The Banished from the Hero’s Party Season 2 release date is confirmed for January 2024, the Winter 2024 anime season.
The Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside Season 2 anime TV series will have Gideon “Red” Ragnason and “Wolf Girl” Rit trying to maintain their quiet life even as the outside world invades with the threat of war.
On September 24, 2023, the anime production committee provided the release window for Shin no Nakama ja Nai to Yuusha no Party wo Oidasareta node, Henkyou de Slow Life suru Koto ni Shimashita Season 2 in addition to a PV trailer:
On April 17, 2023, a teaser visual was released. The studio, staff, and the premiere time frame was not mentioned.
The initial announcement of Shin no Nakama Season 2 was made on October 31, 2022. The next day, the light novel Banished from the Hero’s Party Volume 11 was also released and a wraparound jacket celebrated the news.
“Two seasons, two seasons! I am so happy!” wrote original author Zappon. “After I watched the last episode of the first season, I really wanted to see the continuation in the second season. …… Of course, it’s not something that can be done just because the original author wants to do it. This is all thanks to the many people who enjoyed the anime. Thank you so much.”
New cast members include:
- Van (CV: Yumiri Hanamori)
- Lavender (CV: Ai Kakuma)
- Cardinal Ljubo (CV: Satoshi Mikami)
- Esta (CV: Aya Uchida)
The main staff is confirmed to be returning for making Banished from the Hero’s Party Season 2.
Director Makoto Hoshino said he was “glad” to hear about the sequel and drew an illustration to celebrate.
Composer Yukari Hashimoto said she was looking forward to the second season. OP music artist Yui Nishio was also excited.
The voice actors for Rit (Kanon Takao), Red (Ryouta Suzuki), and Tanta (Yuu Serizawa) confirmed that they are returning.
The animation studio hasn’t been confirmed yet. The first season of the anime TV series was produced by Japanese animation studio Wolfsbane and Studio Flad. Wolfsbane is a relatively new company and they’re mostly known for making the Peter Grill and the Philosopher’s Time anime. Similarly, Studio Flad has only one other anime to its credit, the 2018 Damepri Anime Caravan.
Banished from the Hero’s Party Season 2 will be once again helmed by returning director Makoto Hoshino (Damepri Anime Caravan, King’s Raid). Writer Megumi Shimizu (My Next Life as a Villainess) returns as the series script supervisor.
Artist Ruriko Watanabe (Damepri Anime Caravan) returns as the character designer. Composer Yukari Hashimoto (March Comes in Like a Lion) will create the music again.
The Banished from the Hero’s Party Season 2 OP (opening) and ED (ending) theme song music hasn’t been announced yet.
For the first season, the Banished from the Hero’s Party OP “Take a Breathe In, Take a Breathe Here, Live (Iki wo Suu Koko de Suu Ikite)” was performed by Yui Nishio, while the ED “All The Same (Minna Onaji)” was performed by JYOCHO.
The anime’s first season was originally scheduled for Summer 2021, but due to “various circumstances,” it was delayed until Fall 2021.
The first season’s finale, Banished from the Hero’s Party Episode 13, was released on December 29, 2021. The 13 episodes were released as three Blu-Ray/DVD volumes.
- Updated October 31, 2022: Banished from the Hero’s Party Season 2 confirmed!
This article provides everything that is known about Banished from the Hero’s Party Season 2 (Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside Season 2, Shin no Nakama ja Nai to Yuusha no Party wo Oidasareta node, Henkyou de Slow Life suru Koto ni Shimashita 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.
Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside Season 2 release date predictions: Is 2024 likely?
As of the last update, Kadokawa, Studio Children’s Playground Entertainment, or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed the time frame for Banished from the Hero’s Party Season 2 release date, not even the year. However, the production of the Banished from the Hero’s Party sequel was announced on October 31, 2022.
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 the Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside Season 2 release date will occur in the future.
Back when the first season aired in Fall 2021, it seemed like a toss-up on whether or not the anime production committee will have Banished from the Hero’s Party Season 2 renewed.
Kadokawa has been pushing anime adaptations out very quickly compared to past standards, and the anime industry is only getting busier. In early May 2021, Kadokawa announced that they intended on creating at least 40 anime projects per year by 2023, an increase of 20 percent from 33 titles.
