The BOFURI Season 2 release date will be on January 11, 2023, the Winter 2023 anime season.
The exact premiere date was confirmed during the weekend of Jump Festa 2023 on December 17, 2022. A new BOFURI Season 2 PV and Christmas visual were also released.
The 2nd season will have 12 episodes in total released as three BOFURI Season 2 Blu-Ray/DVD volumes.
The BOFURI Season 2 OP (opening) music theme song “Kono Tate ni, Kakuremasu.” will be performed by Afilia Saga, while the ED (ending) music “Step for Joy” will be performed by FRAM.
The announcement of the time frame was made by a new BOFURI Season 2 trailer on September 20, 2022.
The BOFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense Season 2 anime will have Maple (Kaede Honjo) and Sally (Risa Shiramine) taking on large-scale monsters, game bugs, and new friendships.
The BOFURI Season 2 release date was apparently delayed. On January 9, 2021, the first anniversary of the anime’s TV broadcast was celebrated by announcing that the BOFURI Season 2 anime TV show would be coming out in 2022.
Official sources did not provide any explanation for why the premiere was pushed back to 2023.
On September 20, 2022, it was confirmed that animation studio Silver Link is returning to produce BOFURI Season 2. The company is best known for anime like The Misfit of Demon King Academy, Masamune-kun no Revenge, Strike The Blood, and Strike Witches.
In 2021, Silver Link also released Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! X, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya Movie, The Dungeon of Black Company, The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat, and The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated!
Some of Silver Link’s projects have been renewed for sequels in 2023. The Misfit of Demon King Academy Season 2 release date is in 2023. The My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! movie release date is also in 2023 (My Next Life as a Villainess Season 3 hasn’t been announced yet). The Our Last Crusade Or The Rise Of A New World Season 2 release date is also in 2023. The Masamune-kun no Revenge Season 2 release date is also in 2023.
The first season was helmed by directors Shin Oonuma and Mirai Minato. For the second season, only Mr. Oonuma is returning.
Character designer Kazuya Hirata is once again serving as chief animation director, while Koin is credited for the original character design. Hotota Hiroyuki is also listed as a chief animation director
Writer Fumihiko Shimo (best known for the Clannad anime) is once again providing the series composition. Composer Taro Masuda will be creating the music at production company MAGES.
The first season featured the OP “Kyukyoku Unbalance” as performed by Afilia Saga, and the ED “Play The World” as performed by Riko Sasaki.
New episodes are available on Crunchyroll and Hulu. The BOFURI English dub was streaming on FUNimation but ever since the acquisition by Sony the episodes have shifted over to Sony. Therefore, it’s likely that the BOFURI Season 2 English dub will be produced by Crunchyroll.
The first season’s finale, BOFURI Episode 12, aired on March 25, 2020.
- Updated December 17, 2022: Exact BOFURI Season 2 release date confirmed.
- Updated December 16, 2022: BOFURI Season 2 episode total confirmed by BD/DVD.
- Updated November 10, 2022: Added BOFURI Season 2 OP/ED music artists and songs.
- Updated September 20, 2022: BOFURI Season 2 release date delayed to Winter 2023. Added trailer and new light novel/manga info.
Updated January 9, 2021: Added BOFURI 2022 announcement.
- Updated October 19, 2020: Added BOFURI Volume 11 release date and cover art.
Updated October 12, 2020: BOFURI English translation of light novels confirmed by Yen Press.
Updated July 14, 2020: Revised predictions based on Silver Link’s schedule.
Updated March 25, 2020: BOFURI Season 2 anime production confirmed!
This article provides everything that is known about BOFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense Season 2 (Itai no wa Iya nano de Bougyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu 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.
Why was the BOFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense Season 2 release date delayed to January 2023?
As of the last update, Silver Link or any company related to the production of the BOFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense anime has not officially confirmed the exact BOFURI Season 2 release date. However, the BOFURI sequel has been confirmed to be coming out in January 2023.
Once the news is officially confirmed this article will be updated with the relevant information.
In the past, Kadokawa has been pretty quick to renew an anime series if it’s popular enough. The Japanese publisher has vowed to release at least one new isekai anime per season since such anime series have provided a good percentage of their revenue.
While technically not an isekai, BOFURI could be popular enough that Maple and Sally find themselves featured in Isekai Quartet Season 3, which has already featured cameos by Cautious Hero’s Seiya and Ristarte.
