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Light Novel 'Youjo Senki' Gets TV Anime Adaptation

by Stark700
Jan 27, 2016 11:44 PM | 127 Comments
The wraparound jacket on the fifth light novel volume of Youjo Senki, which will go on sale on January 30, has announced a TV anime adaptation of the series.

Youjo Senki, written by Carlo Zen and illustrated by Shinobu Shinotsuki, has been published by Enterbrain since October 2013. The third light novel volume contained an audio drama featuring Hiromi Igarashi as the voice of the protagonist.

Synopsis
On the front lines of the war, there is a little girl. Blonde hair, blue eyes, and porcelain white skin, she commands the army with lisping voice. Her name is Tanya Degurechaff. But in reality, she is one of Japan's most elite salarymen, reborn as a little girl after angering a mysterious being who calls himself God. This little girl, who prioritizes efficiency and her own carrier over anything else, will become the most dangerous being amongst the sorcerers of the imperial army.

Source: IEEE802.11

Youjo Senki on MAL

20 of 127 Comments Recent Comments

Saw the anime trailer and kinda fell in love.

Was surprised by the concept though, then again I've read weirder shit. I wish they really pull through with this. I mean I wish they kept the artstyle but still not bad. But the second girl looks far too ..... well moe. Is it just me? Either way time to see if this can fill the gap between Mob Psycho and OPM with Kono Suba and Saiki 2

Dec 26, 2016 1:11 AM by Undinehunt

Zefyris said:
SymphoniacTippy said:


I have not see this comment until I went through further Lol. I don't get it... care to explain as to why? (seems like a lot of LN readers were saying positive things honesty)

it's not worth asking him
trust me

Joke aside, if it respects the novels, it's going to be the anime with the highest degree of knowledge of military we ever had, that's for sure. It has a very interesting MC and is very entertaining.

I'd say that just with this that's already worth the shot except if you're not into military stuff at all, in which case it's better avoiding it.


Kinda knew it would be a bit of a joke xD =w= But I tend to ask anyways... poor me. Huuu~

But anyway, moving along with the topic, I'm pretty much into the military stuff, so as long as its entertaining at the same time it does a good job at it for me then I'm pretty good with it then honestly.

Nov 21, 2016 12:07 PM by removed-user

SymphoniacTippy said:
WhiteFlamee said:

its not worth it
trust me


I have not see this comment until I went through further Lol. I don't get it... care to explain as to why? (seems like a lot of LN readers were saying positive things honesty)

it's not worth asking him
trust me

Joke aside, if it respects the novels, it's going to be the anime with the highest degree of knowledge of military we ever had, that's for sure. It has a very interesting MC and is very entertaining.

I'd say that just with this that's already worth the shot except if you're not into military stuff at all, in which case it's better avoiding it.

Nov 21, 2016 5:26 AM by Zefyris

WhiteFlamee said:
TheLittleRedHero said:
This synopsis actually intrigues me for a bit, but I feel like from the synopsis in itself, it would be very complex to adapt. But I'm gonna go and check the LNs first tbh.

its not worth it
trust me


I have not see this comment until I went through further Lol. I don't get it... care to explain as to why? (seems like a lot of LN readers were saying positive things honesty)

Nov 19, 2016 11:33 PM by removed-user

lol ppl actually read the synopsis

ima wait for actual episodes or read the source

Mar 3, 2016 9:51 AM by moodie

As ridiculous as the synopsis looks, I'm actually quite interested in this (mainly because the cover art looks really cool).

Mar 3, 2016 9:46 AM by Sapewloth

Stark700 said:

...This little girl, who prioritizes efficiency and her own carrier over anything else, will become the most dangerous being amongst the sorcerers of the imperial army.

You might want to edit and change it into 'career'.

Mar 1, 2016 4:01 AM by ExplodingGirl

I am late for the hype. Definitely watch this masterpiece. 10/10

Feb 8, 2016 4:25 AM by removed-user

chokingasuka said:
So it's a old man reborn as a little girl

Man Japan is really fucked arnt they

I don't think you should say that considering your favourites. Plus it's not an old man. He was around 30 I believe. Still young, very competent, intelligent, efficient in his job and in getting promoted up to inhuman level, a true product of the modern society.

