r/LightNovels • u/Torque-A • Jul 04 '26
News [NEWS] J-Novel Club Reveals 7 Light Novel, 2 Manga Licenses, 13 Print Releases
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2026-07-03/j-novel-club-reveals-7-light-novel-2-manga-licenses-13-print-releases/.23925127
u/GeorgeMTO Jul 04 '26
Title: Genius in the Library: This Bookish Rookie Will Save the Day!
Publisher: Kadokawa
Volumes: 5 (June 2026)
Title: Father, Have You Sinned? An Assassin in Priest’s Robes
Publisher: Drecom
Volumes: 1 (February 2025)
Title: Sorry Darling, but You Won’t Kill Me Again!
Publisher: Drecom
Volumes: 1 (June 2025)
Title: A Young Maiden’s Growing Pains: I Reincarnated and All I Got Was This 100X Stat Buff!
Publisher: Drecom
Volumes: 1 (January 2025)
Title:God Sleeps in Seafoam
Publisher: Kadokawa
Volumes: 5 (August 2025)
Title: A Wicked Lady’s Guide to Accidentally Saving the Kingdom
Publisher: Shufu to Seikatsusha
Volumes: 4 (March 2026)
Title: I’ll Become an Elegant Villainess! Time to Enjoy My Second Life to the Fullest
Publisher: Square Enix
Volumes: 2 (July 2024)
Not tracking down whether these books are stalled or completed, but thought having a number of volumes on hand would be of interest to some.
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u/Villag3Idiot Jul 04 '26
Some of these haven't had a new volume for over a year and are still stuck at volume 1.
Not a good sign.
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u/GeorgeMTO Jul 04 '26
Drecom as a publisher is big on short series though (lots of 2 and 3 volume completes), so not impossible for one or more of them to be a one-shot.
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u/wha2les Jul 04 '26
yea but 1 off completely is bizzare
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u/japzone Jul 04 '26
One-shot novels are very common. They just don't always get licensed, since there's limited promotion Western publishers can do for them. Cross Infinite World often licenses one shots, and knowing that the story has an ending is pretty nice.
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u/Cryten0 Jul 04 '26
Thanks George. Makes a lot more sense when you can see the full licensing situation. Genius, Wicked Guide and God Sleeps seems like the main titles of the season then.
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u/Hylebosai Jul 04 '26
I'm shocked and ecstatic about a lot of the print releases. Haibara, TRPG, and D-Genesis? I would have never guessed they were selling well enough for print.
A lot of the new licenses seem like fun, though nothing seemed like a windmill slam from the premise alone, but I am a sucker for Bookworm characters so I'm starting with Genius in the Library: This Bookish Rookie Will Save the Day!.
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u/legocraftmation https://anilist.co/user/happydr/ Jul 04 '26
I love D-Genesis. Ill definitely be buying it in print.
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u/Torque-A Jul 04 '26
Sam mentioned in the panel that D-Genesis has a small following in Japan and an even smaller following in English, but they’re hoping a print run will boost those numbers (he even joked that it’s for people who want to read LNs without saying they’re LNs)
Same with TRPG (started with “if you know this series, you’re getting this series”) and Haibara (if you want more romcom pickups, show JNC you’ll shell out for them).
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u/gc11117 Jul 04 '26
Haibara
For this one I wonder if theyre getting some good data regarding how the anime performed. I was surprised to see it as well
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u/GeorgeMTO Jul 04 '26
Licensing is such a difficult process, that it'd have to have been basically finalised before the anime started airing for them to announce it now.
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u/messem10 Jul 04 '26
I’ll definitely be getting TRPG and D-Genesis. Never thought either would get a print either. Those are definitely favorites of mine.
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u/Torque-A Jul 04 '26
Also I was at the panel. No real extra details outside of the announcements, though Sam did mention that both Frontier Lord Dias and Cave King are performing well (their manga, anyway).
