Hello everyone! Here are the light novels making their debut during the month of July, 2020.
Thanks to Covid-19 delays, this month is pretty heavy with new releases as Yen On is shipping four! new series. We also have several new digital advance releases from Seven Seas, Viz with a light novel series based on a popular manga/anime franchise, and J-Novel Club with a gender-bending isekai series!
First up is an advance digital release from Seven Seas. It’s a fantasy series with a main character whose cheat ability will undoubtedly result in him being OP and exceeding everyone’s low expectations of him.
The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter
A fantasy light novel series about a new hero exploring a secret labyrinth–and don't miss the manga adaptation, also available from Seven Seas!
Noir is the son of a minor noble with very little to his name other than a job offer–which is canceled before he can even start his first day. He does possess one rare trait, though: the magical ability to consult with a great sage, even if using the skill gives him terrible headaches! Unsure of what his future holds, he accesses the sage for advice on how to move forward and is directed to a secret dungeon filled with rare beasts and magical items. It is here that Noir will train, compiling experience and wealth, until he's powerful enough to change his fate.
(eBook)(print to release October 12, 2020)
Amazon -- Bookwalker
Released July 2, 2020 -- ASIN: B087M8FPLS
Next up is the rare light novel release from Viz. But, like most of Viz’s light novel releases, it ties into a series they already release the manga for. In fact, this series has recently ended and this light novel is set after the manga’s events. With a new anime supposedly coming for this series, will we see this story hit TV screens?
Bleach: Can't Fear Your Own World
The bestselling paranormal action adventure manga series Bleach continues in novel form as an all-new threat arises!
The Quincies' Thousand Year Blood War is over, but the embers of turmoil still smolder in the Soul Society. Tokinada Tsunayashiro, elevated to head of his clan after a slew of assassinations take out every other claimant to the title, has a grand plan to create a new Soul King. His dark ambitions soon sow the seeds of a new total war across the realms, but all is not lost. There is one unlikely Soul Reaper who holds the key to defusing the conflict--Shuhei Hisagi, Assistant Captain of the Ninth Company and reporter for the Seireitei Bulletin!
(paperback)
Amazon -- Barnes and Noble -- Book Depository -- Rightstuf
Releasing July 07, 2020 -- ISBN-13: 978-1974713264
The next release is a bit of a cheat on my part. I confess I missed mentioning it when it came out in digital pre-release, so I figured I’d mention it now that it’s becoming available in print. It’s from the same author as I Want to Eat Your Pancreas and At Night I Become a Monster. So prepare to have your heart pulled!
I Had That Same Dream Again
A layered coming-of-age story from the author of I Want to Eat Your Pancreas and At Night, I Become a Monster.
An unhappy girl who engages in self-harm, a woman ostracized by society, and an old woman looking to live out her twilight years in peace―what could three such different people have in common? That's what grade schooler Koyanagi Nanoka is trying to find out. Assigned by her teacher to define what “happiness†means to her, Nanoka sets out to get to know these three strangers―and through them, perhaps, to know herself too.
(paperback, ebook)
Amazon -- Barnes and Noble -- Book Depository -- Rightstuf
Releasing July 07, 2020 -- ISBN-13: 978-1645054399
The following light novel series is another digital advance release by Seven Seas. I think it might be our first true BL light novel series officially released in English. Feel free to correct me in the comments if I’m wrong.
Yes, No, or Maybe?
The fan-favorite Boys' Love novel about the secret lives of men who work in television–soon to be an anime!
Kunieda Kei is the up-and-coming Prince Charming of the evening news. Inside, he's the opposite: brash, hot-tempered, and prickly as can be. For years, Kei has successfully juggled his private and professional personas―until a chance meeting with a stop motion animator threatens to bring it all crashing down. But is that really as frightening as the possibility that someone might love and accept both sides of who he is?
