Most requested English light novel licenses #2 (July/August/September)

Back at the start of May I made a blog post on the most requested English light novel licenses from tweeting Yen Press’s twitter. But of course the series that are requested will change over time, based on new series airing, anime adaptations, or other circumstances.

So, a few months on, I’ve taken another 3 month snapshot to get a different view of things.

Unfortunately it is too early to tell whether or not those requests have any correlation to licenses, let alone any influence on it. This is especially the case given that their last light novel license announcement was on 1st July (which is the first day covered here), which may have been too soon for any license initiated by requests to have any influence anyway.

Of those series that were licensed since the start of May, KonoSuba was the most requested in the previously covered period, and Rokka no Yuusha was requested by one person. Goblin Slayer and Death March were not requested at all.

Vertical have licensed a few things in the time since as well, and Seven Seas has picked up a volume, but none of these were requested from Yen Press in either set of data.

As with last time, requests for continuations/more volumes of releases of series that Yen Press already hold the license to were ignored. The exception to this is the Spice and Wolf extra stories (grouped together as it wasn’t always obvious which was being requested) as these would likely require a new license.

The same basic approach was taken as last time to counting the tallies. You can view that post if you want the details. The most significant thing to remember is that each person’s request was only counted once no matter how many times that individual requested the series.

Here is the list of titles requested and the number of requests for each:

Ookami to Koushinryou Spring Log etc. – 27
Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria – 11
Nejimaki Seirei Senki: Tenkyou no Alderamin/Alderamin on the Sky – 8
Hai to Gensou no Grimgar/Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash – 7
Date A Live – 6
Highschool DxD – 5
Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry – 5
Amagi Brilliant Park – 4
Magdala de Nemure – 4
Re:Zero Ex/Re:Zero Tanpenshuu (bunched together as not always clear which is being requested) – 4
Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata – 4
Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo? – 3
Hitsugi no Chaika – 2
Kino no Tabi/Kino’s Journey* – 2
Masou Gakuen HxH – 2
Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai! – 2
Tokyo Ravens – 2
Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou – 1
Arslan Senki/Heroic Legend of Arslan – 1
Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai – 1
Bungou Stray Dogs novels – 1
Campione – 1
Chrome Shelled Regios – 1
Dorei Career Planner wa Seikou Dekiru Shokugyou – 1
Ecstas Online – 1
Fate/Zero – 1
Full Metal Panic!* – 1
GOSICK* – 1
Hibike! Euphonium/Sound! Euphonium – 1
Hidan no Aria* – 1
Inou Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de – 1
Kimi no Na wa. – 1
Knight’s & Magic – 1
Kotenbu Series/Hyouka/Classics Club Series – 1
Kyou kara Maou – 1
Kyoukaisenjou no Horizon/Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere – 1
Madan no Ou to Vanadis – 1
Magika no Kenshi to Basileus/Magika Swordsman and Summoner – 1
Maouyuu Maou Yuusha – 1
Mushoku Tensei: Isekai Ittara Honki Dasu – 1
Netoge no Yome wa Onna no Ko Janai to Omotta?/And You Thought There is Never a Girl Online – 1
NEW GATE – 1
Ore no Nounai Sentakushi ga, Gakuen Love Come wo Zenkryoku de Jama Shiteiru/NouCome – 1
Popolochronicle – 1
ROD Read or Die – 1
Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? – 1
Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance – 1
Shakugan no Shana* – 1
Shimoneta to Iu Gainen ga Sonzai Shinai Taikutsu na Sekai/ShimoSeka – 1
Shinmai Maou no Testament – 1
Slayers* – 1
Sword Art Online Gun Gale Online – 1
Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken – 1
Toradora – 1
Trinity Seven: 7-nin no Mashotsukai The Novel – 1
Tytania – 1
Uchi no Musume no Tame naraba, Ore wa Moshikashitara Maou mo Taoseru kamo Shirenai – 1
Vamp!* – 1

*Titles marked with an asterisk would be license rescues. Vamp! was never actually released, whereas all the other series were dropped after the first volume(s) came out.

That’s 139 requests (44 more than last time) for 58 series (18 more than last time) in total. This shows a significant increase, which may indicate a larger fandom, or just be a symptom of Yen Press becoming more talkative on social media.

Spice and Wolf got such a high number in part because of Yen Press’s teasing prior to the announcement of the collector’s edition. HakoMari also saw a big increase in requests. Alderamin goes up thanks to its anime, and Grimgar and Rakudai stay on high figures even as their anime adaptations fade in prominence, while Date A Live seems to have established itself as a perennial source of requests and DxD and SaeKano are inevitable due to them having the manga license.

There are quite a few new things on the list this time, some of which I had never heard of before (had you heard of Popolochronicle?), and a few series that were requested in the previous period were not requested before, but nothing got 2 or more requests that had previously had none other than series with anime adaptations in the period covered, whilst everything that got 2 or more requests in the last period were requested again this time (other than KonoSuba for obvious reasons), so this may just be a case of them being included on the list by chance.

I might do another of these at some point, but won’t make it a regular thing. I don’t want people to start bugging Yen Press with requests just to increase the series on these rankings. This is part of the reason why I did not continue straight on from the last set of data. The other reason being to try to reduce the number of license announcements in the time covered. That said, at some point it may become possible to look back at the list with regards to what actually gets picked up.