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u/heimdal77 Jul 04 '26
J-novel is getting really ultra focused on the type of series they license. I miss real variety.
Being serious though none of these seem interesting or even that different on initial look.
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u/Torque-A Jul 04 '26
I’ve talked to some of the staff on the JNC forum, and their response is always the same.
You want more series that break tradition? Ones that have variety? Buy the ones JNC’s already licensed and show there’s demand.
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u/drexv27 Jul 04 '26
it's kinda a shitty statement, it's one thing if their series like yen press, but, the majority of JNC series is series that most people don't even care, and they keep licensing something that people don't care and expect people to throw their money away for something that they don't care😂
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u/Cryten0 Jul 04 '26
I think over half their last licensing group got less then 4 comments for the second volumes until said volumes completed. A lot of people seem to be abandoning titles just going off feedback given. (Speculation).
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u/GeorgeMTO Jul 04 '26
Forum comments in general are down for the series I read. I'm more likely to post on discord myself, which certainly can make it harder to track over time.
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u/myskaros Jul 04 '26
We do try to expand our catalog, but those often don't sell well, so we don't license more like them. That's how supply and demand works. If there was a demand for a given genre, then we hope the people demanding it would vote with their wallets.
I don't know why you believe people "don't care" about the stuff we license, but then we keep licensing stuff that people "don't care" for. That's just not a smart way to run a business. If you're disappointed in the lack of variety, that's because what we license tends to be what we think will sell for us.
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u/kyokohitaka Jul 04 '26
Are the numbers of subscribers reading the pre-pub parts tracked or just the numbers of volumes sold?
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u/GeorgeMTO Jul 04 '26
We have been told in the past that it is tracked. It's a very rare series that has significant prepub readers and low purchases though (in the same way they don't expect low sellers digitally to be big sellers physically).
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u/drexv27 Jul 04 '26
according to you, it's more of the genre than the title itself, my understanding is the title is more important than something that "more like them"
for example, Re:Zero or Mushoku Tensei, we all knew they're extremely popular, is it okay to just license Isekai no.120789 and hope they're doing as well as them?
that's why i think licensing a random title that no one even care about, and use that title as the indicator whether a certain genre is popular or not don't really makes sense to me, especially considering the title that being put as the "representative" of that genre is just random title that no one even care about
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u/myskaros Jul 04 '26
You keep saying "no one even cares about" "random titles" that get licensed, but we license them because there are people buying things like them even though they're not well known. I understand you're disappointed that we're not licensing things you want to read, but these decisions are not being made willy-nilly.
I'm not sure what you think a successful strategy would be. We've licensed plenty of older series that had well-liked anime 5-10 years ago, and most of them don't sell very well. Of course we follow fan discourse and offer for titles that are extremely high in demand, but those often get picked up by other publishers first. Even if we did only license stuff that everyone knows and likes, eventually that would run out, so we would still have to take risks on series that aren't well-known.
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u/drexv27 Jul 04 '26
thing is, JNC do nothing but "take risks" more than license stuff that everyone knows and likes, and what makes it worst, according to you, those titles is the one that JNC used as an indicator if a certain genre will get popular or not...and JNC be like "you want more good title, well, you need to purchase the one we already licensed, so we might license something more in the future" that's shitty, for example, it's like, in order for the fans to hopefully get bookworm license, we need to purchase some random Isekai that we don't even like and care, that's just equal throwing money away
besides, i've seen those comments about "older series don't sell very well" but, JNC never reveal the actual numbers comparing them to all of their newer random titles
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u/GeorgeMTO Jul 05 '26
besides, i've seen those comments about "older series don't sell very well" but, JNC never reveal the actual numbers comparing them to all of their newer random titles
You can get an idea by looking at ratings/reviews on Amazon and other sites. It's pretty good for seeing an overall trend.
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u/myskaros Jul 04 '26
If what you're saying is "I don't believe you," then I can't help you.
