Re:Zero is a top-notch isekai anime that instantly gripped everyone in the anime community upon its initial release in 2016 as an adaptation of the light novel series written by Tappei Nagatsuki, illustrated by Shinichirou Otsuka.
With it’s great character write-up along with the detailed fantasy world wrapped in mysteries topped with amazing ost to amplify the feels, it just couldn’t get better. So, will this S-tier anime get a season 3? This seems to be one of the most searched questions on the internet since the final episode of season 2 aired on March 24th 2021.
While there hasn’t been any official statement made about another season, let’s look at a few statistics in order to consolidate what we know so far and what turns the studio would possibly take.
Re:Zero, What Do We Know So Far?
Re:Zero Source Material-
The source material for Re:Zero is the light novel mentioned earlier with 26 light novel volumes released in Japan with volume 27 releasing on June 25th, 2021.
Unlike manga which come out weekly/monthly, light novels take upto 3-4 months for one release making the source material scarce at times leading to large gaps between seasons. So far the anime’s season 1 adapted volumes 1-9 while season 2 adapted volumes 10-15.
In particular studio White Fox, the studio working on Re:Zero takes a lot of time to add minute details to stick true to the light novels as well as give us first-class animation along with it.
Re:Zero Overall Sales-
Few main reasons why many anime don’t get new seasons are due to not enough source material, studios unwilling to take it forth due to poor sales, etc. In this case, an anime like Re:Zero could cost up to 8,000,000 dollars to produce, which could take a toll on the studio.
There is always the probability that season 2 might make less profit than season 1 for many anime, according to the statistics provided season 1 sold on an average around 12,000 per Blu-ray volume.
The second season managed around 5,000 copies, while the drop may seem steep, in 2021 it’s still a good figure considering that streaming has taken over most of the profits that a series managed from disks.
A good example of the scenario would be the One Punch Man series mostly getting a season 3 despite their considerable drop in disk sales thanks to streaming.
If we look into the sales of the light novel itself, it was considered the best selling light novel series in Japan for 2020, with approximately 732,314 copies sold only outsol by Demon Slayer. Volume 25 of Re;Zero released on December 25, 2020 sold approximately 42k copies; since 2016 it’s been consistently ranked in the top 5 best sellers every year.
If there’s one thing that the entire anime community could agree on it would be the fact that apart from its thrilling storyline the anime has some of the best waifus that everyone wishes to have helping Re:Zero merch sales stay consistent, I know I would definitely spend most of my savings on them!
Re:Zero Games-
Apart from super cool merchandise, Re:Zero also has four video games! 2 visual novels, for mobile and one unreleased browser game, seriously, go check them out.
The first visual novel game Death or Kiss, sold almost 30k copies with the second game, The Prophecy of the Throne sold around 10k copies in the first week in Japan, and if you read this and feel “man only if I knew Japanese”, fear not for there is an English release of the second game available on Steam!
Even the mobile game, Re:Zero Lost in Memories, is doing pretty well bringing in a 2 million dollars revenue per month. Seriously go check it out already!!
The OVAs did really well too, making around 2.5 million dollars and 3 million dollars respectively. Apart from this the Re:Zero franchise has no lack of public interest either, the official Twitter account has around 560,000 followers tweeting actively almost every day.
According to statistics, the popularity of the second season is almost the same as the first season if not more. If we were to pin it down to only Japan, then the second season was almost 40% more popular than the first season.
So what can we conclude?
At this point there’s a 99% probability that season 3 will be announced as the franchise has a profit as well as a dedicated fan-base eagerly waiting for the next season.
Even for other popular series like Steins Gate, the fanbase had to wait almost 7 years for the sequel to be released, in fact- the Devil is a Part-Timer took 8yrs for the second season, and let’s not forget how we ourselves waited and almost had no hope for a season 2 for Re:Zero either yet here we are!
In the meantime, you can re-watch the whole series on Crunchyroll and keep your fingers crossed and remember that the fruit borne of patience is a sweet one.
