The BNA Season 2 anime could continue the story of Michiru Kagemori in Anima City, depending on how the finale episode plays out.
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A BNA Zero novel has already been announced. The question is whether or not animation studio Trigger will produce a Brand New Animal Season 2 anime series?
Studio Trigger is known for producing popular anime such as Darling in the FranXX, Little Witch Academia, the very Fire Force-like Promare movie, and SSSS.Gridman, which is receiving a sequel called the SSSS.DYNAZENON anime.
The SSSS.Gridman sequel will be a first for the studio. Otherwise, they’re not known for producing second seasons for their original works. But that pattern could be changing in the coming years.
Inferno Cop Season 2 was announced way back in 2017, but so far, there’s been no new updates.
In 2017, Little Witch Academia director Yoh Yoshinari (who is also directing BNA) discussed some ideas for Little Witch Academia Season 2 (which would be labeled as Little Witch Academia Season 3 by Netflix U.S.).
The LWA sequel’s production still has not been confirmed.
Instead, Trigger is known for creating complete standalone stories with a max of two cours. A “cour” is a three-month TV broadcasting unit based on the physical seasons, and anime seasons usually have between 10 to 13 episodes per cour.
The critical factor is Netflix’s involvement in BNA (Brand New Animal). Netflix anime exclusives seem to have a solid history of being renewed.
For example, BEASTARS Season 2 was renewed even before the series’ first season premiered on Netflix U.S. There are many other upcoming Netflix anime sequels, including The Seven Deadly Sins Season 5, Ultraman Season 2, Grappler Baki Season 2, and Aggretsuko Season 3.
Netflix also pays better in comparison to anime industry standards. So, Studio Trigger has a financial incentive to create BNA Season 2, 3, and beyond.
Hopefully, BNA’s ending in the first season will be similar to ID:INVADED, which set up the conditions for ID:INVADED Season 2 and a manga sequel.
After all, the basic premise of Beastkind and Anima City is pretty open-ended, like Zootopia, and leaves the opportunity for more storytelling.
At the same time, Trigger writer Nakashima Kazuki has stated in an interview (see below for more of the interview) that he limited the story to Anima City since writing about the human world would spread things out too far. But the events in Anima City do affect the whole world.
Director Yoh Yoshinari is helming the project at Studio Trigger. Writer Nakashima Kazuki wrote the script, and he’s known for creating the stories for Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill, and the Promare movie.
Space Patrol Luluco artist Yusuke Yoshigaki is the character designer. Musician mabanua composed the music, and he’s known for creating the music of the Megalo Box anime (Megalo Box Season 2 has been confirmed to be in production).
The BNA Season 2 opening (OP) theme song and ending (ED) has not yet been announced.
The first season’s opening was “Ready To” as performed by Sumire Morohoshi, the Japanese voice actress playing Michiru Kagemori while the first ending was “Night Running” as performed by AAAMYYY.
This article provides everything that is known about BNA Season 2 (Brand New Animal Season 2) and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.
BNA release date on Netflix U.S.
The BNA (Brand New Animal) release date on Netflix Japan occurred on March 21, 2020. The first six episodes became available for streaming early on. However, the TV broadcast in Japan did not start until April 8, 2020.
The total number of episodes has not yet been confirmed, nor has the number of cours been announced.
A “cour” is a three-month unit of TV broadcasting based on the physical weather seasons. Most anime seasons are composed of 12 or 13 episodes per cour.
Netflix Japan is streaming the remaining BNA episodes as they air on Japanese TV. Netflix U.S. typically delays the release of anime to North American and other regions until the final episode is released.
The BNA Netflix U.S. release date has not yet been announced. Based on history, it is likely that the streaming giant will make everyone wait for weeks or months for the Spanish, French, German, and BNA English sub/dub release.
Note: This article will be updated once the Brand New Animal Netflix U.S. release date for Season 1 is confirmed.
Studio Trigger interview: BNA (Brand New Animal) director discusses taking inspiration from Osamu Tezuka for the story
The Brand New Animal anime may have action, but it’s the absurd comedy of the 2012 Inferno Cop that seems to be making a comeback with Trigger’s latest effort.
It’s certainly a tossup on whether the Dorohedoro anime‘s baseball game was better than BNA’s MMA-style “baseball” game from BNA Episode 5.
Thus, the BNA anime could be considered a return to the “old Trigger” from when they first began eight years ago. And, at least in the coming years, it seems like they would prefer to focus on original works.
Shortly before BNA was announced in 2019, Promare director Hiroyuki Imaishi was asked whether Trigger had any specific story adaptations they wanted to work on if they preferred to work on original content.
