Stars Align is a rare breed amongst the rarest in anime. This sports drama has a very niche audience, focusing on topics like family abuse and LGBTQ+, which are a hard sell for the masses. Although the original creator and director, Kazuki Akane, didn’t expect much from Stars Align, considering it’s a non-commercial anime, he was surprised to see how much it’s loved globally.
Unfortunately, for Kazuki and the admirers, Stars Align didn’t get a sequel. Or you can say the right to tell the whole story was snatched when it was ordered to turn into a 12-episode anime instead of the initially planned 24-episode series. Kazuki could’ve compressed 24 episodes into 12-episode series, but he chose not to.
Kazuki delivered 12 episodes with a cliffhanger for the sequel. His goal was to make a difference through Stars Align, to let the neglected ones know they are seen. But he had to pay a hefty price for it. As of now, Stars Align Season 2 seems like a pipe dream.
Is There Going to Be Stars Align Season 2?
Kazuki Akane tried his very best to release the sequel for the fans, but investors don’t measure the love or number of tweets for a show; they measure the money-making potential. Unfortunately, Stars Align is far from being a commercial anime that investors love.
Now, you might ask, why not add some commercial elements for the sake of releasing it? The answer is simple, Kazuki never wanted to compromise the story for the sake of profits.
Why is Stars Align Season 2 a Pipe Dream?
From the very beginning, Kazuki Akane has made it clear that he will be honest with the audience, the medium, and himself regarding the story he wants to tell through Stars Align. The only medium he will release the sequel in is anime. The last thing he is looking for in this project is profit, making it an investor’s nightmare.
If you thought the choice of Soft Tennis as the main sport was random, you are wrong. Kazuki chose this sport because it has no money-making ability like Basketball or Soccer. That’s how he was able to portray the characters’ emotional turmoil on and off the field while being honest and close to reality. Instead of all these obstacles, Akane never gave up on Stars Align Season 2.
In fact, five months after Stars Align S1 ended airing, a Special Fan Movie was released with new scenes after the events of Episode 12, giving the show’s admirers hope for the sequel.
According to Kazuki, the 3-minute 33-second Special Fan Movie is a promotional video for Episode 13 and onwards, and what happens with the characters.
The video shows two years have passed; Rintaoru and Taiyou are looking to recruit members for their soft tennis club. Both of them have enrolled in the same high school. Shingo has decided to go to a military school, while Tsubasa continues to play soft tennis. Nao seems to have aimlessly wandered into delinquency; the bandages on his hands might be a sign of the fights he has been into. At the end of the FV, we see a noticeable scar on Touma’s left hand, who encounters Maki on his way out of the school.
Current Status of Stars Align Season 2
In 2021, Kazuki said that he could not find a company willing to produce the sequel, but he is still going to release Episodes 13 to 24 as anime. It’s not that he hasn’t thought about crowdfunding, but somewhere around 300 million yen (the number is from a 2020 interview; it could be higher in 2024) is quite impossible to collect.
However, in February 2023, Kazuki gave an update regarding the sequel he had meant to release for all these years. He said that an anime production is still out of the question. But he is working on the plot to revise the remaining episodes, especially episode 13, and release them online in their raw state. Although he wanted to release an English version, the machine translation isn’t good enough to deliver the nuances, so it will be only in Japanese.
He also highlighted that due to his health problems, he has not been able to work on the script that much. But he expressed his appreciation for the love and interest Stars Align is getting from overseas.
Final Thoughts
Anime like Stars Align needs bold producers willing to take risks for the medium’s sake, but it’s rare, just like the anime itself. The absence of a sequel wouldn’t be as painful if Stars Align was only a 12-episode series from the beginning.
But the fact that it was originally 24 episodes and was cut down to 12 episodes is rubbing salt in the wound. Even if it’s a raw script, a novel, or a manga, at this point, they seem to be the only option to get this incredible story to the finish line. What do you think?
About Stars Align
Stars Align is an original anime directed and created by Kazuki Akane. Its first season aired in 2019.
It is a coming-of-age story about boys in a junior high school who are a part of the soft tennis club. Maki’s addition to the team improved their poor performance.
Slowly and steadily, the backgrounds of each of the team members is revealed as they all fight their own devils.
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