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‘Princess Principal’ Season 2: Director Masaki Tachibana Talks Movie, ‘PriPri’ Sequel Hopes At Anime NYC 2017

By Patrick Frye
Published on: 08:38 PST, Nov 20, 2017

Spies may rely on surprise and intrigue to get the job done, but it’s no surprise that director Masaki Tachibana was asked about Princess Principal Season 2 during the recent Anime NYC 2017. The TV show is well-regarded by anime fans, with some reviews calling the Princess Principal anime one of the best anime of 2017. Everybody wants the second season, but will it happen?

Crunchyroll Sr. Social Manager Miles attended the Princess Principal Q&A and was hoping to ask a question about how the studio ended up producing Episode 7. It’s a good question since the odd episode was based in a laundry mill. The plot was focused on plant management, operations, and a slice of life story about the average working woman in the fantasy world. While poor Miles was too far behind in line and did not get a chance to ask his question, he did relay some of Tachibana’s answers to other questions.

The original story by Code Geass writer Ichiro Okouchi was produced by Sentai Filmworks, Actas, and Studio 3Hz. When questioned by PriPri fans about the steampunk espionage atmosphere, director Tachibana discussed how the studios came up with the look and feel of the fictional London. It turns out that the director’s personal experiences helped drive the vision since the “feel of London” came from his own honeymoon.

Tachibana also says that his prior experience working in the anime industry resulted in the Princess Principal anime.

“I have put everything I have worked on up to now [into Princess Principal],” he said. “This is a culmination of all my anime work. I put in many mysteries to find and hope you will be able to enjoy them all.”

Princess Principal Episode 12 provided an open ending, so it was inevitable that fans would ask about the PriPri sequel. Unfortunately, the director could not confirm Princess Principal Season 2 quite yet, but he did confirm that the studio really wants to make it happen.

“We would like to make a season two, we hope to make a season two, but that’s not up to us. We left a lot of things unresolved,” he said.

Like many anime, sales of the Blu-Ray/DVD box sets and any related physical merchandise are a critical deciding factor in whether an anime committee greenlights a PriPri sequel. The sales of the first two Blu-Ray volumes have done okay, but Tachibana said that Bandai Visual told him that Princess Principal Season 2 will be financed if enough figures are sold.

“[Bandai Visual] told me that if we sell enough of these figures, we can make another season,” he said.

The main Princess Principal figure being hyped by Bandai Visual shows Ange holding up the miniature Cavorite device while wearing her caped espionage outfit. As Miles humorously noticed, it has an “optional head part with top hat.” The Ange figurine officially sells for 14,800 yen, or $131.41 USD, but on some websites, the figure is already on preorder for around $168 USD.

Besides talking about Princess Principal Season 2, Tachibana spoke about his own personal goals for the future. The director says he would like to work on an anime movie since the budgets are not so tight.

“Movies tend to get more funds to work with, so they can spend more time on scenes,” Tachibana explained at Anime NYC 2017. “As opposed to TV anime, where you are on a much tighter schedule and cannot always perfect everything. In that sense, I would like to work on a movie.”

Unfortunately, the director was talking about an anime movie in general, not a Princess Principal movie. Let’s just hope Tachibana has a chance to work on both Princess Principal Season 2 and a PriPri movie.

[Featured Image by Studio 3Hz, Actus/Princess Principal Anime TV Promo]

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