The Detective Is Already Dead Season 2 anime TV series is confirmed to be in production.
The second season will have legendary detective sidekick “Kimi” Kimizuka Kimihiko and Nagisa Natsunagi jetting off to London in search of clues. But when will TanMoshi Season 2 come out?
Anime Geek is predicting that The Detective is already Dead Season 2 release date will be in 2024. (See the TanMoshi Season 2 release date predictions section below for more details.)
On July 7, 2022, it was confirmed that the 5 main cast members of the anime TV series would appear at a stage event for MF Bunko J Summer Festival 2022 on July 24, 2022. During this event, the TanMoshi Season 2 trailer PV and original art announced the sequel.
(Unfortunately, the Re:Zero Season 3 anime sequel was not announced at this same event to the great disappointment of many fans. Instead, Kadokawa merely hyped Re:Zero merch.)
The first season of the anime TV series was animated by Studio ENGI. The studio was established by Kadokawa in 2018 and their first project was the wrestling anime Kemono Michi: Rise up.
Studio ENGI is best known for its Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! anime and the Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs anime. The Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! Season 2 anime came out in Fall 2022 and Trapped in a Dating Sim Season 2 was confirmed to be in production in December 2022.
In 2021, Studio ENGI also released the Full Dive: The Ultimate Next-Gen Full Dive RPG Is Even Shittier than Real Life! anime.
The main staff or studio that is making TanMoshi Season 2 has not been announced yet.
For the first season, the anime project was helmed by first-time lead director Manabu Kurihara. In the past, he was a character designer for Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! and Tokyo Ghoul: Pinto. He’s also been an episode animation director on Hellsing Ultimate and the Bleach anime series (Bleach Season 17: Thousand-Year Blood War is confirmed to be in production).
Writer Hitomi Mieno handled the series composition. She’s best known for her work on the Noragami anime series. In recent times, she has worked on Assassin’s Pride, Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town?, Pokemon Journeys, The Dungeon of Black Company, and The Case Study of Vanitas.
Yousuke Itou was the character designer, with Umibouzu credited for the original character design. In the past, Itou has worked on the King’s Game anime, Holmes of Kyoto, and Hensuki: Are you willing to fall in love with a pervert, as long as she’s a cutie?
Yuuyu, Naoki Tani, and Tatsuya Yano composed the music.
The Detective Is Already Dead Season 2 OP (opening) and ED (ending) theme song music hasn’t been announced yet.
For the first season, The Detective Is Already Dead OP “Koko de Ikiteru” was performed by Mary x jonYAKITORY, while the ED “Kodou” was performed by Nana Kagura.
The first season’s finale, The Detective Is Already Dead Episode 12, was released on September 19, 2021. The first season was released in three Blu-Ray/DVD volumes.
- Updated January 6, 2023: Added The Detective is already Dead Volume 8 release date and cover art.
- Updated July 24, 2022: TanMoshi Season 2 confirmed.
- Updated July 9, 2022: Added MF Bunko J Summer Festival 2022 info.
- Updated October 4, 2021: Added The Detective Is Already Dead dub info.
- Updated August 16, 2021: Added interview comments from the director.
This article provides everything that is known about The Detective Is Already Dead Season 2 (TanMoshi Season 2/Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru Season 2/La detective esta muerta 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’s The Detective Is Already Dead English dub release date
The first season of The Detective Is Already Dead anime was initially only streaming with English subtitles on FUNimation and Netflix Japan (not Netflix U.S., Crunchyroll, or Hulu). The first episode was released as a one-hour special (46-minute runtime).
FUNimation’s Simuldub scheduled for Summer 2021 initially only listed the TV show as a Simulcast. In October 2021, FUNimation announced the TanMoshi English dub cast:
- Austin Tindle as Kimizuka
- Xanthe Huynh as Siesta
- Arryn Zech as Nagisa
- Kayleigh McKee as Bat
- Jad Saxton as Yui
FUNimation’s The Detective Is Already Dead English dub release date was on October 3, 2021. New dubbed episodes were released on Saturdays.
Tantei wa Mous, Shindeiru Season 2 release date predictions: Is 2024 likely?
As of the last update, Kadokawa, Studio ENGI, or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed the exact The Detective Is Already Dead Season 2 release date, not the year or the general time frame. However, the production of a TanMoshi Season 2 sequel was announced on July 24, 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 Tantei wa Mous, Shindeiru Season 2 premiere date will occur in the future.
While The Detective Is Already Dead reviews in the West have been just average for a good anime, Japanese audiences are making their opinion known with book sales. According to the Oricon charts, the TanMoshi light novel series shot straight to the top of the charts at the beginning of July 2021, selling almost 20,000 copies in the second week. To put that number in perspective, the cumulative sales were a total of 100,000 copies in circulation back in June 2020.
