The Knight’s And Magic Season 2 release date can’t come any sooner now that audiences have a taste for the magic-powered mecha battles.
Ernesti Echevalier has taken on the dragon-like Vyver with his Silhouette Knights and the war against the invading Zaloudek forces has been concluded. So, what’s left for the young Knight Runner to do? Fortunately, audiences can turn to the Knight’s & Magic manga and light novel for hints about the second season of the anime.
Knight’s And Magic Light Novel/Manga Compared To The Anime
The Knight’s And Magic story started in October of 2010 with a Japanese web novel series written by Hisago Amazake-no. Hero Bunko picked up the series and published the first light novel with illustrations by Kurogin in January of 2013. As of September of 2016, seven light novels have been published, comprising a total of 107 chapters. The author says Knight’s & Magic Volume 8 is coming out on September 30, 2017. There are multiple fan projects that are splitting up the work involved with the Knight’s & Magic English translation (the anime’s story is currently slightly ahead of the available translated chapters as of episode 12).
The Knight’s And Magic manga by mangaka Takuji Kato started releasing in Young Gangan magazine in April of 2016. The manga is up to Volume 3 as of this article’s publishing, with new chapters releasing on the first and third Friday of every month. Knight’s & Magic Volume 4 of the manga is releasing on September 25, 2017. Crunchyroll is providing an English translation of the manga adaptation.
Unfortunately, both the light novels and the manga are significantly behind the web novel, with the anime’s story surpassing the manga already. The pacing of the anime blew through the available source material, which has some fans complaining that the anime adaptation feels rushed. Others believe the anime trimmed the fat to focus on the mecha action.
The biggest difference between the anime/manga and the light novels is that readers get to see inside Ernesti’s head and hear the thoughts of Kurata, the young man’s former self. The anime often had Ernesti, or Eru, thinking aloud, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. The Japanese man was from the Kansai region so he thinks in that dialect, which is usually translated into either a Southern or Texan accent for English dubs of an anime. Needless to say, readers get to hear the nitty-gritty details about mecha research and development and it’s more blatant that Eru has an almost insane obsession with the robots.
Multiple scenes involving character development hit the cutting room floor, including the frank admission that Adeltrud Walter (Ady) had fallen in love with Ernesti. Unfortunately for Ady, Eru pretty much considers his mech collection his harem, so thankfully this isekai adventure avoids the anime harem tropes. Based on her behavior during the rest of the anime, those feelings come off as pretty obvious, but it’s the little things that define character progression. Still, many of the side characters, especially the initially cowardly Dietrich Cunitz, were given enough screen time to develop into better characters.
The beginning was extremely fast-paced, with the Knight’s & Magic anime summarizing an entire book in one episode. Only several episodes in, the anime caught up with the manga and had churned through a third of the available source material. This means that entire episode’s worth of backstory, world-building, and exposition have been skipped in the anime, so readers that find the isekai genre fascinating should probably start reading the light novels from the beginning.
Besides Ernesti’s childhood in the alternate universe, even big battles were summarized due to the time constraints imposed by the anime only being 13 episodes. The fight against the Behemoth in the second episode actually lasted an entire night in the novel and was much more brutal. All of the first Knight Runners were killed by mana depletion. Out of the 10 students piloting Silhouette Knights, only Edgar Blanche, Helvi Oberi, and Dietrich survived. The Behemoth was pretty much toying with them and over 50 of the reinforcement Knight Runners were killed. Thus, the novel did a better job of showing how Eru pulled off a miracle by defeating the demon, whereas the anime character came off as OP (overpowered).
The battle between the Vyver and the Ikaruga in episode 12 also changed a critical detail that may become important later in the story. In the anime, the dragon ship and Ernesti’s mech canceled out each other’s large blasts, depleting their mana so that the fight ended in a draw. In the manga, an anti-air lance destroys an Ether Reactor on the Vyver and the dragon tries to retreat high into the sky when it begins to run out of energy.
Ernesti pursues the enemy ship but his body experiences a sudden pain and the Ikaruga’s systems become erratic. The dragon ship uses this distraction to escape and Ernesti acknowledges the enemy as the king of the high skies… for now. It turns out both Eru and the mech are being overwhelmed with magical energy, which causes the young genius to realize that ether is contained in empty space, not the air itself. As the atmosphere thins out close to space, the Ikaruga’s Ether Reactors produce increasingly higher amounts of mana, but this revelation was skipped in the anime despite the intro video showing the Ikaruga fighting in space.
Fortunately, the anime slowed its pacing down dramatically after the third episode or even the web novel would have been surpassed. The discussion in episode 12 where the queen decides to go to the frontlines takes place in chapters 42 and 43. Knight’s And Magic Episode 13 lines up with the ending of Knight’s & Magic Volume 5, which is when the war with Zaloudek ends.
