Fans of the isekai anime genre might desire the return of Demon Lord, Retry! Season 2, but when will audiences be able to watch the continuing journey of Akira Ono aka Maou-Sama Hakuto Kunai? Thankfully, it seems like the final ending scene of Demon Lord, Retry! Episode 12 is teasing an anime sequel already.
After all, the final moment clearly says, “To be continued!” in very large Japanese kanji. The episode even shows the characters after they’ve arrived in the city of Rookie near the Prison Dungeon.
Demon Lord, Retry! joins a large list of isekai anime that have teased a second season only to be confirmed in the future. In fact, isekai is so popular right now that book publisher Kadokawa is planning on investing into at least one isekai anime per season. (Kadokawa is an example; they don’t publish Demon Lord, Retry!)
The question is whether Demon Lord, Retry! Season 2 has a chance at increasing the anime’s reputation enough for a third season.
The Oricon charts will also give us an idea of the anime’s popularity in Japan when the Blu-Ray and DVD box sets go on sale. The first season will be divided up into three volumes, each with four episodes. The first volume is scheduled to release on September 27, 2019.
The first season in the Demon Lord, Retry! anime series was produced by animation studio Ekachi Epilka. Never heard of them? The company formed in March 2017 and they maou sama retry season 2 only have one other anime to their credit — Crossing Time. It was a series of three-minute animated shorts so the Maou-Sama, Retry! anime is the studio’s first normal-length anime season.
Hiroshi Kimura directed the first season of the anime. In the past, he’s been an episode director for memorable anime such as Chobits, Fairy Tail, Gungrave, Initial D, Naruto, and Sword Art Online: Alicization. But when it comes to being the principal director for an anime he’s credited with 6 Lovers, Danchigai, Haitai Nanafa S1 and S2, Hamatora, Ladyspo, Military!, and Recorder to Randoseru Re.
Oka Tanisaki, who is also a novelist, wrote the series composition. Makoto Iino is handling the character designs, and Chiyo Nakayama (key animator for Robotics:Notes) is adapting the designs for animation.
Demon Lord, Retry! reviews claim the anime is a generic isekai adventure
Maou-Sama, Retry! Season 2 might already be in the planning, but the biggest issue holding the anime series back from further sequels is the reviews. Holy shades of Overlord, Batman! Reviewers have lambasted the anime by claiming it’s a cheap knockoff of the Overlord anime.
The second issue that reviewers have slammed is the animation quality produced by Ekachi Epilka. Fortunately, battle sequences are not the focus of this isekai story, and Hakuto does not spend much time running.
Still, these reviews may have a point. The anime begins with the premise of an average everyman playing a computer MMO until it shuts down at midnight. He is magically given an overpowered body in a world based on contrived world mechanics derived from the PC game. Check, check, and check!
Still, besides the fact that Demon Lord, Retry! uses many isekai tropes, where else can you find a chain-smoking middle-aged Demon Lord? Similar to How NOT To Summon A Demon Lord, the anime’s biggest strength is the depiction of its central character.
In both stories, Diablo and Hakuto are simply a human faking being a demon lord. Whereas Diablo leaned toward comedy, Hakuto’s mafioso personality routine is the core of the story.
The biggest positive to Demon Lord, Retry! is that the story avoids one of the worst trappings of the isekai genre. It avoids the First Girl scenario, where the first female character the protagonist runs into is immediately inducted into a harem situation. Nor is slavery part of the equation.