J-Novel Club has announced a new light novel license for their online service: Outbreak Company, written by Ichiro Sakaki and illustrated by Yuugen. The first half of volume 1 is now available for J-Novel Club members to read–and if you’re not a member yet, it sounds like you can still try out the first 40 pages for free. In Japan the series is known as Outbreak Company: Moeru Shinryakusha, the subtitle meaning “The Moe Invader.” There are 18 volumes for this series in Japan, which started in December 2011 and released its 18th volume in August 2017. I think that might be the final volume for the story.
Ichiro Sakaki is known as the author for other light novel series such as Scrapped Princess, Bluesteel Blasphemer (also available in English on J-Novel Club, currently with three volumes out), and Chaika the Coffin Princess.
Outbreak Company is the second light novel series that J-Novel Club has picked up from Japanese publisher Kodansha. The first was Clockwork Planet, which is currently on its second volume in English.
There was an anime adaptation for Outbreak Company that aired in the fall of 2013. The 12-episode series is available streaming on Crunchyroll or Hulu. There is also a Blu-ray and DVD available for the series.
Synopsis: The year is 20XX, and Shinichi Kanou is a pretty typical otaku: he loves anime, manga, games, and light novels, but his devotion to the two-dimensional hasn’t always made him the most popular guy around. What he doesn't know is that Japan has discovered a portal to another world in the vicinity of Mount Fuji. The people of the Eldant Empire, though, only have eyes for one of Japan's traditional exports: pop culture. Enter Amutech, a purveyor of “general entertainment†that's secretly run by the Japanese government. Shinichi lands a job as the company's general manager. Now he finally has a chance to put his nerd know-how to good use spreading the otaku gospel in the Eldant Empire. And wait… he has to work with a half-elf maid, an empress, AND a female soldier to get the job done?
For those wondering about the taco and burrito clues J-Novel Club shared for this title, they were apparently referring to a quote from a TV show called The O.C. (referring to “Orange County” in California), which has the same acronym as Outbreak Company. Perhaps this can help all of you guess what their four remaining fall licenses might be.
I’m really hoping J-Novel might be able to get Chaika from Fantasia Bunko someday since they seem to like licensing Ichiro Sakaki’s stuff. I really liked Chaika’s anime and what I’ve read of Bluesteel Blasphemer, so I’ll give Outbreak Company a try to. Not sure if I’ll read digital or wait and see if Seven Seas releases it in print though.