Feb 8, 2016 1:46 AM by Zefyris

So it's a old man reborn as a little girl

Man Japan is really fucked arnt they

Feb 8, 2016 1:28 AM by Zjj

^What you're basically saying is that if the scenario is too complex or too inahabitual for you to understand "how it could work" with just the few words a synopsis use, then it's ok to call it "dumb".
Do whatever you want, but if it's okay for you to call a synopsis "dumb" for that kind of idiotic reason, then it will be okay for me to call your opinion on the synopsis"dumb" just as well, so I'm going to cofirm it: the reason you two are calling that synopsis dumb is... well, completely dumb.
There, done.


Wind_God_Girl said:

...it seems the word LN is now just being used to get more sales... from what you said, it feels like YS do feel to fit more on an actual Novel category rather than LN. Maybe the author should go with GATE style, making it a Novel first then reprinting it to LN style. But that indeed could decrease the sales by itself, so they slap an LN label and viola, increase in sales! They are after all getting an anime adaptation.

Well technically speaking, it is an isekai wave. You don't see much or even see any of these anime prior to 2013.

LN don't especially get "more sales" than novels. As a matter of fact, best sellers each year lately in bunkobon format are NOT LN. Biblia for example comes to minds, its sales is quite higher per volume than a LN like SAO, which are currently the best sellers LN side.
Novels written by Matsuoka sensei for example quite often go over SAO's sales or are SAO sales level as well.

As I said, LN definition never had anything to do with size, or with content either. (well for content, maybe a long time ago).
The label Enterbrain is specialised in publishing WN (YS was orginally one as well) from Narou. The "style of the WN they're publishing is however quite different from what you would found in dengeki bunko choices ( SAO, mahouka, and the like). They also seem to ask the author to heavily rework the original, as case like yuusha, aruiwa bakemono to yobareta shoujo ends up having fairly different plot line than they originally had. Hence why it can take up to 5-6 months for the author to publish each volume even though he originally wrote it already, they are completely reworked.

And I have to say I quite appreciate the result. Shingami wo tabeta shoujo, yuusha aruiwa bakemono to yobareta shoujo, yuusha-sama no oshisho-sama, youjo senki, all of them are very interesting fantasy novels.

Feb 6, 2016 12:48 AM by Zefyris

Zefyris said:

Saying that the "synopsis is dumb" or that" it doesn't seem to be something you'll like" is different. Because a synopsis is just a synopsis, saying "it's dumb" is illogical. Obviously a synopsis isn't going to explain you WHY the situation is like that, just that the situation IS like that. So if things are even a little complex, you won't be able to understand WHY it's like that without reading. So, requiring from a synopsis to convince you that everything inside the story makes sense isn't logical. So you can't say if it's dumb or not just with a synopsis. That's not the synopsis role to begin with. It's telling you what it's about out, not why it's like that, except in really simple term if it's easily explained.

In the current situation, YS's synopsis ISN'T dumb, per se.


For the supposed isekai/tensei wave, agreed with kuuderes_shadow. once again peoples like to exaggerate things a lot.


No it isn't. There is literally nothing illogical about doing that. If someone doesn't like the synopsis it is perfectly valid for them to not like it and it's perfectly valid for them to not want to know 'why' the story is like that and pass on the story. What's idiotic is expecting people to read stuff after reading a bad synopsis so they can know 'why.' That's dumb and a waste of time.

The synopsis is meant to be a general idea so you can gather whether it will interest you or not. That's why they're made.

Do you have an issue with understanding that people have different opinions or something? You like a synopsis, you think it's good. Someone else doesn't like it, they think it's dumb. Wow, they' have a different opinion on it than you it's almost like they're a different person. What you're doing is idiotic. Thought police is literally the perfect word for you. No one has to think like you do. Now move on already and stop clogging this thread up with your redundant argument.

Jan 30, 2016 7:50 PM by marx-chan

kuuderes_shadow said:

Many of these have been big successes, but others have been heavy flops.

So yes, I was calling into question the length of the isekai one (which really only came to the fore in 2013 and hasn't been particularly prominent in the time since then, although it seems from the announcements that it is becoming more so), and the existence of the tensei one.


