The Black Summoner Season 2 anime will have “Black Reaper” Kelvin and his followers “Mel” Melfina, Efil, Sera, Gerard, Rion, Alex, and Colette heading to war as a militaristic country launches an invasion. But when will Kuro no Shoukanshi Season 2 come out?
The studio and main staff making Black Summoner Season 2 haven’t been announced yet.
For the first season, the anime project was produced by Japanese animation company Studio Satelight, which in recent times has produced such as Sakugan, The 8th Son? Are You Kidding Me?, Somali and the Forest Spirit, and Cannon Busters. They’re best known for the Nanbaka and Symphogear series in addition to Log Horizon Season 1 (Studio DEEN produced the new Log Horizon seasons).
The first season of the Black Summoner anime project was helmed by director Yoshimasa Hiraike (Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku). He also wrote the series composition.
Artist Miwa Ooshima (My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!) was the character designer. Composers Michiru (Ascendance of a Bookworm) and Yuria Miyazono at Flying Dog created the music.
The Black Summoner Season 2 OP (opening) and ED (ending) theme song music hasn’t been announced yet.
For the first season, the Black Summoner OP “Atamannaka DEAD END” was performed by Retobea. The ED “Wherever” was performed by Japanese voice actress Minori Suzuki, who plays as Sera.
The first season of Black Summoner was streaming in Summer 2022 with English subtitles on Crunchyroll and VRV (not Netflix USA, Disney+ USA, HIDIVE, Hulu, Funimation, or Amazon Prime Video).
The first season’s finale, Black Summoner Episode 12, was released on September 24, 2022.
This article provides everything that is known about Black Summoner Season 2 (Kuro no Shoukanshi Season 2 / The Berserker Rises to Greatness Season 2) and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.
Kuro no Shoukanshi Season 2 release date predictions: Renewal uncertain?
As of the last update, Studio Satelight, Bushiroad, Overlap, bilibili, or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed the Black Summoner Season 2 release date. Nor has the production of a Kuro no Shoukanshi Season 2 sequel been announced.
Once the news is officially confirmed this article will be updated with the relevant information.
In the meantime, it’s possible to speculate about when, or if, the Kuro no Shoukanshi Season 2 release date will occur in the future.
The final scene of the first season may have stated, “The story continues,” but that is hardly an official confirmation of the 2nd season.
The Black Summoner reviews have just been average at best. Studio Satelight has well-animated the action battle sequences by relying on a mix of 3D and 2D animation that didn’t distract from the story (most of the time). The anime writers nailed the characterization of Kelvin as a battle junkie and Kelvin’s crew is filled with unique personalities that are entertaining to watch.
Most of the problems cited by critics really have to do with the source material the light novel series being a straight-forward isekai power fantasy that used practically every trope there is.
Kelvin bartering away his memories for receiving power should have been the launch pad for an intriguing mystery, but Kelvin’s old life never became a major plot point in this part of the story. Even though there is a mystery the biggest issue is that the goddess Melfina is hovering around Kelvin with omniscient advice similar to how Navi is constantly annoying gamers with, “Hey Link!” Seemingly acting as a narrative mouthpiece for the book writer, this overly helpful expository goddess removes any sense of mystery or suspense by swiftly answering any questions with monologues.
Sure, the actual plot is thicker than the glossy window dressing of Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World, but that’s not saying much. A compelling isekai story can start with the usual reincarnation tropes and an overly powerful main protagonist while still introducing overarching goals and motivations that lead to progression in character development. The main characters are personable and interesting, not boring, but at the end of the day, Kelvin’s “bad habit” of seeking more powerful foes is the only notable motivation for this quest.
Speaking of Isekai Harem, it happens to share one plot point with Black Summoner: both protagonists purchase a beautiful slave girl near the beginning. The difference is that the half-elf named Efil falls in love with Kelvin and in return he doesn’t want to take advantage of her as a slave (at least at first…), whereas the Isekai Harem protagonist is such an irredeemable scumbag that he forces himself on his love slave the very first night!
(It should be noted that the Black Summoner light novels and manga are much more sexually explicit than the anime adaptation. While Isekai Harem had uncensored episodes, Studio Satelight did not make a Black Summoner uncensored version.)
The anime pretty much glosses over the slavery issue since Efil is treated more like a valued family member and worthy comrade rather than a servant (despite the head maid outfit). Still, it’s odd that Kelvin was disturbed by the existence of slavery in this fantasy world yet purchased a slave girl anyway…
And the decision to purchase a slave wasn’t made out of sheer desperation like with Naofumi and Raphtalia in The Rising of the Shield Hero. Kelvin may have freed Efil from her curse but he still keeps her as a slave for no good reason rather than completely freeing her, which makes it hard for audiences to relate to the character if they take the time to stop and think about it at all. (The light novels and manga do address this issue; see the manga comparison section below for more details.)
