‘Killing Bites’ Season 2 Release Date For The Anime: ‘Killing Bites’ Manga Continues Hitomi/Ratel’s Story


If the Greater Honeyguide was here, then she could spot the anime Killing Bites Season 2 for the ratel Hitomi Uzaki from a great distance. Then, the honey badger with the sharpest fangs would surely win 100 internets by sharing the news with everyone. However, Oshie is not a Therianthrope.

Thankfully, mangaka Shinya Murata is a beast at producing new Killing Bites manga chapters at a consistent rate. The monthly manga series has been serialized in Monthly Hero‘s magazine since November of 2013. As of March of 2018, the manga is up to Killing Bites Volume 10, which includes up to Chapter 49 (the tankobon format books each come with five chapters, except for Volume 7). The final pages of Volume 10 announced that Killing Bites Volume 11 is “scheduled to release in the fall of 2018” but did not give an exact date.

Oddly enough, there is no official English translation for the Killing Bites manga, although there is a German translation that goes up to Volume 6. Similarly, a Killing Bites English dub for the anime’s first season has not been announced by the licensors. As of this article’s publishing, English-based fan translation projects for the manga are only up to Chapter 25 of Volume 5.

Killing Bites Manga Compared To The Anime

The climactic conclusion to the Destroyale island tournament story arc covers the majority of the available manga chapters and is the sole focus of the Killing Bites anime adaptation thus far. Episode 10 adapted the ending of manga Volume 5, which focused on the history between Hitomi and her guardian Reiichi Shido. Episode 11 delved into Volume 6 and showed the surprising victor of the battle royale tournament. It also showed how the infighting between the four Zaibatsu begins.

The ending in Killing Bites Episode 12 finished off the entirety of Chapter 30 and even teased a major revelation from later in the manga. Since director Yasuto Nishikata of anime studio Liden Films went all the way to the ending of Volume 6, it could be argued that the anime set up the story conditions for Killing Bites Season 2. That can be interpreted as a good sign for the second season, or at least it serves as a solid teaser for reading the manga. However, since the anime ended that way, anime audiences were left with quite the shocking ending.

The bad news is that there is not quite enough new manga chapters for making Killing Bites Season 2 right away. The good news is that manga creator Shinya Murata should be up to Killing Bites Volume 12 by the first half of 2019.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE8JtD8IUd4

Killing Bites Season 2 Release Date

As of this article’s publishing, animation company Liden Films has not announced anything official about the Killing Bites Season 2 release date, although this article will be updated as soon as the anime sequel’s premiere is confirmed. However, there can be reasonable speculation about when, or if, the Killing Bites Season 2 premiere date may occur.

One notable fact is that voice actress Minami Tanaka was given the role of the new lead character in the next story arc, so it would seem odd to limit her to just a one-liner. Assuming that a second season needs around 30 to 40 chapters worth of source material, that means it will be around a year before the manga is ready for an anime sequel. Considering that anime projects take years to develop, that’s just perfect, but a second season will largely depend on the first season’s success in the financial arena.

The first volume of the Killing Bites Blu-Ray/DVD box set released on March 28, 2018, just days before Episode 12 airs in Japan. There will be three episodes per disc for a total of four volumes. (This article will be updated with the sales numbers from Japan.)

Liden Films isn’t exactly known for doing anime sequels, except in the cases of The Heroic Legend Of Arslan and Terra Formars. Both sequel projects were co-animated with other studios. The studio has not yet announced any projects scheduled for 2019, but starting in April of 2018 they’ll be releasing the Netflix Original anime Lost Song and Layton Mystery Detective Agency: Kat’s Mystery-Solving Files. In July of 2018, they’ll release Hanebado! and Phantom In The Twilight.

Hitomi will continue to be a major character in the second season.

Killing Bites Season 2 Spoilers

Unlike many battle royale stories, the manga author states in the afterword of Volume 6 that the Destroyale tournament was only intended to give audiences their “first impression of this world.” Essentially, that makes the anime a long prologue which introduces the concept of the Zaibatsu, the Therianthrope hybrids, and the now-public Killing Bites tournament. The initial six volumes of the manga showed the background story and the initial “interactions between Hitomi and Nomoto,” but, as the author puts it, “the real story starts now.”

In the beginning, Japan was ruled from the shadows by the four Zaibatsu and the entire point of the current Destroyale was to determine which company would be in control of the financially lucrative hybrid gene therapy technology. By the end, the four presidents were bickering, but an anti-chairman faction within the groups decided to stage a coup de tat against the elderly chairman of the leading Zaibatsu, Yozan Mitsukado. Shido believed the chairman had been holding back the Japanese economy and the benefits to the public that could be achieved through Theriomorphosis.