Individually, all five volumes of the TanMoshi light novel series made it onto the top 20 charts. The surge in TanMoshi books sales was one of the strongest boosts to book sales for anime released in 2021. Even critically-acclaimed series like 86 Eight-Six can’t make a similar boast.
As for the anime’s popularity in Japan, the TanMoshi anime was number 1 in the daily rankings of dAnime Store for 11 consecutive weeks.
Another boast is how quickly an anime adaptation was planned out. Anime productions are typically scheduled years in advance and since the light novel series premiered in Fall 2019 the anime production committee must have greenlit the first season extremely early.
Kadokawa has been pushing anime adaptations out very quickly in comparison to past standards. According to the anime director, the first talk of making the anime began at the beginning of 2020. Since the story had only just gotten started, it was hard to figure out how to express certain parts in anime when they weren’t fleshed out yet.
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.
Those are all good signs but fans should be patient despite the production decision being announced already. As such, anime fans should expect a reasonable wait for the TanMoshi Season 2 release date.
Since the production of the second season was announced in July 2022, it’s predicted that The Detective Is Already Dead Season 2 release date could be in 2024 at the earliest.
The Detective Is Already Dead: Siesta wasn’t always the main heroine
The story for the anime TV series is based on the Tantei wa Mous, Shindeiru light novel series by author Nigoju and illustrator Umibozu.
First launched in November 2019, the book series was already up to Volume 7 as of August 25, 2022. The TanMoshi Volume 8 release date was on January 25, 2023.
Artist Mugio began serializing The Detective Is Already Dead manga adaptation in Monthly Comic Alive beginning in May 2021. As of February 21, 2023 the TanMoshi manga was up to Volume 5. The odd part is that this manga adapts Volumes 1 and 3 of the light novel series.
The manga adaptation of light novel Volume 2 is called The Detective Is Already Dead: The Lost Memory. Serialized in Monthly Comic Alive since January 2021, the 2nd manga is up to Volume 4 as of November 22, 2022.
North American publisher Yen Press is releasing the English TanMoshi manga and light novel books in the United States. Only the fifth light novel volume has been released in English as of January 17, 2023, with Volume 6 scheduled for later in 2023.
The fourth volume of the English manga is coming out on February 21, 2023. The Lost Memory manga is not being translated into English yet.
In the afterword of light novel Volume 1, the author said that “nothing could make me happier than if you managed to enjoy it as an entertaining blend of genres.” Upfront, the books have an eclectic mix of mystery, romantic comedy, action, and even idols, but the story ranges even further in later novels.
In a 2020 interview, Nigoju said the idea for TanMoshi came to the creator while walking for fun and he thought of the first line: “Are there any detectives on board?” It turns out the creator conceived Natsunagi as the main heroine in the earlier drafts, not Siesta.
“To be honest, when I was writing my original manuscript, I didn’t think that Siesta would become so popular. Of course, I’m happy that she became popular, but I didn’t write the character in such a prominent way at first. After I won the [15th MF Bunko J newcomer] award [in 2019], I had a series of meetings with the person in charge, and we decided to focus on Siesta, so her role in the story gradually increased,” Nigoju explained. “At the time of writing the application [for the MF Bunko J writing contest], Kimizuka, Natsunagi, and Saikawa were the main characters. Siesta was merely there to push them along.”
The main hero Kimitsuka is described as a “plot device” since the character allows for the plot to take place in high school settings. The author also says he was written as an unreliable narrator and that only Siesta knows exactly what happened in certain cases.
Even the creator didn’t know exactly how Siesta died at first. The editor in charge apparently suggested that light novel Volume 2 needed to focus on the past, which made writing the continuation difficult for the author since the original plan wasn’t to tackle Siesta’s death so quickly.
“In a normal series, the second volume would be a continuation of the first volume, but the person in charge suggested that we make it a volume about the past. So I had to think about the past from scratch. At the time I wrote the application manuscript, I hadn’t decided on the reason for Siesta’s death, or what happened to Kimizuka and Siesta in the past,” the creator explained. “That was the main reason why I had a hard time. I didn’t think that Siesta was simply killed by [name omitted to avoid spoilers], but during my debut I thought in my selfish imagination that I would do a short story about the past as volume 7, Volume 7.5, or thereabouts. So, I started digging into that earlier than I expected.”
Volume 2 revealed the truth about Siesta’s death whereas Volume 3 introduced a new complication. Some of the plot ideas for Volume 2 ended up being reused and restructured when writing Volume 3.
The creator also estimated how many books are left before The Detective Is Already Dead ends.
