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The Rising of the Shield Hero Anime's 2nd Season Premieres in 2021

The staff of the The Rising of the Shield Hero anime announced at a panel at the Virtual Crunchyroll Expo event on Friday that the show's second season will premiere in 2021. Series composition writer Keigo Koyanagi, character designer Masahiro Suwa, and producer Junichiro Tamura appeared during the panel. The panel also revealed a key visual.

The panel had planned to reveal a new promotional video, but the video was not shown at the panel. Instead, the official English Twitter account for the anime revealed the video after the panel ended.

Tamura stated during the panel that the staff will try not to have a long wait between seasons two and three of the show, since he said fans are waiting a "long time" between seasons one and two.

The official website for the anime also revealed the full staff for the second season. Masato Jinbo (Chaos;Child, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei Herz!) is directing the second season at Kinema Citrus and DR MOVIE, replacing Takao Abo. Keigo Koyanagi (Regalia: The Three Sacred Stars) is again in charge of series composition. Masahiro Suwa (Chaika - The Coffin Princess animation director) is again adapting Seira Minami's original character designs for animation. Kevin Penkin is returning to compose the music.

Crunchyroll had announced at last year's Crunchyroll Expo that the anime will have two more seasons.

One Peace Books is releasing the original novel series and Aiya Kyū's manga adaptation in English. The publisher describes the novels' first volume:

Naofumi Iwatani, an uncharismatic otaku who spends his days on games and manga, suddenly finds himself summoned to a parallel universe! He discovers he is one of four heroes equipped with legendary weapons and tasked with saving the world from its prophesied destruction. As the Shield Hero, the weakest of the heroes, all is not as it seems. Naofumi is soon alone, penniless, and betrayed. With no one to turn to, and nowhere to run, he is left with only his shield. Now, Naofumi must rise to become the legendary Shield Hero and save the world!

The The Rising of the Shield Hero anime series premiered with a two-hour special in January 2019 and ran for 25 episodes. Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired in Japan. Crunchyroll premiered the first dubbed episode at Crunchyroll Expo in September 2018 with guests from the anime.

The franchise also inspired a stage play that was supposed to run in March and April, but was postponed in April due to the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

Sources: Crunchyroll Expo livestream, The Rising of the Shield Hero's English Twitter account and Japanese website