Anime productions are scheduled out years in advance and many anime studios are booked solid. In the second half of 2022, studio Silver Link was working on anime adaptations for light novels The Greatest Demon Lord Is Reborn as a Typical Nobody and manga like When Will Ayumu Make His Move? and The Maid I Hired Recently Is Mysterious.
Considering that the BOFURI Season 2 announcement took place in January 2021, it’s possible the second season of the BOFURI anime could have come out in 2022 but was delayed by unforeseen circumstances.
Perhaps it was COVID? Perhaps the producer felt that the production schedule needed more time? Perhaps there were unexpected scheduling conflicts with other projects? We don’t know the real reason although it’s probably best that it was delayed to keep up the animation quality level.
BOFURI manga, light novel series compared to the anime
The story for the anime series is based on the Itai no wa Iya nano de Bougyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu light novel series by writer Yuumikan and illustrator Koin. As of August 10, 2022, the BOFURI light novel adaptation was up to Volume 14.
The long title is officially translated by FUNimation as BOFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense, but the title is also sometimes translated into English as I Hate Getting Hurt, So I Put All My Skill Points Into Defense.
Fans jokingly refer to the series as Shield Hero Online, Maple’s Story, or Shield Heroine. So, it’s not too surprising that a collaboration event with The Rising Of The Shield Hero anime series will be held on the BOFURI game on smartphones.
The official website states that the series had sold over 700,000 copies as of December 6, 2019. By December 2021, the circulation was up to 1.6 million copies.
The light novel series published by Kadokawa is itself based on the BOFURI web novel that began being written in 2016 on the user-generated novel publishing website Shosetsuka ni Naro.
Starting in May 2018, illustrator Jiro Oimoto began adapting the story into the BOFURI manga series. Serialized in Kadokawa Shoten’s Monthly Comp Ace magazine, the BOFURI manga was up to Volume 6 as of August 26, 2022.
In October 2020, an official English translation of the BOFURI light novels was announced by Yen Press. The English books were up to Volume 8 as of February 21, 2023.
The BOFURI manga’s English translation was also announced by North American publisher Yen Press. The English manga was up to Volume 5 as of October 18, 2022.
Have you ever played an MMO where boss rooms are just randomly strewn across the map with hordes of protective minions nowhere in sight? No? Then maybe you understand why some light novel and manga readers are criticizing the anime.
Maple may move slower than a turtle, but the anime adaptation is zipping through the light novels and manga at an Arifureta-like pace (see our article on the Arifureta Season 2 anime, which has been confirmed). While the characterization in BOFURI’s story still feels right, the problem is that in later episodes dungeons are no longer dungeons anymore.
Exploration has pretty much gone out the window in favor of highlighting major moments like boss battles. Normal enemies like goblins (manga Chapter 9), angry yeti, birds, and clone battles (manga Chapter 13) are skipped entirely.
This is pretty odd since Maple and Sally are able to casually search for gold coins without having to fight creature mobs or other groups of suspicious players during their mountain climb. Instead of being an active world, the second event, the treasure hunt, almost feels empty… Maple literally has to stumble into a hidden hole in the middle of a grassy field rather than by following enemies to find a staircase hidden by mirage magic.
Not only do the dungeons no longer make sense in MMO terms, but even the quest for the Super Speed skill was rendered nonsensical. Originally, to gain the speed skill, Sally completed a time attack challenge on her own in order to surprise Maple, but in the anime, this quest’s goal was combined with Sally’s fear of ghosts (manga Chapter 10). But how does receiving a speed-based skill connect to healing a man in a basement?
Plus, the anime skipped a side story (manga Chapter 8) that Maple undertook with Iz the blacksmith to gather materials needed for the Snow White shield. The dessert-eating scene was included, but not how the girls decided to spend all their money eating sweets since it’s impossible to get fat in an MMO.
In later episodes, the boss fights against the giant squid, Predator and Machine God was shortened and the fight against evil Sally and evil Maple was skipped. Some events were reordered in order to keep the story flow going.
The quests by the Maple Tree guild members to gain necessary skills before the guild war fourth event were quickly summarized. Many other moments were limited to still screenshots as part of a montage sequence.
