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J-Novel Club Licenses Outbreak Company Novel Series

J-Novel Club announced on Thursday that it has licensed Ichiro Sakaki's Outbreak Company - Moeru Shinryakusha (Outbreak Company - The Power of Moe) light novel series. The online service is currently offering the first half of volume one for members and the first 40 pages for free users. The first e-book will go on sale in November.

Sakaki launched the 18-volume light novel series with illustrations by Yuugen in 2011 and ended it in August. J-Novel Club describes the story:

The year is 20XX, and Shinichi Kanou is a pretty typical otaku: he loves anime, manga, games, and light novels, but his devotion to the two-dimensional hasn't always made him the most popular guy around.

What he doesn't know is that Japan has discovered a portal to another world in the vicinity of Mount Fuji. The government sees a great chance to make a profit, if they can keep the secret long enough to corner the market on exports to the Holy Eldant Empire, their point of first contact with this new land.

The people of the Eldant Empire, though, only have eyes for one of Japan's traditional exports: pop culture. When it quickly becomes evident that government bureaucrats and “Japanimation” don't really mix, the bigwigs realize they're going to need help bringing “otaku culture” to the Eldant masses.

Enter Amutech, a purveyor of “general entertainment” that's secretly run by the Japanese government. Shinichi lands a job as the company's general manager, whereupon he learns the state's biggest secret. Now he finally has a chance to put his nerd know-how to good use spreading the otaku gospel in the Eldant Empire. And wait... he has to work with a half-elf maid, an empress, AND a female soldier to get the job done?

Studio feel. produced the television anime adaptation of the novels in 2013. Sentai Filmworks released the series on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in 2015. Kiri Kajiya launched a manga adaptation of the novels in 2012 and ended it in 2014.

Sakaki's writings have also inspired several other anime such as Polyphonica, Scrapped Princess, and Strait Jacket.

J-Novel Club launched in October of last year, initially publishing titles from Hobby Japan and OVERLAP. Outbreak Company is J-Novel Club's second license from the Japanese publisher Kodansha, and Yuu Kamiya and Tsubaki Himana's Clockwork Planet light novel series was the first. Seven Seas Entertainment is releasing some of J-Novel Club's titles in print, starting with Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash and Occultic;Nine.