Grand Blue, also known as Grand Blue Dreaming, is a comedy and slice of life anime series released in 2018. Created by Zero-G, the anime, which is an adaptation, takes its story from the manga written by Kenji Inoue. The creator studio Zero-G is also the creator of other beloved comedy and slice of life adaptations such as Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It and My Roommate is a Cat in recent years. Grand Blue was originally released on July 14, 2018, on local broadcasters MBS, TBS, BS-TBS, and AT-X. The anime, which gained viewers from all over the world with its licensing by Amazon Prime Video, currently consists of only one season. Although they delight their fans with the live-action movie released on August 7, 2020, fans look forward to seeing another anime season. So, could the anime have a second season after about three years?
What is the plotline of Grand Blue?
Iori Kitahara was beginning his first year at Izu University, amid the ocean waves and the shining sun rays of Izu, a seaside town. Moving to Grand Blue where also his uncle’s dive shop takes place, he expected to step into college life full of beautiful girls and good friends. But things don’t go exactly as planned. As he steps into the shop, he encounters noisy people who are 2 years older than him and is forced into their alcoholic activities. Although not initially willing, Iori quickly gets involved in their activities. However, this behavior causes him to be despised by his cousin Chisa Kotegawa, who comes in at the very wrong time. Determined, Iori is still hoping to get his dream college life, but will things go smoothly this time, or will he get into trouble again?
Will there be a second season of Grand Blue?
As of June 2, 2022, Zero-G or any related company has yet to renew the series for a second season. The series aired with its first season between July 14, 2018 – September 29, 2018. Over the past two years, there has not been a second-season confirmation from official channels. It is a common situation for many anime and no need to yet worries. If an anime has enough popularity and enough source material and financially profitable, it often gets a new season approval. Since there is no official statement on this issue, we will speculate about the second season by evaluating the main factors.
Manga status of Grand Blue
As we mentioned before, the anime series is a manga adaptation and uses written work as the source material. The manga, written by Kenji Inoue and illustrated by Kimitake Yoshioka, is published by Kodansha in the magazine “Good! Afternoon” since 2014. The good news is that the manga series is still being written. With the last volume released on March 07, 2022, the manga reached 18 volumes. Besides, the manga series is published in English by Kodansha USA.
The first season of the anime consisted of 12 episodes in total and only 5 volumes were adapted into the anime. There are 12 manga volumes left for the new anime seasons. The conclusion we can draw here is that there is more stock material for at least two seasons.
Disc sales (BluRay and DVD) of the anime
Disc sales are very important for anime. For an anime to have a new season, it is expected to sell at least 4,000 discs on average. If it remains below this number, the second season may not be seen as profitable by the decision committee. Although disc sales have fallen in recent years with the rise of digital streaming platforms, it was still popular in 2018. The disc sales for Grand Blue did not go very well, it sold only 1,455 units, and that number is far from the target. When evaluated in terms of disc sales, a new season is quite unlikely.
Other factors and actual popularity
Grand Blue, which gained new viewers every day even over the years after its first release, ranked 256th on the Myanimelist’s popularity ranking. The anime has a Twitter page followed by 43k people. Although it is not a successful social media popularity in Japan, still there is a strong Google search volume about the anime. Considering the current popularity, a second season may be successful in viewerships. Creators can evaluate the current popularity and take action for a second season.
In addition, the fact that a worldwide popular platform such as Amazon Prime has acquired the broadcasting rights makes the possibility of the second season high. Finally, the release of a live-action movie is a positive factor in keeping this brand on the agenda. Everything looks great except the disc sales and the overall popularity in Japan.
When is the release date of the second season?
There is no second season renewal yet, but we see the possibility of a second season pretty high as a result of the above evaluation. Although the disc sales are not going well, the current popularity is quite high, and there are enough manga chapters for the second season. If we get a confirmation, a new season may air around 2023 or 2024, considering the average production time. If you don’t want to wait for a new season and are impatient for continuing the story, you can read the manga series from the beginning of volume 6.