Yen Press announced five new light novel licenses at Anime Expo:
Goblin Slayer: Year One — a spinoff novel for the Goblin Slayer series
Reborn as a Vending Machine, Now I Wander the Dungeon — (Jidouhanbaiki ni Umarekawatta Ore wa Meikyuu ni Samayou) — Novel Updates — LNDB.info — by Hirukuma (with art by Itsuwa Katou) — 3 volumes in Japan (since August 2016)
A Sister’s All You Need — (Imouto Sae Ireba Ii) — Novel Updates — LNDB.info — by Yomi Hirasaka (with art by Kantoku) — 6 volumes in Japan (since March 2015) — Note: This is by the author of Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends
I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years — (Slime Taoshite 300 Nen, Shiranai Uchi ni Level MAX ni Nattemashita) — Novel Updates — by Kisetsu Morita (with art by Dontsugel) — 3 volumes in Japan (since January 2017)
The Hero and His Elf Bride Open a Pizza Parlor (Yuusha desu ga Isekai de Elf Yome to Pizza-ten Hajimemasu) — MAL entry — by Kaya Kizaki (with art by Shiso) –Â 1 volume in Japan (released January 2017)
These will probably release in 2018. What titles are you looking forward to reading?
Nice to see some newer LNs getting licensed in English but one thing I really didn’t expect was Imouto Sae Ireba Ii. I finished the first volume just a few days ago and most of it was so horrible I don’t know how I managed to read it. There were one or two chapters that had some kind of premise that actually appealed to me, because they were something new in the genre, but in general it was one of the worst things I read. But well, maybe with an official translation and an upcoming anime my opinion will change?
Also with “Vending Machine” being released, maybe soon there will be an english release of “Reincarnated as a Hot Spring”? :D
I’m not familiar with either this or Haganai, so I don’t have much to comment there. I don’t really get the whole little sister thing, but I’m not the target audience for that anyways.
At this point I won’t be surprised by anything isekai or fantasy world related getting licensed. We already have Mixed Bathing in Another World so a Hot Spring Reincarnation wouldn’t be a stretch.
Killing Slime is listed as a shojo light novel, and if that’s true isn’t this our first print shojo light novel? I’m looking forward to this one, especially since it was compared to Goblin Slayer.
Vending Machine is giving me some KonoSuba vibes, and maybe because KonoSuba is doing well they decided to license it? Either way, out of morbid curiosity I want to give it a shot. I’m always up for some comedy too. I’m really hoping Pizza Parlor focuses on the married couple and doesn’t include harem antics. It could really turn out to be a cute fantasy slice of life that way. I’ll probably try that one too. Really the curiosity for those two will just make me look into them.
Goblin Slayer Year One is the most hyped title they announced. Oddly, the tag line for Year One “The Die is Cast” and the series own tag line “He let’s no one roll the dice” conflict. Goblin Slayer’s tag line has been making me wonder if the world’s gods might play a bigger role in the series someday, and Year One might answer that. Or it could just be in a way the dice are rolled and Goblin Slayer’s fate has been set on him slaying Goblins. Still interested, especially since it seems like the closest to a simultaneous release we have so far.
I’m not sure I’d call it a shoujo story – it looks much more like “cute girls doing cute things” slice of magical life. But regardless, there’s been some printed shoujo LNs in English in the past. Various manga tie-ins and a few volumes of things like Twelve Kingdoms back in the day.
I don’t know any of the specifics for Goblin Slayer, so I don’t know any special meaning for the tag line. It might just be to sound cool.
I forgot we had some of those manga tie-ins, and I never really looked into Twelve Kingdoms besides the occasional comment. It seems a bit harder to put light novels in the categories of shoujo, shounen, etc. than with manga? It’s a bit ironic that Killing Slime seems like a cute girls doing cute things novel with its title, but still I’m all for a cute slice of life light novel.
I guess you could say I’m hoping the taglines mean something, or they could just be to emphasize the Dungeon and Dragons/table top RPG inspiration behind Goblin Slayer.
Apart from Goblin Slayer: Year One, feeling a bit underwhelmed. Will patiently await your reviews before picking any of the other 4 series (although I’ve got a feeling they are not for me… maybe the over the top craziness that the Reborn as a Vending Machine, Now I Wander the Dungeon promises? who knows).