(eBook)(print to release October 6, 2020)
Amazon -- Bookwalker
eBook Released July 9, 2020 -- ASIN: B0882Q5VWJ
Next up is J-Novel Club’s lone new release for the month. It’s another in the line of series where the main character awakens in the game they’ve been playing. But the twist here is that not only has some time passed in the game, but the character they played was a) a tyrant and b) the opposite sex of the main character. So a gender-bending, isekai, MMO-based series.
A Wild Last Boss Appeared!
The year is 2800 and Lufas Maphaahl – The Black-Winged Tyrant, Great Conqueror, and leader of the Twelve Heavenly Stars – has returned. A man wakes up in the body of his MMO character 200 years after her defeat during an player-made event in the game, Exgate Online. Now, he's stuck in her body. But this isn't a game, it's real. With her reign long over, and her legacy one of fear, Lufas must journey through the world of Exgate, looking for answers, possible comrades, and all the monsters her “death†unleashed upon the world…
(ebook)
Amazon -- iBook -- Kobo -- Google Play -- Bookwalker
Releasing July 12, 2020 -- ASIB: B087CKL6X2
The remaining releases are all from Yen On. And they all drop on the same day. Prepare your wallet! There are two isekai titles, one of which had a recent anime adaptation. The third is a “reborn” series, but the character is being reborn in their own world, only as a monster! And the final title is a pure fantasy series about a long-raging war which is about to be forever changed by a weapon that can erase people from existence!
High School Prodigies Have it Easy Even in Another World
After crash landing in a foreign land filled with magic and monsters, most people would wonder what to do next. For seven of Japan's greatest high school geniuses, the real question is how much are they allowed to mess around? This world might not last long enough for these insane prodigies to go home…
(paperback, ebook)
Amazon -- Barnes and Noble -- Book Depository -- Rightstuf
Releasing July 21, 2020 -- ISBN-13: 978-1975309725
I'm a Behemoth, an S-Ranked Monster, but Mistaken for a Cat, I Live as an Elf Girl's Pet
After dying in a fight against the forces of evil, a knight found himself reincarnated as one of the most powerful monsters in the world: a behemoth! Problem is, he has to grow up before he can really strut his stuff, and a baby behemoth looks an awful lot like…a housecat?! And when an elf adventurer decides to take him in, she may need his help as much as he needs hers!
(paperback, ebook)
Amazon -- Barnes and Noble -- Book Depository -- Rightstuf
Releasing July 21, 2020 -- ISBN-13: 978-1975332945
The Eminence in Shadow
One big fat lie and a few twisted truths
Even in his past life, Cid's dream wasn't to become a protagonist or a fi nal boss. He'd rather lie low as a minor character until it's prime time to reveal he's a mastermind…or at least, do the next best thing-pretend to be one! And now that he's been reborn into another world, he's ready to set the perfect conditions to live out his dreams to the fullest. Armed with his overactive imagination, Cid jokingly recruits members to his organization and makes up a whole backstory about an evil cult that they need to take down. Well, as luck would have it, these imaginary adversaries turn out to be the real deal-and everyone knows the truth but him!
(hardcover, ebook)
Amazon -- Barnes and Noble -- Book Depository -- Rightstuf
Releasing July 28, 2020 -- ISBN-13: 978-1975359058
May These Leaden Battlegrounds Leave No Trace
For a hundred years, East and West have waged a ferocious war with everything from tanks to witchcraft. On this savage battlefield, one young soldier from the East learns of the daemon's bullet-and that anyone struck by it will disappear from the world as if they had never existed…
(paperback, ebook)
Amazon -- Barnes and Noble -- Book Depository -- Rightstuf
Releasing July 21, 2020 -- ISBN-13: 978-1975310301
So those are all of the light novel series making their debut during the month of July, 2020. Which of these titles has piqued your interest? Leave your thoughts in comments!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Justus R. Stone has been running a light novel dedicated YouTube channel since 2014. He’s also the founder of the Light Novel Podcast, one of the first English language podcasts dedicated to Light Novels. In addition to his love of Japanese light novels, he is also the author of his own light novel-inspired series, The Bleeding Worlds.