Unfortunately, the premiere of Banished from the Hero’s Party Season 1 in October 2021 did not give a huge boost to the manga and light novel sales in Japan since the volumes did not reach Oricon’s top 30 manga or top 10 light novel lists for the first several weeks of October 2021.
As a comparison, critically-acclaimed series like 86 Eight-Six made the top 10 novel charts, Tokyo Revengers dominated the manga charts during Summer 2021, and even all five volumes of The Detective Is Already Dead light novel series made it onto the top 20 charts.
The anime’s reviews probably suffered from competition since the overall fantasy genre is deluged with isekai variants that have worn out the welcome for basic fantasy stories. It also probably didn’t help that FUNimation was featuring the pure fantasy Ranking of Kings in the same time frame.
The Banished from the Hero’s Party reviews from anime fans were just average at best. Those who enjoyed the TV show noted how they liked the wholesome relationship between Red and Rit, especially since their romantic chemistry doesn’t seem forced or rely on e*chi gimmicks. It’s a simple fantasy story focused on enjoying simple living while a natural, organic relationship builds over time.
Note: Minor spoilers in the next two paragraphs.
One issue that the anime sequel faces is that later plot developments cause the story to shift in tone since Red’s quiet life is disrupted. This shouldn’t be too surprising since even the anime’s first season foreshadows how Red can’t escape the problems of the Hero’s party despite desiring a quiet life.
Thus, fans who like the slower slice-of-life stories may be extremely disappointed by Volumes 5 and on. Plus, Volume 0 (which came out between Volumes 7 and 8) is largely a prequel that focuses on Red’s backstory as Gideon before he joined the Hero’s party.
Despite those issues, the second sequel was greenlit for production. Typically, anime productions are secretly scheduled by the producer before they’re publicly announced as part of the pre-production phase. When the PR marketing efforts start that means the premiere is usually less than 2 years out.
As such, it’s predicted that the Banished from the Hero’s Party Season 2 release date will be in 2024, although the premiere could be as early as Fall 2023 in the best-case scenario.
Crunchyroll’s Banished from the Hero’s Party Season 2 English dub release date predictions
The first season of Banished from the Hero’s Party was streaming with English subtitles and dubs on FUNimation (not Crunchyroll, VRV, Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime Video).
Here is the Banished from the Hero’s Party dub cast:
- Aaron Campbell as Red
- Dani Chambers as Rit
- Tia Ballard as Ruti
- Brandon McInnis as Ares
- Aaron Roberts as Albert
- Austin Tindle as Campbell
- Josh Grelle as Dir
- Aaron Campbell as Gideon
- Kyle Phillips as Gonz
- Ben Phillips as Keith
- Kimmie Britt as Maya
- Marisa Duran as Megria
- Ivan Jasso as Mido
- Sarah Roach as Nao
- Doug Jackson as Newman
- Josh Bangle as Oliver
- Kristen McGuire as Tanta
- Marcus Stimac as Taraxon
FUNimation’s Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside English dub release date was on October 20, 2021, which was only several weeks behind the series premiere.
Presumably, now that Funimation is being phased out by Sony, Crunchyroll’s Banished from the Hero’s Party Season 2 English dub release date will be announced in the future after Shin no Nakama 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).
Banished from the Hero’s Party manga/light novel series compared to the anime
The story for the anime is based on the Shin no Nakama ja Nai to Yuusha no Party wo Oidasareta node, Henkyou de Slow Life suru Koto ni light novel series by writer Zappon and illustrator Yasumo. The long title can also be translated into English as I Was Kicked out of the Hero’s Party Because I Wasn’t a True Companion so I Decided to Have a Slow Life at the Frontier.
The writer first began self-publishing the story for Banished from the Hero’s Party in October 2017 as a web novel on the “Shōsetsuka ni Narō” (Let’s Become Novelists) website. The web novel remains unfinished and seems to have been abandoned by the author.
The web novel became popular so quickly that Japanese publisher Kadokawa began adapting it into a light novel series by June 2018. As of November 1, 2022, the light novel series was up to Volume 11 in paperback format.
