The official website for the second season of the anime based on Wookjakga‘s A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special (Kikansha no Mahō wa Tokubetsu Desu in Japanese) Korean webtoon presented a new promotional video for the anime on Wednesday. The video announces and previews the anime’s ending theme song “Everlasting” by singer-songwriter krage.

The new season will premiere in Fuji TV‘s “+Ultra” programming block in October, and it will run on Wednesdays at 24:45 (effectively, Thursdays at 12:45 a.m.). The first season began re-airing on Fuji TV and Kansai TV in July.

Crunchyroll will stream the new season.

The rock band FLOW returns to create the “Sorrow” song specifically for the new season’s opening theme.

The anime’s cast includes:

Taishi Kawaguchi returns to direct the anime at Arvo Animation, nad Takamitsu Kouno (She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man, Absolute Duo, We Without Wings – Under the Innocent Sky) returns to oversee and write the scripts. Hiromi Katō (Violinist of Hamelin, Kobato., Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut) is designing the characters, and Daisuke Negishi is the art director. Kenta Higashiohji (Pole Princess!!) returns to compose the music.

Other staff include:

Yen Press is releasing the series in English and it describes the story:

In a time when the Shadow World has taken over and most of humanity is wiped out, a party of six heroes strives and fails to save the world… But magician Desir Herman is given a second chance when he opens his eyes and finds that he’s gone back thirteen years in the past! It’s now up to him to gather his party once more and stop the greatest catastrophe in human history!

The first season of the anime debuted in October 2023. Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired in English-speaking, Latin America, and European countries, along with an English dub.

Source: A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special anime’s website via Ota-Suke

The October issue of Shogakukan‘s Cheese! magazine announced on Monday that manga creator Chie Shinohara will launch a new manga titled Itsukinomiya Genshitan (The Records of Itsukinomiya Visions) in the magazine’s next issue on September 24.

The “historical mystery epic” manga is set in Ise Province during Japan’s Asuka period (538-710 CE), and centers on an imperial princess. The princess serves the gods at Ise Grand Shrine, as is the custom for unmarried princesses at the time. The story begins when someone visits her, which will lead to a great turn in the pages of history.

Shinohara serialized her classic Red River (Sora wa Akai Kawa no Hotori) shōjo manga in Shogakukan‘s Shōjo Comic (Sho-Comi) magazine from 1995 to 2002. Viz Media started releasing the manga in English in 2004, and released all 28 volumes between 2004 to 2010. The company then started re-releasing the manga in 3-in-1 omnibus editions in October 2024, and released the seventh omnibus volume on April 21.

The Red River manga inspired a stage play by the famed all-female Takarazuka Revue troupe in 2018. The manga is also inspiring an ongoing television anime that debuted on July 7. Crunchyroll is streaming the anime as it airs in Japan.

Sources: Cheese! October issue, Chie Shinohara‘s X/Twitter account

French President Emmanuel Macron announced a new 6 billion euro (about US$7 billion) theme park project. The project will build three theme parks in Cergy-Pontoise, a new development area about 30 kilometers (about 18 miles) outside of Paris. The Japan Times newspaper reported that Macron’s office said one of the theme parks “is expected to be manga-themed,” and The Japan Times and British public broadcaster BBC further specified that a theme park is “expected to be themed on the Dragon Ball series.”

Macron stated that France has partnered with the Saudi Arabian investment company Qiddiya Investment Company, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and funder of Saudi Arabia’s planned Dragon Ball theme park, for the new project near Paris. The president further stated that the project near Paris is on a scale not seen since Disneyland Paris and is projected to create 22,000 new jobs.

The Japan Times and the BBC reported the project was approved during a two-day state visit by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman to France this week. The Japan Times stated the leaders “signed a memorandum of understanding” for the project. The BBC added that local report indicate one of the theme parks could be built on the former site of the Mirapolis, a theme park that closed in Val-d’Oise in 1991.

The Japan Times added that Macron’s office was asked about partnering with Saudi Arabia despite criticisms of the nation’s human rights record. The office reportedly stated, “At no point, when we attract a project, do we seek to lecture others.” The question came amid backlash from three journalists’ unions protesting the hosting of bin Salman over the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

As of press time, no construction dates or opening dates for the theme parks have been announced.

Sources: Emmanuel Macron’s X/Twitter account (link 2), BBC, The Japan Times, Breaking Travel News