The Ramparts of Ice Season 2 Premieres Today on Netflix
The quietest romance hit of the spring is back. The Ramparts of Ice Season 2 premieres today, Thursday, October 1, 2026, on Netflix worldwide with weekly episodes, and on TBS in Japan. Season 1 ended with two confessions and one refusal, and the second season is where the four leads actually have to deal with what they said. Here is the release schedule, a recap for anyone who slept on it, what Season 2 covers, the new theme songs, and why Koucha Agasawa is quietly having the best year of any manga author in 2026.
The Ramparts of Ice Season 2 release date and where to watch
| Where | When | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Netflix (worldwide) | Thursday, October 1 (Pacific), October 2 in Japan | New episodes weekly, not a batch drop |
| TBS network (28 stations) | Thursdays, 11:56 pm JST from October 1 | Japanese broadcast |
| AT X | Sundays 10:30 pm from October 4 | |
| Prime Video, Disney+, U NEXT, ABEMA (Japan) | From October 8 and 9 | One week after Netflix |
The episode count is not announced. Season 1 ran 14 episodes from April to July. Studio KAI returns with director MANQ, and the whole cast is back.
Season 1 recap
Koyuki Hikawa is “the Queen,” a girl who walled herself off after a middle school incident tied to the loudmouth Tsubasa Igarashi, and who talks only to her childhood friend Miki Azumi, the bubbly school idol. Minato Amamiya is a boy with no concept of personal space who keeps pushing into Koyuki’s orbit. His tall, gentle friend Yota Hino from the basketball club makes four. Around them: the art club’s Tsukiko, Miki’s little brother Yuki, and Momoka Kuriki, who likes Minato and is not subtle about it.
Season 1 covered first year through the culture festival, the walls slowly coming down. The finale was the turn. Koyuki admitted to Yota, in a whisper, that she likes Minato, and started noticing that he treats her as special. Momoka confessed her own crush and put Koyuki on the spot. Yota told Miki he has loved her since middle school. Miki panicked, avoided him, and finally told him in tears that she cannot date him because she has never seen him that way. He smiled and accepted it. Season 2 starts from there.
What Season 2 covers
Season 2 picks up the manga from around chapter 72, roughly the start of volume 8. Netflix’s own synopsis gives the shape without spoiling it:
- Koyuki and Minato’s friendship tips into something more.
- Yota’s confession to Miki and the fallout inside the group.
- “Some speak their hearts while others bury them,” with paths that keep crossing and missing.
- The teaser visual shows the four deliberately not making eye contact. The key visual shows them smiling together in a classroom. Both are true.
Theme songs and staff
The opening is “Escort” by THE BEAT GARDEN and the ending is “Hanakage” by Superfly, replacing Novelbright and Polkadot Stingray from Season 1. Studio KAI animates with MANQ directing, Yasuhiro Nakanishi on series composition, Miki Ogino on character design and music by Kanade Sakuma and Natsumi Tabuchi. Anna Nagase returns as Koyuki, with Fuka Izumi as Miki, Shoya Chiba as Minato, Satoshi Inomata as Yota, Akari Kito as Momoka and Chiaki Kobayashi as Tsubasa.
The source and the author’s big year
The Ramparts of Ice is Koucha Agasawa’s debut, a full color webtoon that started as an indie comic around 2017, won a prize at Shueisha’s 2018 Shojo Manga Grand Prix, and ran on LINE Manga from 2020 to 2022 for 117 chapters. Shueisha’s 14 print volumes are complete. It placed second in AnimeJapan’s 2023 poll of manga fans most wanted adapted, won the 2024 Vertical Manga Award, and made the Kono Manga ga Sugoi list. MangaPlaza publishes it digitally in English. Agasawa’s other series, You and I Are Polar Opposites, also got two anime seasons this year, back to back, which is why Japan has been calling 2026 the Agasawa year.
How Season 1 did
It never cracked Netflix’s global top 10, but it hit number two in Japan and charted in 23 other countries. Critics liked the understated, psychologically detailed writing that refuses the usual “shy girl thaws” arc, Anna Nagase’s flat but alive delivery as Koyuki, and the way Miki’s arc handled gendered pressure. The main criticism was Momoka, who some reviewers found to be a stock third party device.
FAQ
When does The Ramparts of Ice Season 2 come out?
October 1, 2026 on Netflix worldwide, weekly.
Where does Season 2 start in the manga?
Around chapter 72, the start of volume 8.
Is it weekly or all at once?
Weekly, same as Season 1.
Do I need Season 1?
Yes. The whole point of Season 2 is the fallout from Season 1’s finale.
More romance coverage in Anime News, and try our character quizzes. Details via Netflix and Anime Corner.
My take: The Ramparts of Ice is the best argument I have seen in years that Netflix should stop batch dropping anime, and it is making the argument by accident. Season 1 went out weekly, which is rare for a Netflix original, and it built exactly the kind of slow word of mouth a show like this needs: number two in Japan, charting in 23 countries, no global top 10, but people still talking about it in July. A batch drop would have burned it in a weekend. Netflix keeping the weekly model for Season 2 tells me someone there noticed. On the show itself, I think Season 2 is the harder one to make. Season 1 had the easiest engine in romance, a girl with walls and a boy who ignores them, and it could coast on Minato being charming. Season 2 has to sit inside the wreckage of the Miki and Yota rejection, which is the best written thing the series did and also the least comfortable, and it has to do it while the Koyuki and Minato thread finally moves. The teaser with the four of them not looking at each other is the honest one. The classroom key visual is the marketing one. My prediction: this season is better, sadder and quieter than the first, it grows in Japan and stays a cult show everywhere else, and Yota, the character who lost, ends up as the one everybody loves.
