So… after the cursed chapter 46 dropped, I did some digging to try to understand what the hell happened to this story.
I made a post about it, and for informational purposes, I’m gonna repost it here:
Well, since the story is ruined FOR ME, since I consider what happened totally unnecessary and it kind of felt off with the tone of the story until that point, I decided to do some research to try to understand why the author decided to take this dark turn in the story.
Before continuing, let me emphasize again, the story is ruined FOR ME. If you liked what happened, think it’s fitting with the rest of the story, or think it was an interesting twist, good for you. It’s okay to disagree, so please don’t bother me.
Anyway, here’s the timeline of events that I came up with:
- As many know, it all started with a WN, with the first chapter being published on 2020-02-25 and the last on 2021-07-17. I don’t know if the WN is exactly the same as the LN, but it’s basically the same content as the first volume of the LN and the first four volumes of the manga.
- The author struck a deal with Shueisha for the publication of the story both as a manga and as an LN.
- According to the timestamp on NicoNico, the first chapter of the manga was published before the first volume of the LN, perhaps to help with the publicity and sales of the LN. The first chapter of the manga was published on 2022-11-01.
- The first volume of the LN was published on 2022-11-25.
- The first volume of the manga was published on 2023-05-19.
- The second volume of the LN was published on 2023-12-22.
- The second volume of the manga was published on 2024-01-18.
- The third volume of the manga was published on 2024-06-19.
- The fourth volume of the manga was published on 2025-09-19.
As you can see, there’s a one-year gap between the publication of volumes 1 and 2 of the LN, but almost two years have passed since then and there’s still no volume 3. Since LN release intervals are usually somewhat consistent, this raises some questions. The first is, does the story end in volume 2? The second is, if it doesn’t, has the LN been canceled? And the third is, if it was canceled, did that happen before or after the release of volume 2? Unfortunately, I don’t have the answer to any of these questions and can only speculate. I tried asking two people who read the second volume whether the story ends there, but neither of them replied. If anyone knows, please let us know.
I have a few scenarios in my head.
- The LN wasn’t canceled, and the story actually ends in volume 2. This feels strange to me because of the dark turn the author took. I mean, I know this is the same author as Fukushuu o Koinegau Saikyou Yuusha wa, but even so, it still feels odd.
- Sales of volume 1 of the LN were poor, and the author was told to wrap it up in volume 2, so she unleashed her demons there. Considering the dark turn, this seems more plausible to me than scenario 1.
- Sales of volume 1 of the LN were poor, so the author tried to spice things up with the dark turn in volume 2, but it didn’t work and the LN was canceled afterward. I also find this more plausible than scenario 1.
Unfortunately, I don’t know how to check LN sales data, but we can take a look at the sales of the manga’s physical copies using
Shoseki Ranking. And since we’re at it, why not?
- Volume 1: approximately 1,838 copies sold in the first week and about 2,606 copies in the second week, for a total of roughly 4,444 copies. No data after that.
- Volume 2: approximately 2,600 copies sold in the first week. No data after that.
- Volume 3: approximately 2,313 copies sold in the first week. No data after that.
- Volume 4: did not enter the weekly ranking, so there’s no data to estimate sales. During its release week, it needed to sell at least 1,250 copies to rank.
Here’s a chart:
Note: I listed Volume 4 with 1,250 copies sold for illustration purposes only. The actual number is lower.
Considering the genre of the manga, these numbers are pretty bad. So I find it quite surprising that the author decided to stick with the same dark turn she made in the LN. She had plenty of time to reconsider the story but chose to keep it as it was in the LN. If I were a betting man, I’d say her contract with Shueisha guarantees that all the LN content will be adapted into the manga, because physical volume sales are only getting worse. Maybe digital sales are keeping it afloat, I don’t know.
Welp, that’s all I have to say about it. Once again, if anyone knows whether the story actually ends in volume 2 of the LN, please let us know.
