‘Children Of The Whales’ Season 2 Release Date: ‘Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau’ Manga Resumes Netflix Anime

Children Of The Whales Season 2 is almost a necessity after the way Episode 12 made that big revelation about the Marked. The open ending even showed the Mud Whale escaping its prison in the sea of sands. What’s more, the final scene with the Falainians singing as they embarked on their journey left audiences desiring a second cour from the Children Of The Whales (Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau) anime. The good news is that the Children Of The Whales manga is still ongoing, but how long will it take before anime studio JC Staff can make the second season?

Creator Abi Umeda first began serializing the Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau manga back in 2013. The manga is currently up to Chapter 51 and new chapters are released on a monthly basis. The first seven books were only four chapters each, whereas Volumes 8 through 11 have each included five chapters.

As of January of 2018, the manga has been released in tankobon format up to Children Of The Whales Volume 11 (which ends with Chapter 48). The release date for Volume 12 has not been announced but, based on history, its likely to come out between May and July of 2018, which means Volume 13 might come out before 2019.

VIZ Media is handling the official English translation of the Children Of The Whales manga (fan translation projects provide only several chapters). Unfortunately, only two volumes have been released so far, although the release dates for several more volumes have been announced for 2018.

• English Children Of The Whales Volume 3: March 20, 2018
• English Children Of The Whales Volume 4: May 15, 2018
• English Children Of The Whales Volume 5: July 17, 2018

There will also be two Children Of The Whales OVA episodes released with the Blu-Ray box sets. According to the official website, the Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau anime will be released as two volumes, with each box containing six episodes and one extra OVA episode. The OVA’s are original stories created by mangaka Umeda. The first volume has already been released, but the second volume comes out on March 23, 2018.

Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau Manga Compared To The Anime

Reviews of the anime adaptation have been good overall, with many fans citing the beautiful artwork. The scenery is often gorgeously detailed and the soundtrack by sound director Jin Aketagawa enhanced the emotional impact (check out the interview with OP music artist RIRIKO). Some fans have even made comparisons to Made In Abyss, which was nominated for Anime Of The Year in the Crunchyroll Anime Awards. However, the Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau anime is not without its flaws.

A common complaint in reviews of the anime adaptation is that the pacing is unbalanced. Unfortunately, that seems to be a fair criticism since the first seven episodes were each adapted from two to three manga chapters, whereas the final third of the anime began to skim quickly through the source material. For example, Episode 10 adapted four chapters and ended with Chapter 19, which is contained in Volume 5.

One other problem was that the huge cast was more fit for a two-cour season rather than just 12 episodes. This was a story where seemingly anyone can die, but some reviewers felt that named characters were developed quickly only to be killed off a short while later. Thus, it would be best if Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau Season 2 gave more time to fleshing out these characters so that audiences will care.

The biggest problem was the lack of closure. It could be argued that the first season was a prelude that prioritized world-building, and set up the main conflict, but the ending was ultimately anti-climactic without any major payoff. The first 12 episodes answered the mystery of how the Mud Whale’s nous feeds itself, but there are many mysteries remaining about the outside world. The attack by the Empire may have been terrible, but Chakuro received a rudder and now the formerly aimlessly wandering Mud Whale can finally be steered. Let’s just hope Children Of The Whales Season 2 will be the real beginning of an epic journey that explores the new world.

Overall, the adaptation was pretty faithful to the manga until the final two episodes. Thankfully, the finale was not an original ending created by JC Staff, but director Kyohei Ishiguro (Your Lie in April, Lance N’ Masques, Occultic;Nine) crammed too much material into Episode 12 in order to offer some sort of resolution to anime audiences. Therefore, if fans want to read the manga where the anime left off, then it’s probably best to back up a little and start with Volume 6.

Children Of The Whales Netflix Release Date

Beginning in 2018, Netflix began investing heavily in the anime industry, licensing 30 series as part of their $8 billion original programming plan. They’re even partnering with Production IG and Studio Bones to produce original new anime.

Unfortunately, Netflix is holding hostage the release dates of many anime for months beyond their premiere in Japan. Kakegurui Season 2 was announced before the first season even came out in the United States and the very popular Violet Evergarden was held back despite already being available in English to most of the world.

The same thing has happened to the release date for Children Of The Whales on Netflix. Although Episode 12 was released in Japan in December of 2017, the Netflix English sub will not be released internationally until March 13, 2018.

Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau Season 2 Release Date

As of this publishing, anime production company JC Staff has not announced anything official about the Children Of The Whales 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 Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau Season 2 air date may occur.

Based on the ending in Episode 12, JC Staff made it clear that a second season is possible since “the journey will continue” was mentioned in the closing moments. However, the anime has not received the attention fans may hope and Blu-Ray sales in Japan for the first volume were poor, only selling 461 copies in the first week. At the same time, being a Netflix Original is a huge factor in financial success nowadays, so the second season can’t be discounted based on low disc sales in just Japan.

The real issue is the lack of source material. The first season covered around seven volumes worth of the manga, leaving around four volumes for making an anime sequel. Still, keeping in mind that the newer volumes are longer with five chapters each, it might be possible for mangaka Abi Umeda to release two more volumes in 2018. If the pacing is slowed down in the second season, then the amount of necessary source material is reduced even further.

That would mean that JC Staff could target early 2019 or sometime in 2020 for releasing Children Of The Whales Season 2. But fans probably just hope a second season will ever be greenlit. Stay tuned!