Granblue Fantasy Season 2 almost seems inevitable considering the popularity of the video game series in Japan and Southeast Asia, never mind the international popularity of the anime on Crunchyroll…
Granblue Fantasy Season 2 almost seems 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. 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, there’s plenty of reasons to think that a Granblue Fantasy Season 2 release date is on the horizon in the clouds.
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.
As of this publishing, anime production company A-1 Pictures has not announced anything official about the Granblue Fantasy Season 2 release date, although this article will be updated as soon as the anime sequel is confirmed. However, there can be reasonable speculation about when, or if, the Granblue Fantasy Season 2 air date may occur.
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. There are anime sequels and movies being announced for other series that did worse, so that’s why it seems inevitable that Cygames and A-1 Pictures will eventually announce the Granblue Fantasy Season 2 release date.
First off, this article was written days before Granblue Fantasy Episode 13 was released, so it will be updated after the finale airs. As previously noted, the chapters and episodes seem to be mostly correlated, so this extra episode is likely a gaiden side story that is unique to the Granblue Fantasy anime since its title is “Extra 1: Another Sky.” Reports also vary on whether there’s 13 or 14 episodes in total for the first season, so this article will be updated once the final episode is released.
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.
