New season follows Itsuki’s on-again-off-again relationship with her boss Fuyu in game industry
TV Tokyo announced on Wednesday that Chaser Game W, the second live-action series based on CyberConnect2 President and CEO Hiroshi Matsuyama‘s Chaser Game manga, will get a second season that will premiere on TV Tokyo, TV Osaka, TV Aichi, and TV Setouchi on September 19. The new season is tentatively titled Chaser Game W2.
© チェイサーゲーム W2」製作委員会
Yūka Sugai (left in image above) returns as protagonist Itsuki Harumoto, a 27-year-old woman who has complex feelings about her ex-girlfriend. Yurika Nakamura (right) stars as Fuyu Hayashi, Itsuki’s ex-girlfriend and new boss. The new season will follow Itsuki and Fuyu’s relationship in the year between their separation and their reunion, as well as what happens after they reunite.
The first season of the Chaser Game W series premiered earlier this year on January 8. Unlike the first live-action Chaser Game series, which directly adapts the manga, Chaser Game W features an original story and characters centering around two lesbians working in the game industry.
Yū Ohta, and Yoshikazu Igi are returning as directors alongside Tomoya Sugioka. Ohta and Atsushi Asada are also returning as scriptwriters.
The first live-action Chaser Game series launched in September 2022.
©CyberConnect2 Co., Ltd. ©Hiroshi Matsuyama
The manga ended its “first season” with its seventh volume in January 2023. The manga had an eighth volume containing the short manga that Matsuyama drew during the airing of the first season of the live-action series. The ninth and 10th volume collect chapters of the recently-launched “second season” of the manga. The second season launched in April 2023. The 10th volume shipped on April 23 earlier this year.
Matsuyama launched the manga on Kadokawa‘s Famitsu.com games website in December 2018. The website describes the manga:
The story starts when the protagonist Tatsuya Shindō rises to a senior position in the company. Shindō has been told to manage a team as their leader, but his colleagues are oddballs. And the creator tells lies…!
The manga is set at Matsuyama’s real-life company CyberConnect2, but the live-action version is set at “DynamicDream.”
CyberConnect2 is best known for its .hack// game franchise, for which Matsuyama served as director. The franchise inspired anime and manga adaptations. The company is also known for the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja series of fighting games, and also worked on the Asura’s Wrath and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven games. Its recent Fuga: Melodies of Steel tactical RPG revives the company’s homegrown world from its earlier Tail Concerto and Solatorobo: Red the Hunter.
Sources: TV Tokyo, Comic Natalie
Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.
