Bloom Into You Season 2 is almost a requirement for anime-only fans of the story or else the entire series will leave audiences hanging with a relationship cliffhanger that ends with feelings unresolved and a certain stage play unfinished.
Creator Nio Nakatani already released the Yagate Kimi ni Naru manga ending in the 2019 time frame, so where does that leave fans of the YagaKimi anime?
This article provides everything that is known about Bloom Into You Season 2 and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.
Bloom Into You manga was the author’s first ‘full-on Yuri story’
The story for the anime is based on the Bloom Into You manga series that’s been serialized on a monthly basis by Nakatani since April 2015. By the ending of the anime’s first season, the manga was up to Volume 6, which included 34 chapters.
Volume 7 came out in early 2019 and announced that Volume 8 would be the ending of the entire series. The release date for Volume 8 is scheduled for November 2019.
The manga inspired a side story novel called Bloom Into You – On Sayaka Saeki (Yagate Kimi ni Naru – Saeki Sayaka ni Tsuite) by author Iruma Hitoma. Released to coincide with the anime, the standalone book is both a prequel and a parallel story intended to fill in the gaps in Sayaka’s background.
It begins in the fifth grade, showing how Sayaka’s feelings began to develop, and then fast-forwards to junior high where she becomes club president without intending to seek the role. The aftermath of the confession scene from manga Chapter 12 is shown from Sayaka’s perspective as well as future relationship moments which defined the character.
Seven Seas Entertainment has been publishing the English translation of Bloom Into You. Already up to Volume 6 in March 2019, Volume 7 is scheduled to release on December 17, 2019. The English translation of Bloom Into You Volume 8 will presumably release in 2020. An official English translation of Bloom Into You – On Sayaka Saeki has not yet been announced.
In an October 2018 interview, Nakatani described how she came up with the unusual relationship that defines the story.
“I’d like to draw a story with a clear start and goal. I want to draw a story where there are problems to be solved and the two will grow through them. For that purpose, I thought that I had to set problems and challenges throughout the whole story,” she explained.
“Nonetheless, I did not want to make it a barrier to being girls, even though it’s a Yuri manga. Whatever the reality of the situation, I did not want to have a love relationship between girls be difficult in the first place, so I did not want to put the center of the story there.”
Nakatani says she was initially hesitant to label her work as Yuri because she “never intended to narrate a love story.” Even though her earlier works depicted girls kissing girls she did not perceive herself as a Yuri manga artist. She also believes series like Hibike! Euphonium has a Yuri vibe even though it’s technically not Yuri.
“I always like to draw those troublesome and entangled love stories, that’s why it did not matter [to me] whether the content is Yuri or not,” she explained in an older interview released when the first volume launched. “It is hard to define what is Yuri. As long as every reader has their own thought on it, it’s good enough. I think, ‘Once the reader thinks this is Yuri, then at that moment it becomes Yuri’.”
In the initial design phase, Nakatani was having difficulty capturing Koito Yuu’s personality. In response, the manga artist’s editor gathered together love stories from “those who never had a relationship and those who never want one.”
“I think the majority of people have almost always experienced first love,” said the editor. “This is also why it’s difficult for readers to understand the feeling of ‘never going to like anyone’.”
The character of Koit Yuu was actually based on a real-life youth who did not understand what it felt like to “like” someone else, so they used this girl as Yuu’s model.
In creating Nanami Touko, Nakatani set out to create a “cool, beautiful, and king-like appearance.” Touko originally started out with shorter hair, but Nakatani feels Touko began to “look more like a good female protagonist” when her hair was lengthened.
Bloom Into You manga ending in 2019
In recent years, fans have been speculating about the ending of the YagaKimi manga. Predictions claiming the ending was coming in Volume 6 were not true, but by January 2018 Nakatani was indeed “steadily approaching the end” she was aiming for.
Fast forward several months and the manga artist estimated in October 2018 that she was about 80 percent done. Since Chapter 36 was released in October, that would mean the ending might be somewhere around Chapter 45 in Volume 8. Based on the announcement contained in Volume 7, the Yagate Kimi ni Naru manga’s ending will come in November 2019.
Nakatani plans on “drawing as much as necessary” for meeting the goal of the story. What is the goal of the story? Apparently, it’s answering a single question. In a Newtype magazine interview released in December, the interviewer asked, “What is love?”
“You’re basically asking me, ‘What is the ending of Bloom Into You?'” Nakatani replied. “Please look forward to the ending of the manga!”
Yagate Kimi ni Naru manga compared to the anime
The pacing of an anime can kill an anime adaptation but so far animation studio Troyca has been keeping an even pacing that delivers the manga’s story in a reasonable fashion. Like many anime, the ordering of some scenes was shifted around a bit, and even some new anime-original scenes were added, but otherwise, the anime kept to the same ordering of chapters.
In fact, keeping track of which manga chapters are covered by an episode is easy since the episode titles come straight from the manga chapter titles. The first episode adapted only one chapter whereas the majority of episodes adapted two to three chapters.
The pacing slowed near the ending. By Episode 11, the anime had covered the story events up through manga Chapter 21 and then Episode 12 covered Chapter 22. Bloom Into You Episode 13 adapted Chapter 24 Lighthouse in Volume 5. This ending offered the best possible stopping point since the scene offered a semblance of relationship resolution.
