Cautious Hero Season 2 will restart the crazy comedic antics of the goddess, Ristarte, and her champion, the overly cautious hero, Seiya Ryuuguuin. But the real question is whether Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious Season 2 (Shinchou Yuusha: Kono Yuusha ga Ore Tueee Kuse ni Shinchou Sugiru Season 2) will be produced by the same animation studio.
The first season of the Cautious Hero anime was animated by White Fox, which is best known for producing Goblin Slayer, Re:ZERO, Steins;Gate, The Devil Is A Part-Timer, and Akame ga Kill! Director Masayuki Sakoi of SAO: Gun Gale Online fame helmed the anime project.
Writer Kenta Ihara supervised the Cautious Hero story scripts and he’s best known for scripting Vinland Saga and Saga Of Tanya The Evil. Character designer Mai Toda also worked on Girls’ Last Tour for White Fox.
The Cautious Hero Season 2 opening (OP) theme song music and ending (ED) theme song music have not yet been announced. For the first season, MYTH&ROID performed the opening “Tit For Tat,” while Riko Azuna sang the ending song “Be Perfect, Plz!”
Cautious Hero’s English dub is only available on FUNimation Now, while the English sub is on Hulu. Episodes can be purchased on Amazon Prime and Netflix plans on eventually releasing all 12 Cautious Hero anime episodes for binge-watching.
For those still watching the first season, the Cautious Hero Episode 10 release date was delayed by White Fox due to production issues. Similarly, FUNimation announced multiple holiday simuldub delays, with the dubbing company stating that the English dubbed Cautious Hero Episode 10 is delayed from December 25th to January 8, 2020.
Cautious Hero Episode 11 is delayed from January 8th to January 15, 2020. The finale, Cautious Hero Episode 12, will be released on the same day, January 15, 2020.
The English subbed version of Episode 12 will release on FUNimation Now on January 1, 2020. However, in order to avoid scheduling conflicts with New Years’ day TV programming, Japanese TV stations broadcasted Episode 12 on December 27, 2019.
#慎重勇者
視聴ありがとうございました＾＾
また聖哉とリスタのお話の続きが見たいぞ！！！#レディ・パーフェクトリー pic.twitter.com/xwTGhkCE40— 慎重なとよた瑣織 (@toyo_sao) December 29, 2019
-
Updated December 10, 2019: Added Season 1 delays.
This article provides everything that is known about Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious Season 2 (Shinchou Yuusha: Kono Yuusha ga Ore Tueee Kuse ni Shinchou Sugiru 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.
Cautious Hero manga and light novel series compared to the anime
The story for the anime is based on the Shinchou Yuusha: Kono Yuusha ga Ore Tueee Kuse ni Shinchou Sugiru light novel series by author Light Tuchihi and illustrator Saori Toyota. However, the story first began serializing in the summer of 2016 as a Cautious Hero web novel that was self-published on Kadokawa’s site Kakuyomu only to be licensed by the Japanese publisher.
Starting in February 2017 Kadokawa began releasing the Cautious Hero light novel series. By the time the anime finished airing in Japan, the books were up to Volume 7 as of December 10, 2019. The release date for Cautious Hero Volume 8 has not yet been announced, but it’ll probably be a while before it’s announced since the light novels have caught up with the web novel.
The web novel currently consists of three completed story arcs, while a fourth arc just started in December 2019. The first two light novels adapted Arc 1 of the web novel while Volume 3 through 5 covered web novel Arc 2. The story of light novel Volume 6 and 7 adapted web novel Arc 3.
Presumably, Volume 8 will begin adapting Arc 4. It’s unknown how many chapters the fourth arc will be.
In collaboration with author Light, artist Koyuki has been creating the Cautious Hero manga adaptation since November 2018. New chapters are released on a monthly basis via Monthly Dragon Age magazine and the manga books are already up to Volume 2.