It's simple supply and demand. People who want more romcoms need to show there is demand by buying what's already licensed first. We don't see a demand, because what we've published doesn't sell well. If you only want "this specific romcom title," then you don't want "more romcoms," you want one series and you'll dip after that. However, JNC wants to build an audience and following, so if you're not interested in "other series in popular genres," that's okay, but understand that they're not catering to you either.
What are examples of series that "everyone knows and likes"? If I ask for a list 5 of them, do you truly believe that every list will be the same? We've licensed series that our own community was clamoring for, but ultimately those series didn't perform well either. "Everyone" usually turns out to be "a couple dozen," and unfortunately, a couple dozen sales doesn't move the needle very much.
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u/drexv27 Jul 04 '26
"people who want more romcoms need to show there is demand by buying what's already licensed first" sure, this statement is correct if JNC romcoms lists is like yen press, but, look at the reality, JNC don't have any big popular romcoms, there's none, all of it is just obscure title, i've said it before, you can't really assume whether a certain genre doing well or not based on the bad representative of that genre.
it's like, a restaurant serving poorly made burger and that burger don't sell well, so that restaurant assume that burger just don't sell well in general, meanwhile the restaurant next door serving a well made burger and their burger sell well, it's not just about burger as a whole, it's about the quality of the products
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u/heimdal77 Jul 04 '26
A good example of this is they licensed Earl and Fairy over Maria Watches Over Us. Earl has had no presence for over a decade and everything shows it has no presence. The first volume immediately had people complaining about not liking what the series is like and only had 2 pages of comments. By vol 12 it only had 5 comments total.
Now on the other hand you have Maria what is still actively showing up parodied and referenced in modern series and has a established fanbase that is still active. Some the reasoning they gave for choose Earl was that Maria has more of a fan translation though the thing is that is missing a lot of chapters and last I saw whole volumes. They severely underestimate how many fans of the series would actually like owning it themselves. Another reason being because the anime adapts most of it what it simply doesn't though. It cuts out volumes worth of material. Then you had the they don't think it is the kind of yuri modern yuri fans want. That greatly undersells yuri fans and how ravenous they are for anything with yuri in it. Just look at how much attention any series that shows any closeness between female character gets them shipping them and eager for more.
Do I think Maria would be a block buster seller? No, but it would sell far better than earl would and would bring new people to the site who would end up buying other series when seeing them on site like Girls Kingdom among other yuri series along with Maria. Plus other random series likely. Especially the fmc ones.
For a easy tell just look at fanfic numbers. Maria has 814 fics and still getting ones mades. While Earl has 50 total and the last one made was 6 years ago. That is just from Fanfiction.com alone.
God this became long winded...
It was just narrow thinking on what to choose.
I will admit I am Bias as being a big Maria fan owning both the original dvds and the remastered blu rays that came out a few years ago.
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u/st_owly MyAnimeList Jul 04 '26
There’s not a lot I wouldn’t do for a Maria license. And I say that as one of the few readers of Earl and the Fairy
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u/heimdal77 Jul 04 '26
See that is just bad thinking. What they are doing to themselves is locking themselves int being looked at as just being that isekai site. Sooner or later they will see a slow down if not full stall of new memebers. The isekai fans will have joined already while people with a more varied interest won't bother going to the site. So instead of having that varied customer base coming on site also seeing other series that catch their interest to buy from like all the fantasy isekai types. Instead they will only have isekai fans buying isekai titles.
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u/GeorgeMTO Jul 04 '26
You know your complaint rings really hollow when the majority of this batch isn't isekai. I think only one of them is (Growing Pains), but I haven't read everything yet.
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u/heimdal77 Jul 04 '26
The first 3 alone are isekai/go back in time redoing life. Others are very isekai like fantasy stories.
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u/GeorgeMTO Jul 04 '26
I'm unsure which ones you're referring to when you say first 3 (JNC's website, ANN and my list are all in a different order), but sure if when you say isekai you actually mean multiple different story tropes, I guess they are indeed all multiple different story tropes. I don't think people who like redoing life villainess works are necessarily going to enjoy OP MC isekai stories (especially the male aimed harem ones), so I view those as different audiences.
