Tokyo Ravens, which started as a light novel in 2010, was adapted into a manga in the same year, and Shounen Ace, one of the famous shounen magazines, began to be published monthly. The light novel written by Kōhei Azano was also adapted into anime by Eight Bit later. The anime, licensed by Funimation, and produced by the same studio as Star Align, was broadcast by many local networks such as Tokyo MX, Sun TV, KBS, tvk, TV Aichi, AT-X, and BS11. The anime aired from October 9, 2013 – to March 26, 2014, in 24 episodes. Although it has been a long time, fans are still waiting for a second season. Can this action and supernatural anime with natural beauties and colorful illustrations still have a second season? Let’s remember the series and take a look at the last known about the new season.
What was the plotline of Tokyo Ravens?
After a ritual in Tokyo fails, the city is attacked by demonic spirits. The Onmyoujis have to cleanse the city of spiritual beings. Onmyoujis are people who can see spirits and have the ability to control their spiritual energies. After this disaster in Tokyo, schools begin to be opened to train Onmyoujis. Although our main character, Tsuchimikado Harutora, is a rooted Onmyouji, he cannot see spiritual energy. Due to his inability, he continues his daily life by having fun with his friends in the countryside, away from all this chaos. Refusing to be an Onmyouji despite his friends’ insistence, Harutora is also childhood friends with Natsume, the heir to the main family. He promised Natsume as a child, but he can’t keep it because he has no spiritual talent. On the other hand, Natsume is a talented Onmyouji, called a genius, who is the responsibility of the entire family who goes to Tokyo to study Onmyouji.
Although Harutora wants to avoid being Onmyouji and avoid responsibilities, he can’t escape his destiny. Losing his precious friend and remembering his promise to Natsume, he decides to attend a prestigious school in Tokyo. Harutora teams up with Natsume and trains himself to avenge the 12 Heaven Generals ruling Tokyo.
Will there be a second season of Tokyo Ravens?
As of June 4, 2022, at the time of writing, Eight Bit studio or light novel/manga publishers have yet to renew the anime for a second season. Although the time elapsed reduces the possibility of a second season, we cannot say that there is no possibility just by considering the time because we know that many animes have renewed for a new season despite the long period. Tokyo Ravens‘ creative studio Eight Bit is still an active anime studio. They recently managed to get a new season approval for ‘That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime’, the anime adaptation of Light Novel written by Fuse.
Anime renewals depend on some main factors, and the decision committee takes these inputs seriously. Disc sales and popularity are very valuable since animes are for-profit productions. On the other hand, the light novel source material availability will also affect the decision for the new season. Under these key factors, we speculated about the second season of Tokyo Ravens.
Light Novel
The Tokyo Ravens light novel series written by Kōhei Azano and illustrated by Sumihei ran from May 20, 2010, to October 20, 2018, and is unfortunately no longer ongoing. The series includes a total of 16 volumes and an extra 4 volumes. If we go through the main volumes, the first 9 volumes were adapted in the anime’s first season. The remaining source material appears to be 7 volumes. Maybe there is not enough source material for 24 episodes in the first season, but a 12-episode season can still be created. But the fact that the series was completed years ago slows down advertising efforts and invalidates the idea of an anime season to boost light novel sales.
Popularity
Tokyo Ravens’s disc sales were made in the fall season of 2013, and it sold 2,247 on volume average. Generally, an anime is expected to sell at least 4,000 units for a new season on average. Especially in those years, disc sales were higher than today because this habit is not as strong as it used to be in recent years. Although anime seems quite popular according to Myanimelist metrics (#408th), our current metrics show that it does not have enough popularity for the new season. In particular, we see that the Google search volume has decreased in recent years for searches related to anime. The anime’s number of fans on Twitter also seems quite low as 27k compared to other animes. A second-season decision is highly unlikely.
Season 2: Conclusion
Although the current popularity of Tokyo Ravens is not enough for a second season, sometimes surprisingly, we see that animes get a new season approval. The anime world is full of surprises. The light novel has enough stock material for a new 12-episode season. If there is a renewal, we can see a new season around 2024. However, this probability is quite low, and renewal is required first. Till then, we highly recommend you to watch similar animes such as Noragami and The God of High School. We will update our article when there is official news.