It should be noted that the light novel series technically had 10 volumes out when the anime premiered. However, the eighth volume was labeled as Volume 0 since the story focused on Red’s backstory.
The Banished from the Hero’s Party manga adaptation by artist Masahiro Ikeno is being serialized in Monthly Shonen Ace. Serialized since June 2018, the manga was up to Volume 9 as of July 26, 2022.
North American publisher Yen Press began releasing the official English translation in the USA and other countries in December 2020. As of October 18, 2022, the English light novels were up to Volume 7, while Volume 8 is scheduled to release on March 21, 2023. The English manga will be up to Volume 4 by February 21, 2023.
As of July 2022, the series had over 2.2 million copies in circulation, including the manga and digital sales.
In an interview with Anime News Network, the original creator explained how he structures his book stories.
“When I come up with the plot for a book-length story, I think of the balance as follows: A slow-life opening half, action in the middle and latter half, and a return to slow life in the end,” Zappon said. “Also, even in parts that have a lot of action, I don’t forget to incorporate the slow-life aspects to indicate the passage of time. The world is full of battles and adventure, but even if a battle awaits the next day, I won’t give up on the mundane happiness of today. That’s the theme I have in mind when writing the story.”
The slow life that Red desires is also how light novel readers prefer their anime: slow-paced and as true to the source material as possible. Since the anime is based on a light novel series it’s unavoidable that the worldbuilding and dialogue are condensed, but the good news is that the anime’s first several episodes seemed to be in no hurry to rush through the books.
The bad news is that starting with Episode 6 the anime tried began to cram the next several light volumes into only eight episodes. Unfortunately, that meant the second half neglected the “slow life” portions of the story in order to move the main plot forward.
Episode 1 followed Volume 1: Chapter 1 “Apparently, I Wasn’t a True Comrade” fairly closely. The major difference was that Rit was introduced earlier in an anime original scene where she asked the guild receptionist about Red since in the book’s second chapters she just showed up at the apothecary.
Episode 2 made some minor changes to Volume 1: Chapter 2 like omitting certain character interactions and skipping a fight scene that was in the Hero’s party flashback. The anime moved up the interlude, Loggervia’s Rizlet, which was originally positioned between Chapters 4 and 5. The dialogue from the other Hero’s party interlude was changed from discussing Gideon’s disappearance to introducing the assassin Tisse.
The pacing began to pick up with Episode 3 since it adapted Volume 1: Chapters 3 and 4. In order to pull this off, the anime skipped some minor scenes like Red baking a pie and Red and Rit going to the market.
Episode 4 slowed down again by only adapting Volume 1: Chapter 5. It even added anime original scenes by expanding the sauna competition and showing Red and Rit walking home with Gonz’s family. The only odd change was how the conversation between Theodora and Tisse was pulled from the epilogue of Volume 2.
Episode 5 finished the first volume by adapting Volume: Chapter 6 and the epilogue. Thus, Episode 6 picked up the story in Volume 2.
From there, the anime adaptation began rushing through the material. In order to pull this off, many scenes were outright skipped, thus creating a noticeable tonal shift where the story comes off as more dramatic and not a “slow life” as the title proclaims.
While that’s bad, the change in pacing was arguably necessary in order to provide a good stopping point with solid plot resolution to the first season.
If the anime had maintained the first half’s pacing that would have meant ending with only Volume 2. That stopping point would have only resolved the Devil’s Blessing incident and finished with a cliffhanger where Ruti is heading to Zoltan after learning about the drug.
Ending with Volume 3 could have finished with the big reunion between brother and sister, but stopping there would have left the issue of Ruti’s Blessing unresolved, never mind the main conflict that started with Ares. Leaving Red unreconciled with the Hero’s party is hardly a conclusive finale.
One of the main themes was how the Blessing influenced free will so it was also important that the anime’s first season didn’t leave that plot thread hanging. In the ANN interview, anime director Makoto Hoshino explained how they made certain to convey the concept.
