‘Ajin’ Season 3 Release Date: ‘Ajin: Demi-Human’ Movie Builds Excitement For Netflix ‘Ajin’ Anime And Manga

Talk about an Ajin Season 3 release date began picking up online when the live action Ajin: Demi-Human movie was released in Japan. Fast forward to 2018 and the number of people searching on Google for the third season of the Ajin anime has remained the same since January of 2017. However, will Polygon Pictures grace Netflix with Ajin Season 3 anytime soon?

The main issue with creating a third season of Ajin is how Polygon Pictures chose to adapt the work of Ajin manga writer Gamon Sakurai. The first season of Ajin is totally faithful to the manga until the last two episodes, but the changes were not enough to perturb the manga fans. However, it was the second season which quickly began to deviate away from the source material completely.

As of January of 2018, Sakurai is only up to Ajin Chapter 55. The manga chapters are relatively short compared to manga like Attack On Titan, and Ajin Volume 11 was released in September of 2017 (the English translation is coming out on May 8, 2018). New manga chapters come out on a monthly basis. The director of the Ajin anime did at first use some references to the manga, but the two versions of the story eventually parted ways after Ajin chapter 29 of the manga (which was released in the tank?bon format in late 2015 as part of Ajin Volume 7).

Unfortunately, at the time of the Ajin anime production, the next major story arc of the manga was incomplete, so the divergence was inevitable. Some fans have compared the situation to Tokyo Ghoul Season 2, but reviews of the anime have remained overall positive while many fans were extremely critical of the way Tokyo Ghoul was adapted.

And it’s not like Polygon Pictures stopped making new content. When the limited edition set of Ajin Volume 10 was released in April of 2017, it was bundled with the third Ajin OVA episode produced by Polygon Pictures. This episode told the previously untold story of the past of main antagonist Sato and how the Ajin phenomenon began in Africa in the 1990’s. The first two OAD (original anime DVD) focused on the “File:00 Shinya Nakamura Incident” story from the manga and also on the daily lives of the characters.

Ajin Movie Built Up The Demi-Human Hype Machine

If Polygon Pictures wanted to announce the production of Ajin Season 3 soon, they should have used the hype surrounding the live-action Ajin movie. The Japanese film started screening in Japan on September 30, 2017. Reviews of the film on Rotten Tomatoes were overall positive and would have given impetus to a future anime adaptation.

Ajin Manga Compared To The Anime

The ending of the last anime season did leave the door open for Ajin Season 3. Mr. Sato and Tanaka are shown to be escaping after being captured by the United States. But the question remaining is how to connect the original ending of the anime to the manga’s story.

The manga and anime matched up to chapter 28, which is when the teenage Ajin Takeshi Kotobuki first met Kei Nagai’s friend, Kaito, in prison. At the end of this chapter, Kotobuki promises to help Kaito get over the wall and readers get to see Kotobuki’s flying ghost.

Warning: The following contains major Ajin manga spoilers.

From there, Chapter 29 shows Nagai working with Yu Tosaki, but their alliance was even tenser than what the anime showed. Nagai sets it up so Tosaki’s fiancee will be killed if he ever stops sending black ghost particles up into the air as a sort of smoke signal. Tosaki also has a demand of his own, asking that Nagai learn to control his ghost so that he can assassinate a government minister so Tosaki can keep his job.

When Tosaki requests that the Anti-Ajin Special Forces (AASF) be deployed his request is denied because Japan wants to secure alive any Ajin in their national borders. When this meeting is attacked by Ajin ghosts targeting Tosaki, he suspects that there is a traitor in the Demi-Human Control Commission working with Mr. Sato. The attack also causes the Commission to consider negotiating a compromise with Sato, whereas in the anime version the government took a hardline stance and did not deploy the AASF until near the end of the second season.

When Tosaki tells Negai that the battle is over, Negai does not believe it for a moment. He’s seen Sato’s memories and knows that the twisted man sees himself as a player in a game. Just like in the anime, Sato would consider compromising a bad ending to his game. In the manga, even the names of the chapters are related to Mr. Sato’s fascination with gaming. For example, some chapters are called Splinter Cell, Shadowrun, Doom, Battlefield Hardline, and Call Of Duty: Infinite Warfare.

