The second season of the Future’s Folktales anime series is scheduled to premiere in Japan sometime later this 2024. A new key visual was also revealed on Manga Production’s official Twitter account and at the company’s booth at AnimeJapan 2024.
The visual showcases the main characters of the series, including the heroine Maha and her grandmother, Asmaa. Season two will take place in a new planned smart city called Neom (based on the real city of the same name). The first season took place in Saudi Arabia’s largest city, Riyadh.
Toei Animation will once again serve as the animation production company for the second season of Future’s Folktales. Masami Shimoda (Ai Yori Aoshi, Zegapain) served as director for the first season, along with Hiroki Kikuta (Shining Hearts) as music composer.
The main voice cast for the anime includes:
- • Masako Nozawa as Asmaa
- • Naomi Oozora as Maha
- • Sachiko Kojima as Rayan
- • Megumi Urawa as Sultan
The first season of Future’s Folktales aired for 13 episodes in Japan from April 4, 2020 to June 27, 2020.
Manga Productions announced in 2020 that it entered a partnership agreement with NEOM for the second season’s production. The company is a subsidiary of the Prince Mohammed bin Salman Foundation. It aims to create “animation, comic, and video game projects” to “promote Saudi ideas and messages internationally.”
Sentai Filmworks licensed Future’s Folktales (also known as Asatir: Mirai no Mukashibanashi in Japanese) for release in North America on home video. It also streamed the first season as it aired in Japan on its HIDIVE service, which describes the synopsis as:
In 2050 Riyadh, a grandmother named Asma takes her cherished grandchildren on a whirlwind journey to the past, showcasing the heritage and history of the Arabian Peninsula through retellings of the region’s most beloved folktales. With the help of their robotic cat, Anis, the children learn that their modern-day dilemmas are no match for the words of wisdom passed from generation to generation through their grandmother’s fascinating stories.
Source: Manga Productions Official Twitter, Anime News Network
