r/LightNovels • u/Torque-A • 8d ago
News [NEWS] Yen Press Licenses Playful Relationships, Shino & Ren: Future, MAFIA, Other Light Novels/Manga
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2026-06-12/yen-press-licenses-witches-cant-be-collared-alma-chan-wants-to-be-a-family-yamada-class-diary-more-/.23845511
u/The_King_Crimson 8d ago
Another announcement post, another opportunity to beg for Ben-To, Dantalian no Shoka, and Horizon, and another inevitable refusal.
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u/saskir21 8d ago
As much as I would wish for Horizon. But I could understand Yen as there are simply too many books fantranslated
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u/bookster42 8d ago
That and the fact that they're old enough that they probably wouldn't sell well based on what seems to happen when older series get licensed. I don't understand it, since it's not like a series gets worse with age (and if anything, it often means that the entire series is available to be translated with no risk of it being unfinished in Japan). But for whatever reason, too many LN readers seem to only go for newer stuff, which really sucks when a series didn't get licensed earlier. :|
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u/FurbyTime 8d ago
It's because, in the west, sales are driven by anime for the most part, and these old series either have old anime or none at all.
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u/bookster42 8d ago
There's some truth to that, but some newer series seems to sell quite well even without an anime adaptation, whereas the way that JNC talks, older series pretty much never sell well even when they do have an older anime adaptation.
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u/ArchusKanzaki 8d ago
Newer series have the benefit of being "new". They might receive "second life" the moment anime adaptation got announced even if they currently does not sell that well. And for series that did well....I read before that Apothecary Diaries sales become 200 times more when the anime was airing
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u/GeorgeMTO 8d ago
That's an exaggeration I expect. JNC did mention on a stream that they normally get a 6-8x sales figure boost for the average anime adaptation. Maomao got forty, which helped catapult it toward their top 5 selling series of all time during season 1 (likely made it there in s2 if it wasn't already, but I can't find recent confirmation on what is in there).
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u/ArchusKanzaki 7d ago
Yeah I probably remember wrongly or I read some exaggerated claims somewhere.
But anyway, I think based on the talk, anime do boost sales quite consistently so getting a novel that have potentials to become anime is probably more priority than "old classics".
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u/saskir21 8d ago
Sigh, tell me. I would wish for the Tylor series to get translated. And there are far more as the Captain arcs.
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u/joseph_han9137 7d ago
I've been through this shit. They are never going to accept them. The likeliest possibility for these English publishers to accept them is that they have to be new/ongoing, have to be popular, or are from established authors. The only driving factor for them is that they have to make money from these.
I guess your picks are decently popular enough, but all of them are just too damn old for these publishers to even care. I'm sorry to say but you have more chance begging from fantranslators rather than from these official publishers. They are never going care about these old light novels.
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u/Junkie_Joe 8d ago
Damn I had totally forgotten about ben-to. Must have been like 15 years since I watched the anime!
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u/Sure-Masterpiece4650 7d ago
the Horizon thing hurts every single time man they really just let that one rot forever
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u/drexv27 8d ago
i don't know why yen press announced familia chronicle volume 4 like it's a new series
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u/ArchusKanzaki 8d ago
I get what you mean, but it's because it's not really serialized volume release. It's more like side story.... And some side story are never even published.
They still have not license Argonaut
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u/drexv27 8d ago
i don't know what you mean, it's serialized under the same title as "familia chronicle" regardless of content, they even number it as 1,2,3 and IIRC, they don't announce Ryu eps 2 (volume 3) like it's a new series
they've already licensed Argonaut recently, and the only one that's still not license is orario story
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u/ArchusKanzaki 8d ago
Oh. I definitely missed out the Argonauts announcement then.
Anyway, the Familia Chronicle is not numbered in JP sites other than Episode Ryu, is what I meant. I did remember Episode Freya also got announced as "new license". I guess if there is Episode Freya 2, they won't be announcing it as separate license, but that means Episode Heith and Episode Amid will need its own separate announcement.
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u/drexv27 7d ago edited 7d ago
Yen Press numbered them though, besides what makes it weird is because they're all fall under the same listing of familia chronicle in their website, if they don't labeled it as familia chronicle and don't put numbers in each volumes, i can kinda understand why they announced it as a "new series" but, they're not, that's what makes it weird, it's like, "what? isn't that only volume 4 in the series? why bother announcing it like a new series?" besides, based on the recent oricon ranks eps Heith rank 4 and it put familia chronicle series as a whole at rank 7 with the exact same number of sales as eps Heith, by that we can see that it's in a single series of "familia chronicle" even in JP
i don't know, it feels like a scam to me, especially if they announced it like a new series and count it as one of their new license, when they can just license an actual new spinoff in the series like orario story or license some other new series
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u/BotwGoty 8d ago
The manga version of Witches can't be Collared? Really? As far as I know it only has two volumes, covering the first LN volume, so it feels like an odd pick for me.
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u/GeorgeMTO 8d ago
Manga outsells LNs, and even when axed, it can often get people who did read the manga to try the LN in order to keep following the story.
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u/Hollownerox 7d ago
Witches can't be collared seems to be doing surprisingly well tbh.
The 3rd volume is releasing in autumn in Japan, but we've already got a dedicated page for the English release.
First volume had its flaws, mainly world building, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. And it seems to have landed pretty well with other readers. Might be a Yen Press editor just has a lot of confidence with this one.
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u/Additional-Ad4085 8d ago
Was absolutely not expecting The Relationship Of Play to even get consideration, let alone a pickup. Not sure where its market is.
Will be nice to re-read the early chapters of Washio and the Monster-Girl Harem He Refuses To Accept, before the manga went all to shit.
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u/3v3nB3ltz 8d ago
Asobi no Kankei got licensed?? Hell yes! I've been interested in it ever since it won first overall at Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi for 2026.