The Rising of The Shield Hero Season 3 Release Date, Renewed

The Rising of The Shield Hero is an anime series first released in 2019 in the dark-fantasy and isekai genres, which are beloved anime genres. The story, written by Aneko Yusagi, initially met with the readers as a web novel and then continued as a light novel with an expanded storyline. The news that the light novel, which was loved enough to sell more than 5 million copies in total, would be adapted into an anime was not surprising but was pleasing to its followers. The Rising of The Shield Hero, which multiplies the fan base with its anime, consists of two seasons for now. It was adapted by studio Kinema Citrus, who also animated Made in Abyss. In the second season, a South Korean animation studio, DR Movie joined the team. DR Movie, which we do not see much in the anime industry, has taken part in successful productions such as Avatar: The Last Airbender. Licensed by Crunchyroll, the anime is also streamed by Funimation and Hulu TV. The second season was aired on April 6, 2022, with a delay. The 13-episode season ended on June 29, 2022. So has the anime been renewed for a third season? Continuing our article, we have compiled all the known about the third season of The Rising of The Shield Hero.

Will there be a third season of The Rising of The Shield Hero?

The anime’s second season was announced at Crunchyroll Expo’2019. However, the announcement at the event did not only contain good news for the second season of the anime. Crunchyroll announced that the anime would get two new seasons and renewed the series for the third season. As of June 29, 2022, this announcement still stands. However, the anime’s second season has just aired, and there are no details about the third season yet.

Shield Hero Season 2 & 3 Announced at Crunchyroll Expo Panel

🛡️ READ MORE: https://t.co/spklplMeR3 pic.twitter.com/m7h9OZz595

— The Rising of the Shield Hero (@ShieldHeroEN) September 2, 2019

Light Novel

As we mentioned at the beginning of our article, The Rising of the Shield Hero anime series is adapted from the light novel series written by Aneko Yusagi. The light novel, on the other hand, is a more refined version of the web novel series, which was previously published and written by the same author. The light novel has an expanded and changed storyline compared to the web novel. The web novel is no longer ongoing and has a finale, but we can’t say the same for the light novel. The light novel, which reached 22 volumes, was last published on June 25, 2019. Although it has not been published for a long time, no final or break announcement has been made.

The anime adaptation of The Rising of The Shield Hero was adapted from the first 6 volumes of the light novel in the first season. In the second season, it was adopted up to the end of the 9th volume. The remaining source material is 13 volumes as of now. It seems that even half of the series has not been adapted yet. This is a sign that we can see more seasons in the future if all goes well. Even if the light novel series has taken a break, it seems that the anime can continue for at least one more season after the third season.

Popularity

The Rising of The Shield Hero was renewed for two more seasons after the first season. The reason behind this was that the first season was popular worldwide in a short time, and everything went well financially. According to Myanimelist, the anime series is currently the 74th most popular anime. Among thousands of anime, this ranking is not easy at all.

On the other hand, the official Twitter account of The Rising of The Shield Hero, which has a strong awareness in Japan, is followed by about 100k people. However, the worldwide popularity of the anime series is much higher than in Japan. Currently, the English Twitter account is followed by about 300k people.

In Google searches, we see that anime has strong search popularity. So much so that anime is currently being searched as much as popular productions such as Dorohedoro or Devilman: Crybaby. Also, the popularity of the anime seems to have increased noticeably with the second season aired.

Disc sales and exclusive distributors

Although disc sales are not as valuable as they used to be, it is still good data to compare with other anime that went on sale in the same period. The anime’s disc sales were made in the 2019 winter season. A total of 4 volumes of discs were sold, but only 2,246 copies were sold on the volume average. An anime series is expected to sell at least 4,000 units. When this sales figure is evaluated, it seems far from the targets. Kaguya-sama: Love is War, which went on sale in the same period, managed to sell 4,906 units. However, it closes the financial gap in disc sales with exclusive distributors. Licensed by Crunchyroll, the anime is also distributed by Hulu TV, a giant streamer.

When is the third season of the anime?

The anime was announced during a Crunchyroll special event for the second and third seasons on September 1, 2019. However, this announcement did not include a release date for the seasons. The air date announcement for the second season was made months after the renewal. However, as of June 29, 2022, at the time of writing, a release date for the third season has yet to be announced.

Considering that the second season has just been published, we can say it is early for information about a new season to emerge. Since there is no official news yet, it is possible to speculate about the release date. After the first renewal announcement of the second season, it was announced that the anime would air a year later, in October 2020. Although there was a delay afterward, we can think that the average production time is one year. Considering the production time, it is likely that the third season will be broadcast in the spring, just like the second season. We can expect the anime to air in the spring of 2023. Stay tuned for official updates.

Seasons	Release Date
Season 1	January 9, 2019
Season 2	April 6, 2022
Season 3	Spring 2023 (Expected)