“Unlike a novel or manga, an anime viewer can’t pause reading to think about things, so we had to convey the information succinctly and correctly. However, ‘Blessings’ are an extremely difficult aspect to explain. Because of this, I decided to parcel out the information gradually. For example, in episode 1, a Blessing seems like something similar to the job system in a video game. There are skills. Episode 3 introduces levels: in order to raise them, you have to defeat someone with a Blessing. From there, young Al is used as a concrete example… That’s the general flow. By doing this, I think that the viewers will steadily draw closer to the Hero Ruti’s secret.”
Still, in order to adapt so many books, the ending of the anime’s first season also left out some important scenes that work as foreshadowing. For example, Red spent some time thinking about getting a ring for Rit, which points to the beginning of Banished from the Hero’s Party Season 2. But it’s not like that detail was skipped entirely since the anime teased Red asking Rit about her favorite gemstone.
More importantly, there’s a scene set in the Dark Continent that shows the Demon Lord Taraxon with Shisandan. Wait, didn’t they already slay the multi-limbed general of the Demon Lord’s Army… twice?!
It turns out that Shiandran is still alive so that reveal will need to be shifted to the second season, as well. The anime will also need to explain his motives for wanting to make Ruti the Hero again and how the souls of demons pass on to the great beyond. Instead, these demons return to their Asura king, who also happens to be the current Demon Lord.
Knowing that the demons are essentially endlessly respawning is critical to understanding the plot moving forward into the next story arcs. But it’s a detail that can be explained later on when it becomes more relevant in the second season.
Despite skipping these details, the final scene of Episode 13 was definitely teasing Banished from the Hero’s Party Season 2 since the return of high elf Yarandrala is a major plot of the next story arc.
All in all, the ending of the first season’s finale, Banished from the Hero’s Party Episode 13, found a stopping point corresponding to light novel Volume 4 (or the end of web novel Arc 2).
Really, the anime’s first season should have been planned out as two cours, or parts, from the beginning. However, for the reasons already outlined, ending with Volume 4 was the best stopping point since it resolves the conflict with the Hero’s Party.
The good news is that there is plenty of source material for making Banished from the Hero’s Party Season 2. English-only light novel readers who wish to read ahead of the anime can jump straight into light novel Volume 5.
Unfortunately, the manga series probably won’t catch up with the anime until 2023. Manga Volume 4 corresponded to the riverside swimsuit episode while manga Volume 6 featured Red and Rit buying the double bed.
When the first season’s finale was released the latest manga chapters were only caught up with anime Episode 9. Manga Chapter 37 corresponded to the beginning of light novel Volume 3 when Red and Rit warm each other up during a winter cold snap. Manga Chapter 39 showed Tisse and Ruti on the airship and finished with them departing for Zoltan.
Shin no Nakama ja Nai to Yuusha no Party wo Oidasareta node, Henkyou de Slow Life suru Koto ni Shimashita Season 2 anime spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)
With the battle against Ares finally over, Red, Rit, and company can finally return to their peaceful, slow days. Ruti and her best friend Tisse have also settled down.
No life is without its adventures though, and Red sets off for the Wall at the End of the World. Red has vowed to love Rit for life so he’s journeying in search of the perfect gem to mark their betrothal.
Along the way, Red encounters scenic views, soaks in blissful hot springs, and even reunites with an old friend, the high elf Yarandrala—who’s head over heels in love with him?!
Yes, as Episode 5 hinted, Yarandrala really likes Red. She used to be a member of the Heroes Party until Ares banished Red. She even punched Ares before storming out!
After learning of Ares’ betrayal and death at the hands of Red, Yarandrala has reunited with her friends. But don’t worry, this isn’t an isekai harem story and Red only has eyes for Rit.
Red’s joy of being reunited with Yarandrala is short-lived when Zoltan is invaded by the strongest assassins. However, what the attackers don’t know is that the world’s best heroes are all gathered there.
Jumping into action, Red and Ruti display their power as heroes while Tisse confronts a legendary assassin and Rit uses her blessing to gain wolf-like perception. With the remote land of Zoltan in turmoil, can the heroes bring peace back to the land?
This conflict is just the beginning since the Kingdom of Veronia declares war. In order to protect Zoltan and those he loves, Red once again takes up his sword.
Unfortunately, anime fans will have to wait until the Banished from the Hero’s Party Season 2 release date to watch what happens next. Stay tuned!