Tadaima! I’m back again. And...
I have an announcement today. It actually explains, in part, why I haven't been able to update this blog for such a long time, to be honest.
I’m happy to announce that I am the series editor for J-Novel Club’s light novel series, The Greatest Magicmaster’s Retirement Plan!
Here’s the synopsis:
In a world where the Fiends run rampant... Magicmaster Alus Reigin, the young prodigy that has defeated more Fiends and reclaimed more of humanity’s lost territory than anyone else alive, requests retirement from military service at age 16. But due to the twists and turns of fate surrounding his status as the No. 1 Magicmaster in the nation—the top Magicmaster out of more than 100,000—he ends up as a student at a special magical institute, hiding his identity and training his successors – a pair of beautiful Magicmaster girls! Not to mention continuing to defeat Fiends in secret... Get ready—the epic adventure of the Greatest Magicmaster Alus Reigin begins now!
It sounds like an isekai story, but it’s not. From what I can tell so far, it’s actually not set on Earth. I guess we might find out in Volume 7 that it’s taken place in an alternate Japan all along (lol), but for now, this is set in a fantasy realm.
I’m really pleased to be a series editor again in this industry. If you haven’t visited J-Novel Club’s website yet, you should give it a try. Many of their titles are isekai stories, but they also have general titles you already know from mainstream anime and manga like Amagi Brilliant Park and Kokoro Connect.
Most recently, the publisher scored a major title: Full Metal Panic!
The site has not only translated light novels, but translated manga series. It’s a subscription-based site, but the first part of every title they publish is available free to read for non-members. Each week, a new part of each story is published, so it’s basically a serialization site. When the entire book has been published, it’s compiled and then made available for sale as an ebook, not only from JNC but also Amazon, the iBookstore, etc.
JNC has some good non-series standalone books too. I’ve written here before about Last and First Idol, which I thought was brilliant. I’ve been busy working on Greatest Magicmaster so I haven’t had the chance to try many of their series, but I fully intend to. I’m currently reading Amagi Brilliant Park on the site and enjoying it a lot.
I’m also enjoying Greatest Magicmaster. Working with a series in a focused way, such as being its editor, is a privilege. You become deeply enveloped in the world and appreciate its finer points.
The main character, Alus Reigin, starts off… well, it’s a bit hard to like him initially. He’s pretty arrogant, being the No. 1 Magicmaster and all. ;-) But it’s clear even from the first volume that this story will be about Alus developing the parts of his humanity that he never could before, having served in the military since the age of six.
And he’s not all he seems at first, either. Later on in the first volume, we see Alus’ compassion come out in a flashback scene, which implies that he’s had to bury his vulnerable side due to his huge burden of responsibility this whole time. He’s a multi-faceted character with hidden depths, and I’m looking forward to continuing to follow his journey.
If you’d like to try out The Greatest Magicmaster's Retirement Plan, the link is below.
Now for a little update on my anime-viewing activities... I’ve continued to marathon Dragon Ball Z, and am basically near the end. Majin Buu – evil Kid Buu – has been defeated, while Big Happy Buu survived (yes! and the puppy too). Earth has been saved by Goku and Vegeta and company, so I guess the remaining episodes will be kind of a long denouement.
I should have more time now for this blog and my writing blog, since I just turned in the final work on Greatest Magicmaster’s first volume. I’m still in the midst of finishing the edit of Homestead, and hopefully I’ll be able to release it at the end of April.
Working on Greatest Magicmaster, and getting through the initial learning curve at JNC, took so much of my time that I’m even behind on Boruto. Before this, no matter how busy my schedule, I could always manage to watch Boruto every week. Not to mention that I appear to have missed an entire anime season - Winter 2019. -_-
But I’ve already started on my first Dragon Ball post. As I said before, it’ll be an intermittent series of posts on random things about Dragon Ball that I want to talk about.
It feels like I'm always saying this, but... stay tuned! More posts to follow.
And here's that link to J-Novel Club:
The Greatest Magicmaster's Retirement Plan
