One of the most
frequently asked questions in the world of anime is: "When will the second
season be?" Often, fans blame sales or studios, but the reality is much
more complex. Ghost Mikawa (Mikawa Ghost), author of the light
novels Days with My Stepsister (Gimai Seikatsu), has
decided to break the silence and offer a masterclass in the industry's
bottlenecks.
"The
second season is not decided"
Through his social
networks on January 11, Mikawa was blunt about the state of the
animated adaptation, a year and a half after its broadcast (July 2024):
"The second season is not decided. At least to my ears as the original
author, no story has reached me about such planning."
Although the novels
(physical and digital) sell well and the story will continue beyond what was
anticipated, the Days with My Stepsister anime faces a
structural barrier.
The problem
of "bringing the team together"
Mikawa points out
that the biggest obstacle for works that did not plan a sequel from the
beginning is the logistical impossibility of bringing together the same staff.
"Anime is a collection of each individual animator's work," he
explained. Even if the director and screenwriter are kept, if the team of
animators changes, the quality will not be the same.
Talented animators
have their schedules full for years. According to the author, reuniting the
original team could take up to 5 years. If you add to that the
production, the season would come out 6 or 7 years after the first one.
"Will the popularity of the work last until then?" asks Mikawa,
noting that production committees often decide not to take risks in the face of
such uncertainty and constantly increasing budgets.
A battle plan
for the future
Far from giving
up, Mikawa has drawn up a strategy to try to force production:
- Pause the YouTube channel: He announced the indefinite suspension of
the franchise's original channel to redirect resources to "projects
for larger markets."
- Find a quote: It is actively working to secure funding.
- Alternative formats: If a TV series is "too expensive or
long," it's open to other formats (perhaps movies or OVAs) to show
the future of the protagonists, Yuuta and Saki.
This brutal
honesty reveals that, in modern anime, even moderate success doesn't guarantee
a continuation if it wasn't planned years in advance.
