The Sabikui Bisco Season 2 anime TV series will have Bisco, “Dr. Panda” Milo, Pawoo, and “Jellyfish” Tirol traveling to a holy land turned deadly in order to find a cure for Bisco’s condition. But when will Rust Eater Bisco Season 2 come out?
The anime’s first season was produced by the Japanese animation company Studio OZ. This was their first major production as the lead studio, and most anime fans have probably never heard of them, but it’s not like they lack experience.
In the past, Studio OZ has done subcontracting work like finishing animation and paintings for popular series such as Akame ga Kill!, The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Bungo Stray Dogs, Cautious Hero, Code Geass, Dr. STONE, Evangelion, Mob Psycho 100, Gundam, My Hero Academia, Re:ZERO, Pokemon, Sword Art Online, Trigun, and even Princess Mononoke (yes, they’ve been around a while).
The first season was helmed by director Atsushi Ikariya, who was also the lead character designer. He’s been the chief animation director (The Devil is a Part-Timer!, Akame ga Kill!, multiple Fate/stay night projects) or main character designer (Id:Invaded, Terra Formars) for many popular anime projects, but this was his first time in the lead director’s seat.
Daisuke Mataga was the assistant director. In the past, he was an animation director for Akame ga Kill!, Code Geass, The Devil is a Part-Timer!, Fullmetal Alchemist movie, Id:Invaded, and Re:ZERO.
Writer Sadayuki Murai wrote the scripts and series composition. He’s best known for his work on the 1998 Cowboy Bebop anime and Perfect Blue movie. In more recent times, he’s worked on notables such as Netflix’s Godzilla trilogy, the Blame! movie, and the Knights of Sidonia anime series, including the final movie.
Artists Norie Ikawa (Id:Invaded, Goblin Slayer, Steins;Gate 0) and Ai Asari (Id:Invaded, Infinite Dendrogram, Re:ZERO) were both the chief animation directors, with the latter also serving as a character designer. Composers Takeshi Ueda and Hinako Tsubakiyama created the music.
The Sabikui Bisco Season 2 OP (opening) and ED (ending) theme song music hasn’t been announced yet.
For the first season, the Sabikui Bisco OP “Even the Wind is Silent (Kaze no Oto Sae Kikoenai)” was performed by JUNNA, while the ED “Howl” was performed Ryouta Suzuki and Natsuki Hanae, the Japanese voice actors for Bisco Akaboshi and Milo Nekoyanagi, respectively.
The first season’s finale, Sabikui Bisco Episode 12, was released on March 28, 2022.
The 12 episodes were released as three Blu-Ray/DVD volumes in Japan. Volume 1 came out on March 23, 2022, Volume 2 on April 20, 2022, and Volume 3 on May 25, 2022.
This article provides everything that is known about Sabikui Bisco Season 2 (Rust Eater Bisco 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.
Funimation and Crunchyroll’s Sabikui Bisco English dub release date
During Winter 2022, the first season of the Sabikui Bisco anime was streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation (not Netflix, Hulu, VRV, or Amazon Prime Video).
Here is the Sabikui Bisco dub cast:
- Kyle Igneczi as Bisco
- Brandon McInnis as Milo
- David Novinski as Jabi
- Anastasia Munoz as Pawoo
- Brittney Karbowski as Tirol
- Josh Putnam as Kurokawa
The Sabikui Bisco English dub release date for both Funimation and Crunchyroll was on Monday, January 31, 2022. The dubbed version was released weekly and was three weeks behind the English subs version, which premiered on January 10, 2022.
Rust Eater Bisco Season 2 release date predictions
As of the last update, Kadokawa, Studio OZ, or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed the Sabikui Bisco Season 2 release date. Nor has the production of a Sabikui Bisco 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 Rust Eater Bisco Season 2 release date will occur in the future.
When Episode 12 aired, the original creator apparently expressed the hope for an anime sequel by “Team Rust-Eater Bisco” by tweeting, “I’m sure we’ll meet again someday. Let’s go on a journey together. On my back! [in reference to the crab Actagawa]”
The Sabikui Bisco reviews have been good but not great. Everyone’s initial impression was to be flabbergasted by the fruitcake premise, but from there anime fans are either began embracing it as legendary by enjoying the insanity… or their enjoyment rusted away.
