Magical Explorer

is a Japanese light novel series written by Iris. The series originated on the Shōsetsuka ni Narō website in February 2018, before being published in print with illustrations by Noboru Kannatsuki by Kadokawa Shoten beginning in November 2019. A manga adaptation, illustrated by Yukari Higa, began serialization on the ''Young Ace Up'' website in August 2020. An anime adaptation has been announced.

Premise

There's a legendary bishōjo game that has become popular among Japanese gentlemen, named "Magical Explorer" or Magiweo for short. The game's protagonist has a cheat-like power with twelve different beautiful heroines to flower with, including additional twelve heroines from the DLC, a harem of twenty-four beauties. Kousuke has become that protagonist, actually not. Instead, he has become the third-wheel character who always laughing like an idiot next to the protagonist. There's no heroine that would lay their eyes on him.

But now he couldn't care less about the protagonist and his heroines, because he discovered magic. While he was using it, he has become interested in it. He wants to master it and become the strongest. Thus he has decided. He would abandon half his role as a protagonist's friend to train his magic and then he would beat the hell out of that cheat who can solo the demon king. He was training with that thought in mind, but somehow he keeps getting closer to the heroines and furthermore, he doesn't know why he keeps encountering events like he's some eroge protagonist.

Characters

;Kousuke Takioto
:In the game, he is bumbling fool who serves as comic relief; hiding the sorrow from his loneliness from having no family at home. The reincarnated version wishes to focus on magic, but finds some of the heroines see him as attractive. To this end, he wishes to be more useful than the hero; breaking the image of the old Kousuke.
:He primarily uses magic to manipulate his scarf as a weapon and trains daily to build up his stamina.
;Marino Hanamura
: Principal of Tsukuyomi Magic Academy. Unrevealed in the game is that she Kousuke's maternal relative; his mother's cousin. She becomes his financial benefactor while Kousuke attends the academy as well as training him on how to properly use magic.
:Marino tends to jump to conclusions when she sees people in compromising situations caused by accidents.
;Hatsumi Hanamura
:Marino's daughter and an academy instructor; she has been continuing her deceased father's research. She has an awkward time adjusting to Kousuke living with her and Marino. Primarily she keeps causing awkward accidental pervert moments.
;Ludivine "Ludie" Marie-Ange De La Tréfle
:An elf who is one of the main heroines of the game; she is the second daughter of the Tréfle emperor. She is known to come off as tsundere due to trust issues stemming from a betrayal.
:She stays with Kousuke and Marino after being saved by him from a terrorist attack; resulting in Ludie starting to become infatuated with Kousuke.
;Claris
:Ludie's maid and bodyguard. She is old friends with Hatsumi whom helped her solve her efficiency issues with spellcasting. Kousuke notes her most attractive trait is her bottom.
;Nanami
:A special maid created by the assist Dungeon Masters; one of the few of the angel race left. Nanami is naughty due to being an eroge character, but is very loyal to Kousuke as his personal maid.
;Iori Hijiri
:The protagonist of the game. He doesn't get much spotlight on the story due to Kousuke not actively staying to the game script.

Media

Light novel

Written by Iris, the series began publication on the novel posting website Shōsetsuka ni Narō on February 26, 2018. The series was later acquired by Kadokawa Shoten, who began publishing the series in print with illustrations by Noboru Kannatsuki on November 1, 2019. As of November 2024, eleven volumes have been released.

Yen Press is publishing the series in English.

Volumes

Manga

A manga adaptation, illustrated by Yukari Higa, began serialization on Kadokawa Shoten's ''Young Ace Up'' manga website on August 20, 2020. The series went on hiatus in June 2021 due to Higa's health. As of March 2024, the series' individual chapters have been collected into two ''tankōbon'' volumes.

Yen Press is also publishing the manga adaptation in English.

Volumes

Anime

An anime adaptation was announced during Kadokawa's "Sneaker Bunko 35th Anniversary Festa!" livestream on September 24, 2023.

Reception

The novel has 50,000,000 views on the Shōsetsuka ni Narō website.

Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network praised the illustrations, but criticized the female characters as lacking development. On the story, Silverman wrote "from the very first sentence, we know what we're getting into, and luckily, it does it decently well". Demelza of Anime UK News felt the series was a "serviceable" isekai series, though Demelza was critical of the writing.

See also

*''Goblin Slayer'', another light novel series with the same illustrator

References

Further reading

*

External links

*
*
*
*

{{Young Ace

2019 Japanese novels
Anime and manga based on light novels
Isekai anime and manga
Isekai novels and light novels
Japanese webcomics
Kadokawa Shoten manga
Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko
Light novels
Light novels first published online
Seinen manga
Shōsetsuka ni Narō
Webcomics in print
Yen Press titles
Yukari Higa