Hm... now I want to think maybe the one who made it popular isn't the isekai theme at all. It could be simply just because of the fantasy theme with similar game like settings. Maybe there are so much LN adaptations just because they have those settings instead of risking making an original anime.

Could it be that all of these hype even started way back due to SAO's massive success? It's not even an Isekai yet it has the same feeling to it. An immersive MMORPG that simply make the players feels like they're in another world. Heck maybe the isekai adaptations are there just because they're similar to SAO.

...That being said, if it's truly due to isekai setting... wouldn't that mean it could even kickstarted by Angel Beats? A far-fetched one but AB is really popular...

Zefyris said:
Wind_God_Girl said:

...That being said, an anime adaptation could increase it's popularity so maybe there's some fan translators that can help translating the high level language being used in it when they got wind of it? It'll be cool though considering the volume 2 is 500+ pages. Might as well classify it as a Novel instead of LN.


The "light" in light novel has nothing to do with the size and never had. Most LN are in bunkobon format and bunkobo nformat, regardless of if it's a novel or light novel, are usually inferior to 450 pages simply because it's made to be easily put ina pocket and the like, and easily read inside subway and the like, as well as kept with a cheap price.
So they'd rather keep the number of page small and make several volumes instead of one single big volumes in that type of format. However, it's a format used very often for novels so once again, the "light" has nothing to do with the weight/number of page/size. There are light novel which aren't bunkobon, like the enterbrain label (Youjo Senki, Overlord, and the like) so obviously they don't feel as needed to keep a small format since the size is already not a bunkobon anyway.

Now, there are exception everywhere, and like kuuderes_shadow said, there are LN with far more than 550 pages. Contrary to k_s, I actually have a lot of them (more than 30 I think? and there's like 7-8 with more than 1,000 pages actually), so they are definitely here and it's not that much of a rarity, even though it is, like I said above still quite uncommon simply due to the GOAL of the bunkobon size.

So leaving that aside, Youjo senki is not simply a bit bigger in number of page than usual. The pages are really filled up more than usual, and the level of language used is higher than lots of novels as well. Like the translator said," it feels like reading a college Thesis" or something among those line, so yeah, it's big and not an easy read, definitely (and not easy to translate either, definitely as well).

For the supposed isekai/tensei wave, agreed with kuuderes_shadow. once again peoples like to exaggerate things a lot.


...it seems the word LN is now just being used to get more sales... from what you said, it feels like YS do feel to fit more on an actual Novel category rather than LN. Maybe the author should go with GATE style, making it a Novel first then reprinting it to LN style. But that indeed could decrease the sales by itself, so they slap an LN label and viola, increase in sales! They are after all getting an anime adaptation.

Well technically speaking, it is an isekai wave. You don't see much or even see any of these anime prior to 2013.

Jan 30, 2016 4:56 PM by Wind_God_Girl

NaturalPerm said:
Sorry but you aren't making a lot of sense here.
I can read a synopsis and judge it however the hell I like. That's how opinions work.
The term 'thought police' fits you very well.

I'd have a hard time thinking of a more stupid concept than a little lisping reincarnated guy in the body of a little girl climbing the military ladder. Also he's apparently got the body and the lisping due to god's wrath?

You are telling me you can't tell if you find a synopsis dumb by reading the synopsis? Get real.

OPM had a very stupid concept too (a guy who beats everyone with one punch) yet you gave it a 9 which means you really enjoyed it. same can be said about Gintama (samurai and aliens?)... yet both turned out to be amazing shows.

In all honesty though Youjo Senki synopsis is dumb... at first glance it gives the impression of some cheap gender bender /shounen/ comedy crap but after reading the first volume it turned out to be as complex serious seinen as it can get.
i enjoyed reading the first volume but still need to read more to say if its really good or not.

Jan 30, 2016 11:44 AM by IshtaRin

wow this looks interesting

Jan 30, 2016 8:42 AM by ivanchan0079

Sorry but you aren't making a lot of sense here.
I can read a synopsis and judge it however the hell I like. That's how opinions work.
The term 'thought police' fits you very well.

I'd have a hard time thinking of a more stupid concept than a little lisping reincarnated guy in the body of a little girl climbing the military ladder. Also he's apparently got the body and the lisping due to god's wrath?