No one can argue that the anime lacks personality. Initially casting Bisco as a “Man-Eating Mushroom” terrorist gave the anime “Humanoid Typhoon” Vash the Stampede vibes that quickly evolve into “Desert Punk meets Dorohedoro”. Notably, Sabikui Bisco Episode 1 was titled “The Man Worth 800,000” while Trigun Episode 1 was “The $$60 Billion Man”. It also helps that the OST soundtrack is also a banger just like Trigun.
The strange mutations of this landscape evoke memories of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind… but only if it were thrown into the blender with the crazies of Mad Max and the grittiness of Akira. Perhaps the craziness is a little over the top in some cases, but that’s better appreciated than dull exposition.
Unfortunately, the reception wasn’t positive enough to give a major boost to Sabikui Bisco manga sales in Japan. In the first two months of 2022, Jujutsu Kaisen, Tokyo Revengers, One Piece, and Demon Slayer dominated the Oricon Top 5 manga charts as might be expected, but the only other Winter 2022 anime to receive a significant boost was My Dress-Up Darling.
On the other hand, the Sabikui Bisco anime was often featured in the Top 15 of Crunchyroll’s popular anime list. Thus, while it’s not guaranteed that the anime production committee will have Sabikui Bisco renewed, it should have a decent chance.
In the best-case scenario, anime fans should expect a multi-year wait for the Sabikui Bisco Season 2 release date.
Sabikui Bisco manga, light novel series compared to the anime
The story for the anime TV series is based on the Sabikui Bisco light novel series by author Shinji Cobkubo and illustrators K Akagishi & mocha. First published by ASCI Media Works’ Dengeki Bunko imprint in March 2018, the books are already up to Volume 8 as of January 8, 2022.
Regardless, after the anime’s first season finished some people apparently hilariously assumed that there was no sequel and told the original creator to hurry up and write a sequel!
“Well, after this, Shinji Cobkubo is mercilessly told to hurry up and write volume 2. How do you want me to continue?” he tweeted on March 28, 2022. “I thought I had nothing more to say since I’ve already put all my stories into the series… but people are thinking that there is nothing more due to all the material pushed into the first season. Volume 2 is an oriental and bloody fighting drama with more power and blood than the first volume. Please read it!”
The original creator teamed up with artist Yuusuke Takahashi to create the Sabikui Bisco manga Part 1, which adapted the first light novel volume with 21 chapters (and four side stories) in four manga volumes. The manga was serialized in Square Enix’s Manga UP! magazine from April 2019 through March 2021.
Beginning in December 2021, artist Sou Natsuki began adapting Sabikui Bisco Part 2, which began adapting the second light novel volume. As of February 7, 2022, the second manga series was up Volume 1.
North American publisher Yen Press is handling the official English translation. The first volume was released on January 18, 2022, and Volume 2 was scheduled to release on April 19, 2022, and Volume 3 on August 23, 2022.
Unfortunately, no publisher has announced the Sabikui Bisco manga’s English translation yet.
Even anime-only audiences probably noticed how the first several episodes rearranged events in non-linear order. In the light novels, the progression of the scenes are in chronological order. It starts with Bisco’s scenes until he reaches Imahama and then switches to Milo’s scenes until they both meet up as shown in Episode 2.
Switching perspectives for events that take place at the same time is normal in books, but the anime attempted to combine flashbacks with the parallel events of the two characters’ respective perspectives. This creative decision could have been confusing, but the way the studio deftly manipulated the timeline heightened the tension in some cases.
Still, it was almost a relief when the anime stopped jumping around. But that’s largely due to the narrative format of the books sticking to a chronological timeline for thereon.
As for adaptation pacing, the Sabikui Bisco anime joined the esteemed ranks of TV shows like the 86 anime for adapting only a single light novel. Similarly, Sabikui Bisco expanded on the source material in ways that improved the story rather than just being filler to pad the season up to 12 episodes.
