Mars Red is an anime series released in the spring of 2021 for the first time and managed to attract the attention of anime lovers with its 13-episode first season. The anime series in the vampire genre is adapted from a stage reading play, and it can be considered original production since it is not based on a manga. However, there is also a manga adaptation of the series. The manga series written by the owner of the story, Bun-O Fujisawa, has also been published since January 4, 2020. The anime was created by Signal.MD studio, which is a fairly new studio in the anime industry. The studio we know from Recovery of an MMO Junkie accelerated its work in 2021. They also produced Platinum End and Dragon Goes House-Hunting during the year. Soon, the Hikari no Ō anime adaptation by the same studio will be released. Licensed by Funimation, the anime originally aired on many local Japanese networks (ytv, Tokyo MX, Chūkyō TV, CS Family Gekijo) from April 6, 2021, to June 29, 2021. Now fans are waiting for the second season of the series. So can this really happen?
What is the plotline of Mars Red?
The story takes place in 1932 when vampires have been around for quite some time. But now, the number of vampires is increasing, and a mysterious, artificial blood origin named Ascra appears. Because of this, the Japanese government is creating a unit called “Code Zero” to destroy the vampire powers. What better way to track down vampires than using vampires? Created by Lieutenant General Nakajima, this unit has historically been in the information warfare business but was reassigned to solve the vampire crisis.
Will there be a second season of the anime?
Manga publisher Mag Garden, anime’s studio Signal.MD, or any anime-related company has not yet renewed the anime for a second season. In general, we can say that the anime does not give hope for a second season. Because the story has been completed in general terms, and it seems that there isn’t much left for the second season. Still, since animes are financial products, a strong source of income could get the production team moving for a second season. That’s why we took a look at the disc sales and popularity of the series.
Although disc sales have decreased in recent years due to the shift of video watching habits to online platforms, disc sales are important for anime series that do not have a high income. Since Mars Red does not yet have a strong exclusive distributor behind it, the decision committee will likely consider disc sales for the second season. For an anime to be profitable enough to make a second season, it is expected to sell at least 4,000 units on volumes’ average. Mars Red’s first volume disc sales figures were only 598 units. Considering this number of sales, we can say that it is one of the worst sales of the period, unfortunately. Zombieland Saga went on sale during the same period and managed to sell approximately 10,000 units in its first volume. When evaluated in terms of disc sales, it doesn’t seem easy to see the anime’s new season.
When we look at the general popularity other than the disc sales, Myanimelist data shows that the anime ranks 1643 in the popularity ranking. On Twitter, the official anime page is followed by only 25k people. In our anime list, you can see that the popularity of anime is quite low compared to other series. (%50,6) When all these data are put together, even if the manga will continue in the future and sufficient source material is provided, it does not seem to be popular enough to continue. Signal.MD, on the other hand, seems to have not yet received a second season approval for any of its productions. Still, the anime world is full of surprises. If there is no renewal for a new season in the coming months, the possibilities will decrease even more, but for now, we can expect a new season in 2023 (still unlikely). We will update our article with official updates; stay tuned. Till a second season, we recommend you the vampire genre anime series Seraph of the End and Devils Line.