#J-Novel Club Licenses 9 New Light Novel & Manga Titles for April 2024

J-Novel Club has announced the license acquisition of multiple new series following their latest industry livestream held online on Twitch on April 5, 2024. Five new light novels and four new manga will be joining the J-Novel Club digital catalog, with all of them receiving a digital launch on J-Novel Club’s website and app a few hours after the conclusion of the announcement stream. 

Here are the details for the latest light novel and manga acquisitions: 

Light Novels 

From Two-Bit Baddie to Total Heartthrob: This Villainess Will Cross-Dress to Impress! 

Story: Masamune Okazaki

Illustration: Hayase Jyun 

A J-Novel Heart title launching today with Parts 1 and 2 of Volume 1. 

Synopsis: 

The world just isn’t fair and Elizabeth Burton knows that better than anyone. Reincarnated into an otome game as a two-bit villainess, she’s been doomed by the genre’s tropes to a life of misery.

What’s a girl to do… but cross-dress her way into the main character’s heart and a guaranteed happy ending of course! After years of blood, sweat, and tears fashioning herself into the perfect heartthrob, all she has to do is wait for the fated first meeting with the main character… or so she thought!

As it turns out, her manly charms have come back to bite her in the butt. The other love interests have started cross-dressing too, and they don’t want the main character’s heart—they want Elizabeth’s!

A Surprisingly Happy Engagement for the Slime Duke and the Fallen Noble Lady

Story: Mashimesa Emoto

Illustration: Kasumi Nagi 

A J-Novel Heart title launching today with Parts 1 and 2 of Volume 1. 

Synopsis: 

After her sister’s engagement to the crown prince is broken off suddenly, tragedy strikes, and Lady Francette and her family lose all of their wealth and status. Left with nothing but her name and determination, Francette moves to the slums and ekes out a living selling homemade pastries.

That’s when she meets an unlikely new friend named Wibble, a talking slime who introduces her to the one and only slime duke himself: Gabriel! To her surprise, the unusually stoic Gabriel soon asks for Francette’s hand in marriage–and she accepts. Now she must adapt to Triste and its eccentric people, and she soon finds herself breathing life into the strange but endearing backwater.

What was once a marriage of convenience becomes something much more in time…and—of course — expect lots of slime!

Goodbye, Overtime! This Reincarnated Villainess Is Living for Her New Big Brother

Story: Chidori Hama

Illustration: Wan Hachipisu 

A J-Novel Heart title launching today with Parts 1 and 2 of Volume 1. 

Synopsis: 

Yukimura Rina is an overworked twenty-something systems engineer who’s dangerously close to her breaking point. Her only comfort is an otome game with a charming side character, the brother of the villainess, who soothes her weary heart. She gets so hooked that she forgoes sleep and ends up blacking out…only to wake up inside the game as the villainess, Ekaterina.

She’s now the little sister of her favorite character! Her new brother Alexei is handsome, kind, and responsible—the whole package. Rina, now Ekaterina, would be happy just staying by his side, except for one little problem. If she allows the game to run its course, she and her brother are headed straight for a terrible future! Can Ekaterina overcome the doom flags that threaten her new family and the empire, while also preventing Alexei from working himself to death?

The Invincible Summoner Who Crawled Up from Level 1: Wrecking Reincarnators with My Hidden Dungeon 

Story: Shiraishi Arata

Illustration: yuunagi

Launching today with Parts 1 and 2 of Volume 1. 

Synopsis: 

It couldn’t get any worse for Shinobu Iijima. After a terrible house fire consumes his life and puts his sister, Megumi, on her deathbed, Shinobu wakes up in his favorite MMO: La Vita Online. With all his data deleted and reset back to level 1, the only solace Shinobu has is that his scumbag of a foster father, Ayumu, died with him…only to discover he was reincarnated in the game as well?!

A nightmare reborn, Ayumu pledges to get revenge on the siblings, biding his time until Megumi eventually dies and reincarnates in La Vita. While Megumi struggles through her last breaths in the real world, Shinobu does his best to grind his way back up the levels before her reincarnation. Armed with a hidden dungeon, his hard-earned legendary summons, and an undefeatable will, Shinobu must reach the max level in order to protect his sister from their foster father and the other reincarnators threatening to stop him at all costs.

The Death of the Skeleton Swordsman: Dominating as a Cursed Saint 

Story: Hozumi Mitaka

Illustration: fame

Launching today with Parts 1 and 2 of Volume 1. 

