Wotakoi: Love Is Hard For Otaku Season 2 - Will It Ever Happen?
We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.
Many of the most popular anime out there focus on teenage characters, particularly when it comes to slice-of-life shows. "Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku" turns this idea on its head, featuring adult characters that are highly relatable for fans of manga, anime, and pop culture in general. Written and illustrated by the mononymous mangaka Fujita, "Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku" debuted as a web comic on Pixiv in 2014. Ichijinsha began publishing the manga in print the following year, and it's since been adapted into an anime and even a live-action film. The anime's intro also inspired a dance trend on TikTok.
The series follows a group of otaku working in an office. Narumi enjoys drawing and reading yaoi doujinshi, though she largely keeps her otaku side to herself. Her boyfriend, Hirotaka, is an avid gamer, and their relationship allows Narumi to be nerdy without fear of rejection. Hanako is a famous cosplayer known for her male characters, while her high school sweetheart, Kabakura, reads manga and watches anime whenever he has free time. Hirotaka's younger brother, Nao, knows nothing about pop culture and sucks at gaming, but becomes more immersed in the hobby when he becomes friends with the reserved Kou.
The anime series, which was made by A-1 Pictures, was one of the most popular shows of the Spring 2018 slate, and fans have been waiting for news of a second season since then. Will they ever get to see it? Here's what we know about "Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku" Season 2.
Why isn't Season 2 of Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku happening yet?
Unfortunately, there has been no news regarding a second season of "Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku," and the chances of a follow-up season being greenlit are pretty slim at this stage. While it covered them out of order (a necessary creative decision given the scattershot style of the source material), the first season of the anime was based on the first four volumes of the manga. The manga, which came to an end in 2021, has 11 volumes in total. While this makes it sound as though there's plenty of material left to adapt, some manga chapters differ in length and there have been three OVAs since Season 1 ended, cutting down the amount of arcs that have yet to be adapted for screen.
The OVAs were extremely popular, with sales far exceeding expectations. But, while fans were grateful to get these OVAs, the general consensus is that they killed any chance of a second season. "I'm not sure there is enough material," Reddit user u/Fresh_turtles_42 said in a Season 2 discussion thread. "It breaks my heart that we likely won't get one." Fellow Redditor u/DiamondKitsune agreed, writing that Season 2 was "highly unlikely" to ever happen. "The 3 OVAs they released pretty much covered a lot of things that would have been a part of season 2," they added. "I genuinely don't know that they'd honestly have enough material for a second season at this point."
What the creators have said about Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku Season 2
Fans of "Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku" can rest assured that the creators of the anime want to see it get a second season as much as they do. When they sat down for an interview with Kodansha in 2022, Fujita and editor Kaito Suzuki confirmed that they would love the anime series to continue. Unfortunately, it's out of their control. "I want that as much as anybody, so there's no point asking me about it," Fujita said with a laugh.
But the question remains: How would a second season work? As fans have pointed out, there's not a ton of source material left to pull from. However, Suzuki believes there's enough there for a satisfactory follow-up season. "I do want to see them do the events surrounding Kabakura and Hanako's wedding and the book-only episodes from [Japanese] volumes nine to eleven," Suzuki said. "It would certainly make a lot of people happy if they animated the full series."
Is there any chance that Fujita might create more manga chapters that could in turn be used for more anime seasons? Don't hold your breath. The writer and illustrator told Kodansha that the story "went as far as it would go" and that they were eager to end it in a way that was true to the characters, especially Narumi. "I felt the story couldn't go on without having Narumi face her inner conflict about hiding her otaku ways, and if I kept waiting to pursue that storyline, I was worried that it wouldn't be clear what the story was about anymore," Fujita explained.
Who would star in Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku Season 2?
If "Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku" was to come back for a second season, it's highly likely that the main voice cast would reprise their roles, given that they all remain active in the industry. Narumi Momose is voiced by Arisa Date, whose most recent role was in the 2023 video game "Honkai: Star Rail," an RPG developed and published by HoYoverse. In terms of anime, she recently voiced third-year student Rikka Yanagi in "World's End Harem," a show set in a reality where a virus has killed 99% of all men.
Hirotaka Nifuji, the other main character in "Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku," is voiced by Kent Ito, who has been very busy since he last played the bespectacled otaku. In 2023 alone he played Kyōichi Majima in "My Home Hero," Gorō Amemiya in "Oshi no Ko," and Wirth Mádl in "Mashle: Magic and Muscles," which fans of a certain boy wizard will love. "Adapted from Hajime Kōmoto's manga of the same name, 'Mashle: Magic and Muscles' is a direct and unapologetic parody clearly made by a Harry Potter fan who isn't afraid to poke fun at the more ridiculous aspects of the franchise," IGN said in its review.
The rest of the cast is made up of Miyuki Sawashiro (Daki in "Demon Slayer"), Tomokazu Sugita (Gintoki in "Gintama"), Yūki Kaji (Eren Yeager in "Attack on Titan"), and Aoi Yūki (Sayaka Natori in "Your Name"), who also narrated the first season.
Where to watch Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku Season 1
If you haven't seen "Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku" Season 1 yet, or you just want to watch it again to soften the blow that Season 2 is unlikely to happen, you can stream it on Amazon Prime Video, where it has a five-star rating. Amazon offers a 30-day free trial which should be more than enough time to watch all 11 episodes of the first — and, at the time of this writing — only season.
If you've already had a free trial and the offer is no longer available, then you'll have to subscribe in order to watch "Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku." Amazon Prime membership costs $14.99 per month, but if you just want Prime Video, you can pay for that separately at $8.99 a month. A yearly subscription to Amazon Prime costs $139. If you're a student, the rates for Amazon Prime are much cheaper: It's $7.49 per month, or $69 per year. Unfortunately, the OVAs aren't on Amazon.