The Darwin’s Game Season 2 anime will have Kaname Sudou, Shuka Karino, and their friends in the Sunset Ravens not only trying to survive but trying to complete the deadly D-Game. But when will Darwin’s Game Season 2 come out?
The Darwin’s Game manga’s ending is coming out relatively soon in 2022. Could the final chapter be a reason for the anime to finally finish the story?
The ending of Darwin’s Game Episode 11 definitely seemed to be teasing the Darwin’s Game Season 2 anime. A special after-credits scene showed Kaname dropped into a jungle environment as part of a deadly Hunting Game event.
Aniplex and animation studio Nexus produced this anime adaptation. The company is best known for anime like the 2019 Granbelm anime and the 2015 Chivalry of a Failed Knight anime (which was co-produced with Silver Link).
As of February 2022, the studio hadn’t produced any other anime projects since Darwin’s Game. However, they plan on releasing The Eminence in Shadow anime in 2022.
The main staff and studio making Darwin’s Game Season 2 hasn’t been announced yet.
For the first season, the anime project was helmed by director Yoshinobu Tokumoto, who is best known for directing the Comic Girls anime.
In the past, he has also been the assistant director or episode director for anime series such as .hack//Roots, Fairy Tail, Lupin III, Monogatari, Pokemon, and Strike The Blood.
Character designer Kazuya Nakanishi was the animation director Granbelm. Composer Kenichiro Suehiro (Re:ZERO, Golden Kamuy) created the music.
“Thank you for watching the final episode,” Kenichiro said on Twitter. “The work was musically challenging thanks to the great cast and production staff. Today I want to immerse myself in the afternoon of Sunset Ravens.”
The Darwin’s Game Season 2 opening (OP) music theme song and ending (ED) have not yet been announced. The first season featured the OP “CHAIN” by ASCA and the ED “Alive” by Mashiro Ayano.
New episodes are available on Crunchyroll with English subtitles, while FUNimation is streaming the Darwin’s Game English dub. Episode 1 was double-length.
As such, the first season’s finale, Darwin’s Game Episode 11, aired on March, 20 2020.
- Updated February 3, 2022: Darwin Game manga in climax.
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Updated December 10, 2020: Darwin’s Game manga’s “last event” announced.
This article provides everything that is known about Darwin’s Game 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.
Darwin’s Game manga ending relatively soon
The story for the anime is based on the Darwin’s Game manga series by duo creator group FLIPFLOPs. Illustrator Yuki Takahata creates the art, while writer Shu Miyama (formerly known under the pen name Ginko) creates the story.
The manga writer is also writing the scripts for all of the episodes in the anime adaptation.
Published in the Bessatsu Shonen Champion magazine since 2012, as of January 2022 the Darwin’s Game manga was already up to Volume 25.
The volume announced that FLIPFLOPs will release a spinoff manga focused on Rein “Rain” Kashiwagi.
Bessatsu Shonen Champion magazine announced in December 2020 that the “last event” of the main story began in Volume 22. Then Volume 25 announced that the manga series was in its climax.
That means the Darwin’s Game manga’s ending is coming up fairly soon. While the final chapter or volume has not yet been revealed, it was announced that the manga entered its final story arc beginning on January 11, 2020.
No North American publisher has announced an official English translation of the Darwin’s Game manga series. However, unofficial fan-made scanlation projects have kept up with the series, with even the latest chapters being translated quickly.
The fan-made translation takes some literary license by introducing extra humor into the manga. For example, here’s a summary of events that took place in Darwin’s Game Episode 5:
“Shuka went into underground mall. Shuka encountered water bender. Shuka tried to escape. Water bender used ice wall. It was super effective. Shuka has fainted. Afterwards, Kaname and BS Detector went to save her.”
When a manga series is adapted into an anime series, often, the scriptwriters condense certain events to reach a good stopping point in the overall story.
For example, the In/Spectre anime was based on a dialogue-heavy novel and manga series, so it was unavoidable that certain scenes were skipped.
In the case of the Darwin’s Game anime, one of the manga creators is adapting the story to the anime format as the scriptwriter. While you might assume this process would result in an anime adaptation that’s 100 percent true to the source material, the opposite has turned out to be true.
Instead, the anime has narrowed the story’s focus to only critical moments and characters.
In fact, the anime removed police officer characters who were originally introduced in Chapter 1, in effect stripping away a significant portion of the manga.
Tokyo Metro police officer Tagonaka Yukimasa even becomes a player during the Shibuya Treasure Hunt Event and suspects that police superintendent Ayano Kouji is a traitor within the police force.
Admittedly, the involvement of the detectives is not necessary for the progression of the main plot. However, the police’s early investigation into the “human-shaped vandalism” and then eventually Darwin’s Game itself provided additional suspense and color to the story.
At the same time, the anime also added color with an original character named Hamada, the friend of Kaname, who was killed at the beginning. Originally, Kaname faced off against Rookie Hunter Banda-kun all alone, and it was friend Kyouda Hiroyuki who died in Chapter 1’s opening.
In the anime version, Hiroyuki accompanied Kaname for the first battle, and Hiroyuki’s death gave more emotional depth to the horror of the opening action scene.
Still, the anime did condense the first several chapters since the manga spent pages exploring how Banda-kun joined D-Game and his motivations for playing (it turns out he was a teacher connected to Hiroyuki).
Arguably, the story needed to be condensed to fit into an episodic format. The Shibuya Treasure Hunt story arc is long and doesn’t offer any decent stopping points, so some concessions had to be made to reach the end of the King of the Eighth’s arc.
Due to all the condensing, the anime speeds through the manga chapters at first. Episode 4’s ending matched up exactly with the final panel of Volume 4: Chapter 13.