The manga also delves into the history of Sato, whose real name is Samuel T. Owen. Even as a child, Samuel killed animals and his father despaired for his son’s future. In the anime, it was a revelation that Sato was a member of a special forces unit on the mission that captured the first known Ajin soldier. In the manga, Tosaki has a file on Sato and tracks down people who knew the man. It turns out Samuel was known by the nickname Poker-face and he was recruited early on into an off-the-books military unit simply called “the team.”

Another big difference is that Mr. Sato became bored with the 11-man assassination list he created, wishing that he’d publicly announced something shorter, and tells Tanaka to take care of the remainder. Eventually, they come to end of the list and both the anime and manga have Sato and his Ajin allies attacking a fortified building owned by Forge Security, the company researching Ajin. But in the manga version, Sato attacks suddenly using a military V-22 Osprey and Kaito comes to the rescue.

But it turns out the whole attack by Sato was just Negai dreaming! Regardless, Tanaka and several other Ajin do attack, but without Sato. In the anime, they used an EMP, but in the manga, they hack the building security and brazenly walk in the front door to kill Forge Security president Keiichi Kai and his Secretary Naomi Li. The Ajin have it far easier in the manga since the AASF and prototype anti-Ajin weaponry are not there. But building security does use tranquilizer guns, which are apparently illegal for private security to use in Japan.

Negai is able to lure Tanaka’s team into a trap by using IBM particles to fill a room with a black haze that blocks the Ajin’s vision and his human teammates do the rest. But Negai also gives Tanaka’s team time to call Sato for backup in hopes of baiting Sato to join the fight.

Unfortunately, Negai wrongly assumes that Sato will attack using the same path as Tanaka so Negai plans on using the same strategy. Sato finds a loophole by cutting off his own hand and then has it delivered inside the secured building as part of a fried chicken food delivery. Meanwhile, Sato throws his main body into a woodchipper. Since Ajin regenerate from the largest chunk of their dead body, Sato is transported and suddenly appears inside the building.

Using this inhuman strategy, Mr. Sato is able to infiltrate the building and rescue Tanaka and the other Ajin. The battles inside the building have Sato using several unique battle tactics not shown in the anime, including one where he cuts off a hand, rushes a hallway and dies, only to revive and be dragged back into cover where his hand was attached.

The manga is different from the anime in that Negai did not use the Forge Security president as a hostage. Instead, Negai’s human allies manage to tranquilize Sato. But the way that Mr. Sato escapes his predicament is the same since they discover Sato’s ghost is still able to move on its own while Sato is unconscious. Similarly, most of Negai’s human allies die in this confrontation.

However, another major difference from the anime is that Izumi Shimomura’s identity as an Ajin is compromised when she loses a ghost battle to Tanaka, so Tosaki kills the witnesses and destroys smartphones. Forge Security president Kai also does not die in the initial confrontation and boasts of beating Sato from inside a panic room, but Sato eventually figures out a way in by using his body’s regenerative capabilities.

Sato then goes after secretary Naomi, but Tanaka decides to rescue her after she apologizes for standing by when the company used his regenerative body for weapons testing. This decision leads to a brief confrontation between Sato and Tanaka, but Sato gives up quickly so he can go “mess around” with Negai more.

Sato chides Negai for failing to consider that Sato would use decapitation as a strategy even after Sato specifically told the younger man about it. He then offers to decapitate Negai, claiming that he’ll become more decisive and creative after experiencing it. While being chased, Negai realizes how Sato managed to break into the panic room and uses that method to open a locked door leading to the rooftop.

The two Ajin boys can jump off the roof to their freedom, but Mister Hirasawa is injured, dying, and has no way to escape. Hirasawa urges Negai to run, to leave the entire battle behind, but when Negai refuses he shoots the younger man off the building. Sato considers jumping off, but he stays to fight Hirasawa in hand-to-hand combat. Negai tries to send his ghost to help, but Sato merely laughs and says they will meet again “at the final wave.”

All in all, the battle at the Forge Security building was almost a fifth of the existing manga chapters yet was covered by a handful of episodes in the second season. If Ajin Season 3 were to attempt to reconnect to the manga then Chapter 43 would probably be a good starting point. Beginning with Chapter 45, characters from the United States become involved, which is another connection point for the anime since Sato and Tanaka escaped from U.S. custody.

