Bocchiboromaru to perform “Romantic ga Hoshii nara” with 3 Hinatazaka46 members
The staff for the second television anime season based on Yūsei Matsui’s The Elusive Samurai (Nigejōzu no Wakagimi) manga announced on Friday that Bocchiboromaru will perform the theme song “Romantic ga Hoshii nara” (If You Wish for Romance) with three guest vocalists from idol group Hinatazaka46. The official X (formerly Twitter) account for the anime shared a video of Bocchiboromaru:
Image via The Elusive Samurai anime’s X/Twitter account
© 松井優征／集英社・逃げ上手の若君製作委員会
The new season will begin airing on July 17 at 11:30 p.m. (10:30 a.m. EDT) on the Fuji TV network, and it will also run on AT-X. Prime Video will stream the series.
Asaki Yuikawa stars as Hojo Tokiyuki and Yūichi Nakamura as Suwa Yorishige.
The cast includes:
Yuta Yamazaki (assistant director for Wonder Egg Priority, series director for both Love Rice series) returns to direct for season 2 at CloverWorks, and Yasushi Nishiya also returns (chief animation director for Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us, Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You!) to design the characters and assume the new role of chief animation director. Shinnosuke Ōta serves as animation director, while GEMBI and Akiyuki Tateyama compose the music.
The anime’s first season re-aired on Fuji TV’s Noitamina programming block in April 2026, before the second season’s debut on the same programming block.
The anime’s first season premiered in July 2024. Crunchyroll streamed the anime as it aired, and is also streaming an English dub.
Viz Media and MANGA Plus both simultaneously released new chapters of the manga in English digitally as they debuted in Japan.
Viz Media is also releasing the manga in print, and the company describes the first volume:
After the massacre of his family by the traitor Ashikaga Takauji, Tokiyuki flees with the help of a handful of loyal retainers who have also survived the purge. One of them is Suwa Yorishige, an ally of the Hojo clan and lord of Suwa Province. The slightly odd Yorishige also claims to be clairvoyant and foretells that Tokiyuki will one day become the ruler of Japan. But for the moment, escaping from enemy territory is the priority!
Matsui (Majin Tantei Nōgami Neuro, Assassination Classroom) launched the manga in Weekly Shonen Jump in January 2021, and ended it on February 16. The manga won at the 69th Shogakukan Manga Awards in 2024.
Sources: The Elusive Samurai anime’s X/Twitter account and website, Anime Eiga