Yen Press has licensed the North American publishing rights for the official English translation for both the Cautious Hero manga and the light novel series. The books are already up to Volume 2, while Volume 3 is scheduled for February 18, 2020.
The English manga is still upcoming, with the first comic book scheduled to release on January 21, 2020. There is also an English fan translation project for the web novel, but it’s still finishing translating Arc 2 as of November.
When the story first begins it’s almost a series of KonoSuba-like comedic vignettes rather than a cohesive plot. Then the anime subverts expectations by transitioning into a genuinely dark drama that still can’t quite take itself seriously due to the crazy scenarios. But that’s getting into spoilers territory.
Thus far, the anime has adapted the source material pretty faithfully, but audiences may be wondering if the anime skips or skims over anything. The Cautious Hero manga reads like an extended storyboard for the anime since it includes extra dialogue, but even then the manga still doesn’t tell us everything in comparison to the light novels.
World-building is often a major component of any good fantasy story, but anime adaptations of isekai light novels often skip pertinent details. That’s not the case here. Even in the Cautious Hero light novels, Gaelbarde is just a stereotypical European style fantasy world, but that’s fine since the story is driven by its characters rather than the setting.
And quite a bunch of characters they are! White Fox has picked out the funniest moments to animate and Ristarte’s elastic facial expressions provide comedy on their own.
To a certain extent, the relationship between Ristarte and Seiya resembles that of Priestess and Goblin Slayer. In the Goblin Slayer anime, the emotional distance and motivational drive of the titular character are explained right away by what happened to Goblin Slayer as a child. The same can’t be said of the Cautious Hero anime.
What makes Seiya act like such a jerk? Why is he cautious and overly prepared to the point of a mental disorder? One common complaint by anime audiences might be that we don’t get much insight into what makes Seiya tick… at least, at first. But that’s partially because our titular character is not the main character of the story.
Yes, that’s right, the male protagonist is technically not the OP MC. Instead, the story in the books is told from the perspective of the goddess Ristarte.
So, if Ristarte does not witness something then it’s not in the story, which is why we don’t get to see much of Seiya’s training with the gods in the Divine Realm.
Sticking to Ristarte’s viewpoint is quite a remarkable approach for an isekai since gods and goddesses are usually relegated to summoning the hero as a restart function (hence Ristare’s name). Even when the gods do play a more prominent role in the plot, they are still often supporting roles or a side character like KonoSuba’s Aqua.
In fact, the light novel and manga series both never give Seiya any inner monologues so the cautious hero’s motivations are a mystery even to book readers with the first volumes. But Seiya isn’t a complete jerk since the author assures readers in light novel Volume 1’s afterword that Seiya does, in fact, care about people… just in his own peculiar way.
In the anime, that aspect of Seiya’s personality was first hinted at when he accepted and kept a flower charm from the little girl Nina. Then, in Episode 6, Seiya goes out of his way to save his “precious baggage carrier” even though losing the sacred sword Igzasion means the hero won’t be fully prepared for facing the Demon Lord.
Seiya had very good reasons for his behavior, but those reasons were not explained in full until Volume 2. Readers were eventually treated to his tragic backstory which fully explained his behavior.
Without getting into major spoilers, it’s as if Goblin Slayer experienced personal tragedy and then was summoned into another world after having his memories wiped yet still retains enough knowledge to be extremely wary (Trivia: Japanese voice actor Yuuichirou Umehara plays both Seiya and Goblin Slayer).
Still, it’s reasonable to complain about the lack of major character development in the anime’s first several episodes, but that’s the fault of the light novels, not White Fox’s scriptwriter. At first, Seiya seems like a one-dimensional character whose only purpose is to fulfill the jokes beholden to the title, but by Episode 11 and 12 the reason for his personality flaws is fully fleshed out.
Warning: The following contains major spoilers for Cautious Hero Episode 11 which redefine the characters.
