The Plunderer Season 2 anime will reveal even more of the mysteries surrounding Licht Bach, Hina, and the dragon ball-like original ballot. But when will the second season of the Plunder anime come out?
The first season of the Plunderer anime was a two-cour anime. What’s a “cour,” you might ask? For those unfamiliar with the lingo, a “cour” is a three-month block of TV broadcasting based on the physical seasons usually composed of 10 to 13 episodes.
The first season was not a split-cour anime season. A “split-cour” is where a single anime season takes a multi-month break before resuming TV broadcasting. Examples from 2020 include the Fire Force Season 2 anime and the No Guns Life anime.
Episodes were streaming on Hulu with English subtitles, while FUNimation is streaming the Plunderer English dub.
In this case, the first 12 episodes of Plunderer aired from January 9, 2020, through March. Plunderer Part 2: Episode 13 broadcast on April 1, 2020, while the finale, Plunderer Episode 24, was streaming on June 24, 2020.
The Plunderer Season 2 opening (OP) music theme song and ending (ED) have not yet been announced.
The first season featured the OP “Plunderer” by Miku Ito and the ED “Countless Days” by Rina Honnizumi, the Japanese voice actress for the Hina character. Plunderer Part 2 will have the new OP “Lonely Dark” by Miku Itou and a new ED “Reason of Life” will be sung by Rina Honnizumi (voice of Hina), Ari Ozawa (voice of Lyne), and Shizuka Itou (voice of Nana).
The Plunderer anime is being produced by animation studio Geek Toys, which has previously worked on the 2018 RErideD and the 2019 Hensuki: Are you willing to fall in love with a pervert, as long as she’s a cutie? Director Hiroyuki Kanbe (Oreimo, Gonna be the Twin-Tail) is helming the project.
Writer Masashi Suzuki (Isuca, Lord of Vermilion: The Crimson King) is writing the anime script and series composition. There are multiple character designers, including Hiroki Fukuda, Yuka Takashina, and Yuki Fukuchi.
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Updated August 20, 2020: Added info about Plunderer manga ending and Volume 16.
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Updated March 17, 2020: Added Plunderer Part 2 release date, OP/ED info, and new key visual.
This article provides everything that is known about Plunderer 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.
Plunderer manga compared to the anime
The story for the anime series first began life as the Plunderer manga series by writer and artist Suu Minazuki. The creator is famous for previously creating the similarly quirky Heaven’s Lost Property and Watashi no Messiah-sama.
Published in Monthly Shonen Ace since December 2014, new tankabon-format volumes historically come out three times a year from Japanese publisher Kadokawa. As of April 25, 2019, the manga series was up to Plunderer Volume 15. The release date for Plunderer Volume 16 is scheduled for August 26, 2020.
In 2018, Yen Press licensed the official English translation of the Plunderer manga series for North American release. As of April 2020, the English Plunderer manga was up to Volume 4, with Plunderer Volume 5 scheduled to release on September 22, 2020. There are also unofficial fan-made scanlation projects which have kept up with the latest chapters.
With the exception of some missing jokes and minor changes to worldbuilding exposition, Episode 1 followed Chapter 1 very closely and ended on the same dramatic note.
Admittedly, it’s a pretty rough beginning for those who dislike e*chi since the opening sequence literally tries to make comedy out of s*xual assault. Anime audiences were probably tempted to drop the series right then and there, but fortunately, the manga and thus the anime gets better from thereon.
Licht’s true character is revealed as a lecherous Vash the Stampede archetype with a heart of gold. However, “the somewhat idiotic, and always perverted” Licht has a very good reason for acting this way that’s slowly revealed as the story unfolds.
The adaptation rate of one chapter per episode continued through Plunderer Episode 5. The biggest departure from the manga started with Plunderer Episode 6.
In the manga, Pelmo was introduced while being sexually accosted by an ugly rich man who desired to forcibly marry Pelmo by using his higher number count. Hina unsuccessfully tried to help, but then Licht came flying out of the sky to help only to be accosted by Pelmo herself.