You are telling me you can't tell if you find a synopsis dumb by reading the synopsis? Get real.

Jan 30, 2016 6:08 AM by NaturalPerm

Wind_God_Girl said:

...That being said, an anime adaptation could increase it's popularity so maybe there's some fan translators that can help translating the high level language being used in it when they got wind of it? It'll be cool though considering the volume 2 is 500+ pages. Might as well classify it as a Novel instead of LN.


The "light" in light novel has nothing to do with the size and never had. Most LN are in bunkobon format and bunkobo nformat, regardless of if it's a novel or light novel, are usually inferior to 450 pages simply because it's made to be easily put ina pocket and the like, and easily read inside subway and the like, as well as kept with a cheap price.
So they'd rather keep the number of page small and make several volumes instead of one single big volumes in that type of format. However, it's a format used very often for novels so once again, the "light" has nothing to do with the weight/number of page/size. There are light novel which aren't bunkobon, like the enterbrain label (Youjo Senki, Overlord, and the like) so obviously they don't feel as needed to keep a small format since the size is already not a bunkobon anyway.

Now, there are exception everywhere, and like kuuderes_shadow said, there are LN with far more than 550 pages. Contrary to k_s, I actually have a lot of them (more than 30 I think? and there's like 7-8 with more than 1,000 pages actually), so they are definitely here and it's not that much of a rarity, even though it is, like I said above still quite uncommon simply due to the GOAL of the bunkobon size.

So leaving that aside, Youjo senki is not simply a bit bigger in number of page than usual. The pages are really filled up more than usual, and the level of language used is higher than lots of novels as well. Like the translator said," it feels like reading a college Thesis" or something among those line, so yeah, it's big and not an easy read, definitely (and not easy to translate either, definitely as well).

Josuke-kun said:
Zefyris said:

There's a difference between deciding if you'll watch or not something depending on the synopsis because it will or not fit your taste, and decide that something is bad or not based solely on the synopsis. One is normal, the other is stupid. A synopsis isn't made to JUDGE something. never. It's made for you to decide if it's up your alley or not.
For example, military isn't your thing, so it's fine to decide like you somehow did here to not watch this show. That's what a synopsis is here for, so you used it the correct way. If you decide however that from the synopsis, this is dumb, contrived, illogical, cliché, or whatever else you can think about, then that's idiotic from you. See the difference?


And NaturalPerm said nothing of the sort, so why are trying to act all high and mighty and scold them for something they didn't even do? They even specifically stated that the synopsis itself was filled with stupid content, not that the entire work was bad.

Also, that's not idiotic to thing that something sounds and probably is stupid from the synopsis. The synopsis is the basic premise of the work, if that sounds stupid it is valid for someone to view it as being 'dumb' if they find the subject dumb. Once again, that's kind of the entire point of a synopsis. They have a differing opinion about subject matter and people are allowed to find anything they want 'dumb' or 'stupid.' Not everyone has to think the same thing sounds good, so quit trying to be the thought police or whatever and let them like what they like. You're fighting a losing battle anyway.

Saying that the "synopsis is dumb" or that" it doesn't seem to be something you'll like" is different. Because a synopsis is just a synopsis, saying "it's dumb" is illogical. Obviously a synopsis isn't going to explain you WHY the situation is like that, just that the situation IS like that. So if things are even a little complex, you won't be able to understand WHY it's like that without reading. So, requiring from a synopsis to convince you that everything inside the story makes sense isn't logical. So you can't say if it's dumb or not just with a synopsis. That's not the synopsis role to begin with. It's telling you what it's about out, not why it's like that, except in really simple term if it's easily explained.

In the current situation, YS's synopsis ISN'T dumb, per se.


For the supposed isekai/tensei wave, agreed with kuuderes_shadow. once again peoples like to exaggerate things a lot.
MaxXZoe said:


i'm just making a pun on her almost killing a member who didn't listen to her, that scene was really good

I see, "that" scene. She scared the shit out of an officer that day. x)

Jan 30, 2016 5:35 AM by Zefyris

Sorry, I realise that I said "isn't unusual" when I had meant to say "isn't all that unusual". It is unusual. On checking I don't actually have any Japanese light novel volumes that hit 550 pages, although I have quite a few around (and several over) the 500 mark, including multiple series that average around (Tokyo Ravens) or above (Bakumatsu Mahoushi) 400. There are series out there with far higher page counts than that, though.