While the newer manga chapters’ events would have to be shifted around to make any sense, the action-packed manga slows down dramatically to focus on character development and motivations. It seems like everything will settle down because the main characters have become separated. Even the normally driven Mr. Tosaki gives up his Commission job when his fiancee dies in hospital, although he resolves to continue the fight on his own.

Similar to the anime, Negai feels like giving up a civilized life in the manga and desires to simply disappear into the countryside. Even Negai’s own mother agrees that he should run! Manga readers discover that Negai’s rational, calculating personality definitely comes from his mother’s side, but it’s his father’s emotional side that gives him reason to keep fighting Sato.

Chapter 48 also connects to the anime since it introduced the concept of Sato’s “final wave,” the plan to take over Japan. The chapter has Negai, Tosaki, Izumi, and Ko Nakano reuniting to plan an attack on Sato, but this manga story would need to be changed significantly in the third season since Sato’s attempt at the final wave already took place.

The newest manga chapters also delve into the past. Before he became Mr. Sato, Samuel was just a wounded military veteran with a missing leg who enjoyed playing arcade games. He was approached by his Chinese uncle, a leader in a crime syndicate who desires that his nephew train his men in the art of war. At first, Samuel is not interested, but then they tell him he’d be going to Japan, where all of Samuel’s favorite video games are being made. This fateful meeting with the criminal underworld sets him on a winding path that leads to the Demi-Human Control Commission.

Doctor Ogura’s history with Ajin research in America is revealed, along with all the registered Ajin living in the facility. The newest wrinkle to the origin of Ajin is the revelation that some people die, start to regenerate, but then fail to become full-blown Demi-Human. These so-called “threshold cases” give clues to the scientific basis for how Ajin and their IBMs are created. There are also cases where great emotion will trigger a “deluge” or “flood” of IBMs, which is what took place at the end of anime when Negai summoned many ghosts at once.

Chapter 50 is when the final battle begins. Tanaka desires to negotiate with the government, but Mr. Sato once again has other plans and invades a JSDF military base. While it could be argued that the second season already had a final battle, it’s possible this manga story could be adapted for the anime (never mind the new ghost trick that Sato uses to infiltrate the Iruma air base). The details would have to be significantly different, but the emphasis would be on how a wedge is driven between Tanaka and Mr. Sato. Izumi even thinks Tanaka can be convinced to join their side.

Unfortunately, the manga is only up to Chapter 55, which leaves readers hanging in the middle of the battle. Fans will just have to wait and see if the manga provides a story that could somehow be adapted into another anime.

Ajin: Demi-Human Season 3 Release Date

As of this publishing, anime production company Polygon Pictures has not announced anything official about the Ajin Season 3 release date, although this article will be updated as soon as the anime sequel is confirmed. However, there can be reasonable speculation about when, or if, the Ajin Season 3 air date may occur.

There was an unverified quote being spread around on fans forums which came from a blog called FilmSchoolWTF. This blog claimed that “Polygon Pictures has stated that… there are good chances that Ajin: Demi-Human Season 3 will happen. However, the studio also stated that if Ajin: Demi-Human continues for a third season, then it will be its last season.” Unfortunately, the blog did not provide a source verifying that representatives from Polygon Pictures really did make such statements.

The blog also guessed that the Ajin Season 3 release date would be in the fall of 2017, but that claim turned out to be false. Polygon Pictures’ schedule is already being booked up, leaving little room for the third season of the Ajin anime. Earlier in June, Ajin director Hiroyuki Seshita of Polygon Pictures did confirm the production of the second Blame! movie and also Knights Of Sidonia Season 3. Also, Seshita took the helm for the recently released Godzilla anime movie and they are already working on the second act. Besides Godzilla, the biggest new project scheduled for 2018 is Fist Of The Blue Sky: Regenesis.

Assuming that Ajin Season 3 is ever greenlit for production, it seems very likely that anime fans will be waiting for a few years. The manga needs to produce more source material and the earliest Polygon Pictures might have availability is 2020.

[Update February 1, 2018] Added manga/anime comparison and updated other sections with new information.