At least in the case of Demon Lord’s daughter Sera Baal she was entrusted into Kelvin’s care and then she more naturally falls in love and joins his harem. (And can you believe that an arch-demon had the most emotionally driven story arc? RIP “Daddy Viktor”!)
Most of the plot of Black Summoner is centered on accumulating party members and Kelvin’s growth in power as a self-proclaimed Battle Junkie. The problem is that Kelvin and his friends are often handed the specialized skills necessary to defeat a specific enemy in battle… and this is done off-screen! Even worse, he’ll learn said skill, win, and then everything he learned is discarded never to be referenced again rather than layering progression with intelligent strategizing so this power growth builds naturally and organically. (Even Isekai Harem got that part right!)
To put things in perspective, let’s consider how Dragon Ball Super manga creator Akira Toriyama shocked fans in August 2022 by having Black Frieza defeat Ultra Instinct Goku and Ultra Ego Vegeta in mere seconds after unexpectedly showing up. Frieza’s new form was achieved in secret with training and since it was a plot twist this character progression occurring off-screen can be forgiven. But would DBS fans be satisfied if Goku went off-screen, developed some new ultimate form progression or technique, and then returned to unceremoniously blast away Black Frieza (or Jiren for that matter) without building up the anticipation of the big fight with on-screen effort?
No, they would not, and that’s why the Kuro no Shoukanshi reviews have been suffering. On the other hand, regardless of the critics, Black Summoner managed to consistently be featured in the Top 5 of Crunchyroll’s most popular anime list during Summer 2022.
Perhaps some of this popularity can be attributed to HIDIVE stealing away from Crunchyroll several major Summer 2022 exclusives like Made In Abyss, Call of the Night, Vermeil in Gold, My Isekai Life, and DanMachi. After all, with less competition more Crunchyroll-only subscribers are likely to give time to anime series that would otherwise be lost in the seasonal shuffle.
Black Summoner shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same breath as the multi-layered Overlord anime series as a comparison point since they’re really not “isekai competitors” per se. (Overlord Season 5 is pretty much inevitable, whereas Black Summoner Season 2 is not.)
Additionally, the only other battle isekai anime available on Crunchyroll in Summer 2022 was the aforementioned Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World, which probably turned away many watchers with its blatant lewdness (while also simultaneously attracting a certain target audience, of course). Otherwise, The Devil is a Part-Timer! is more of a RomCom, and Parallel World Pharmacy had a character-driven plot where the OP protagonist doesn’t even want to fight.
Despite being able to stand out on Crunchyroll, Black Summoner still suffers from mediocrity so the Black Summoner manga and light novel series did not make any Top 10 list in July or August 2022 according to Oricon. The only Summer 2022 isekai to make those charts was the Overlord light novels, which unsurprisingly dominated the top spot for weeks.
But a large boost in manga and light novel sales is only an indication of popularity in Japan. The deciding factor is the international streaming revenue, which might just be barely good enough.
Therefore, it’s uncertain whether the anime production committee will have Black Summoner renewed for a second season. The anime wasn’t bad but it was only just above average. We’ll just have to wait and see since many isekai anime are receiving sequels.
Black Summoner Season 2 English dub release date
Crunchyroll’s Black Summoner English dub release date for the first season was on July 23, 2022, which was only several weeks behind the series premiere on July 9, 2022.
Here was Crunchyroll’s Black Summoner dub cast:
- Van Barr Jr. (Beat in The World Ends with You The Animation) as Kelvin
- Tia Ballard (Shuna in That Time I Was Reincarnated as a Slime) as Melfina
- Bev Mageto as Efil
- Bruce Carey (Rayleigh in One Piece) as Gerard
- Alexis Tipton (Miko in Mieruko-chan) as Sera
- Mary Morgan as Clotho
- Brittney Karbowski (Wendy in Fairy Tail) as Ange
- Molly Zhang (Hachimitsu in Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie) as Beth
- Sara Ragsdale (Saya in Dagashi Kashi) as Carol
- Additional Voices: Kristian Eros, Matthew David Rudd, Kayla Parker, Danielle Phillips
Presumably, now that Funimation is being phased out by Sony, Crunchyroll’s Black Summoner Season 2 English dub release date will be announced in the future after Kuro no Shoukanshi Season 2 has first premiered with Japanese audio and English subtitles.
