The Summer 2026 Anime Preview Guide

Skeleton Knight in Another World Season 2

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Arc returns! After waking to find he's become a Skeleton Knight in his favorite fantasy video game, Arc, Ariane, Chiyome, and Ponta band together to take on evil. Before Arc's search for a cure to his skeletal condition continues, he must face a dogmatic leader, Count Hilk, to free oppressed elves and beasts. A new chapter begins as the Skeleton Knight fights to make his new world a better place

Skeleton Knight in Another World Season 2 is based on the light novel series by author Ennki Hakari and illustrator KeG. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Saturdays.

Note: The reviews below are based on an early screener provided by Crunchyroll. The anime series will premiere on July 4 at 7:30am EDT.

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Richard Eisenbeis
Rating:

Alright, I admit it. I completely forgot how fun this series can be.

With anime, there tend to be two kinds of season premieres. The first is a direct continuation of the previous season, as if there were no break in between seasons. The second category, which this episode falls into, is a one-off side story adventure designed to ease the viewer back into the world after an extended absence.

What this means in actuality is watching Arc, Chiyome, and Ariane break up a demi-human slave ring. During the adventure, we are reminded about the problems in this world—namely, the racism against elves and beastmen—as well as our heroes and their personalities. And honestly, the characters are the best part of this show.

Arc is a well-meaning dunce. He is incredibly overpowered as far as the fantasy world is concerned and doesn't seem to realize the extent of it. This causes all kinds of issues, even in this episode, as he goes from blowing up a forest to collapsing an underground hideout—nearly killing his companions in the process. Moreover, his isekai nature makes him view everything as a game at worst and a light-hearted adventure at best. This is always played for laughs—and the fact that his heart is always in the right place makes him incredibly endearing.

Meanwhile, Ariane plays the role of straight man as she tries to rein in Arc's more destructive and impulsive actions—though often failing. However, as trying as her life is with him in it, it's easy to see why she would choose to stay around him. He is a noble soul and one who clearly treasures both her and Chiyome.

And speaking of Chiyome, this episode also showcases her role. She's accepted that Arc is basically a force of nature. Rather than trying to keep him focused on the big picture or teach him common sense, she's decided to go with the flow. She gives someone else for Ariane to bounce off of—someone who can commiserate with her feelings, even if she doesn't let those same feelings affect her.

All this comes together in a silly little single-episode adventure that serves as a microcosm of what to expect with the series—and with some surprisingly good animation to boot. While it's nothing groundbreaking, watching this episode will make it clear whether you want to continue watching.

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Jeremy Tauber
Rating:

Despite the giant Yikesfest that was its first episode, I didn't have much of a problem with Skeleton Knight's first season. It was another power fantasy isekai that could not help but be exactly that the entire time. Fantasy world. The main character is an overpowered gamer. Slaves. Busty anime girls. The OP slaps, though? Check, check, and check. There's nothing I love, nothing I hate, nothing I'm indifferent to. It simply was what it was.

Which is what we more or less get out of this new episode. It turns out that there are some bad guys who are kidnapping elves and beastmen in order to (surprise surprise) make slaves out of 'em. And two of these bad guys are posing as Arc and Arianne, meaning that the real Arc, Arianne, and Chiyome have to beat these slavers to a pulp to clear their names and deliver justice. Of course. It gives the episode an excuse to play out many of the same beats from last season to bring the audience back into the fold. It doesn't make for a big bang of an opening that pushes the narrative in a new direction (seriously, were you even expecting that?), but instead feels like a compilation of references to the last season. It all has the tired, seen-and-heard-it-before energy of a greatest hits playlist.

And so the slaves are back. And so are big fights against slave owners. And Arc's overexcitement of being a gamer isekai'd to an RPG world. And the spirit fox companion is saying “kyuu!” every other minute because it's cute, I guess. And so are the busty anime girl Arianne and her catgirl comrade Chiyome. And a bath house scene, because why the Hell not? We can give Arc a “baka no hentai” moment, maybe squeeze some fan service out of Arianne. We can even have Chiyome compliment Arianne's legs in a way that's very gay (complimentary).

On a mildly related note, some good news: the sexual assault from last season doesn't come back. At least not entirely. The episode starts off with some random girls being attacked by some pervy dudes, and the pesky sex vibes are definitely there and ungodly uncomfortable and so forcefully thrown into the mix. Thankfully, Arc and Arianne swoop in to save the day before the show can go all Goblin Slayer on the audience. Still, we have to deal with some creepy (but thankfully not graphic) sex pestery with the slavers we see later on, and I know it's there to make us not like them, but like. Can we. Just. Not. Maybe? The pervy failson from last season comes back to get his ass whooped by Arianne again, and including it here feels like a cheap way for the show to excuse itself for its insipid sexism.

Still, good on the show for not going so all the way with its perversion this time around. But all it does is elevate an otherwise abysmal watch to something that's just comfort-food adventure isekai. Which is what I'm sure the rest of the season will be in spades. If that's your bag, then all power to you.

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Kennedy
Rating:

I'm a simple person: I liked the “hey, we're famous enough that there's a group that's poorly impersonating us” when I saw it in One Piece, and I like it again as a premise for Skeleton Knight. In fact, also not unlike One Piece—where it happened around the start of the time skip—it makes for a good icebreaker here, too, since we're in the second season now. It's a good reminder of where we've been, and how far we've come—or at least, it would be, if there's been much progress made.

Indeed, little has changed since the first season. Arc is still as overpowered as ever, but now he just has some traveling companions. The overall visual quality is still roughly the same, with CGI that still looks—not awful, necessarily, but a bit jarring. Even so, I like that some effort was made to have Arc look all the more sparklier. It really suits the idea that, in spite of his claiming he wants to be inconspicuous, he very obviously loves the attention his side questing gives him. So, I guess that's something.

Essentially, the only meaningful thing that's really changed is that now, Arc ostensibly has a goal of reaching the spring that will uncurse him. But even this doesn't really feel real or significant, given that he demonstrably doesn't really care about getting there any time soon. He'd probably be content to just side quest until the end of his days, with the spring falling by the wayside. It's hard to take the idea that he has a destination in mind seriously when even he himself doesn't really seem too concerned about it. In other words, even though theoretically he has a goal now, it doesn't really feel like it. The stakes feel as low as ever.

In any case, I hope this season of Skeleton Knight can take this modicum of momentum and actually do something substantial with it. Season 1 suffers from being pretty forgettable overall, and while this episode was on the better side, it still wasn't exactly the kind of thing that I anticipate will come to mind when I go back and think of the best premieres of the season.

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