is a Japanese

light novel A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a '' wasei-eigo'', or a Japanese term formed from words in the English langua ...

series written by Miku and illustrated by Rein Kuwashima. It began as a

web novel Web fiction is written works of literature available primarily or solely on the Internet. A common type of web fiction is the web serial. The term comes from old serial stories that were once published regularly in newspapers and magazines. Unlik ...

that started in the Kakuyomu website in March 2017. It was later acquired by

Fujimi Shobo , formerly , was a Japanese publisher that specialized in light novels, manga, role-playing games and collectible card games. Founded in 1972 and reorganized three times, it was at times an independent company and at times an imprint of Kadokawa ...

, who have published the series since December 2018 under their Fujimi Fantasia Bunko imprint. A

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is used ...

adaptation illustrated by Kazuomi Minatogawa has been serialized in

ASCII Media Works ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because of ...

' '' Dengeki PlayStation Comic Web'' website since December 2019, with its chapters collected into ''

tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or m ...

'' volumes as of December 2022. An

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening o ...

television series adaptation produced by

TMS Entertainment , formerly known as the , also known as or , is a Japanese animation studio established on October 22, 1946. TMS is one of the oldest and most famous anime studios in Japan, best known for numerous anime franchises such as ''Lupin the Third'', ...

and animated by Millepensee is set to premiere in April 2023.

Plot

Yuya Tenjo is an overweight, short and meek high schooler who is bullied at school and tormented by his family, except for his grandfather who is the only person who cares for him. When his grandfather dies and leaves Yuya as the sole inheritor of his house, his parents expel him from home and force him to live there alone, but inside the house, Yuya discovers a portal to another world, where he obtains the power to change his life forever.

Characters

; : : The main protagonist, he is a timid and unnatractive boy who is tormented by both his classmates and his family, until he inherits his grandfather's house, where he finds a portal to another world and powerful weapons from there. After killing a powerful monster using such weapons, Yuya discover that he can get stronger and obtain special powers by defeating such enemies like in a video game, the process also changing his appearance, becoming tall and handsome. Since then he travels back and forth between both worlds, using his newly obtained skills to improve himself, making friends and enemies along the way, ; : :Daughter of the chairman of the prestigious Ousei Academy. She takes an interest in Yūya when he tries his best to defend her from some thugs before his transformation. Once meeting him again, Kaori invites Yuya to study at Ousei with her, to which he accepts. Since then she is his closest friend in school and has feelings for him. ; : :The first princess of the Arselian Kingdom, which lies in the other world. After Yuya rescues her from a monster, she becomes infatuated with him and tries her best to win his affection. ; : :A popular model who partnered with Yuya for a photoshoot and developed an interest in him since then. ; : ; : ; : ; : ; : ; : ; : ; : ; : ; :

Media

Light novel

Written by Miku, the series began publication online in the Kakuyomu website on March 25, 2017, under the tentative title . The series was later acquired by

, who began publishing the novels with illustrations by Rein Kuwashima starting on December 20, 2018, under their Fujimi Fantasia Bunko imprint. As of December 2022, twelve volumes have been released. In September 2021,

Yen Press Yen Press, LLC is an American manga and graphic novel publisher co-owned by Kadokawa Corporation and Hachette Book Group. It published ''Yen Plus'', a monthly comic anthology, between 2008 and 2013. In addition to translated material, Yen Press ...

announced that they had licensed the novels for English publication.

Manga

adaptation illustrated by Kazuomi Minatogawa began serialization in

' '' Dengeki PlayStation Comic Web'' website on December 13, 2019. As of December 2022, four ''

'' volumes have been released. Yen Press has also licensed the manga in English.

Anime

In August 2022, it was announced that the novels would be receiving an

television series adaptation. The series is produced by

and animated by Millepensee, with Shingo Tanabe directing, Shin Itagaki serving as chief director and supervising the scripts, Hiromi Kimura adapting Rein Kuwashima's character designs for animation and serving as chief animation director, and Akiyuki Tateyama composing the music. It is set to premiere on April 7, 2023, on

Tokyo MX JOMX-DTV, branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city. It competes with Nippon TV, TV Asahi, NHK ...

and other networks. The opening theme song is by Tsukuyomi.

Reception

In May 2018, the web novel won the Grand Prize at the 3rd Kakuyomu Web Novel Contest in the Science Fiction/Modern Fantasy Division. As of February 2023, the series has 2 million copies in circulation.

Notes

References

External links

* at Kakuyomu * * * {{Millepensee 2018 Japanese novels 2023 anime television series debuts Anime and manga about parallel universes Anime and manga based on light novels ASCII Media Works manga Dengeki Comics Fantasy anime and manga Fujimi Fantasia Bunko Japanese fantasy novels Japanese webcomics Kadokawa Dwango franchises Light novels Light novels first published online Seinen manga Upcoming anime television series Tokyo MX original programming Webcomics in print Yen Press titles