There Was a Cute Girl in the Hero's Party, so I Tried Confessing to Her is getting a second season. The anime's official website announced the sequel on Saturday with a single announcement visual and no broadcast details. No premiere window, no episode count, no studio note.
That is thin, as sequel announcements go. It is also how most of them arrive: a website update, a picture, and a wait.
What is confirmed
The second season is in production. Gekkou animated the first one, which ran 13 episodes in winter 2026 and premiered on January 6, 2026. Crunchyroll simulcast it with subtitles in multiple languages.
Beyond that, the announcement did not commit to anything. Whether Gekkou returns, whether the main cast carries over, and where the second season will land in the calendar are all still open.
The source material
The anime adapts the manga by Kairi, which itself adapts a novel by Suisei. Kairi has been serializing it in Manga Gaugau since January 2021, and the 14th collected volume came out on July 15. The series reported 750,000 copies in circulation as of July 2025.
Suisei's original novel started on the Shousetsuka ni Narou website in July 2013. Futabasha began releasing it in print under the Monster Bunko imprint in October 2024, with illustrations by La-na, whose other work includes Majutsushi Kunon wa Mieteiru. NTT Docomo publishes the manga digitally in English on its Manga Mirai service.
The gap between the web novel and the print edition is worth noting because it explains the shape of the franchise. A story that spent eleven years as a free web serial built its audience slowly, then got a manga, then an anime, then a print light novel run. That is a backwards path compared with the usual light novel to manga to anime pipeline, and it means the source material already had a proven readership before anyone animated a frame.
Why a second season is not the obvious outcome
Reaction to the news was split, and that is the interesting part. The first season drew criticism over its production, with viewers singling out episode 5 in particular. Comments under the announcement itself were full of people saying they had assumed the show would not come back at all.
Sequels are not usually decided by how loud the disappointment is. They are decided by how the production committee's numbers look across streaming, the manga bump and disc sales. A 13-episode winter cour with a Crunchyroll simulcast gives a committee several revenue lines, and the manga was still adding volumes. Something in that mix was strong enough to justify another round.
There is also a licensing angle. NTT Docomo's Manga Mirai carries the manga in English, and Crunchyroll carried the anime, so the international side of the property was already set up before the sequel was greenlit. Other shows have followed the same route lately, with Draw This, Then Die! confirming a second season straight after its first ended.
What to expect next
The usual order after an announcement visual is a teaser, then staff, then cast confirmations, then a date. Given that the first season premiered in January 2026, a second season landing in 2027 or later is the reasonable read, though nothing official supports a specific window.
For anyone who skipped the first season, the premise is in the title. A hero's party includes a girl the protagonist likes, and he tells her. That puts the confession at the start rather than the finish, which is a different structural problem than most fantasy romances have to solve. Whether the second season answers the complaints about the first is the question that will decide how it lands.
Source: MyAnimeList News and the anime’s official website.
Featured image: Second season announcement visual for There Was a Cute Girl in the Hero's Party, so I Tried Confessing to Her, via Anime Corner.
