The SK8 The Infinity Season 2 anime TV series will take the story of this skateboard-racing anime to the next level in the S downhill skating competition along with a new SK8 the Infinity OVA episode. But when will the SK8 Season 2 come out?
On July 4, 2021, a SK8 the Infinity sequel was confirmed to be in production.
“New animation project begins. Due to receiving a lot of love from everyone, the decision has been made to start SK8’s new anime project!! Follow-up information will be announced on the official website and official Twitter. Please look forward to it.”
On August 14, 2022, the format of the new SK8 anime was announced. An SK8 Season 2 trailer revealed that the SK8 OVA episode is also coming out. The main staff will be returning to create SK8 the Infinity Season 2.
The anime is being produced as a collaboration between Japanese animation Studio No Border and Studio Bones, which is best known for the My Hero Academia anime TV series, Mob Psycho 100 Season 3, and Carole & Tuesday.
Bones has multiple sub-studios labeled A through E. Studio C is led by producer Yoshihiro Oyabu, which was working on My Hero Academia Season 5 in 2021. The company also collaborated with Studio Orange of BEASTARS anime fame to make Netflix’s Godzilla: Singularity Point anime.
A subsidiary of French company Ankama, the Tokyo-based Studio No Border is providing the skateboard designs. In the past, they did the backgrounds, world concept art, and mechanical production design for Carole & Tuesday.
Director Hiroko Utsumi is returning to helm the SK8 The Infinity Season 2 anime project. She is best known for her work with Kyoto Animation, particularly as the original director of Free! (Free! 2021 movie is confirmed). She has worked for Studio MAPPA in directing Banana Fish.
The story’s script is being written by writer Ichirou Ookouchi, who is best known as the original creator of the Code Geass anime series. In the past, he’s worked on Berserk: The Golden Age, Devilman: Crybaby, Guilty Crown, Princess Principal, and WIT Studio’s Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress anime series. He’s also working on Code Geass: Z of the Recapture.
Artist Michinori Chiba is both the character designer and the chief animation director. In the past, he has worked on Basilisk: Kouga Ninpou Chou, Hunter x Hunter, and many various Mobile Suit Gundam series.
Composer Ryo Takahashi created the music. He’s worked on ACCA 13, Citrus, Princess Principal, and Classroom of the Elite.
The SK8 The Infinity Season 2 OP (opening) and ED (ending) theme song music hasn’t been announced yet.
For the first season, the SK8 The Infinity OP “Paradise” was performed by Rude-α, while the ED “Infinity” was performed by Yuri.
The finale for the first season, SK8 The Infinity Episode 12, released on April 4, 2021.
This article provides everything that is known about SK8 The Infinity 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 SK8 The Infinity English dub release date
The first season of SK8 The Infinity was licensed by Aniplex of America and Manga Entertainment and was streaming with English subtitles on FUNimation Now in the USA, UK, and Ireland. Madman Anime Group licensed it for Australia and New Zealand and was streaming via AnimeLab.
The SK8 The Infinity dub featured Matt Shipman as the voice actor for Reki Kyan, while Howard Wang played Langa Hasegawa.
- Shadow voiced by Chris Guerrero
- Cherry Blossom voiced by Daman Mills
- Joe voiced by Jonah Scott
- Miya voiced by Ry McKeand
- Adam voiced by David Wald
- Tadashi voiced by Brandon Johnson
FUNimation’s SK8 The Infinity English dub was released as a simuldub starting on February 6, 2021.
Since Sony Entertainment bought both Crunchyroll and Funimation all of the content is being shifted to Crunchyroll.
Crunchyroll’s SK8 the Infinity Season 2 English dub release hasn’t been announced yet.
SK8 The Infinity Blu-Ray/DVD release date
The 12 episodes of the anime TV series will be released as six SK8 The Infinity Blu-ray/DVD volumes. In Japan, Volume 1 releases on March 24, 2021, Volume 2 on April 28, 2021, Volume 3 on May 26, 2021, Volume 4 on June 23, 2021, Volume 5 on July 28, 2021, and Volume 6 on August 25, 2021.
SK8 The Infinity manga adaptation launched
In March 2021, manga artist Kazuto Kojima started an SK8 The Infinity manga adaptation that will retell the story of the anime TV series. It’s releasing through the BookLive! eBook store.
