High fantasy anime fans would love to watch Grancrest Senki Season 2 someday on their TV screens but is the second season of Record Of Grancrest War even possible? The answer to that question goes back to the history of the anime.
Unlike pretty much all anime, this series can trace its origins back to table-top role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons. Author Ryo Mizuno is a writer, an RPG developer, and a Dungeon Master who created a long campaign. The transcripts from this D&D campaign turned into game replays and then finally into the Record Of Lodoss War anime, which received prequels, sequels, and manga adaptations.
Mizuno started writing the Record Of Grancrest War light novel series in 2013, but although the story was set in a different universe the new series kept its tabletop roots along with a similar title. Mizuno also created an RPG sourcebook for the new setting and Bandai Namco released in Japan an RPG strategy game for PlayStation 4.
Fujimi Fantasia Bunko released the final book in the series, Volume 10, in March 2018. The story is complete, although there is also a spin-off novel called Grancrest Adept: Mushoku no Seijo, Soen no Kenshi that was released in 2013. In June 2016, Mizuno teamed up with illustrator Makoto Yotsuba to start the serialization of the Grancrest Senki manga adaptation. Viz Media licensed the English translation of the Record Of Grancrest War manga, which will begin releasing starting on November 13, 2018.
Therefore, Record Of Grancrest War Season 2 is only possible if Mizuno creates a sequel/prequel or if animation production studio A-1 Pictures decides to create an anime original season, movie, or OVA episode. There are rumors that the author may create a prequel, but impatient anime fans may want to know if they can read more of the story.
This article provides everything that is known about Record Of Grancrest War Season 2 and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news and rumors. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.
Grancrest Senki Light Novel/Manga Compared To The Anime
Fans of light novels and manga usually cry foul when a production studio rushes the pacing of an anime adaptation in order to complete a major portion of a story. In worst-case scenarios, entire books are compressed down into a single episode. At best, an anime season will cover the events of 2 to 4 books.
The Grancrest Senki anime was definitely pushing the higher side of the best-case scenario, compressing 10 books into 24 episodes. That’s about 2.4 episodes for every book and some of these stories could conceivably be a standalone anime in their own right.
The first three episodes were paced relatively slowly in order to introduce the world and the characters but by episode 5 the pacing accelerated to the point that 23 chapters were summarized very quickly. Much of the nuance is lost since character development and backstory was tossed in favor of action scenes. The main character Theo Cornaro is not quite the white knight in the light novel as he’s portrayed in the anime. In the light novel and manga, characters will actually explain their motivations for taking certain actions, but the anime simply doesn’t have enough screen time for that.
At the same time, it could be argued that the industry has a bad habit of producing incomplete anime adaptations. It’s possible that A-1 Pictures started out with the requirement that the entire light novel series be adapted into a two-cour season. So, on one hand, light novel fans get a complete adaptation, which is admirable, but on the other, they’re left with a relatively rushed anime.
So, the only option is to go to the light novels or manga adaptation for more of the story. Unfortunately, the Grancrest Senki manga has only covered the events of the first several episodes of the anime as of June 2018. But for English-only readers, it’s the only option since no publisher has announced an official English translation of the Grancrest Senki light novel series, nor has anyone started a fan translation project.
Record Of Grancrest War Season 2 Release Date: Rumors Suggest A Prequel
As of the last update, A-1 Pictures or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed the Grancrest Senki Season 2 release date.
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 Record Of Grancrest War Season 2 premiere date will occur in the future.
The elephant in the room is the lack of source material, never mind reliable news about the author’s plans for the series. There is a rumor going around that Mizuno is planning on writing a Record Of Grencrest War prequel that focuses on the early adventures of the First Lord. Not much is known about this character, although Theo Cornaro’s battle flag Patriot was the same as the First Lord’s.
Going back to the beginning would make sense since a prequel could show how Lords first began obtaining crests through chaos cores (unless they did it differently from Theo). This tale would presumably be a tragedy since crests enable Lords to fight back against Chaos, yet they chose to use these powers to fight over feudal territories, glory, and wealth.
Unfortunately, even if Record Of Grancrest War Season 2 ever happens, anime fans are in for a long wait. Assuming the prequel needs between three to five books to become adapted into anime, we’re looking at several years based on the rate at which Mizuno publishes books. A prequel might also be a shorter story, so a Grancrest Senki movie would make more sense in that case. Overall, let’s just hope that Mizuno keeps producing interesting high-fantasy books that become anime to drain the isekai swamp.