The Noblesse Season 2 anime will continue the story of Cadis Etrama Di Raizel, aka Rai, his loyal servant Frankenstein, and their school children friends of Ye Ran High School. But when will Noblesse Season 2 come out?
The 2020 Crunchyroll Original anime is being produced by animation studio Production I.G., which is known for creating the Haikyuu!!! anime and the Psycho-Pass anime series.
Director Yasutaka Yamamoto (Squid Girl) helmed the Noblesse anime project. Writer Sayaka Harada (Code: Realize) handled series composition. Artist Akiharu Ishii (Blood+) was both the character designer and chief animation supervisor.
For the first season, the Noblesse opening (OP) theme song music was “Breaking Dawn” by Kim Jae-joong, while the ending (ED) music was “Etoile” as performed by Oh My Girl.
The Noblesse Season 2 opening and ending music have not yet been announced.
The finale, Noblesse Episode 13, released for streaming on December 30, 2020.
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Updated November 12, 2020: Added Noblesse English dub release date (and other dubs).
This article provides everything that is known about Noblesse 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.
Noblesse Season 2 release date predictions
As of the last update, Crunchyroll, Naver Webtoon, Production I.G., or any company related to the anime production has not officially confirmed the Noblesse Season 2 release date. Nor has the production of a Noblesse 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 Noblesse Season 2 premiere date will occur in the future.
The official website and Twitter account did not hint at an anime sequel when Episode 13 aired. Instead, the only official news announcement on November 30 was about a Union-themed Noblesse ramen bowl campaign. Considering that the anime began with ramen and ended with Rai wanting ramen it was probably the most appropriate news release for the day.
On the one hand, none of the Crunchyroll Originals were immediately renewed for a second season. Since Tower of God Season 2 and The God of High School Season 2 weren’t immediately announced, why should Noblesse Season 2 be any different?
(It took many months before the In/Spectre Season 2 anime was confirmed to be in production.)
On the other, the Noblesse manhwa is a finished work, so there’s really no reason Crunchyroll and Naver Webtoon shouldn’t plan out a multi-season anime adaptation if the first season is popular enough.
But therein lies the rub. They can’t judge popularity until the first season is over, and the streaming numbers are tabulated.
There is also the little issue of Sony’s FUNimation having bought Crunchyroll from AT&T and WarnerMedia. It’s currently unknown how that merger will impact the fate of Crunchyroll Originals.
Since anime productions are scheduled out years in advance, even if the decision is made to greenlight a second season internally, the public announcement will probably not be made until later. Therefore, anime fans will likely be waiting several years for the Noblesse Season 2 anime.
Crunchyroll’s Noblesse English dub release date announced
The Noblesse anime was one of the 2020 Crunchyroll Originals, which includes TV shows like In/Spectre, TONIKAWA: Over The Moon For You, Tower of God, and The God of High School. As such, the first season was streaming exclusively on Crunchyroll for the fall 2020 anime season.
Initially, Crunchyroll was only streaming the anime with English subtitles. Eventually, the Noblesse English dub release date was scheduled for November 18, 2020.
The Noblesse dub cast includes Ray Chase as Cadis Etrama di Raizel and Sean Chiplock as Frankenstein.
In addition, the Portuguese, French, and German dubs will premiere on November 18, 202o0. The Noblesse Spanish dub is also scheduled for November 25, 2020.
Crunchyroll’s Noblesse Awakening OVA: Episode 0 a must watch
If you just started watching the series and feel like something is missing, you’re not alone. The anime’s first episode really did skip the beginning and drop newcomers into the middle of the story.
The first part of the story was adapted into an anime by Production I.G. back in 2016. Originally released as an OVA episode, Noblesse: Awakening was rebranded as Noblesse Episode 0.
In Japan, the episode was broadcast on TV a week ahead of the Noblesse Episode 1 premiere. Thankfully for international audiences, Crunchyroll has it available for streaming right now so you can catch up on what you missed. It’s also available on Youtube, but only in certain countries.
Crunchyroll also created an explanation video, which gives an overview of key characters and plot points.
Noblesse: Pamyeol-ui Sijak anime a prequel to the main story
Speaking of missing out, there is also the Noblesse: Pamyeol-ui Sijak anime (Noblesse: The Beginning of Destruction). Studio Animal created the 37-minute short story in 2015, and it’s set hundreds of years before the events of the main anime.
To summarize, it’s the tragic story of how the Noblesse Raizel ended up entering his 820-year slumber. It begins with the werewolf lord Muzaka saving a young war orphan named Ashleen. Muzaka abandoned his duties, choosing to focus on Ashleen’s happiness.