Besides the skipped content, earlier chapters were adapted in full minus the MMO explanation about min-maxing. In fact, pretty much all the lengthy dialogue about MMO stats, items, and game design mechanics has been minimalized in the anime’s script. That means anime-only audiences won’t understand exactly how Maple is breaking the game and why the game devs are pretty much: (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
For example, the Machine God ability sacrifices the character’s current equipment in exchange for extremely strong mecha armaments. Normally, this skill would be considered a last resort since this skill would destroy a player’s armor, but Maple’s armor set is a super rare item negates that drawback by auto repairing. Plus, on top of that, every time she uses Machine God her armor comes back stronger due to its Destruction Growth ability, thus making Machine God stupidly OP.
Similarly, the anime didn’t explain why Maple needed new armor for her Angel form. It’s not just color coordination, Maple needed an HP increase provided by the new armor since the Angel form sacrifices HP in order to provide the area of effect (AoE) ability protecting her guild members.
Still, the anime does get across the point that Maple is a walking absurdity in this game world. At the ending of each episode, the anime hints that Maple is generating buzz on bulletin boards and chat rooms. (In Episode 8, some poor rando laments being zapped to death Kazuma-style by a stray energy beam from Maple’s Machine God fight.)
The manga and light novels show these discussions in more detail, including how top players in New World Online have come to adore her clueless yet moe savagery. Even the game developer admins are regularly talking about Maple breaking the game, but this is only shown briefly in the anime.
On the positive side, studio Silver Link beautifully animated those boss battles. When CGI is used during action scenes it looks great.
Condensing content is unavoidable when adapting a light novel series into an anime so arguably Silver Link has put the focus where it needs to be: character development and letting these cute girls show off their personalities with unconventional gaming.
It’s also pretty obvious that the anime’s writers were speedrunning through the content in order to reach the best possible stopping point: the guild war event and Maple’s fight against Payne.
Maple may have monstrous skills, but Payne is the number one player and he’s getting buffed by his entire party just to take down Maple. Of course, he didn’t yet know about Maple’s Atrocity ability aka Mapzilla.
Note: This article was updated after BOFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense Episode 12 aired in Japan.
In the web novel, the fight between Payne and Maple started in Chapter 118. Chapter 122 was when Atrocity Maple “helped” Mii and the Flame Emperors. The next several chapters detailed how multi-Mapzilla stomped all over the guild event. The Maple Tree celebration with the other guilds took place in Chapter 127.
All in all, BOFURI Episode 12 found an ending in the Maple Tree guild battle of light novel Volume 4. That’s good news since this stopping point leaves plenty of light novel source material for the BOFURI Season 2 anime.
The bad news is that the anime adaptation has already surpassed the BOFURI manga series. The ending of BOFURI Episode 4 corresponded to the first half of manga Chapter 13 (the anime skipped the battles against the fake duplicates of Maple and Sally). BOFURI Episode 5 adapted Chapter 14 of Volume 3, which introduced the BOFURI character Kasumi.
Since new BOFURI manga chapters are published monthly it will likely take years before the manga catches up with the story events of the BOFURI Season 2 anime.
Unfortunately, English-only readers wishing to read ahead of the anime will be limited to reading fan translations of the web novel. It’s recommended to start with Chapter 129.
Itai no wa Iya nano de Bougyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu Season 2 spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)
Note: Spoilers for BOFURI Season 2 assume that the story will pick up with Volume 5.
The last time we watched Maple and Sally, the girls had defeated the two major guilds. This act earned the Maple Tree guild a lot of respect and now Maple has a chance to spend time with each guild master.
In fact, Maple will go on an adventure with these guild masters on the next level of New World Online, which opens a month a half later. But how does this VIT-centric moe player look in the eyes of the strongest players in the game?
Level 6 of the game contains horrific areas where demons roam. Cooperating with these powerful guild masters reminds Maple of a particular anomaly that she has run into. And when she works on collecting materials with Sally in an unexpected yet “efficient” manner Maple manages to cause a game bug.
Poor game admins, always trying to stay one step ahead of Maple! And she’s always trying to figure out new ways to make things interesting.
For a new game event, Maple proposes going it alone with two other friends besides Sally. Maple wants to give Sally a chance to enjoy the earlier levels. Besides being separated from her usual ally, Maple also makes things interesting by choosing the highest difficulty!
Speaking of difficulty, level 7 is when the monsters become large scale. Maple will have to acquire new skills, including tentacles, in order to take on these new challenges.
Unfortunately, anime fans will have to wait until the BOFURI Season 2 release date to watch what happens next. Stay tuned!