Drifters Anime: Your Full Series Guide and Season 2 Update
Picture Oda Nobunaga cackling as he plots to burn down an entire elf-hating empire, while a half-dead samurai charges screaming into a horde of monsters just for the thrill of it. That is the Drifters anime in a nutshell, and it is one of the most gloriously violent, laugh-out-loud fantasy shows ever put to screen. This is the series where a dying samurai, a scheming warlord, and a pretty-boy archer get yanked out of Japanese history and dropped into a land full of elves, dragons, and magic. It sounds absurd, and it totally is, in the best possible way. It all comes from Kouta Hirano, the same twisted mind behind Hellsing, so you already know the violence hits hard and the jokes hit even harder.
We are going to walk you through the whole thing. The story, the wild cast, the villains, and the big question everyone keeps asking about a second season. Let’s go!
What Is the Drifters Anime About?
Here is the setup, and it is gloriously simple. Warriors from across human history die violent deaths, and instead of moving on, they wake up in a mysterious hallway lined with doors. A bespectacled man named Murasaki sits at a desk there, and he shoves each fighter through a door into a strange new world. These summoned warriors are called Drifters.
Here is the official broadcast promo that captures the tone before you dive in:
Official Drifters broadcast PV from the NBCUniversal Anime/Music channel.
That new world is a fantasy land packed with elves, dwarves, and hobbit-like folk who are getting crushed by a cruel human empire called Orte. The Drifters basically become freedom fighters, using their old-world skills to flip the whole political map upside down. Guns, samurai swords, and medieval bows all show up in the same battle, which is exactly as chaotic as it sounds.
But the Drifters are not the only ones who got summoned. There is a second faction called the Ends, and they want to wipe humanity out entirely. So you have two teams of historical legends fighting a proxy war across a fantasy continent. The show turns real history into a bloody, hilarious, high-stakes brawl, and it never once slows down to apologize for it.
The show first aired on October 7, 2016, and ran for 12 episodes through December 23 that same year. The animation came from Hoods Drifters Studio, with Kenichi Suzuki in the director’s chair and scripts by Hideyuki Kurata and Yosuke Kuroda, all produced by NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan. The action is gorgeous and gory, and the tone flips from deadly serious to goofy in seconds.
The Drifters Characters You Need to Know
The cast is the whole reason this show slaps so hard. Every big name is a real historical figure with a wink and a twist. Let’s meet the main Drifters characters you will be cheering for.
Oda Nobunaga is the infamous Japanese warlord, and here he is the brains of the group. He died at Honno-ji in real life, and he is fully aware of it, which gives him this gleefully unhinged energy. He loves guns, loves strategy, and loves messing with people. Watching him treat conquering a fantasy kingdom like a fun weekend project is a highlight in every single episode.
Nasu no Yoichi is the archer, and oh boy do fans love this one. He is based on the legendary Genpei War marksman, and he looks so delicate and pretty that half the fandom had to double-check that he is a guy. Do not let the soft face fool you though. Yoichi is a stone-cold killer with a bow, and his tragic backstory gives him surprising depth.
Beyond the core trio, the Drifters roster is stacked with legends. You get Hannibal and Scipio, the ancient rival generals who cannot stop bickering. You get Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid bringing cowboy firepower. There is even a World War II fighter pilot named Naoshi Kanno. Hirano basically raided every history book he could find and threw the coolest names into one anime.
If you are into wild-looking characters with striking designs, the archer’s whole pretty-boy aesthetic reminds us of some of our favorite white and silver-haired streamers who lean into that same ethereal look. Great character design travels across every medium!
Shimazu Toyohisa, the Heart of Drifters
Now let’s talk about the main man. Shimazu Toyohisa is our lead, and his introduction is one of the most brutal openings in modern anime. We meet him at the Battle of Sekigahara in the year 1600, where he is covering his clan’s retreat. He manages to mortally wound the enemy general Ii Naomasa, but he takes horrifying wounds doing it.
As Toyohisa stumbles off the battlefield bleeding out, the world suddenly warps and he lands in that hallway of doors. Murasaki sends him through, and just like that, a dying samurai becomes a Drifter. Shimazu Toyohisa is loud, reckless, and absolutely fearless, and he charges into every fight like he has nothing left to lose. Which, honestly, he does not.
What makes Shimazu Toyohisa so easy to root for is his heart. Underneath all the screaming and sword-swinging, he genuinely cares about the oppressed elves and other non-humans he meets. When he sees the Orte Empire abusing them, he does not hesitate to burn the whole system down for them. He becomes a symbol of hope for people who never had a champion before, and that turns a simple berserker into a real hero.
His dynamic with Nobunaga and Yoichi is the emotional core of the Drifters anime. Nobunaga schemes, Yoichi shoots, and Toyohisa runs straight into the meat grinder. Together they are unstoppable, and they are an absolute blast to watch.
The Ends and the Black King
Every great hero squad needs villains that actually scare you, and the Ends deliver. These are the anti-Drifters, historical figures who came back full of hate for humanity. They command monsters, dragons, and armies of non-human soldiers, and they are led by a mysterious figure known only as the Black King.
The Black King is the big mystery of the whole series. He hides his face behind bandages, and his true identity is one of the juiciest fan theories going. The heavy hints in the show point toward him being a very famous religious figure who suffered a legendary death, and once you notice the clues, you cannot unsee them. Fans have been arguing about it for years, and the manga keeps teasing just enough to keep everyone hooked.