The good news is that manga readers can dive right into the English Bloom Into You manga since the English translation is already ahead of the anime. The bad news is that there currently is not enough manga chapters available for creating Bloom Into You Season 2, although that won’t stop a project from being greenlit for production.
Yagate Kimi ni Naru Season 2 release date predictions: Is the sequel unlikely?
As of the last update, studio Troyca or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed the Bloom Into You Season 2 release date. Nor has the production of a sequel been announced.
Once the news is officially confirmed, this article will be updated with the relevant information. In the meantime, it’s possible to speculate about when, or if, the Yagate Kimi ni Naru Season 2 premiere date will occur in the future.
Assuming that the manga series ends with 45 chapters there will be barely enough source material for creating a second season by the end of 2019. While it would be easy to claim that Bloom Into You Season 2 could come out in 2020, the reality is not so simple.
Anime projects take years to develop so unless Troyca is already scheduled to complete the project in the future it’s possible the finale will have to wait until 2021 or beyond.
However, the prospects for an anime sequel do seem rosy at this point. The manga was third place in a 2018 AnimeJapan poll that asked fans which manga they wanted animated. Besides being popular, the financials will tell the rest of the story.
Bloom Into You Blu-Ray box Volume 1 released on December 21, 2019. Sales in Japan were not that great, although that doesn’t doom the second season since streaming revenue is now the major factor in the anime industry.
Bloom Into You Season 2 spoilers (Plot summary/synopsis)
Summer vacation is now over and the second semester of school has now begun! The last time we watched Yuu and Touko there was a fun time at the aquarium and a declaration of love. At the same time, Yuu is unsettled, thinking that their current state can’t go on forever.
The anime has used a school student council stage play as a plot device for allowing the characters to express their inner feelings. The play is taking shape with the ending becoming more defined by Koyomi Kanou, but by the end of the first season, the play still was far off on the horizon.
Although the overall story is focused on Yuu and Touko’s relationship, based on manga Chapter 25 the second season of the anime might actually open with an episode about Koyomi and Seiji Maki meeting up before she goes to meet in person her favorite author, Hayashi Renma.
Koyomi is planning on asking some important questions, but her plans fizzle out when she’s shocked that Renma is a beautiful woman and not a man as she expected. Still, her mixed feelings provide the motivation necessary to finish the script rewrite of the play.
The rewrite jumpstarts conflict since both Yuu and Sayaka love the new ending to the play while Touko prefers the original version. Yuu believes Touko is conflating herself with the amnesiac protagonist character of the play and Yuu desires that this character chooses to live her life based on how she is now rather than choose a version of herself described by friends, family, and a girlfriend.
The script rewrite represents what Yuu hopes to see happen with Touko, too. Yuu hopes Touko can grow to believe she’s more than a substitute for her dead sister, Mio. Yuu came up with the play’s name, “I Only Know You”, based on how she only knows Youko now and not Mio of the past.
Sayaka feels the same way but is initially unable to give voice to her true feelings like Yuu. But these discussions lead Sayaka to directly ask Yuu if she loves Touko. When Yuu is caught off guard, Sayaka simply proclaims, “I love her.” (And thus the gauntlet is thrown down?)
The play’s story is about a girl finding herself. Touko understands the implied personal meaning behind the rewrite and it gnaws at her internally as she practices the new lines. Despite being told it’s wrong, she feels as if wanting to become her sister is all she has in life. That there’s nothing else important.
By Chapter 29 (the first chapter of Volume 6) the cultural festival is finally here. It’s the play rewrite which figuratively sets the stage for the emotional conflict in Bloom Into You Season 2. Touko feels empty inside but she’s finding hope in acting out her feelings on stage in front of friends and even family.
While the play settled some things, life became complicated when Touko is asked to joining a traveling theater troupe. Sayaka notices how Touko has changed and is hoping this chance may be the opportunity she’s been waiting on for so long.
Warning: Potential major spoilers about how the Bloom Into You manga’s story might end are contained below.
And the question still remains… will Yuu herself come to understand love and fall in love with Touko? Without getting into major spoilers, Yuu and Touko share a private moment over a stream rock bridge which changes their relationship and they’re not sure how to behave around each other anymore.
In Chapter 36 of Volume 7, a Kyoto school trip starts. This trip may serve as a backdrop for the girls to sort out their feelings before the final ending comes to the story.
Will the ending of Bloom Into You Season 2 be happy or a sad ending? The manga has not yet answered that question but comments by the creator may provide insight. In a 2018 interview available on Akiba Blog, Nakatani talked about how she thinks bad endings can be moving because they can shake the emotions of the readers.
However, Nakatani is not confident that she can create a bad ending that satisfies her fans. She also drew the manga thinking of “wanting Yuu and Touko to be happy” so it’s possible she’s planning a happy ending for the Bloom Into You manga. Does that mean fans of the Touko x Sayaka ship should start bailing water?
Unfortunately, anime fans will have to wait until the Yagate Kimi ni Naru Season 2 release date to watch how the ending plays out. Stay tuned!