My Dress-Up Darling Season 2: Release Date, Is It Decided?

Slice of life and romantic comedy are two of the most popular genres in Japan, where many animes meet with the audience every year. My Dress-Up Darling is a manga adaptation that contains these elements, and that managed to attract attention all over the world by going out of Japan in a short time. The manga series, originally titled Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru and published by Square Enix, is written by Shinichi Fukuda. The anime television series was animated by CloverWorks, the studio of popular anime such as The Promised Neverland and Horimiya. Licensed by Funimation, and also streamed by Crunchyroll, the anime series initially aired on local networks in Japan such as Tokyo MX, GYT, GTV, BS11, ytv, Mētele, and AT-X from January 9, 2022, to March 27, 2022. My Dress-Up Darling is one of 2022’s most hit anime, so fans are excited about a new season. So, has the anime already been renewed for a second season?

Will there be a second season of My Dress-Up Darling?

The season finale of the 12-episode first season was broadcast on March 27, 2022. We may sometimes see the new season announcements of popular anime in the final episodes. Unfortunately, there was no such statement in the last episode of My Dress-Up Darling. As of July 24, 2022, at the time of writing, CloverWorks, Square Enix, or any related company with the anime has not yet renewed the anime for a second season.

According to the news published on the My Dress-Up Darling anime’s official website on July 7, 2022, a special event for the anime is set for September 17, 2022, and they will introduce the cast and staff of the anime during this event. We hope to see something also about the second season at this event. If there is a renewal or a clue in this direction at the event, we will share it with you.

The popularity of the anime is obvious, and the expectation is that there will be a new season of My Dress-Up Darling. However, we did speculate about a new season with some metrics before we could speak for sure. The decision committee evaluates the same metrics and decides for the new season. At the end of our article, you will learn about the possibility of a new season with reasons. The factors we mentioned are manga source material availability, popularity, disc sales, and other financial effects.

My Dress-Up Darling Manga

Japanese manga artist Shinichi Fukuda wrote and illustrated the manga. The series began airing on January 19, 2018 and is still ongoing. Anime adaptations of ongoing manga are always more likely to be renewed. Because the ongoing series continue their advertising work at full speed, an anime season always positively affects manga sales. As of March 2022, the manga has 5,5m copies in circulation. As reported in February 2022, more than 1,5m were sold after the anime premiere.

9 volumes have been released so far for the My Dress-Up Darling manga series, and the last volume was released on March 25, 2022. Although there are minor differences, the anime is very faithful to the manga. Therefore, the manga stock material availability is important for future seasons as the anime doesn’t have an original storyline. So how much was it adapted in the first season, and is there enough source material for a new season? In the first season, 1-39 chapters were adapted into anime. This coincides with the end of volume 5, and the remaining source material is 4 volumes at the time of writing.

There is not yet as much source material available as was adapted in the first season. However, the important question here is how much the creators will want to adapt from the manga in the second season. However, our personal opinion is that a few more volumes will need to be published to create a new season. An average of 2 volumes are released per year, and as the manga series continues, there will be enough source material for a new season in the future. Nevertheless, it seems that the manga situation is not an obstacle to a new season decision.

Meanwhile, if you want to follow the rest of the story from the manga of My Dress-Up Darling, you can start reading from the 5th volume. Fortunately, Square Enix is ​​also publishing the manga in English, and it shouldn’t be hard to reach.

Disc Sales

Disc sales were very valuable for anime productions in previous years because discs were an important source of income. However, with the increasing popularity of online streaming services in recent years, the importance of revenue from exclusive distributors has exceeded disc sales. Also, viewers’ interest in disc sales has reduced in recent years. However, disc sales are still good data to see the popularity in Japan and to compare with other anime that went on sale in the same period.

In general, anime is expected to sell 4,000 units on average of the volumes, and animes that exceed this sale are highly likely to renew. It was decided that 6 volume discs will be sold for My Dress-Up Darling. The sales figures for the first three volumes in March, April, and May 2022 have been announced. The anime managed to sell an average of 10,714 units in the first three volumes, which is really good sales despite the drop in disc sales.

The anime was the 2nd best-selling anime among the 35 anime that went on sale in 2022. “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Entertainment District Arc” with an average sales of 20,165 units was 1st of the period and was not a surprise. In summary, a new season of the anime is quite likely in terms of disc sales.

My Dress-Up Darling on Social Media

It is possible to see the current popularity of My Dress-Up Darling in Japan from the activity on social media and official Twitter accounts. 75% of anime with over 100k followers on Twitter have been renewed for a new season at least once. On the other hand, 50% of anime with 40-100k followers have been renewed at least once.

The anime’s official Twitter account is currently being followed by 266k people, and for an anime that first aired in early 2022, this follower number reflects perfect popularity in Japan. We see that anime with similar follower numbers can get new season confirmation without any difficulty if there is enough source material.

Myanimelist

Myanimelist is a popular platform closely followed by anime viewers. According to Myanimelist metrics, the anime is ranked as the 221st best anime of all time. This ranking is quite successful for a new anime. Because users’ subscriptions determine this ranking, this ranking will climb even higher as more viewers discover anime in the coming months.

My Dress-Up Darling on Google Searches

Recent searches on Google with the name of the anime directly show the current popularity. With the name of the anime, more than 1,5m monthly searches have been done lately on Google. That’s a pretty good search volume for an anime and a level of popularity that many anime will never reach. So much so that this search popularity is equivalent to popular productions such as Re:Zero or Dr. Stone. (Series like One-Punch Man and Tokyo Revengers are some of the rare productions that are more searched than My Dress-Up Darling.) If the anime can maintain its current popularity, the anime will likely be a long-running anime.

When is the second season of My Dress-Up Darling?

The anime has not yet been renewed for a second season. However, we speculated about the possibility of a new season of the anime by combining many factors. It seems that if there is no surprise, the anime will have a new season. However, there is no official news yet, and it is difficult to say anything about the second season’s release date. As mentioned above, the manga series does not yet have as much source material as adapted.

Considering the renewal time, source material status, and production time, we think a new anime season will arrive in late 2023. As official news comes, we will continue to share it here. Till then, we recommend you to watch “TONIKAWA: Over The Moon For You“, a beloved anime of the same genre.