Hopefully, future English dubbing will be faster once the COVID pandemic winds down and becomes endemic. In order to protect voice actors from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, they were forced to temporarily pause production or take extra safety precautions that resulted in slowed work.
Many English dubbing houses have experienced delays since voice actors often travel to the recording studio. By mid-2022 Crunchyroll began switching from remote recording to in-studio recording again (most of the work is done in their Texas studio).
Black Summoner light novel’s ending was in Volume 15, but the After Story is the sequel
The story for the TV show is based on the Black Summoner light novel series by author Doufu Mayoi and illustrators Kurogin and DaiXt (the second artist created all the art beginning with Volume 7).
The Black Summoner web novel was initially launched on the self-publishing site Shosetsuka ni Naro back in October 2014. Similar to the Arifureta web novel, the main story ended in December 2018 with web novel Chapter 592 but the Black Summoner After Story was started in 2019 and already has well over 200 chapters.
Japanese publisher Overlap’s Overlap Bunko imprint began publishing the light novel adaptation in June 2016. As of September 25, 2022, the book series was up to Black Summoner Volume 18: Distorted Love. However, the main story’s ending was finished being adapted by Black Summoner Volume 15 in August 2021, so all the more recent light novel volumes are adapting the Black Summoner After Story.
In January 2018, the original creator teamed up with artist Gin Ammo to create the Black Summoner manga series. Serialized in Overlap’s Comic Gardo magazine, it’s up to Volume 14 as of September 25, 2022.
North American publisher J-Novel Club is handling the official English translation for the manga and light novel series has announced an official English translation. The Black Summoner English translation of the books was up to Volume 10 as of September 23, 2022, whereas the Black Summoner manga’s English version was up to Volume 7 as of August 31, 2022.
The Black Summoner books had over 1 million copies in circulation back in May 2021. By February 2022, the series was up to 1.4 million copies in circulation, which includes the light novels and manga (both physical and digital).
Black Summoner manga, light novel series compared to the anime
As previously mentioned, the Black Summoner anime was heavily censored in comparison to the source material. As for Efil’s love confession, in manga Chapter 7 she literally jumped Kelvin while naked!
Efil had been told by the slave merchants that “nightly duties” were involved. Although she didn’t know exactly what that entailed, she became Kelvin’s slave fully expecting him to “take her” so she was puzzled that they shared the same bed for months yet did nothing.
After her love confession and their conversation in bed, it is strongly implied by the wording of the light novels and also by the manga panels that they had sex for the first time. Arguably, the anime avoided controversy by skipping the scene.
After all, Efil had been thoroughly traumatized in the past and her value as a person was attached to being a slave which was why she never had her slave collar removed. In the books, Kelvin actually offers to remove the slave collar but she responded, “You gave me this yourself, Master, and it is my pride and joy. Please do not take it away from me.”
(Yes, it is bizarre how it’s become common for isekai stories to proclaim that slavery is fine and dandy as long as the slaves are treated well. The Black Summoner author did not even offer up the Shield Hero excuse that slavery magic tied stats together and gave a boost thus it was okay for the party to remain slaves despite not considering themselves to be slaves per se.)
So the implication during the love confession scene was that she was seducing her master to increase her value to him and thus ensure her long-term safety. In the context of this conversation, it was best for the anime to have Kelvin turn her down rather than adapt the manga by having Kelvin creepily stating, “Are you really okay with this… I might not be able to stop myself, you know.”
Besides this controversial sex scene, the light novel series even had a threesome between Kelvin, Efil, and Sera, which was not included in the manga (readers are also expecting future manga chapters to skip a threesome between Kelvin, Melfina, and Colette in light novel Volume 9).
There was also a sex scene between Kelvin and Sera in light novel Volume 4 that was skipped by the manga since they were interrupted by a literal declaration of war! Since that scene should be adapted by Black Summoner Season 2, it’ll likely be skipped by the anime, as well.
Additionally, little sister Rion’s battle outfit was toned down from the manga. This was an improvement since Rion’s armor in the anime actually seem functional whereas the manga version was Conan the barbarian style female armor.
One notable exception was the villain at the first season’s ending, the sex maniac named Clive. In his introductory scene, it was made pretty clear even in the anime that he used the Charm Eye mind control skill to make the entire Magic Knight Order his harem after having sex with them. So it was quite the karmic ending with his formerly mind-controlled girls getting to torture him endlessly… albeit with PG-rated torture.
One scene that was introduced by the manga was the one where Kelvin demands that the heroes strip down so they can change into swimsuits and fight aquatic monsters in the dungeon. The light novel didn’t have that scene since they fought in their regular outfits, but the anime adapted it anyway.