This anime ending is probably the best stopping point in the novels since there’s not any cliffhangers, ongoing mysteries, or unexplained plot points that are left hanging. Better yet, assuming that the anime continues its slower pace, there is plenty of source material for Knight’s And Magic Season 2. The light novels are only up to Volume 7, but author Hisago Amazake-no has been releasing a new web novel chapter every week or two and he’s already one-fourth done with Volume 9.
Knight’s And Magic Blu-Ray Release Date In Japan
Bandai Visual announced early on their plans for the Knight’s & Magic Blu-ray box sets (there will not be a DVD box set). According to The Fandom Post , the thirteen episodes will be split up into three Blu-ray box sets. The first volume will be released on October 27, 2017, and will cost 12,000 yen. The second volume will be released on December 22, 2017, and will cost 12,000 yen. The third volume will be released on February 23, 2018, and will cost 13,000 yen because it has an extra episode (not an OVA). Funimation has been releasing its English dub during the summer.
Knight’s And Magic Season 2 Release Date
As of this publishing, anime production company Studio 8bit has not announced anything official about the Knight’s And Magic 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 Knight’s And Magic Season 2 air date may occur.
The ending of Knight’s & Magic Episode 13 definitely gave off the vibe that Studio 8bit desires to create a second season. The narrator gave audiences a hint of what’s to come during the Great Age of Airships and blatantly said, “But that’s another story.”
Common wisdom has it that anime exists to boost the sales of the source material. In this case, it apparently worked since Anime News Network reports that a month after the anime started airing the lights novels and manga had sold more than 1.2 million total copies. Crunchyroll reports that the anime is popular in Europe and MyAnimeList currently lists the score as a solid 7.38.
Studio 8bit has produced a variety of anime, some of which have received second seasons despite having lower scores on MyAnimeList . In the past, Studio 8bit has released their second seasons in the following year, so it’s possible the Knight’s And Magic Season 2 release date could be in 2018 assuming the anime does well in sales. At this time, the only other anime project 8bit has announced for 2018 is How To Keep A Mummy .
Knight’s & Magic Season 2 Spoilers
After the Zaloudek kingdom collapses, researchers flee to the surrounding nations while taking Ernesti’s technology with them. The arms race is picking up in earnest and the king of Fremmevilla Kingdom tasks Eru with building flying Silouhette Knights after seeing the airship that the Order of the Silver Phoenix brings home with them.
The biggest R&D problem is that the current Ether Reactors can’t produce enough power for both levitation devices and thrusters at the same time. Ady ends up test piloting the prototype Silouhette Knight that uses two Ether Reactors. In order to achieve sustained flight, miniaturized levitation devices are installed at the expense of smaller thrusters. The Ikaruga loses speed but now it’s free flying over long distances.
Instead of retraining knight runners to become air combat pilots, the king decides to form the knightly Order of the Purple Swallow. A large number of new characters are introduced to become part of this new Fremmevilla air force. This order will taste combat by taking on flying demon beasts.
Edgar and Dietrich are offered a promotion and they are invited to leave the Order of the Silver Phoenix to form their own knightly orders. The two men are conflicted over this idea but Eru tells them to follow their dreams. Even if they leave, they will always be comrades and they will not look back with regret.
Eru hates the idea of giant battleships since he believes people may abandon using Silouhette Knights if the battleships prove to be better in combat. However, he ends up designing the equivalent of the Gundam SCV-70 White Base as an assault carrier for his fleet of robots.
The Knights of the Silver Phoenix take this mobile carrier to explore a demon forest called the Sea of Trees. There, the knights are ambushed by flying demon beasts that can spit acid. Eru orders everyone to flee and stays behind to hold off the swarm. Upon their return to Fremmevilla, the king orders the knights to stay put, but the Silver Phoenix defies these orders to mount a search and rescue for their missing leader. An episode is likely to end on a cliffhanger just like Volume 6 since all that is found is the destroyed remains of the Ikaruga.
Knight’s And Magic Volume 7 has the knights visiting the country of the giants and also the country of the dwarves, the smiths who create the Silouhette Knights. War looms and the world is threatened by the Demon King, a monstrous creature the size of a city. The “poetry of destruction” unleashed by the Demon King includes battlefields full of beasts, flying fleets, and ultra-large demons. Eru must prove once again that bigger ships do not equate to better.
Assuming the anime resumes its slower pacing, the ending of Knight’s And Magic Season 2 will probably line up with events in either Volume 8 or Volume 9. Let’s just hope anime fans won’t have to wait too long before seeing the Ikaruga fly into combat once again.
[Featured Image by 8bit/ Knight’s & Magic Anime TV Still]