Fantasy Novel Series 'Arslan Senki' to Conclude

by Vindstot
Aug 29, 2017 6:19 PM | 17 Comments

Japanese publishing company Kobunsha announced on Tuesday that Yoshiki Tanaka's fantasy novel series Arslan Senki (The Heroic Legend of Arslan) will end in its 16th volume, which is expected to be released this winter.

Hiroaki Adachi, the representative director of copyright management company Wright Staff, revealed on Twitter that the manuscript of the final volume is finished and has been forwarded to the editor for proofreading. Adachi further stated that he will announce the release date of the volume once it has been decided.

Kadokawa published the first ten volumes of Arslan Senki beginning in 1986 with illustrations by Yoshitaka Amano. Subsequent volumes have been published by Kobunsha with illustrations by Shinobu Tanno since 2005. The 15th volume of the novel (pictured) was released on May 18.

A manga adaptation drawn by Chisato Nakamura ran for 13 volumes between 1991 and 1996. Hiromu Arakawa (Fullmetal Alchemist) began a second manga adaptation in Kodansha's Bessatsu Shounen Magazine in July 2013.

Kodansha Comics has been releasing the manga in English since 2014 and published the sixth volume on February 14. The series is also being published digitally by Crunchyroll.

The franchise inspired multiple anime adaptations, with the first being a six-episode OVA covering stories from the novel series. A 25-episode TV anime adaptation of Arakawa's manga by SANZIGEN and LIDENFILMS aired in Spring 2015. The second season of the anime premiered in Summer 2016 and ran for 8 episodes.

Funimation licensed the anime series for North American distribution and released the first season in two Blu-ray and DVD volumes in August and November last year, with the second season slated for release on September 5.

Source: Sankei News, Nijimen

Series End

17 Comments Recent Comments

Kuma said:

so, what soo bad about those last volume? or is it another shipping wars?

Tokoya said:
I kinda want to get spoiled as to why this is the case lol

I haven't read it myself, only read the complaints about it, and the list of complaints is pretty much the same everywhere and is quite long.
To sum it up, everything that was doing the charm of that story is gone, and readers blame the fact that Tanaka just went writing (like he always does) other series letting this one unfinished for so long, and when he comes back, he has lost that touch that readers were liking and buying those novels for .
A few complaints listed :
-literary style changed completely and new one is felt as being inferior
-Ability to describe changed heavily, and is inferior as well
-Humour changed completely or is simply lost
-The fantasy side is now taking too much place, which makes tactics and strategy that were -apparently- a strong point of this series, pretty much irrelevant
-The author still kills characters that he developed a lot, and plenty of time the reader cannot see any reason of killing them in that story, especially since they are not replaced by well developed character, which means that most of those deaths feels as meaningless for the story and just a sheer loss of quality every times it happens
-furthermore, that "killing character, is heavily perceived as a "one pattern", "one trick pony" from the author who always use those deaths to "make the reader feel how bad is war". For long time fans of that series, it's felt more like a "he's doing it again..." than a "omg so sad war is so cruel" kind of moment the author is aiming for. Which makes the death of those characters perceived as even, more useless and just stupid.
-It's nothing new for tanaka since that author never ever knew how to write proper strategy despite making it his speciality, but many strategies are so out of place that the readers cannot help but point out that the "great strategists" in those novels are behaving stupidly.

And the list goes on. The complaints just pile up so much that some peoples are wondering if it's really the same author writing those volumes.

Sep 14, 2017 3:36 AM by Zefyris

Zefyris said:
Tanaka ending one of his long left unfinished series, it's been a while, kek.
Real question is, how many of the fans will burn the volume in anger for how it's finished, considering how badly received the last few volumes have been.
Volume 13 on amazon? 2.5/5
volume 14? 3/5
volume 15 ? 2/5
Let's see volume 16 then~
Maybe in reverse fans will be be glad that the author is finally done with destroying what they liked?~

I kinda want to get spoiled as to why this is the case lol

Sep 14, 2017 12:25 AM by Tokoya

so, what soo bad about those last volume? or is it another shipping wars?

Sep 13, 2017 6:32 PM by Kuma

Tanaka ending one of his long left unfinished series, it's been a while, kek.
Real question is, how many of the fans will burn the volume in anger for how it's finished, considering how badly received the last few volumes have been.
Volume 13 on amazon? 2.5/5
volume 14? 3/5
volume 15 ? 2/5
Let's see volume 16 then~
Maybe in reverse fans will be be glad that the author is finally done with destroying what they liked?~

Sep 13, 2017 7:40 AM by Zefyris

Wow, over 30 years. Hopefully it concludes on a satisfying note.

Sep 13, 2017 4:58 AM by Nintendofan204

All I want from the novel is for Alfreed and Elam to become canon.

Sep 2, 2017 10:36 AM by Roloko

Rei366 said:
Wait, has Tanaka other series currently under publication? If not, he could start something new (and shorter), unless he wants to... go back to the stars -_- (after all, Ginga Eiyû Densetsu has not only been revived as a manga adaptation but is about to be animated again).

ziggy_Z said:
Is that what Arslan's supposed to look like? What?

He's certainly not supposed to look like a typical Arakawa character if that's the cause of the "what?".
I prefer Amano's style, but to be honest, Arslan is supposed to look like how he is described in the novels, not like he is represented by either Amano or Tanno. That's how novels work.

Thanks for clarifying. Never knew there was such a difference.

Sep 1, 2017 9:11 PM by ziggy_Z

Wasn't it known that series will end on vol.16 for a year or so? I cleraly remember the news on ANN.

Aug 30, 2017 7:32 AM by Nachtwandler_21

The 90s OVA is a legend. Still sad it was so short.

I presume the books never got a TL?

Aug 30, 2017 3:20 AM by Feniksrises

I've been reading the manga (the recent one) ... Guess i'll have to read the novel too then.
Wait the characters don't look similar as the anime... Do you think it's worth reading the novel? It seems quite long...

Aug 30, 2017 2:59 AM by Major_Gilbert

RedDragonZer0 said:
But will we see another season?

I really hope we will see a new season too.

Aug 30, 2017 1:35 AM by charles790

Well this is for the best lest you end up pulling a Guin.

Aug 29, 2017 11:11 PM by VyseLegendaire

Wait, has Tanaka other series currently under publication? If not, he could start something new (and shorter), unless he wants to... go back to the stars -_- (after all, Ginga Eiyû Densetsu has not only been revived as a manga adaptation but is about to be animated again).

ziggy_Z said:
Is that what Arslan's supposed to look like? What?

Aug 29, 2017 10:59 PM by Rei_III

Is that what Arslan's supposed to look like? What?

Aug 29, 2017 9:54 PM by ziggy_Z

I hope Arslan gets a yaoi ending.

Aug 29, 2017 9:35 PM by MortalMelancholy

Wasn't really the biggest fan of the anime but well that's news. Well, whatever ends, hopefully it goes on a pretty decent note honestly.

Aug 29, 2017 9:34 PM by removed-user

But will we see another season?

Aug 29, 2017 8:59 PM by RedDragonZer0