Besides making the romance PG-ish, even the violence was toned down since oftentimes Kelvin was ruthless in his dealings with opponents in the books. In the anime, Kelvin was merciful toward Cashel’s party since he captured them alive, but in the source material, he straight-up murdered them. Cashel himself was cut in half and the slime Clotho absorbed their corpses by eating them.
This change especially didn’t make sense because being a super rare summoner was supposed to be a secret and here goes Kelvin summoning a slime in front of the bad guys and then letting them live to tell the tale…
In the manga, Kelvin’s party also killed all of the bandits in the Black Wind criminal organization except for its leaders since Kelvin needed them to pretend to be adventurers in order to set up the conflict with the heroes. In the anime, Battle Junkie Kelvin certainly did want to solo the hero’s party, but he didn’t kill everyone in order to arrange the misunderstanding.
On the other hand, Kelvin sliced off Clive’s legs in Black Summoner Episode 12, which was almost shocking considering the previous restraint toward the bandits. It’s possible the producers wanted Kelvin portrayed as an upstanding hero so he’d be more acceptable to general audiences despite the whole slavery caveat.
Still, the anime was really a PG adaptation since there should have been blood flying. The funny part is that the anime avoided showing blood yet Sera has skills like Bloodbending and Blood Dominion. At certain points, she uses black magic to mind-control people, which is how she got the only surviving attacker of the mansion raid to talk after being captured.
As for the adaptation pacing, Black Summoner Episode 5 finished off light novel Volume 1. But it was apparent that the anime was speedrunning through light Volume 2 since it was finished by Black Summoner Episode 8. That episode even dipped into Volume 3 since it showed Melfina being summoned.
The anime also adapted scenes from Side Story 1 into Sera and Viktor’s flashback. Volume 1 Side Story 2 was adapted into flashbacks showing how the Heroes were summoned.
But then Episodes 9, 10, and 11 pumped the brakes by only adapting Volume 3: Chapters 1 through 3. The OP video was updated so Melfina was no longer silhouetted and she was even added to the ED. The biggest change was that Gerard and Sera’s practice match was replaced by moving forward Sera and Melfina’s practice match.
Like many anime adaptations of light novels, this relatively average pacing meant that scenes were skipped and dialogue heavily condensed. But the anime didn’t skip or change anything too important in order to give priority to adapting Volumes 1 and 3.
All in all, as predicted the first season’s finale, Kuro no Shoukanshi Episode 12, found a stopping point corresponding to the ending of light novel Volume 3 (manga Volume 6: Chapter 39).
While this stopping point finishes three novels it still leaves the Trycen war subplot hanging. If the first season had been cours, Volume 5 arguably would have made a better stopping point since the war with Trycen would have been adapted in addition to providing a better climax where Kelvin fights… well, that would be major spoilers.
The good news is that there is plenty of source material available for making Black Summoner Season 2. Better yet, English-only book readers who wish to read ahead of the anime can jump straight to reading Black Summoner Volume 4 (or manga Volume 6).
Black Summoner 2 anime TV spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)
After saving the Village of Elves from the Trycenian invasion, Kelvin is approached by Leonhart Gaun, the king of Gaun, who starts off by saying that he acknowledges Kelvin as a Rank S adventurer. Soon after, the eccentric Summoner finds that a series of festivities are being prepared in honor of his promotion.
To his surprise and delight, he learns that part of it involves a one-on-one practice round with Silvia, a Rank S adventurer nicknamed “Ice Princess.” Eagerly anticipating this match against a truly worthy opponent, he promptly dives into his training like never before in preparation for the tournament. Kelvin will even be given the opportunity to Leonhart Gaun!
At the same time, his companions head off to a dungeon to procure a special high-ranked food ingredient for his sake, but a shocking encounter lies in wait!
Shortly after these events, the militaristic country of Trycen declares war on the entire Eastern Continent! The organization that pulled the strings behind the Demon Lord incident seems to be on the move since they’ve also manipulated Trycen into declaring war.
In addition to launching an invasion of its neighboring countries, Trycen’s infamous Dragon Knight Order is now closing in on Parth, led by Crown Prince Azgrad himself. The only thing standing between this dreadful host of warriors and ancient dragons — exceptionally powerful members of their mighty race — and the City of Peace is the Summoner’s determined companions and allies, who have been given the task of buying time until reinforcements arrive.
At the same time, Tristan Faaze, the general of the Magic Knight Order, is hatching a terrible plot within Trycen itself, targeting Shutola, the princess and general of the Black Ops, who weeps for her country’s fate.
Unfortunately, anime fans will have to wait until the Black Summoner Season 2 release date to watch what happens next. Stay tuned!