The Ends roster is terrifying and tragic at the same time. Joan of Arc shows up as a broken woman with fire powers, still traumatized by being burned at the stake, and she is genuinely unsettling. Grigori Rasputin is the slippery mastermind pulling political strings behind the scenes. You also get Anastasia Romanova, Gilles de Rais, and the Shinsengumi’s own Hijikata Toshizo, who instantly clashes with the samurai on the Drifters side.
What makes the Ends so good is that they are not cartoonishly evil. The Black King actually heals and protects the non-human races that the human empire abuses. He gives them equality and dignity, which makes his crusade weirdly sympathetic even as he plans mass murder. That moral grayness is what elevates the whole series above a simple good-versus-evil story.
Where the Drifters Anime Fits in the Isekai Boom
You might notice the setup sounds a lot like isekai, that huge genre where someone gets transported to another world. And yeah, technically Drifters counts. But it flips the formula in the best ways.
Most isekai heroes are ordinary teenagers who get overpowered cheat abilities. In Drifters, the heroes are already legendary killers before they arrive. They do not need a cheat power because they are Oda Nobunaga and a samurai who fought at Sekigahara. Their “special ability” is literally centuries of real combat experience. That twist keeps the show feeling fresh even in a genre that gets crowded fast.
The other thing that sets it apart is the tone. Drifters is way darker and funnier than your average portal fantasy. It does not shy away from genocide, war crimes, or gross-out comedy, sometimes in the same scene. If you burned out on cookie-cutter isekai and want something with real teeth, this one is a perfect palate cleanser.
The animation leans into that edge too. Battles are splashy and violent, blood flies everywhere, and the character designs pop with Hirano’s signature sharp style. It looks like a Hellsing spinoff crossed with a history documentary that lost its mind, and we mean that as the highest compliment.
Will We Ever Get Drifters Season 2?
Okay, the big one. Everybody wants to know about Drifters season 2, and the answer is a little messy. At the very end of episode 12, the show teased a continuation with the message “See You Again, Tokyo 20XX.” Fans lost their minds, and hopes were sky high.
Then came the OVAs. Episodes 13 and 14 dropped on Blu-ray in December 2017, and a third bonus episode followed alongside the manga’s sixth volume in November 2018. These were sold as the start of the second run, so technically the story did continue a little. After that though, things went dead quiet. There has been no full Drifters season 2 announcement since, and years have passed with total silence from the studio.
So why the holdup? The answer is the manga. Kouta Hirano is famous for his brutally slow release schedule, and Drifters is his slowest project by far. He takes long breaks between chapters, sometimes going a year or more without publishing anything. Volume 7 finally landed in Japan in August 2023 after a five-year gap, and volume 8 followed in 2025, so the story is finally moving again. When the source material crawls that slowly, an anime studio has a hard time justifying a new season.
Here is the hopeful part. The first season and the OVAs adapted a solid chunk of the manga, and Hirano has now published well past that point. That means there is probably enough material to build another full season if a studio decided to commit. So while Drifters season 2 is not on the calendar yet, the door is wide open. Fans are keeping the faith, and honestly, so are we.
How to Watch Drifters and Read the Manga
Ready to start? The Drifters anime is easy to find on major streaming platforms, and the 12-episode main run plus the three OVA episodes make for a quick and satisfying binge. Watch it subbed or dubbed, both versions are solid, and the dub cast really nails the comedic timing.
If the anime leaves you hungry for more story, the manga is where you go next. Just be ready for that famously slow pace. Kouta Hirano publishes Drifters in Young King Ours, and the collected volumes give you the story in bigger chunks so you are not waiting chapter by chapter. Reading the manga is also the best way to get ahead of where the anime stopped, and it goes way deeper on the Black King mystery that the show only hints at.
For anybody who loves the way anime turns real people into larger-than-life legends, this same energy is exactly why the streaming and VTuber scene took off too. Creators building whole personas and backstories around a character is basically the modern version of what Hirano does with history. If that overlap grabs you, our deeper looks at how these online personas are built and revealed are a fun rabbit hole to fall down next.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Drifters anime finished?
The main 12-episode run wrapped in December 2016, and three OVA episodes followed through 2018. The story is not fully complete though. The anime ends mid-arc with a big teaser, and the manga continues well past where the show stopped.
Who is the main character in Drifters?
Shimazu Toyohisa is the lead. He is a real samurai who fought at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, and the series opens with his mortal wounding before he gets pulled into the fantasy world as a Drifter.
Are the Drifters characters real historical figures?
Yes! Almost every major character is based on a real person from history. You get Oda Nobunaga, Nasu no Yoichi, Hannibal, Scipio, Joan of Arc, Rasputin, and more. Hirano reimagines them all with wild personalities and twists.
Who is the Black King in Drifters?
The Black King is the mysterious leader of the villainous Ends faction. His face stays hidden behind bandages, and the show drops heavy hints that he is a legendary religious figure who died a famous death. His exact identity is one of the biggest talking points among fans.
Is Drifters season 2 confirmed?
Not yet. The OVAs served as a partial continuation, but there has been no full Drifters season 2 announcement. The main reason is Kouta Hirano’s very slow manga schedule, though enough source material now exists to make another season possible.
Is Drifters the same creator as Hellsing?
It sure is. Kouta Hirano created both Hellsing and Drifters, which is why the two share that same mix of stylish ultraviolence, dark humor, and unforgettable character designs. If you loved one, you will almost certainly love the other.