For example, during the first fight between Bisco and Pawoo, there was an anime original scene with Milo and Jabi being in the sewers together. The line where Jabi mentions that not all Mushroom Keepers are good was a great bit of foreshadowing of the eventual Kurokawa reveal in Episode 8.
Speaking of foreshadowing, in Episode 5 the anime original story from the old couple about the evil Mushroom Keeper experimenting on the town was apparently a reference to Kurokawa. The light novels do eventually reveal that Kurokawa was a traitor who blamed the Rust on Mushroom Keepers for profit, but this experiment in the anime original scene was probably in reference to Kurokawa learning how to weaponize Rust. (Then again, maybe the experiment was a lie since the couple had been killing townsfolks and visitors.)
Episode 5 adapted Milo and Bisco’s scenes from Volume 1: Chapter 8 but also added transitional scenes to explain what was going on with Pawoo and Jabi. In the books, both characters were MIA for many chapters so this was a nice addition by the anime version. In later episodes, Pawoo was shown traveling to the Shimobuki garrison on her garrison (rather than the narrative just saying it happened). Episode 8 even showed how Jabi escaped and rescued Pawoo only to be recaptured, which wasn’t detailed in the book.
Episode 6 combined elements of Chapters 9 and 10 in order to emphasize Pink Jellyfish girl Tirol. Originally, Bisco and Milo traded items with a merchant before discovering Tirol trapped in the snow, so she wasn’t there to help negotiate with the merchant in the Shimobuki camp.
The cliffhanger ending of Episode 8 really heightened the tension by implying that Milo died after being shot by multiple Rust arrows. In the book, Bisco and Milo escaped on the crab Actagawa and Bisco saved Milo by using the Rust cure he’d received from Pawoo.
Episodes 9 through 11 essentially padded about 20 pages worth of source material in order to drag out the kaiju-like Tetsujin battle over three episodes. Episode 9 expanded on Chapters 16 and 17 by not only having Milo describe his dream to Bisco, the anime actually showed the dream. Audiences also got to see what was happening to Pawoo after she escaped the garrison.
Similarly, in Episode 10 the anime shows exactly how Tirol brought help from the Imihama Watch rather than just stating it happened like in the books. The addition of such scenes actually prolonged Bisco’s revival until Episode 11.
Speaking of which, Episode 11 greatly expanded on only several pages of content by adding scenes with Tirol and Pawoo in the truck, Milo tending to Jabi’s injury, and extra Tetsujin fighting at Imihama’s border wall, which put off the explanation of Bisco’s death and resurrection until the next episode.
The biggest change to Episode 11 had Tetsujin Town kids fighting in the Tetsujin battle which was new since they didn’t appear in the book again after Milo and Bisco had left them earlier in the story. It’s also nice that Episode 12 gave closure to the kids with the brief scene at the ending.
It’s arguable whether the expanded content was good additions or filler. To some, it might have felt as if the expanded content was created solely so the anime producer could fulfill the standard quota of 12 episodes at the cost of dragging out the climax of the story, but for others, it was probably nice to see in action what exactly happened to all the characters Milo and Bisco had met during their journey.
Besides expanding on plot points, there were also comical additions that fully fit the characterization. Milo almost passing out from hunger and Bisco offering him a lizard to eat didn’t happen in the light novels. Similarly, the anime added the funny scene where Jabi disguised himself as one of Kurokawa’s elite guards by wearing a rabbit head suit only to be captured. (Only after watching Episode 8 do audiences realize how Kurokawa easily detected Jabi since the villain was directly controlling the other elites through puppetshrooms.)
There were some cases where the anime’s first season skipped some dialogue and scenes that were important for character development, especially in regards to the villain. Kurokawa is actually a giant nerd who has Slam Dunk and Phoenix in his manga collection and watches movies and TV shows like the Terminator, Star Wars, Dragon Ball, and Sailor Moon.