A comedic spin-off, SK8 Chill Out!, by artist Toriyasu started releasing in January 2021. The spin-off is being published on Kadokawa Shoten’s Young Ace Up manga website.
Studio No Border interview: Thomas Romain discusses the skateboard designs
Studio No Border was created by Thomas Romain in 2018. It’s a small 15-man team of French and Japanese artists that work on animation projects, video games, comics, and board games.
In the past, Romain worked with Studio Bones on Space Dandy. After Studio No Border was created, they worked on Carole & Tuesday. Notably, both series were created by Shinichiro Watanabe.
Romain’s involvement in the SK8 The Infinity anime began when he was leaving a Bones meeting about Carole & Tuesday and ran into the producer for the new skateboarding anime. She asked if they were interested in designing the skateboards and then introduced the team to the director, Hiroko Utsumi.
Studio No Border brought in a consultant to ensure the authenticity of the skateboard designs so that they’d work in reality. The director wanted the decals on each board to visually reflect the personality of each character.
“Ayumi Kakei (a.k.a. Nelnal), whose style is very “pop,” did the illustrations for Reki, Langa and Miya. Loic Locatelli, a French comic book artist, did the decals for SHADOW and JOE, and my job was to make ADAM’s decal,” Romain said in an interview with FUNimation.
SK8 The Infinity production at Studio Bones suffered from problems
When original works involve amazing creators, the results are often amazing in and of themselves, but even seasoned freelancers need the necessary time to do the job right.
In this case, Sakuga Blog says Studio Bones brought in a tightly-knit small team that allowed them to create a focused vision from an artistic standpoint, but the problem, in a nutshell, is that “the team was way too small for the amount of work remaining, which is causing BONES to smash the panic button harder than they’ve had to do in a very long time”.
The same set of people were listed in the credits for directorial duties and key animation work. Normally, this isn’t a problem if you can handle the workload, but the 2020 pandemic presented unique circumstances. The pandemic showed just how unprepared the anime industry is for accidents disrupting the standard production schedules, never mind if a largescale calamity throws a production schedule completely off the rails.
“Studios simply have very little room to pivot, which is no small issue when you consider how often things refuse to go as intended,” Sakuga Blog explained. “BONES is an animation powerhouse very few can compare to, and even they will barely avoid death by having people from their other sub-studios [A through E] join in a rush. Had it been another studio, we wouldn’t even be seeing SK8’s final episodes anytime soon—and that still wouldn’t mean that they’d get to make the finale at their leisure.”
Casual anime fans probably won’t notice the pains the staff went through in order to keep up the quality. Let’s just be thankful the anime wasn’t delayed until later by COVID-19.
SK8 The Infinity 2 release date predictions: Is late 2023 likely?
As of the last update, Studio Bones or any company related to the anime production has not officially confirmed the SK8 The Infinity Season 2 release date. However, the production of a SK8 Season 2 sequel was announced on August 14, 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 SK8 The Infinity Season 2 premiere date will occur in the future.
The main issue is that the anime project is an original story focused on the characters Reki Kyan and Langa Hasegawa. Fortunately, the ending of Sk8 The Infinity Episode 12 left the door open to a sequel.
Of course, the real issue was whether the financial numbers would be good enough to cause the anime production committee to renew the TV series. These organizations are risk-averse, so it’s extremely unusual for a second season for an original work to be planned out in advance.
Streaming revenue is the biggest factor in the anime industry today. FUNimation doesn’t typically release viewership numbers or popular anime lists, but we received an idea of the anime’s popularity in Japan when the Sk8 The Infinity Blu-Ray/DVD volumes released.
The first volume sold 7,903 copies in its first week in Japan. That’s about twice the number of what is just considered good.
The good news is that the SK8 The Infinity reviews have been overwhelmingly positive. That translated to good disc sales and streaming numbers, so that’s why SK8 The Infinity 2 was renewed.
Even in the best-case scenario, productions are scheduled out years in advance, so anime fans were in for the long haul. It’s possible that when the initial announcement about SK8 Season 2 was announced that only pre-production had begun.
Unfortunately, that means in the best-case scenario the SK8 The Infinity Season 2 will be in late 2023, although it could even be 2024. Stay tuned!