It turns out this current adventure is actually Seiya’s second attempt at being an isekai hero. Seiya is a cold, pragmatic hero since he was the opposite type of hero the first time around, resulting in the death of his party, his lover Princess Tiana, and his unborn child.
Another big plot twist is that Princess Tiana literally restarted as Ristarte! Having been reborn as a Goddess thanks to Ariadoa’s guilt, Tiana now has a second chance with the man she used to love in another life. (Unsurprising Trivia: Japanese voice actress Aki Toyosaki played both Tiana and Ristarte.)
The twist also explains many of Seiya’s behaviors. Seiya isn’t being overly cautious when he’s overkilling already dead enemies; he’s making sure they don’t rise up to kill him and his friends like what happened with the previous demon lord.
Similarly, Seiya was so hard on Rosalie for killing her own men due to a lack of planning since he recognized his old self in her behavior. His catchphrase literally used to be, “Everything’s gonna be okay,” but now he knows what the consequences could be for not being ready for anything.
When it comes to the pacing of the anime, some watchers may believe that the first season felt fairly rushed in places, but that’s the fault of the light novels, not White Fox’s production staff. Unlike pretty much all isekai stories where the Demon Lord and his generals are far off over the horizon with no end in sight the books are fast-paced in that regard. It could be argued it’s another instance of the story flipping isekai tropes by having the fight against the Demon Lord come relatively quick.
Without getting into spoilers there is a good reason for this rapid pacing. It ties into a major plot twist concerning several of the characters. There will also be a change in setting that’s a twist on the standard isekai formula (For more details, see the spoilers section below).
In fact, White Fox managed to work in as much content as possible from the light novels. Episode 5 even skipped the ending theme and Episode 6 skipped the opening to make room. If anything, White Fox is adapting this isekai story’s source material at a much slower pace in comparison to most other isekai anime.
That’s quite notable since the standard formula for adapting a light novel isekai series is to adapt between three to five books per 12- or 13-episode anime season. But the plot for the Cautious Hero book series is set up in such a way that the best stopping point is actually the ending of light novel Volume 2 since that’s the end of the first major story arc in the series (including the web novel).
The Cautious Hero anime’s opening video even teases this plan since the OP starts with the Four Heavenly Kings of the Gaelbarde Demon Lord being visible in silhouette, only to be revealed as they show up in episodes.
The good news is that ending in Episode 12 leaves plenty of room for Cautious Hero Season 2. In fact, within several years the third story arc should be complete, making even Cautious Hero Season 3 possible. Therefore, English-only light novel readers can read ahead of the anime by picking up Volume 3 when it comes out in 2020.
The only bad news is that the manga series is far behind the anime since even chapters from manga Volume 3 correspond to Episodes 5 and 6 (Chapter 13 depicts Seiya rejecting Adenela, the dark and creepy Goddess of War). Unfortunately, since new chapters are released monthly it should take around 2 years for the manga to catch up with Cautious Hero Season 2.
Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious Season 2 release date
As of the last update, no company related to the production of the anime has officially confirmed the Cautious Hero 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 Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious Season 2 premiere date will occur in the future.
It’s difficult to tell how popular Cautious Hero is on streaming platforms since it’s not available on Crunchyroll. Similar to Netflix, FUNimation usually doesn’t release its internal stats for an anime’s popularity.
At the same time, Sony-owned FUNimation and companies it’s partnered with, like Hulu, are definitely pushing the TV show as an exclusive. That’s an important link since streaming revenue is now the most important factor in deciding whether anime sequels should be funded. For example, other isekai anime like Demon Lord, Retry! Season 2 was greenlit for production with the finale episode and it was also a FUNimation/Hulu exclusive.
It’s also important that Kadokawa is involved in the Cautious Hero anime production committee. Earlier in 2019, the book publisher announced their intention to invest in at least one isekai anime per season thanks to successes like The Rising Of The Shield Hero anime. Assuming the first season is popular enough, it’s possible the producer will greenlight Cautious Hero Season 2 fairly quickly.