“I want to finish TamMoshi in a satisfying way. My main goal is to be able to write the story of Kimizuka and his friends to the end regardless of how many volumes I’m allowed to publish,” Nigoju said. “But if I think about what I have to do in the story after this, I think I need at least five or six more books in my mind.”
If the author sticks to this plan then that means the final book will be either The Detective Is Already Dead Volume 8 or 9. At the rate new books are being published, the ending could come out as soon as 2023.
Of course, plans do change, especially when a series explodes in popularity. So, it’s possible we can expect new books for years to come.
The Detective Is Already Dead manga/light novel series compared to the anime
When anime adapt a light novel series it’s unavoidable that dialogue is condensed and certain minor events may be skipped. In this case, the anime’s presentation of the story was very different from the books since the anime reordered events so they could be in chronological order.
For example, in Episode 1 the culture festival was a flashback from the light novel Volume 2: Chapter 1. According to an Anime News Network interview with the director, the apparent goal of this change was to introduce Siesta and flesh out her character more before the titular plot twist was introduced by the one-hour special.
“One of the reasons was because I wanted Siesta to leave a strong impression at the start,” director Kurihara explained. “The first episode wasn’t originally going to be a two-parter, so if we were following the original novel, then Siesta would have barely appeared. Thus, I changed the order this time.”
While the directorial changes make logical sense in theory, in practice it’s possible the emotional impact was lessened. Still, the books use plenty of flashbacks to build the drama, which fortunately means the anime won’t completely reorder everything.
Arguably, the presentation of events was far more exciting than the way the TanMoshi manga opened in Chapter 1. Rather than starting on the plane, manga readers were shown a morose and downcast Kimizuka sitting in the empty classroom pondering Siesta’s death right before Natsunagi marched in.
The manga took 3 chapters to go from the classroom to confronting Bat in the prison. The plane flashback didn’t begin until the near end of Chapter 4. Idol Saikawa showed up at the end of Chapter 9.
Basically, the manga opens with anime Episode 2, which means the intrigue built up to the plot twist slower in comparison. At the same time, the manga spent more time on the dialogue and interactions between the characters in order to build them up at the beginning.
One common complaint about the anime is how monotone and disinterested Kimizuka sounds at first. Despite the lead protagonist being the anchor for the story, there’s no transition in personality and the character comes off as roughly the same before and after Siesta.
While some might try to blame the voice actor, the real issue is that books better developed the character by revealing how completely disillusioned he’s become after losing the one person he could call family. Deeply emotionally damaged, Kimizuka is understandably cynical and apathetic about life in general, so it takes Natsunagi and her special heart to spark change. This difference in tone only becomes apparent in later episodes.
Speaking of Natsunagi, she has her own inner conflict since she feels guilty or inadequate about not living up to Siesta’s legacy. She faces an identity crisis, not knowing how this heart influences her personality and whether she’s just a replacement for Siesta rather than being her own person. While the anime’s early episodes do establish this struggle on-screen to a certain extent it’s difficult to convey these conflicts without inner monologues and narrative.
The director also made it clear that he purposefully made the anime more serious in comparison to the manga.
“The Detective Is Already Dead has its serious parts and comedic parts, but at its core it is closer to a serious story, so I was careful to restrain the over-the-top comedy elements such as exaggerated facial expressions and manga symbology,” he said.
All in all, the first season’s finale, Tantei wa Mous, Shindeiru Episode 12, found a stopping point corresponding to Volume 3.
It’s difficult for the anime to find any decent stopping point since the light novels tend to end on cliffhangers. But Volume 3 was probably the best stopping point since it revealed what happened to Siesta while Volume 4 starts a conflict that will take several books to find a proper resolution.
The good news is that by the end of 2021 there was enough source material for making The Detective Is Already Dead Season 2.
The bad news is that English-only light novel readers needed to wait until September 2022 when the official translation caught up with Volume 4 in order to read ahead of the anime. The manga is also far behind the anime and since new chapters are released monthly it’ll take years to catch up.
TanMoshi Season 2 anime spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)
Ever since losing his mentor, Kimi has felt like he was drowning in the freezing cold sea of day-to-day life, but all that is about to change. The truth of Siesta’s death has been revealed and now hope is rekindled.
Kimizuka is determined to completely revive Siesta. In order to bring back the legendary detective – an impossible miracle – Natsunagi and Kimizuka fly back to London to find clues to defeating their adversary SEED, the leader of SPES.
Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru Season 2 will start anew by connecting to the past. Kimizuka and Natsunagi’s new adventure begins 10,000 meters in the air when the same words from four years ago are asked: “Are there any detectives on board?”
Unfortunately, anime fans will have to wait until The Detective Is Already Dead Season 2 release date to watch what happens next. Stay tuned!