Incidentally, here's the list of Isekai light novel adaptations. Stuff in brackets are questionable:
Zero no Tsukaima - Summer 2006
(Oda Nobuna no Yabou - Summer 2012) - really historical/game hybrid but alternate reality as well so...
Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo? - Winter 2013
(Hataraku Maou-sama! - Spring 2013) - the "isekai" is our own world...
Outbreak Company - Autumn 2013
(Log Horizon - Autumn 2013) - game/isekai hybrid
Mahou Sensou - Winter 2014
No Game No Life - Spring 2014
GATE - summer 2015
(Overlord - summer 2015) - technically a game/isekai hybrid, although this one leans very heavily on the isekai side
KonoSuba - winter 2016
Grimgar - winter 2016

Tensei light novel adaptations:
KonoSuba - Winter 2016

let me know if there's something I'm missing.

Many of these have been big successes, but others have been heavy flops.

So yes, I was calling into question the length of the isekai one (which really only came to the fore in 2013 and hasn't been particularly prominent in the time since then, although it seems from the announcements that it is becoming more so), and the existence of the tensei one.

Jan 30, 2016 3:06 AM by kuuderes_shadow

kuuderes_shadow said:
Wind_God_Girl said:
Heck I don't think that the LN sales warrant a high budget adaptation. I bet whoever or whatever studio decided to adapt this is just to ride on the Isekai/reincarnation hype that's been running for like what, 4-5 years?


Maybe on the light novel front, but on the anime adaptation side of things it really hasn't. Had we even had any tensei anime adaptations before this season? Isekai series have been around for a while, but I can't think of any year that has had more than 2 (excluding sequels) other than (depending on what you include) possibly 2013

It'll be cool though considering the volume 2 is 500+ pages. Might as well classify it as a Novel instead of LN.

500 pages isn't unusual for a light novel though? And that's not what determines whether or not something is a light novel anyway.


Well for comparison, volume 2 is roughly almost two times thicker than Overlord volume 7. A staggering 550 pages against roughly 395. SAO, NGNL and other famous LNs ranges between 250 to 400 max. AFAIK, Mahouka was the few LNs I know to almost breach 500 with just shy of 440ish, then again thats only 2 volumes out of around 14+....
So no, 550 pages is very unusual for an LN. Then again seeing the very large gap time gap between volumes releases, one should've expect this much content anyway (Only 5 volumes released since 2013 with the fifth volume released 2-3 days ago).

For shows that involves Isekai... well we got NGNL, Log Horizon, Overlord, Mondaiji Tachi. From current winter 2016, we have Grimgar combined with KonoSuba, GATE S2 and obviously GATE S1 last year. 3 shows this season alone (Well 2 if you don't want to include GATE).

I'm sure there are more that I missed, but the most important thing is that Overlord, NGNL, and GATE has been a massive success on the DVDs. They are also LN adaptations. So I'm predicting this is either a move between MadHouse or just another studio seeing the potential sales.

Oh and the LN sales of respective shows are boosted like crazy too. Win win situation. This time Youjo Senki features a guy reborned as a loli with more twist that it is in a WWI like setting. As if that doesn't attract enough attention....

Jan 30, 2016 2:24 AM by Wind_God_Girl

Wind_God_Girl said:
Heck I don't think that the LN sales warrant a high budget adaptation. I bet whoever or whatever studio decided to adapt this is just to ride on the Isekai/reincarnation hype that's been running for like what, 4-5 years?


Maybe on the light novel front, but on the anime adaptation side of things it really hasn't. Had we even had any tensei anime adaptations before this season? Isekai series have been around for a while, but I can't think of any year that has had more than 2 (excluding sequels) other than (depending on what you include) possibly 2013

It'll be cool though considering the volume 2 is 500+ pages. Might as well classify it as a Novel instead of LN.

500 pages isn't unusual for a light novel though? And that's not what determines whether or not something is a light novel anyway.

Jan 30, 2016 1:48 AM by kuuderes_shadow

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