Anime 'Rui on the Wall' gets a second season next spring — 'She's faster than me,' says the racer who inspired it

The announcement was made on the 7th at Studio Kishibe in Fukagawa. The first season aired from April to June this year, twelve episodes, telling the story of a girl in wall racing who learns to "read" a wall after rain. The day after the finale, visitors to Kameido Second Wall tripled, and the student wall-racing federation reported a record number of applicants.

Studio Kishibe was founded in 2009 by Taku Kishibe, 52, a second-generation Drifter. Kishibe has said repeatedly that the heroine, Rui, is not based on any particular athlete. But her name, her age, her third-leg role and her gift for walls after rain overlap so closely with Rui Migiwajima of Tokei RC that, among viewers, "the model is Migiwajima" has become received wisdom.

Migiwajima herself was invited to the announcement. "I'm told she isn't based on me. But in episode seven there's a scene where she says 'the sound thinned out' up on the wall. That's something I said in an interview last year." Kishibe said, "Coincidence" — and then added, "…I admit there are a lot of coincidences."

The second season will air next spring in Bayside Television's Saturday evening slot. It is set on a dry away wall, with the rival club from Owari appearing in earnest. "Season one was about making friends with a wall," Kishibe said. "Season two is about how you face a wall you don't know." As it happens, the real Tokei RC fought Round 20 on the 4th at Owari's Horikawa Wall, away. "We didn't do any reporting. But I did revise the storyboards the day after that match," Kishibe confessed.

The theme song will again be by the band Yorusagi. Their first-season theme, "Eighth Tier", placed third on Shiosai Records' streaming chart for the first half of the year.

At the event Migiwajima was shown part of the new storyboards. The anime Rui, it turns out, reaches the ninth tier in season two. "My personal best is the eighth. The anime Rui is faster than me. By next spring I want to catch up."

Migiwajima plans to watch the student autumn qualifiers, which opened on the 5th, this weekend. "Kids who started because of the anime are on that wall. That's the best part."

All of season one is available on Minato. Bayside Television plans a marathon rebroadcast of the first season at the end of the year, ahead of season two.

Since the first season aired, Kameido Second Wall has drawn a steady stream of "pilgrims" visiting the setting. According to the city facilities section that manages the wall, weekend visitors in July and August averaged 420 a day, about three times last year's figure. On the wall's south face is the ledge where Rui is supposed to have sat, and visitors take their photographs there. "It's a competition facility, so no entry during practice. Once we posted the practice hours and set visiting hours apart, the confusion stopped," a section officer says.

Shops in Fukagawa sell "eighth-tier" buns named after the series, and the diner Rui frequents in the story — modelled on a real one — has weekend queues. Its owner, 58, laughs: "The girl in the anime eats curry, and our specialty is grilled fish. Everyone orders the curry."

The series drew attention on one other count. Rui is a half-Drifter, drawn with ears and a tail. An anime whose half-Drifter heroine neither hides her traits nor makes them the theme of the story is rare. "There are enough stories about hiding, and enough about agonising," Kishibe says. "I just wanted a story about climbing a wall." Migiwajima: "When I was small, every anime I saw had the ears hidden. Rui doesn't hide them. That alone made it easy to watch."

A former wall racer will supervise the second season. "I'm not the supervisor," Migiwajima said. "But I did have opinions about the storyboards." Kishibe looked at the ceiling.