During his absence, the werewolf clan launched a new war on the humans. When the Union manipulates Muzaka, it’s up to the Noblesse Raizel to intervene and stop the madness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdB2uLtxVdo
Unlike the later anime by Production I.G., the Noblesse prequel had South Korean voice actors. The OVA episode is not available on Crunchyroll, but YouTube has the full episode with English subtitles.
Noblesse’s ending epilogue in the Webtoon was a cliffhanger
The story for the anime is based on the Noblesse Webtoon by writer Jeho Son and artist Kwang-soo Lee. The official English translation started in July 2014. Started in December 2007, the ending in Noblesse’s epilogue, Chapter 544, was released in January 2019.
The entire Noblesse Naver Webtoon was released in eight volumes. Each volume contains several official story arcs, usually three or four.
The official English translation refers to the volumes as “seasons.” That means Noblesse “Season 2” of the Webtoon began with Chapter 93. Here’s a quick guide.
- Noblesse Season 1: Chapters 1 – 92
- Noblesse Season 2: Chapters 93 – 154
- Noblesse Season 3: Chapters 155 – 200
- Noblesse Season 4: Chapters 201 – 238
- Noblesse Season 5: Chapters 239 – 286
- Noblesse Season 6: Chapters 287 – 327
- Noblesse Season 7: Chapters 328 – 403
- Noblesse Season 8: Chapters 404 – 543
Without getting into major spoilers, Noblesse’s ending finished with a cliffhanger. A major plot event from the previous chapter was undone without any explanation. However, in the epilogue’s final moments, it’s revealed that Frankenstein is trying to access Union records to discover what happened.
Noblesse’s ending certainly left enough mysteries alive that some fans expected a Noblesse sequel to be announced. In the meantime, fans have been speculating about what happened, although the 2016 spin-off, Noblesse: Rai’s Adventure, may provide some context.
Noblesse Webtoon/manhwa compared to the anime: It’s a bad squishy
During an interview with Crunchyroll, writer Jeho Son expressed his hope that anime fans would enjoy the adaptation of his work.
“We recently completed Noblesse, which is a very special project to us. As of this year, it has taken us 11 long years to complete this project. When Lee Kwang Soo and I began work on Noblesse, we thought of the many dreams we wanted to accomplish together. One of the dreams was to have one of our works showcased as a TV animation, which came true. This was all thanks to our viewers, who showed love for Noblesse. I would like to thank Naver, Webtoon, and Production I.G for doing an amazing job on the animation. I hope the viewers find Noblesse exciting and enjoy watching it.”
Unfortunately, anime fans have been slightly disillusioned by how the Crunchyroll Originals have been handling the adaptation of popular Webtoon series.
First, there was the Tower of God anime, which condensed plot elements, removed good jokes, and made other odd changes but was arguably still a good adaptation with a singular focus centered around Bam and Rachel’s relationship.
Similarly, the God of High School anime had great animation and fight scene choreography by Studio MAPPA, but 13 episodes were not enough runtime to squeeze in all the details from the first 112 chapters of the Webtoon’s first two major story arc. After the first several episodes, the main characterization became incoherent, the side characters were barely developed, and major plot points were changed.
And now we have Crunchyroll’s Noblesse anime. The big problem is that Production I.G. chose to keep Episode 0 as-is rather than start afresh. While the Noblesse OVA worked fine as a special bonus for manhwa fans wanting to see action elements of the story animated, it’s not really a good way to launch a series.
Noblesse Episode 0 is basically an extremely abridged version of the first 78 chapters of the Webtoon. To put the episode in perspective, Tower Of God Episode 13 also ended with Chapter 78, which means that the Noblesse anime heavily squished all the main character introductions and backstory into 31 minutes!
As a comparison, it would be like if you started Tower of God and the betrayal of Bam had already happened, or if you started The God of High School and Mori’s secret identity had been revealed. Then you needed to watch a short OVA episode to find out what was going on.
Noblesse Episode 1 picked up the story again with the third story arc of the first volume. It pulled this off by skimming Chapters 80 through 90.
This missing mini-story arc will likely be shifted to Noblesse Season 2 since it introduces a major villain, Union scientist Dr. Crombel, during a key plot point involving a hospital raid. But skipping the good doctor’s introduction made sense because it’d be odd to introduce him only for the first season to leave that plot thread completely hanging.
