Every year, dozens of popular manga or light novels are adapted into anime by Japanese animation studios. How Not to Summon a Demon Lord, which is in the comedy and fantasy genre and includes harem elements, was one of the successful adaptations of 2018. Adapted from Yukiya Murasaki’s light novel published in 2014, the anime delighted its fans with its second season, ‘How Not to Summon a Demon Lord Ω‘. The second season of the anime was directed by Satoshi Kuwabara. In season 2, the anime, adapted by Tezuka Productions, known from Adachi and Shimamura, and a fairly new studio, Okuruto Noboru, was licensed by Crunchyroll and Funimation. In Japan, it was originally broadcast by JNN from April 9, 2021, to June 11, 2021. The 10-episode second season was enough to get fans excited for a new season. So will there be a third season?
What is the plotline of the anime?
In MMORPG Cross Reverie, Sakamoto Takuma boasted that he had enough overwhelming power to have other players call him the Demon King. One day, he was summoned to another world by his appearance in the game. There were two girls here who insisted “I am the true summoning master.”. Takuma eats the slave transformation spell used by the girls to summon monsters on himself. However, the strange ability “Magic Reflection” activates! It is the girls who become slaves!
Takuma is surprised. He was the strongest mage but had no social skills. The first words that came out of his mouth in panic were that he played the role of the Demon King in the game. “You say I’m great? Of course. I am Diablo… the one feared as the Demon King!”
Will there be a third season of How Not to Summon a Demon Lord?
The anime’s second season concluded on June 11, 2021. As of June 8, 2022, Tezuka Productions, who co-animated the season, Okuruto Noboru, or light novel publisher Kodansha has not yet renewed the anime for a third season. The second season of the anime was announced about two years after the first season began airing. Since the second season of the anime has just aired last year, maybe, it’s early to see a new season confirmation. New-season approvals of animes are usually evaluated under some main factors. Since there is no official news so far, it is possible to speculate about whether there will be a new season by assessing these factors. Light novel source material availability, popularity, disc sales, etc., are the most important of these. So does ‘How Not to Summon a Demon Lord’ give hope for a third season?
Light novel
As we mentioned at the beginning of our article, the original series of How Not to Summon a Demon Lord, the light novel, is written by Yukiya Murasaki and illustrated by Takahiro Tsurusaki. Published by the famous manga publisher Kodansha, the light novel began publishing on December 2, 2014. The light novel, which has been published in 14 volumes in total, is still being published. It’s good news that the light novel is still in progress as the anime is also a commercial for it. So how much of the light novel has been adapted into the anime? Fortunately, the first 8 volumes of the light novel have been adapted in the first two seasons of the anime, and the remaining volumes are now 6. It seems that there is already enough source material for a third season.
Disc sales and popularity
Disc sales are good financial data to see new season possibilities of animes. When we look at the first season disc sales, we see that How Not to Summon a Demon Lord sold 1,636 units in 3 volume averages. Although it had low disc sales figures, it managed to get a second season approval. In the second season, the anime managed to sell only 1145 units on average, which is below expectations. However, it would not be correct to evaluate only with disc sales because disc sales have generally declined in recent years.
Let’s take a look at the overall popularity of How Not to Summon a Demon Lord… It has an over-average search volume on Google, as the second season has just been released, and the search volume seems to have increased. If the current search volume does not decrease in the coming months, we will be able to say good things about the possibility of the third season. On Twitter, the anime is followed by 44.9k people. This follower count is not very good. To make a comparison, we can say 124k people follow No Game No Life, and The Misfit of Demon King Academy, which was released for the first time in 2020 and confirmed for the second season, is followed by 91k people. The best thing to do right now is to recommend the anime to your loved ones.
Suppose an anime gets a smartphone game or live-action movie. In that case, it increases new season possibilities, but for now, How Not to Summon a Demon Lord does not have any more additional products than the manga series.
When is the third season of the anime?
Although there is no official news yet, we speculated for a third season of How Not to Summon a Demon Lord, but at the moment, we see the probability of a new season as 50%. However, the anime had previously managed to get a second-season approval. One of the project partners, Okuruto Noboru studio, is a fairly new studio and wants to prove itself; they will always be open to new seasons. The second season of the anime met with the audience three years later. With a possible renewal soon, we may see a new season around 2024. Until then, we recommend Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid or Nekopara from similar genres.
| Season 1 | July 5, 2018 | 12 Episodes |
| Season 2 | April 9, 2021 | 10 Episodes |
| Season 3 | Expected in 2024 | 10-12 Episodes |