Shinchou Yuusha: Kono Yuusha ga Ore Tueee Kuse ni Shinchou Sugiru Season 2 spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)
Ever been punished for being successful? The last time we watched Seiya and Ristarte’s crazy adventures they had managed to save a world but still managed to find themselves in a jam. You see, they may have saved Gaeabrande from its Demon Lord, and also saved the gods from permadeath via Chain Destruction, but they still technically broke the rules in order to make the win.
Maxing the level cap rendered additional training and precautions useless, so Seiya wasn’t able to win a straight fight against Gaeabrande’s Demon Lord. Rista broke the cardinal rule of the gods stating that she’s allowed to accompany her hero, but she wasn’t allowed to use her full power to aid Seiya in his hour of need.
Rista is now faced with the repercussions. She can either be stripped of her divinity or assigned the difficult task of saving an SS-ranked world without the benefit of any goddess powers. As a result, she’s sent straight to Ixphoria and she decides to summon Seiya as her champion once again.
Does Ixphoria sound familiar? Remember way back in Episode 3 when Rista was talking to Goddess of the Seal Ariadoa and she recalled failing to save a B-rank world? That’s Ixphoria. Since Aria’s failure, the B-rank world has plunged into chaos, transforming into a hellish SS-ranked landscape.
Episode 3 also contained some major foreshadowing since Aria was visibly shaken at the mere sight of Seiya, dropping her tea before regaining her composure. Ristarte simply thought Aria was physically attracted to Seiya, but Aria’s reaction was due to knowing exactly who Seiya was and why his behavior is so strange.
Yes, this new adventure means Seiya has been summoned as a hero three times already. Seiya’s memories from his first horrific failure in Ixphoria had been sealed away when he was sent back to Earth. Normally, heroes have both their stats and memories reset when being summoned to save additional worlds, but Ishtar makes an exception this time and allows Seiya his full memories.
Still, that leaves a now truly useless goddess and a stats reset hero facing off against hell without the ability to heal or portal away from danger. There’s also the emotional trauma of having their past lives as lovers revealed in full.
Worse, Seiya is immediately hit with a curse that changes his class… to a playful piper?! Yep, it’s pretty much like an overly cautious bard is being expected to win against D&D’s Tomb of Horrors campaign.
The battle for Ixphoria involves the powerful Beast Emperor Grand Lion and a huge army of magical weapon killing machines. Seiya and Rista figure out a way to counterattack, but then their quest gets strange when they run into an alternate version of Seiya.
It also gets very, very personal. During their fight against the enemy, they recruit a magical robot to their side. But it turns out this robot houses the soul of the unborn child of Princess Tiana and Seiya. Worse, their child’s soul is linked to the final boss of the world.
Things also get personal for the gods, themselves. It turns out there are evil gods who are bringing death and destruction that the good gods are trying to save. There is even a good god who was exiled after becoming evil.
These evil gods create an evil hero, infiltrate the good god’s Divine Realm, and use godkiller magic to destroy all of the gods except for Ristarte and Cerceus. Even Ishtar is stuffed into a bag and Valkyrie doesn’t get a chance to use her ultimate skill, Gate of Valhalla.
Technically, the gods are still “alive” since their souls are stored away, but it’s up to the survivors to rescue the gods. Ristarte and Cerceus barely manage to survive the destruction of the Divine Realm only to be dumped into an alternate dimensional version of Gaeabrande.
Ristarte summons Seiya once again to save a Gaeabrande where time and space has been twisted by the invasion of the evil gods. It’s a timeline where Seiya never saved the world and Mash became an evil dragon lord after killing Elulu to transform her into the legendary sword Igzasion. The remaining good dragons have banded together to fight against the humans and demons who are trying to revive a demon god.
Unfortunately, anime fans will have to wait until the Cautious Hero Season 2 release to watch how Seiya and Rista resolve the SS-rated crisis. Stay tuned!