A new trailer and key visual for The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 were revealed on Wednesday. The new season is animated by studio Kafka and is set to release on April 6. You can check out the first trailer for the upcoming season and the new key visual below. The series released an announcement trailer and a few special illustrations back in September when the new season was announced.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Staff

Season 2 will be directed by Kazuaki Terasawa, who formerly directed The Ancient Magus’ Bride – The Boy from the West and the Knight of the Blue Storm. Terasawa has no other known directorial work, but he has storyboarded for series such as Overlord (S2 + S3), Cardfight!! Vanguard, and Kedama no Gonjiro. Kohei Tokuoka will be joining the staff as chief animation director, who has extensive animation directorial work in big-name series such as Bungo Stray Dogs, Golden Kamuy, Sword Art Online: Alicization, and Fate/Apocrypha. He also was the animation director for the hit movie Josee, The Tiger, and the Fish and joined Terasawa on The Ancient Magus’ Bride – The Boy from the West and the Knight of the Blue Storm as the chief animation director.

The screenplay for the upcoming season will be handled by Aya Takaha and Yoko Yonaiyama, who have both worked in the same position for The Ancient Magus’ Bride series in the past. They’ll also be joined by Chiaki Nishinaka—production manager for Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song. Hirotaka Kato will reprise his role as the character designer. And Junichi Matsumoto will also be returning as the music composer.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Cast

The following is the current cast list for The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2:

• Atsumi Tanezaki as Chise
• Ryōta Takeuchi as Elias Ainsworth
• Aya Endo as Silky
• Kouki Uchiyama as Ruth
• Mutsumi Tamura as Alice
• Satoshi Hino as Mikhail Renfred

The following are additional cast members that were announced today:

• Minami Tsuda as Lucy
• Maki Kawase as Philomela
• Seiichiro Yamashita as Rian
• Daiki Kobayashi as Zoe
• Reina Ueda as Veronica
• Kotaro Nishiyama as Isaac

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Manga

The anime series is based on the original manga written and illustrated by Yamazaki, which first began serialization in Monthly Comic Blade in 2013. The manga officially ceased publication in the magazine and was eventually moved to Monthly Comic Garden but is still being released on the Monthly Comic Blade website. The manga currently has 18 volumes published, 15 of them published in English by US-based publisher Seven Seas Entertainment. Chapters are released monthly so each new volume takes around 5-6 months to release.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride manga currently has 10 million copies in circulation as of September 2022.

While the series has never taken any top prizes, it’s come mightily close. In 2015 the series placed second on the Kono Manga ga Sugoi! Top 20 Manga for Male Readers survey and was ranked second in a poll for Da Vinci magazine that determined which series would most likely get their big break. The same year, The Ancient Magus’ Bride ended up being nominated for the Manga Taishō award and landed on the New York Times Bestseller List for four weeks for Volume 2. Later down the line, Volume 4 would end up debuting at first on the bestseller list.

Synopsis

Hatori Chise has lived a life full of neglect and abuse, devoid of anything resembling love. Far from the warmth of family, she has had her share of troubles and pitfalls. Just when all hope seems lost, a fateful encounter awaits her. When a man with the head of a beast, wielding strange powers, obtains her through a slave auction, Chise’s life will never be the same again. The man is a “magus,” a sorcerer of great power, who decides to free Chise from the bonds of captivity. The magus then makes a bold statement: Chise will become his apprentice–and his bride! (Manga synopsis by Seven Seas Entertainment)

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 trailer released on January 12 is the first to be released for the upcoming season.

Source: TWIN ENGINE YouTube, Official Twitter