Shiladitya Ray
Drifters is a Japanese action fantasy anime television series which is based on a popular manga series of the same name. Written and illustrated by Kouta Hirano, the manga series was first published on April 30, 2009. Years after its initial publication, the manga series was picked up for an anime television series, and Season 1 of Drifters premiered on October 7, 2016. Although the show has seen a handful of of original video animation (OVA) special episodes being released after Season 1, fans are still demanding a second season. Here’s everything we know about the prospects of Season 2 thus far.
Drifters Season 2 Release Date: When will it premiere?
Drifters season 1 premiered on October 7, 2016, and following the season’s conclusion on December 23, 2016, it was announced that a second season would be made, with a message which read, “To be continued Second Season. See you again. Tokyo 20XX. Sayonara.”
While Season 2 has been confirmed, the ambiguity of the message stated above means that “20XX” could stand for anything ranging from 2019 to 2099. That being said, in realistic terms, we can expect Drifters Season 2 to premiere sometime in 2021.
Drifters English Dubbing:
If you prefer watching anime in English, Drifters has a good English dub, and dubbed episodes can be found on Funimation, Hulu, and Amazon Prime.
Drifters Plot:
The plot of the show is loosely based on historical events and follows a war hero called Shimazu Toyohisa from the Battle of Sekigahara, which took place on October 21, 1600.
In the battle, Shimazu manages to mortally wound Li Naomasa, but while serving as the rearguard for his side’s retreating troops, gets critically injured. As Shimazu tries to escape the battlefield wounded and bleeding, he suddenly finds himself transported to a modern day corridor. In this corridor, which has hundreds of doors to either side, Shimazu is confronted by a stoic man called Murasaki who sends him through the nearest door.
When Shimazu wakes up, he finds that he has new life in a strange world filled with fantastical beasts and people. Interestingly, Shimazu also finds warriors from different eras of his own world, who were thought to be dead. While Shimazu initially struggles to make sense of his new life and the world he finds himself in, he quickly befriends an infamous warlord called Nobunaga Oda and an ancient, legendary archer called Yoichi Suketaka Nasu. With their help, Shimazu starts to understand his new reality, and learns that political unrest is spreading through the continent. He also learns that like himself, great warriors have been sent into this world to be part of a group called “Drifters”, which carries the responsibility of maintaining peace and order in this world.
With the world plunged into war, the Drifters are then pitted against another group of elite warriors called the Ends, who wish to take over the entire world for themselves and slay all of the Drifters. The Ends are indeed a terrifying bunch, and under their command, creatures like giants and dragons wreak havoc on the land. Tasked with the impossible, the Drifters have to gather all their might to defeat the Ends, and the show follows this war between the two factions.
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Drifters Characters:
Like most anime shows, Drifters has dozens of characters, but three characters are considered to be the main ones. It’s interesting to note that several characters in the show are based on real-life people from Japan’s history. Below, we’ve given you a brief background on each of them.
Shimazu Toyohisa: The main protagonist of the show, Shimazu, is based on the real-life Shimazu Toyohisa, who was a samurai for the Shimazu clan in Japan. Having fought valiantly in the Battle of Kyushu in 1587, Shimazu met his demise during the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. In the show, Shimazu gets transported to the fantastical world and becomes a part of the Drifters and becomes determined to save oppressed people from tyranny. He carries a long sword, a short sword, and a rifle, but uses his rifle sparingly in combat situations when his swords are of no use.
Nobunaga Oda: A powerful Japanese war lord, Nobunaga Oda, in history, was in power in the late 16th century and conquered most of Japan during the late Sengoku period. He is considered to be one of the three unifiers of Japan, and was notorious for his brutal suppression of his opponents. Nobunaga, who died in 1582, is also known for being the first Japanese military commander to use arquebuses, and this is perhaps why he is shown to use arquebuses in the anime show as well. He becomes one of Shimazu’s first allies in the fantastical world, and is one of the most important characters in the show.
Yoichi Suketaka Nasu: The third main character in the show, Yoichi is also a historical figure. A samurai who fought alongside the Minamoto clan in the Genpei War (1180-85), Yoichi is remembered in history for his valiant actions in the Battle of Yashima in 1184. In the show, Yoichi is shown to be an effeminate 19-year-old man who is part of the Drifters. A skilled archer, Yoichi is extremely adept at taking out a large number of enemies from range.
Apart from these three main characters, other historical characters who are part of the Drifters group in the show include legendary Carthaginian military commander Hannibal Barca, his Roman adversary Scipio Africanus, famous Western outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, World War II fighter pilot Naoshi Kanno, and Imperial Japanese Navy admiral Tamon Yamaguchi .
Several historical characters are also part of the Ends, including 19th century Japanese warrior Hijikata Toshizō, legendary French military commander Jeanne d’Arc, Jeanne’s companion in arms Gilles de Rais, Tsar Nicholas II’s daughter Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin ,16th century samurai Akechi Mitsuhide, and 12th century Japanese military commander Minamoto no Yoshitsune.
Other notable historical characters who feature in the show include Adolf Hitler, Count Saint-Germi, and a group of Greek warriors known as the Sacred Band of Thebes.
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