Instead, the opening scene jumped ahead by adapting parts of Chapters 106 through 108, which is when the DA-5 special force team was originally introduced. Then it jumped back briefly for parts of Chapter 79, but from then on, the episode focused on introducing M-21 to the school and briefly summarized his backstory concerning M-24. These events began in Chapter 90, but even then, the anime writers made some odd decisions.
The crazy part was that Noblesse Episode 1 even referenced a running gag about Rai waiting for the ramen to multiply even though most of the audience probably had never watched Episode 0. Production I.G. could have tried to smooth the transition over, but other plot elements like Shinwu Han’s broken arm and the reason for the memory wipe was left unexplained.
The context of M-21’s fight with the thugs in the car was also changed. Originally, it was an arrogant celebrity idol named Jung Hansu, who knew Sui Lim. When the groundskeeper told them they couldn’t park where they wanted, Hansu’s bodyguard became violent.
Giving the fight a personal connection by involving Shinwu/Tashiro actually improved the scene for the better. Plus, the Hansu character disappeared as quickly as he was introduced in the Webtoon. Another negative repercussion was that the anime skipped the scene with Sui practically swooning when she first spotted Rai in Chapter 96.
Of course, it eventually became apparent that Sui was cut out of the anime completely since she should have been part of the gathering at Frankenstein’s house in Noblesse Episode 2. Seira also took the place of Sui in scenes from Episode 3 and on. It’s possible that the Noblesse Season 2 anime could introduce her as a “new” classmate in Raizel’s group since she plays a role all the way to Chapter 544.
The main improvement is that the new anime series’s pacing was almost normal in comparison to Episode 0. The first episode only adapted seven chapters and the rest of the episodes didn’t skip any of the major plot beats (except for dialogue/events concerning Dr. Crombel).
Noblesse Episode 2 introduced characters Regis K. Landegre and Seira J. Loyard by adapting Chapters 97 through 105 (and parts of 106 and 108). While Shinwu/Tashiro was given an extended human fight scene in addition to Regis vs. M-21, the Webtoon’s story events were rearranged and condensed.
The most significant omission was Frankenstein explaining to M-21 in Chapter 101 that Noblesse does not take human blood, whereas vampires, as humanity calls them, are mutants. It’s forbidden for Nobles to create vampires.
Frankenstein also admits that the term Noblesse refers to only one being. Parts of Frankenstein’s initial explanation regarding Noblesse Oblige and the reason Nobles behave as they do were also pulled from Chapter 108. But the anime had Frankenstein explaining the full meaning of the term later on to the RK-4 when it mattered.
Noblesse Episode 3 picked up the story again with Chapter 109 and began the DA-5 story arc. One notable difference is that all the references to Dr. Crombel, the hospital mutant, and how M-21 was on a mission for Dr. Crombel were scrubbed from the anime’s dialogue.
While stripping Dr. Crombel from the story allowed the story to be more focused on the DA-5 character development, and thus the motives for Takeo and Tao defecting, there were negative side effects. After all, the whole point of DA-5 being there was to investigate the skipped hospital raid incident, so the missing story arc’s absence left some of the dialogue feeling out of place.
Otherwise, the anime was much more straight-forward when it came to adapting most of the DA-5 story arc, except the two Frankenstein vs Takeo fights were combined into one. However, some chapters were skipped.
Chapters 140 through 142 revealed that Dr. Crombel’s own research was based on the work of Frankenstein (known simply as “F” in his journals). It also introduced an Union rival for Crombel, Dr. Aris, the creator of the DA-5.
Frankenstein explained to M-21 the history of werewolves and how M-21’s body was enhanced with werewolf DNA (the anime’s transformation scene pretty much said it all). Tao’s hacking efforts were also quickly summarized in the anime whereas the Webtoon had Tao spend time looking into Takeo’s sister.
The anime skipped a short story arc that ran from Chapters 143 through 153. The arc had Dr. Aris and her powerful guardian Yuriy unsuccessfully trying to kidnap Frankenstein. Yuriy claimed he’d make Frankenstein a star, but he was only pulling his leg… (Ha! Webtoon reader joke). Dr. Aris mistakenly believed Frankenstein was an enhanced human sent by Dr. Crombel… until he fought them seriously.
Since Dr. Aris is a reoccurring Union character it’d make sense for Noblesse Season 2 to introduce her in a different manner, but the important thing for anime-only viewers to know is that Dr. Aris created the DA-5 experiment in order to absorb all of their powers into her. She also accidentally ate a D-like power-enhancing pill created by Frankenstein, but the power boost was so overwhelming she went limp and needed to be carried away by Yuriy.