When Yozan’s granddaughter, the pompous Yoko Mitsukado, goes to see him, she finds the Zaibatsu leader slumped over and covered in bloody wounds. When Shido announces that Yozan died from natural causes like a heart attack, Yoko is outraged and demands that Leo the Lion Therianthrope kill the traitors. Instead, Leo declares that he no longer serves Yoko and will make her his slave, similar to how a male lion will annex all the lionesses after killing the male leader of a pack. The next time anime watchers see Yoko, she’ll be riding in Leo’s limo while wearing a locked collar. It’s unknown what part she has to play in the ongoing story and it’s uncertain whether she’ll rebel against her new master as of Chapter 41.

But the real shocking twist was reserved for the final pages of Chapter 30. Two weeks after the Destroyale ended, Nomoto is back to living a normal life as a college student. He’s excited when Hitomi texts him a message asking him to meet her at the garbage dump where he first learned of the underworld tournaments. Hitomi’s arm has been reattached and it’s apparently healing fast.

Nomoto thanks Hitomi for her part in influencing how he finally decided to fight for himself rather than let others control his path in life. “Fangs represent the will to fight,” he declared. Embarrassed, Hitomi mistook his words as a declaration of love and even thanked him for sticking by her side. Before Nomoto can get out another full sentence, Hitomi suddenly claws open his chest, pouring his blood out on the ground, and she leaves him for dead in the dump.

“Sorry, Nomoto,” Hitomi said, denying that she was sad despite having tears in her eyes. “I don’t know exactly why, but Shido ordered me to kill you. He said you are in the way of both his future plans and me.”

Two years later, Shido and his Theriomorphosis project have transformed society. Relaxed hybridization laws passed with the Zaibatsu’s influence have resulted in human-animal Therianthropes becoming common. Tokyo has even created a special zone for hybrids located on an autonomous island in the bay. What’s more, the island is the host of a sports stadium that advertises the international Killing Bites tournament by showcasing the Rabbit hybrid Ui Inaba on billboards.

The cover of ‘Killing Bites’ Volume 7 features the new main character Pure Inui.

At the stadium, the new main female protagonist of Killing Bites Season 2 announces that she will become the champion Brute fighter. This 15-year-old dog-girl hybrid may look cute, but Inui Pure has a tragic backstory. Pure only became a hybrid because she was almost killed after she and her beagle Nunupi were hit by a truck. Luckily, Pure’s genes were compatible with the hybrid surgery and the doctors merged her body with her own dead dog. Oddly enough, this fusing process allows Pure to receive advice from the “spirit” of Nunupi.

Warning: Major spoilers for Killing Bites Season 2 and Volume 10 of the manga.

Society is now filled with all types of hybrids, from scaly reptiles to hairy giant hamsters. More origin beasts have gone public now that hybrids are common. Unsurprisingly, the new story features a list of new animal types for the Brute fighters, including the rhino, hyena, wolf, ram, and even a sloth fighter. The female Tasmanian Devil fighter was briefly shown during the ending of the anime. Similar to the Brute Cobra in the first season, the Brute Hyena character is especially vile since the female hyena lustfully attacks Pure using her enlarged pseudo-penis (yes, that’s a real thing with female hyenas). There will also be returning characters like Tiger, Cheetah, Lion, and Rabbit.

Pure will eventually meet and fight against Hitomi the honey badger Brute fighter, but what makes the plot interesting is that Nomoto secretly survived the assassination attempt by the ratel girl. Surprisingly, the ending of the anime revealed that Nomoto survived since that plot twist was reserved for later chapters in the manga.

Last warning: Don’t read the next paragraph if you don’t want to know what happens to Nomoto.

Inui Pure as portrayed in the ‘Killing Bites’ anime.

Nomoto has been plotting his revenge by training newcomer hybrids like Pure. The relationship between trainer and fighter develops a new dimension to the previously dull character, but that’s not all. It turns out Hitomi genuinely likes Nomoto and she is extremely jealous when she finds out he has been hiding out with the cute dog girl. Regardless, Nomoto will bare his own fangs against Hitomi when it’s eventually revealed that he has become a Therianthrope. Even manga readers don’t know what animal-type Nomoto is since that revelation is reserved for Chapter 50, but some fans hope he’ll end up being a wolverine. Obviously, the one with the sharper fangs wins. That’s what Killing Bites is.

Hitomi confronts Nomoto and sees the horrible scar on his chest.

Needless to say, Killing Bites Season 2 may actually be more interesting than the first story arc. Hopefully, fans won’t have to wait too long for news of the second season. Stay tuned.

[Update April 2, 2018] Added manga Volume 11 release timeframe, more spoilers, and analysis based on Episode 12.

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