Synopsis: 

Al is a holy knight, a warrior charged with protecting the innocent from the hordes of ravenous monsters terrorizing the lands. He was, anyway… After being bitten by an undead creature, Al dies–but not for long. Al awakes as an undead! However, unlike ordinary undead, for some mysterious reason he retains his mind and sanity.

Three hundred years later, flesh rotting off to reveal a living skeleton, Al meets Astrantia. As a descendant of a witch, Astrantia offers to restore his body on one condition: he must agree to become her knight and help her put an end to the unholy curse once and for all. Alongside Astrantia, Al enters an academy for training saints—teams of holy knights and holy women who fight to rid the world of the undead. Al must hide his identity as an undead—the very thing everyone in the school seeks to eradicate—in order for Astrantia to succeed and keep her word. Keeping his secret under wraps proves to be as difficult as hiding his lack of flesh but, if there’s one thing he can’t hide, it’s the strength he’s been honing for the past three hundred years!

Manga 

I’m a Noble on the Brink of Ruin, So I Might as Well Try Mastering Magic

Art: Rio Akisaki

Original Work: Nazuna Miki

Based on the light novel series of the same name, which launches today with Chapter 1 of Volume 1. 

Synopsis: 

Liam Hamilton is not who you think. On the surface Liam is the son of a failing noble family, but on the inside…he’s actually a lowly peasant?! One night he’s a miserable middle-aged commoner chugging cold beers at the local tavern and the next day he suddenly wakes up as the youngest son of a noble count?! Make it make sense! Liam Hamilton has no idea how he ended up this way, but he does know one thing for certain: as a noble he can finally try learning magic like he’s always dreamed of!

Too bad the noble house he’s been reborn into is on the verge of collapse–that is–unless they prove themselves worthy of high society. When Liam discovers he has a natural affinity for magic, can he save his doomed house or will he go back to being just another lowly commoner?

The Eternal Fool’s Words of Wisdom A Pawsitively Fantastic Adventure 

Art: Fuh Araki

Original Work: Hifumi

Launching today with Chapter 1 of Volume 1. 

Synopsis: 

A couple thousand years of solitude would wear down any young man—that is, anyone except Asley, an eternally youthful and eternally foolish sorcerer. After all, he has man’s best friend…er, familiar, to keep him company. When his Level 100 canine companion Pochi demands that he get some fresh air for the first time in two centuries, Asley sets out to reintegrate into society and test his magic mettle. His mission? Dropping several unglamorous titles from his repertoire and restoring his good (okay, decent) name.

A brand-new world and fresh adventures await Asley after his many years of hermitage. Perhaps he’ll lend Pochi a hand to place first in the mysterious Familiar Feud. Or maybe he’ll lose all vestiges of dignity and turn tail. Whichever comes first! No matter what, Asley has great evil to fight, a big world to save, and even a little growing up to do…that is, if he can endure Pochi’s “friendly advice” along the way!

My Quiet Blacksmith Life in Another World

Art: Yoshino Himori

Original Work: Tamamaru

Based on the light novel series of the same name, which launches today with Chapter 1 of Volume 1. 

Synopsis: 

After Eizo Tanya is a middle-aged, very burned-out, software engineer. One night after working late, he throws himself in front of a speeding truck to save a cat. Although the cat survives, Eizo is not so lucky. In a spark of divine fate, the cat turns out to be a godlike being who offers him a second chance in another world! Should he be a legendary warrior? A noble king? Nope! All Eizo wants is a peaceful life making things for others, and what better way to do that than becoming a blacksmith? He does have one other wish: to live alongside a cute cat. His requests are granted but with a twist—Eizo’s blacksmithing skills are so overpowered that they’re practically cheat abilities. On top of that, the cat companion he wished for turns out to be a half-tiger girl! With so much commotion in this world, will Eizo be able to forge a quiet new life?

To Another World… with Land Mines!

Art: Relucy

Original Work: Itsuki Mizuho

Based on the light novel series of the same name, which launches today with Chapter 1 of Volume 1. 

Synopsis: 

When an entire class of high school students die in a tragic bus accident, an evil god sends them to a different world with supernatural skills to help them survive. However, they don’t realize that some of those skills are land mines—powers that seem good but have deadly Downsides!

Among those students are the childhood friends Haruka, Nao, and Touya, who work together to establish a safe and stable life in this new world. None of them want to be a hero, and that realistic perspective is exactly what they need to survive. After all, the world they’re in isn’t a game. It’s reality.

Source: press release