Pelmo only acted in this manner since she was avidly curious about how Licht could seemingly fly. Arguably, Pelmo’s introduction in the anime was better since it showed her trying to pursue her dream to create a flying machine.
Episode 7 was the first real filler content since the story about the cooking contest between Hina and Lyne Mei was completely original. Anime fans who can’t wait for Food Wars! Season 5 to release probably will enjoy Plunderer’s amusing take on the anime cooking genre.
Plunderer Episode 8 will start up by finishing manga Chapter 6 of Volume 2. The next several chapters are where the action really begins to pick up so it’ll be interesting to see how well these action scenes are animated.
By Plunderer Episode 19 the anime had already adapted up through manga Volume 7, which is when the narrative returned to the present day. With the knowledge secured from time travel, it’s now time for those who returned back to the future to decide what to do next.
The anime skipped a scene where Nana is suffering a horrible nightmare showing her a dark creature destroying Licht with gravity-like powers. Instead, the anime focuses on how everyone is happy to be back in the present and they celebrate with extended scenes centered around the raucous drinking.
Just like in the manga, Licht proceeds to totally “biff” his 300-years-and-waiting chance with Hina. (Don’t mind the minor Back to the Future pun.)
But things start to get interesting at the ending of Chapter 29 when Licht reveals that he knows the name of Hina’s mother: Tsukina Farrow. Adapted by Episode 20, the major twist is that Hina’s mother was one of Licht’s childhood friends from 300 years ago, which means that Licht views Hina as if she were a young child in comparison to him.
Worse, Hina’s father is named Tokikaze Sakai and Licht killed her father with his own hands in the past. Licht feels that he has no right to allow Hina to stand by him.
Licht also reveals that Hina possesses one of the seven original ballots for the Althing that exist in this world. If a person were to gather all of the original ballot balls together he or she would control the world of Althea.
With that startling revelation, Licht declares that he intends on taking on the military all by himself. But Licht doesn’t want to risk his friends being hurt in the coming fight.
So, Licht puts everyone to sleep by drugging their drinks. But Jail Murdoch isn’t affected due to his Conviction. Licht and Jail face-off after Licht tells him the plan, but in the end, they part ways with Licht jumping away. Jail heads toward the royal capital city to confront his father for actions taken in the deep past.
Unable to use his speed due to the enemy’s gravity powers, Licht is pounded into the ground by Doan Taketora. The manga made it seem like Licht’s friends find his lifeless body and he’s seemingly dead whereas the anime had Licht simply unconscious.
Oddly enough, Episode 20 was named Rain and in the manga, it was raining when Licht was defeated. But in the anime, it was a sunny day.
During all of this, the anime made a variety of changes in order to condense the story. Fortunately, most of these changes were mostly time-saving alterations and didn’t significantly impact the plot.
But Episode 22 skipped elements of Chapters 33, 34, and 35 and even made changes to how scenes played out. Episode 23 went even further since Licht’s fight against Taketora and Mizuka, and the latter two characters’ flashback scene, was completely anime original. In fact, all of the plot points were anime original with the exception of Mizuka’s sanity being restored and part of the Licth vs Taketora fight.
Based on this relatively fast pacing, Studio Geek Toys ended Plunderer Episode 24 with Chapter 37 of Volume 10, which was a full 10 chapters further into the story than this story originally predicted.
It’s a decent stopping point for the anime since it ends a story arc by fully explaining Licht’s history and motivations for his current actions. It also allowed Licht to work through his emotions concerning Hina and finished off with some battles against other Aces.
The good news is that the manga currently provides enough source material for a single-cour Plunderer Season 2 anime to be produced relatively quickly. The bad news is that English-only manga readers who wish to read ahead of the anime will need to wait until Volume 10 comes out.
Plunderer Season 2 release date waits on the manga
As of the last update, Geek Toys, Kadokawa, or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed the Plunderer Season 2 release date. Nor has the production of a Plunderer 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 Plunderer Season 2 premiere date will occur in the future.
