Debuting about six years ago, Orange became a popular romance series that grew to touch tons of different mediums. Despite how beloved its manga run was, however, Orange only has a scant few collected volumes. This gave it a short but endearingly sweet story, which eventually saw it adapted into a similarly beloved -- and short - anime.
Though the franchise is still alive in the form of spinoffs, the Orange anime never came back for a Season 2, or any sort of continuation. Here's a look back at the anime, its source material and why there, so far at least, has yet to be any new episodes made for the show.
What Was Orange?
Orange began in 2012 as a manga created by Ichigo Takano, and follows the life of teenager Naho Takamiya. She begins receiving letters from her future self which warn her to make certain decisions differently, namely in regards to how she treats Kakeru Naruse. The decisions seem trivial at first, but quickly become matters of life and death. A love triangle also forms, with another classmate also receiving letters from the future while the group's friendship with a somewhat despondent Kakeru strengthens.
The series ran from 2012 to 2017 in the pages of Bessatsu Margaret and later, Monthly Action. It was compiled into seven volumes, with the seventh coming out much later and serving as the true ending to the story. There's also a still ongoing gag comic called Sorigerisu, plus a live-action movie and a novel series. Despite there being more than enough material for it, however, there was never a follow-up season to the anime.
Where Is Orange Season 2?
The anime was handled by Telecom Animation Film and the iconic TMS Entertainment, and it brought to Enlgish-speaking audiences by both Crunchyroll and Funimation. Given their continued projects over the years, this isn't an example of the production studio shutting down and derailing a continuation. The lack of a second series for Orange largely stems from the lack of material needed to make one.
Though the manga ran for a good few years, there were only seven volumes in total, with the last one being more of an addendum than anything. When combined with how succinctly the anime and the manga wrapped things up, there's really not much more of a story to tell that wouldn't feel forced. Sure, the anime ended slightly differently than the manga, but it still hit similar beats and had a conclusive ending. There could be perhaps an OVA special or a movie to truly wrap things up, but even that might be tacked on.
After all, the show ended in 2016, and the only thing that's kept the series around is the aforementioned gag manga. The closest thing to a continuation would likely be the film Orange: Future, which also came out in 2016. This animated movie retold the anime and manga's story, but from the perspective of the character Suwa. This is probably the last animated project that fans will ever see with the Orange characters, with the story simply having nowhere else to go.