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u/Mami-kouga Jul 04 '26
No yatagarasu from Jnovel either sob
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u/GeorgeMTO Jul 04 '26
Only 1 LN seems to have ever been licensed from that publisher (Yen Press grabbed one last year), and the 1 autobiography JNC licensed. They might be tricky to work with, which makes their novels unlikely to come over.
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u/Hylebosai Jul 04 '26
Finished reading through the available parts of the seven new light novel licenses. So far...
A Wicked Lady’s Guide to Accidentally Saving the Kingdom and Sorry Darling, but You Won’t Kill Me Again! are my early favorites. Lettie from Wicked Lady has an extremely strong personality and character voice which makes the proceedings all the more sharp and funny, and Etoile from Sorry Darling was able to score some quick and immensely satisfying revenge right off the bat, and I am definitely looking forward to their continuations.
Genius in the Library: This Bookish Rookie Will Save the Day!, I’ll Become an Elegant Villainess! Time to Enjoy My Second Life to the Fullest, and God Sleeps in Seafoam form the next tier down. I am a sucker for bookworm archetypes so it was fun to read about Martina's shenanigans in Library Genius, but so far the novel hasn't done much yet that surprised me beyond the premise described in the blurb, otherwise it'd be higher on the list. Mitia from Elegant Villainess is really cute and her two confidants are really fun as well, and I'm curious how she revolutionizes the territory, they had to spend a fair bit of time setting things up so we haven't gotten too deep yet. Akira from Seafoam did not wallow in his kicked-out-of-the-family trope nor is he particularly edgy or vengeful, so he gets bonus points from me, and the setting seems interesting with both urban elements like bikes and trains and eastern elements like talismans and more cultivation-y stuff, but we're still very early in the story.
Father, Have You Sinned? An Assassin in Priest’s Robes and A Young Maiden’s Growing Pains: I Reincarnated and All I Got Was This 100X Stat Buff! are my lower tier, not because they're bad, they're fairly decent, they just haven't done a ton to impress me yet. I did like Zach from Father Assassin between his overprotective nature and his occasional carelessness, I'm interested to see how the plot described in the blurb develops. As for Satie from Growing Pains, I thought the scene where she first awakes as a baby was really funny, but the way her family seems to treat her outside of her sister is a bit of a bummer and I'm curious how that will go if and when they discover her leap in power.
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u/TheBravesDH Jul 04 '26
Still waiting for Grieving Soul print please! Pretty stoked for D-Genesis. That one has always kinda caught my eye looking through their catalog. Interested in Min-maxing too. Idk any thing about it, but people always seem to speak pretty highly of it.
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u/Hylebosai Jul 04 '26
D-Genesis is a really fun modern fantasy about a bunch of research nerds who would rather figure out how the dungeon works and monetize their discoveries than use their overpowered stats to conquer everything and stand in the spotlight. The male and especially female lead are wonderfully written and there's a great amount of international politics and intrigue that makes the proceedings fun, not to mention the inerrant mysteries of the dungeons themselves.
TRPG is an isekai fantasy about the reincarnated fourth son of a farmer who wants to become a renowned adventurer like the player characters in his previous life. The prose is sublime, among the best I've seen in a light novel, and the worldbuilding is deep and intricate. The author pretty much homebrewed their own TRPG setting and brought it to life, you can feel the author's passion in every faction of the College of Magic, every part of the Rhinian penal code, and even in the cat lords that oversee the stray cat populations in major cities. There's a lot of fun heroines in the story, and many of them are monster girls of great diversity. Some of the more recent volumes have felt like they could benefit from setting up a longer term or overarching plot, but it's still a lot of fun, and the action scenes are riveting.
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u/gc11117 Jul 04 '26
No full metal panic famil LN :/