Kadokawa’s intentions for the anime series will probably be forecast by the characters that end up in Isekai Quartet Season 3. Admittedly, yes, labeling Plunderer as an isekai anime is something of a stretch, but could it be possible that Plunderer’s Licht and Hina will be joining the chibi isekai gang rather than Cautious Hero’s Seiya and Ristarte or BOFURI’s Maple and Sally?
The anime may have suffered from a rocky start but Episode 24 left an opening for the Plunderer Season 2 anime. Arguably, there is already enough chapters available for a single-cour sequel, but a two-cour anime will require about 15 to 20 new chapters.
Considering that new manga chapters are released monthly, it will be 2022 before there is enough source material for creating Plunderer Season 2 with two cours.
Plunderer S2 spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)
Note: Spoilers for Plunderer Season 2 assume that the story will pick up with Volume 10: Chapter 38.
The last time we watched Licht, Hina, and allies, they were planning on gathering the original ballots to take the majority vote and then aim for the wall of paradise. Class A is suspected of still being alive even though that should have been impossible after 300 years.
In order to confirm the truth, Licht and the others decide to infiltrate the royal capital in search of the original ballot. Rather than facing thousands of troops in a direct assault, they try a sneakier approach by having everyone dress up as women. As might be expected, Licht dresses up in an ugly woman costume, while a mortified Jail ends up getting all the catcalls from the soldiers.
Hina still hasn’t given up on jumping Licht, but what really has her going is curiosity about Schumelmann Bach. She knows they were tricked by their teacher, but she still feels like his kindness was real despite calling all of them “unneeded”.
It turns out Licht’s real name is Rihito Bach because he was officially adopted by Schumelmann. The man had a horrible childhood where his drunkard mother attempted to gouge out his eyes with a knife and he was forced to kill his own mother in self-defense.
Schumelmann entered an orphanage and then the army, but it was always his dream to have a loving wife and child. But his wife was apparently barren and when she couldn’t conceive she committed suicide. Worse, Schumelmann discovered afterward that he was infertile, not his wife.
Based on Licht’s past with Schumelmann he believes that the man would betray the world but never a child. Therefore, it’s possible that something else is going at the wall of paradise which would explain Schumelmann’s actions.
At the same time, the royal capital is facing a conspiracy of its own. Thunder Emperor Freidkahm von Lightning, Wind Emperor Robert du Vanovich, and Water Emperor Yi Yan Xialou have gathered with Blast Baron Alexandrov Grigorovich in front of the nine-year-old King of Althea, Charles de Berget Althea the 11th.
The young female king demands the three original ballots that Grigorovich holds for the Secret Service. The floating continent was originally founded by unanimous vote but it needs to reapproved periodically using the power of the original ballots. But that hasn’t been done since one of the original ballots disappeared five years ago.
The generals disagree on how to best proceed, but they want to avoid creating a war with the Special Service by fighting over the original ballots. At the same time, if they can’t resolve the problem then Althea will sink and they’ll find themselves at war with the Abyss.
While the King and Grigorovich make it appear as if they are at odds with each, in private they are friendly since Grigorovich was the only person who treated the king as a child as she grew up. When the King is old enough to marry she plans on making Grigorovich her groom, which would make him Althea’s new king.
The young King truly fears for the safety of both her people and the people of the Abyss, as well. She believes that the Secret Services intends on taking over Althea and wishes she could strike first, but can’t. Thus, despite publicly scolding Grigorovich, she secretly tasks him with stealing away the original ballots without the Secret Service’s knowledge.
All of this planning is for naught since the Wind Emperor Robert assassinates the young King and the other generals only to blame Grigorovich! The commotion can be heard all over the capital city and when Licht and Jail run to investigate they are shocked when they reunite with Grigorovich in an alley.
What is really going on inside this country? Unfortunately, anime audiences will need to wait until the Plunderer Season 2 release date to watch what happens next. Stay tuned!