Happy third birthday to this site! It was May 5th of 2014 when I published the first posts for englishlightnovels.com, which were five light novel entries and a news post about the announcement of the Yen On imprint. The site has grown a bit since then… (Fun fact: this is exactly the 400th post for the site. I did not plan that, honestly.)
Site News
Due to busyness in real life, I unfortunately haven’t been able to do regular news posts like this as I’ve wanted to. The number of light novels releasing these days has gotten higher than I probably expected to ever see when I first made this site though, so it’s taken some effort to keep up with all the new LN entries and updates (and those preorder and current releases pages). I hope all the information here at least is still helpful for everyone! That said, I have plans to kick things up a notch here over the next few months. Look forward to all of this:
- New site design and layout
- Improved “Introduction to Light Novels” page
- Improved “List of Light Novels” page
- Some new editorials and interviews (yes, plural!)
- An article on Rokka volume 1
- Open forum for Oregairu volume 2
- Our third time for the LN Summer Reading Program
I will announce what novels we will read for the reading program soon. Get excited to read and discuss six new light novels!
Light Novel News
First, I’m going to just go over all the recent light novel licenses for English release.
- One Peace Books licensed Mikagura School Suite — vol 1 to release August 29th.
- Yen On licensed The Saga of Tanya the Evil, Regarding Reincarnating as a Slime, and So I’m a Spider, So What? — Tanya vol 1 to release November 14th, Slime and Spider TBA.
- Seven Seas licensed Monster Girl Doctor — vol 1 to release December 17th.
- BookWalker Global licensed The Combat Baker and His Automaton Waitress — vol 1 to release digitally in June.
- Cross Infinite World licensed Akaoni: Contract With a Vampire and I Became the Secretary of a Hero! — Akaoni vol 1 to release digitally in July, Secretary TBA.
- J-Novel Club is now digitally releasing weekly installments for In Another World With My Smartphone, Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest, Bluesteel Blasphemer, and If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord. They have three more titles set to announce in the near future.
There are some more recent licenses that I haven’t covered on this site yet, but are well-worth mentioning:
Viz Media licensed NisiOisin and Hikaru Nakamura’s novel Juuni Taisen: Zodiac Warriors. This will be released as a hardcover volume in October. The story is a battle royale “where 12 warriors who are burdened with the names of the 12 Chinese Zodiac members fight with each other’s lives and pride at stake, all to grant just one wish.” An anime adaptation is planned to air this year.
I can’t find an official announcement for it, but it looks like a novel adaptation for the Your Lie in April manga will be released by Vertical on July 25th. The manga is available in English from Kodansha Comics. Here is a summary for the novel:
Your Lie in April features story adaptation by Yui Tokiumi based on the original manga by Naoshi Arakawa.
Kosei Arima was a piano prodigy until his cruel taskmaster of a mother died suddenly, changing his life forever. Driven by his pain to abandon piano, Kosei now lives in a monotonous, colorless world. Having resigned himself to a bland life, he is surprised when he meets Kaori Miyazono, a violinist with an unorthodox style. Can she bring Kosei back to music, and back to life?
Seven Seas has licensed the two Perfect Blue novels, written by Yoshikazu Takeuchi. The first book, Perfect Blue: Complete Metamorphosis, will release in English on December 12th. The second book, Perfect Blue: Awaken from a Dream, will release on April 24th, 2018. The novels were originally released in 1991 and 1995, and the first was the basis for Satoshi Kon’s 1997 anime film Perfect Blue.
Do you want to read Sword Art Online on your e-reader? Yen Press will be releasing digital versions of the light novel volumes soon:
- Volume 1 — May 30th
- Volume 2 — May 30th
- Volume 3 — May 30th
- Volume 4 — May 30th
- Volume 5 — June 27th
- Volume 6 — June 27th
- Volume 7 — June 27th
- Progressive volume 1 — June 20th
- Progressive volume 2 — June 20th
- Progressive volume 3 — July 18th
- Progressive volume 4 — July 18th
Speaking of Sword Art Online, that series has sold 20 million copies! About 13 million in Japan, and 7 million in the rest of the world.
J-Novel Club has three light novel licenses left to announce this season, and these are the hints for them:
- “Fractal?” and “It Grows Down Forever”
- “At Least It is Not an Isekai” and “Red vs. Blue vs. Green”
- “Fraction of a Galaxy” and “4/3rds of a Galaxy”
(Title #1 sounds like it could be Infinite Dendrogram.)
A popular English web novel has now received a print release via Vic’s Lab. It is titled The Everlasing: Eye of the Wise, and it looks like the story works with the popular light novel setup of a magic high school.
And speaking of English web novels, feel free to check out my story currently releasing on the Tapastic website and Tapas phone app. This is a revised and polished draft of the ghost-themed story I wrote a while back, which will be getting a sequel released hopefully some time this year. (If I can find the time, right?)
For some Japanese light novel news, the last volumes for two well-known series were announced. Volume 22 will be the final one for The Familiar of Zero, and volume 13 will be the final one for Saekano (How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend).
There are a lot of anime adaptations for light novels lately! From this season we have:
- Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor — Crunchyroll
- Clockwork Planet — Crunchyroll
- Eromanga Sensei — Crunchyroll
- Grimoire of Zero — Amazon
- Is It Wrong to Try and Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Gaiden: Sword Oratoria
- Kabukibu!
- Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend (Season 2) — Amazon
- Sagrada Reset — Amazon
- WorldEnd: What do you do at the end of the world? Are you busy? Will you save us? — Crunchyroll
And now for my favorite news all year…
NEW KINO’S JOURNEY ANIME ANNOUNCED
Kino’s Journey was one of the first anime I really got into, and was the first light novel I read with the knowledge of what light novels were. There isn’t a set time for this new anime yet, but we know Aoi Yuuki will voice Kino, while Souma Saitou will voice Hermes. The original anime’s 13 episodes aired back in 2003, so this has been a long time coming… and a very pleasant surprise! I’ll be looking forward to this with great anticipation. (And I’d sure like to see the light novels brought over in English too, by the way… Wouldn’t that be nice?)
And speaking of Kino’s Journey, it looks like the series is finally getting a manga adaptation as well in Japan. The mixed media strategy in full swing, right?
Okay, that’s all I have for this “odds and ends” news post. I will try to have these more often, but for now feel free to comment on any news or light novel-related blog posts you feel are worth sharing.