By the halfway point, Episode 5’s ending corresponded to the ending of Chapter 15. Darwin’s Game Episode 6 then finishes up Volume 4.
The Shibuya Treasure Hunt story arc ends with Chapter 21 of Volume 6, but that was not the best stopping point. The ending of Darwin’s Game Episode 11 corresponded to Chapter 30 of Volume 8, although the final scenes summarized only parts of later chapters since the anime’s ending outlined how the Sunset Ravens implemented a D-Game ban.
The good news is that there is plenty of source material for creating Darwin’s Game Season 2. Based on the pacing so far, it’s very likely that adapting the final ending of the story will require a Darwin’s Game Season 3 anime to be made, as well.
Better yet, English-only manga readers wishing to read ahead of the anime series can jump straight to Volume 8 and by using the fan-made translation projects that are online.
Darwin’s Game Season 2 release date predictions
As of the last update, Aniplex, Nexus, or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed the Darwin’s Game Season 2 release date. Nor has the production of a Darwin’s Game 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 Darwin’s Game Season 2 premiere date will occur in the future.
The fact that Episode 11 ended by teasing the next major story arc can be interpreted as either an advertisement for reading the manga or it could be teasing the potential for a second season.
Studio Nexus has not announced any other anime projects for 2020 or 2021. Assuming the first season is financially successful, perhaps they will jump straight to producing the second season.
Let’s just hope Darwin’s Game Season does not end up like Btooom! Season 2, which was never made, leaving anime audiences hanging waiting for the death game’s story to be finished in the manga.
Darwin’s Game S2 spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)
Moral of the story so far: Never trust free-to-play apps. But, seriously, the story now has an end goal in mind.
This is no King’s Game where everyone is fated to die. Instead, Kaname hopes to end Darwin’s Game completely.
To that end, Kaname wished for a privilege that he used to gain control of the Shibuya territory from the Eighth’s clan. Kaname’s clan, the Sunset Ravens, has banned any unauthorized D-Games within their territory and vowed to punish anyone who violates the ban. They are also helping by dispersing shelters to regular solo players.
But how to end the game? One method is to kill the game organizer and destroy the D-Game system, but Rain suspects the game-ending condition is that the rise of a Class A1 player will trigger a final event. After all, the highest-ranked players are only A4, so perhaps the goal of the game is to force players to evolve to a higher level through survival of the fittest?
With Kaname as the leader, the Sunset Ravens are now composed of Shuka, Rain, Ryuuji, and Sui. Their allied clan, the Danjou Boxing Club, is also enforcing the D-Game ban. However, the club is still allowed to create safely managed D-Game matches and make money on betting.
Now, the first season skipped over the police investigation subplot, but it’s possible Darwin’s Game Season 2 will bring it back to the forefront once the matter is escalated. After all, police now have video evidence showing a D-Game player being killed block by block.
All digital evidence was wiped except for a VCR tape, and detectives present this evidence to Japan’s Prime Minister. Now the national government recognizes that there is a conspiracy and launches an investigation.
A month has passed, and Shibuya has become a giant unoccupied area. Some small clans foolishly attempt to plant their clan flag on these empty areas, but the Sunset Ravens are honoring their word by killing anyone who violates the peace.
Rain has come to know Suzune, the daughter of Hiiragi the Florist who died. Suzune has a bad heart, and her doctor is insisting that she uses her father’s money for a heart transplant. Rain insists the same, but Suzune desires to live her life the way she wishes even it’s short.
Suzune also demands to know the truth about the game that killed her father. But Rain can only tell Suzune to search for “D-Game” and its meaning. But weeks pass, and Suzune has no luck.
Due to the D-Game ban, players have been leaving the area on “expeditions.” Others have started a practice called “cultivating” where they trick people into joining D-Game only for these newbie players to be hunted.
Unfortunately for poor Suzune, someone she would least suspect turns out to be one of those cultivators, a poison user named Red Viper. But although Suzune’s prospects appear grim the battle only awakens the power of her Sigil, and she’s transformed into a powerful creature.
Meanwhile, Kaname is reaching out to other large family clans in the Kansai Region to form alliances. He’s trying to form collaborations focused on mutual non-aggression so they can seek the goal of creating an A1 player.
Japan is now monitoring the Sunset Ravens, and even the United States’ CIA is investigating Darwin’s Game. So, when one of the CIA agents gets killed Maria Anderson, a member of a US-based clan called AGE Lab, goes to investigate.
The enemies of the Sunset Ravens are upset by these turn of events since it eats into their profits in the Kanto region. Kaname has gone underground and hasn’t been seen. But one of these enemies in Trinity has a game privilege power as a bookmaker to force a player to join an event.
Worse, Kaname is only given a 30-second notice, and he barely has time to grab a survival kit before he’s teleported to an island in the middle of the Pacific! Upon arrival, he quickly realizes that he’s all alone since none of the other Sunset Ravens are part of the event.
The next event is called a Hunting Game (Volumes 9 through 13). The goal is to work cooperatively and gain 10,000 Life Significance Points based on killing creatures. For example, a rabbit is worth a mere one point while a human is 100 points.
But killing Darwin’s Game players is 200 negative points, offsetting any points gained by killing other humans. So, once again, Kaname starts gathering allies to his side, starting with a player named Ouji Kimihiko, a young man with a weekend warrior bod.
Kaname suspects this Hunting Game Event has another hidden secret. The mystery about the island begins to grow when they find a statue covered in old vines that they recognize as a landmark from their home in Japan. Just where in the world are they?
Unfortunately, anime fans will need to wait until the Darwin’s Game Season 2 release date to watch what happens next. Stay tuned!