would like to make a season two, we hope to make a season two, but that’s not up to us. We left a lot of things unresolved,” he said at Anime NYC 2017.
Check out the new article to see what else Tachibana said about the second season!
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[Update: April 29, 2018] Added announcement of the Princess Principal movie series.
[Update: November 20, 2017] Added links to the new article about the Q&A with the director. Changed references to Anime NYC to past tense.
[Featured Image by Studio 3Hz, Actus/Princess Principal Anime TV Still]