The anime didn’t show it, but Kurokawa frequently makes pop culture references in the books, including namedropping Goku and King Piccolo in relation to how Bisco is so determined to defeat Kurokawa despite losing an arm. In Episode 9, Bisco literally quotes the Terminator in a direct reference to the movie, but it was vague enough to be left in since no character names or titles were explicitly mentioned.
More importantly, the anime entirely skipped Chapter 7 where Pawoo barged into Kurokawa’s office to demand permission to chase after Bisco and Milo. In this chapter, we learned that Kurokawa was obsessed with killing Bisco. The evil governor also warned Pawoo that she would be treated as a criminal if she set out on her own to rescue her brother.
The anime also didn’t explain that Pawoo was following Milo through a tracking device embedded in his ring. She’d given the ring to him when he was a teenager and told him to never take it off.
Similarly, Kurokawa tracked them down so easily by noticing that a train line had been activated for the first time in decades.
The scene where Kurokawa tortured Pawoo during the TV broadcast was toned down by leaving more to the imagination. While the anime definitely implied that he prodded her with a hot iron while hanging on a crucifix, the anime didn’t portray the damage from the beating or how she’d had her fingernails ripped off.
Some anime-only fans may question why Bisco and Milo left Kurokawa alive after their brutal confrontation in Episode 8. After all, the villain was momentarily defenseless and knew the secret of the Rust Eater needing Mushroom Keeper blood, so why didn’t the protagonists finish him off? Rather than the villain having temporary plot armor, what the anime didn’t show is that Kurokawa’s bodyguards abruptly swarmed the room like a bunch of zombies, literally scrambling in through vents and up through the floorboards of the room.
All in all, as predicted the ending of the first season’s finale, Ruster Eater Bisco Episode 12, corresponded to manga Volume 4: Chapter 21. As previously mentioned, the ending of manga Part 1 corresponds to the ending of light novel Volume 1.
Original creator Cobkubo had this to say about the pacing:
“The animation is for one volume. The novel plot itself is divided into 12 beats, so you could have used the drama curve or something like that,” Cobkubo tweeted when Episode 12 aired. “I can assure you that it’s a great read because it’s the same in every volume. The plot development is also unique in that it doesn’t span across volumes and is absolutely finished in every volume.”
The good news is that there is plenty of source material in the light novels for making Sabikui Bisco Season 2. Although the original author pointed out that his books have self-contained plots with solid endings, it’s hard to say whether the TV sequel would maintain the same adaptation pacing of one book per season but the climax of light novel Volume 3 would make for a better ending.
Better yet, manga readers will soon be able to read ahead of the anime. English-only light novel readers can also pick up Volume 2 when it comes out in April 2022.
Rust-Eater Bisco Season 2 anime spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)
Pawoo has been cured of the Rust and she has become the new governor of Imihama now that Kurokawa was killed. Even though Bisco and Milo saved humanity from the Rust, they’re now on the run due to both being labeled as wanted criminals by the Japanese government for helping people for free.
Worse, Bisco’s health is plummeting. He originally thought that becoming Rust Eater Bisco would make himself immortal and set out to cure his immortality, but his life is actually now at risk. If the mushroom blooms in Bisco’s heart due to his out-of-control “rust-eating” constitution, he’s out of luck!
To cure his unique condition, Bisco and Milo travel to the holy land of Shimane. But soon they come face to face with the ambitious immortal monk Kelshinha, who takes Bisco by surprise and steals his stomach!
No longer immune to the rust eaters, Bisco, along with his partner Milo, must infiltrate the heart of Shimane called the Six Pagodas of Izumo to regain their original bodies before Bisco bites the dust in five days. Will this dynamic duo be able to recover what they lost and send Kelshinha packing?
Bisco and his friends’ adventure gets even stranger when they are attacked in a Shikoku Mushroom Keeper village. Their assailant, a man who has dubbed himself Apollo, has but one aim: Dismantle Japan as it is now and restore things to how they were in 2028.
To accomplish this, he’ll turn everything and anything into…buildings?! The battle for the future of humanity begins!
Unfortunately, anime fans will have to wait until the Sabikui Bisco Season 2 release date to watch what happens next. Stay tuned!