“While there are many properties I’d like to adapt I find much joy in creating something from nothing,” Imaishi replied, according to LRM Online. “I get much happiness from world-building. This is why I will focus on original projects for now.”
But just how original is this new story? Considering the timing of BNA’s release in 2020, it’s tempting to think Trigger’s inspiration came from the BEASTARS anime, which features anthropomorphized animals. But BEASTARS’ story is a whole ‘nother animal entirely.
A central theme of BEASTARS is the prejudice between carnivore and herbivore. But, overall, the two stories are very different.
Since anime projects are planned years in advance, it’s likely just a coincidence that BEASTARS and BNA came out in the same time frame. However, the two anime do share a connection.
Female screenwriter Nanami Higuchi was on Trigger’s BNA staff to ensure that they depicted teen girls realistically. She just happens to have written the script for Studio Orange for the anime adaptation of the BEASTARS manga.
Otherwise, the creators at Trigger have made it clear that they drew their inspiration from older Japanese animation that’s over 50 years old.
The core theme of BNA’s story is transformation. BNA director Yoh Hoshinari said in a 2020 Newtype magazine interview that his original proposal was similar to the old Marvelous Melmo TV show by Osamu Tezuka, which had a young girl character who could transform into an adult.
Yoshinari says screenplay writer Nakashima Kazuki became involved in the project halfway through developing the initial concept. The writer wanted to draw inspiration from non-fictional events and changes taking place in modern-day Japan by drawing inspiration from a book called Rupo Kawasaki.
And that’s how they settled on the concept of having animal-humans living in Anima City. The Japanese government set it up as a special zone surrounded by mountains and water to isolate the Beastkind from humans.
The protagonist Michiru connects the two worlds since she is a girl who started as human only to transform and not be able to return to her original appearance. Michiru may be a bridge between worlds, but she also clashes with society and thus brings light to this dark city.
But it’s not all darkness and drama. In a 2020 Otomedia interview, the Trigger staff said they also wanted the story to be fun and show the lives of regular people in Anima City.
The BNA creators had a bunch of concepts for a variety of Beastkind, even sea turtles. That particular concept was scrapped, which was disappointing to Nakashima.
Nakashima said they spent much of their time considering the nature of animal-humans in this fictional universe. The writer says the Beastkind are, in fact, humans, not beasts, and director Yoshinari had the idea of humans being able to transform into beasts.
But even that core idea came from Tezuka. The writer/artist also created the 1966 manga The Vampires, a story about a boy named Toppei who can transform himself into a wolf.
Toppei travels to Tokyo to find his missing father. Toppei’s tribe is considered to be vampires even though they were more werewolf-like.
Humans oppressed the vampire tribe for a long time, and certain members are planning a revolution. Toppei wants to stop the revolution, but things get sticky when a villainous human named Rock discovers Toppei’s secret ability to transform.
Rock plans on taking advantage of Toppei, and then the police get involved.
Obviously, The Vampires manga shares some surface similarities to BNA’s story. In the Brand New Animal anime, the Beastkind are not new mutations since they have always existed, but their existence didn’t become known to humanity until the 21st century.
Anima City was created since the Beastkind wanted to avoid discrimination from regular humans.
Nakashima says they drew inspiration from The Vampires mostly when it came to the visuals and the human-to-beast transformation sequences.
Yoshinari also prefers the transformation theme of The Vampires in comparison to Tezuka’s other works since dark and violent stories tend to do well overseas.
Brand New Animal novel BNA Zero: The Animals That Can’t Be Brand New is a prequel
In early March 2020, Trigger’s official website for the Brand New Animal anime revealed that a BNA novel called BNA Zero: The Animals That Can’t Be Brand New (Massara ni Narenai Kemono-tachi).
It is being written by Nekise Ise, who has previously published the Saikyou no Marou wa Shizuka ni Kurashitai: Tensei shitara Fenrir datta Ken manga.
So far, a plot summary for BNA Zero’s story has not been released.
The novel is scheduled to release on April 23, 2020.
Brand New Animal Season 2 release date
As of the last update, Studio Trigger or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed the BNA Season 2 release date. Nor has the production of a Brand New Animal sequel been announced.
Once the news is officially confirmed, this article will be updated with the relevant information. In the meantime, it’s possible to speculate about when, or if, the Brand New Animal Season 2 premiere date will occur in the future.
Since BNA’s story is an original work Trigger was not commissioned by another company to adapt another company’s property. Their work stands on its own, and so does the financial success or failure.
It’s possible Netflix wants Trigger to produce a long-lasting series with multiple seasons. If that’s the case, the turnaround for BNA Season 2 could be pretty quick. But if Trigger waits on the financial numbers then our wait could be longer.
Let’s just hope the BNA Season 2 anime doesn’t make fans wait forever. Stay tuned!