It’s also revealed that Dr. Aris is actually Takeo’s sister Teira… sort of. It turns out Takeo was an only child and Dr. Aris created the sister persona in order to mess with Takeo’s mind while she experimented on him.
Episode 7 adapted Chapters 154 through 156 but greatly extended the romantic comedy with anime original scenes. The second half went back to Chapter 138, when the children learned about their memories being altered.
Episodes 8 through 13 adapted the Lukedonia story arc by greatly condensing the dialogue and certain plot events. The Webtoon offered additional insight into Noble culture and Frankenstein’s experiments, but the anime arguably greatly improved on the Webtoon’s storytelling by showing Frankenstein’s backstory in the context of why Lord Raskereia hated Rei.
All of these story events were just described in the Webtoon via dialogue rather than shown in action. The final scene where Raskereia asked Rai about her father was anime original but it fits into the context of the earlier changes.
While the anime followed the “show not tell” rule of good storytelling, the problem was that the anime version also changed the motivations for the actions of both Raskereia and her father. Rather than having a strength of character, Raskereia came off as petty and whiny, which are hardly traits of a Lord of the Nobles.
Rather than thinking that Raskereia wasn’t fit to be Lord, her father had wanted to spare his daughter the responsibilities of being Lord. The anime also skipped a crucial scene where Raskereia voluntarily chose to give up the sword Ragnarok so she could focus on growing her own power, which then triggered another hidden message from her father.
Otherwise, there were some skipped scenes. For example, the Raskereia’s father also imprinted a personal message for when Rai unexpectedly found Ragnarok at his abandoned mansion. The fact that a Soul Weapon like Ragnarok was split into two was a critical plot point in the Webtoon while the anime mostly ignored the issue. The anime also continued to skip all scenes and references to the Union.
The final scene of Episode 12 corresponded to the start of Chapter 192. All in all, even with all the changes the finale, Noblesse Episode 13, found a stopping point that roughly corresponded to the first half of Chapter 198.
It’s the best stopping point since it stops short before Dr. Crombel and the Union becomes of great importance to the story.
The good news is that there is plenty of chapters left to adapt for a Noblesse Season 2 anime. Better yet, English-only readers wishing to read ahead of the anime can read Noblesse Volume 3: Chapter 198 online.
Noblesse Season 2 anime spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)
Note: These spoilers assume that the Noblesse Season 2 Episode 1 will start by adapting Chapter 201. However, it will need to first introduce a major villain by first adapting, or at least summarizing, Chapters 80 – 90.
The last time audiences watched the anime, the trouble inside Lukedonia had been resolved. But the trouble is now coming to Lukedonia’s doorstep.
Back first the story needs to back up to introduce Union leader Dr. Crombel. He eliminates researchers and releases an experimental subject, leading to M-21’s “first” powered-up fight.
Frankenstein confronts Dr. Crombel, who was intrigued by this surprise. The Union Elders recognize Dr. Crombel for his talents.
Since the anime is adapting this story arc out of order it’d make sense for the abilities of both M-21 and the enemy to be visually upgraded. It’d also make sense to introduce Dr. Aris before the next story arc that began with Chapter 201.
Thanks to Rei releasing his power Dr. Crombel managed to locate Lukedonia via satellite. In order to fix the timeline, the anime can simply gloss over the fact that Union suspected Lukedonia’s location already and simply have them “discover” it for the first time.
While Lukedonia’s general location wasn’t a surpirse, even Crombel is surprised when the Union’s 8th fleet immediately invades Lukedonia. It’s not long before battleships are firing a fusillade at the island nation.
While the Nobles make quick work of the fleet’s human weapons, the resulting battle has the human world on alert now that Lukedonia has been exposed.
Meanwhile, two Korean government agents named An Sangeen and Na Yonsu investigate the crater left by the battle between Frankenstein and Rael. The two KSA agents are a married couple.
They are sent undercover into Ye Ran High School to gather intel on two potential KSA recruits: Shinwu/Tashiro and Ikhan/Manabu. But the school’s security team is also surveilling the agents!
The two agents create a situation to test Shinwu’s/Tashiro’s potential, but they are caught red-handed in the process. Frankenstein immediately dismisses them as teachers, but then the agents are ordered by the KSA Director to assist an elite Union team arriving shortly.
It turns out the 12th Elder himself has come to investigate the school along with Yuri and Cerberus, the 12th Elder’s elite team of five bodyguards. The Raizel Knights must fight to preserve their peaceful existence at the school.
Unfortunately, anime fans will have to wait until the Noblesse Season 2 release date to watch what happens next. Stay tuned!