Back in summer last year, Japanese publisher Kadokawa held “MyAnimeList x Honeyfeed Writing Contest 2025 – THE ISEKAI presented by KADOKAWA,” an English-language light novel contest held with the goal of discovering “the next big isekai hit.” As explained on the official website, the contest was launched in order to scout fresh worldwide talent, giving them the chance to have their stories published in Japan This February, Kadokawa announced the three contest winners, with the grand prize going to Isekai’d with my dog, I’m not the hero?! by author Frettiko.
During the same time, Kadokawa held the World Manga Contest, offering aspiring manga artists from around the world an opportunity to debut in Japan. This was just one of the moves Kadokawa’s editorial team made in their attempts to go global, assessing that worldwide expansion will become necessary for broadening the talent pool and meeting market demands.
However, according to Satoshi Arima, editor-in-chief of Kadokawa-owned novel publisher MF Books and leader of the isekai contest project, there is an abundance of light novel authors in Japan. So, if that’s the case, why did Kadokawa decide to seek new talent for the Japanese light novel market in the Anglosphere? In a recent interview with Otaku Soken, Arima discussed the details behind the contest, while providing some personal insight into the Japanese light novel market.
When asked about whether the English-speaking light novel contest was held because of difficulty in securing domestic talent, Arima explains that’s not exactly the case.
“Actually, I don’t really feel like there’s a shortage of Japanese light novel authors. Rather, I think that they’ve been growing in numbers,” Arima says. “On the other hand, the number of readers has been decreasing. Looking back at the history of light novels, just like physical publications of web novels started becoming hits after the boom of light novel-based anime, I believe the market is in need of a new wave.”
“So, in order to create the next big hit, we need to cause a stir in a positive sense,” Arima argues, concerned that the market will just keep quietly shrinking if it doesn’t manage to capture people’s interest. According to him, publishing works of overseas authors in Japan could help positively stimulate the market and create more opportunities to draw in new readers.
“My personal idea is that, if we managed to create means for non-Japanese speakers to try themselves out in the Japanese light novel market, it may serve as good stimulation. I don’t think there’s a shortage of authors, rather, we need to find more people, including readers, who will pay attention [to the market].”
Other than that, another goal of Kadokawa’s is to reach out to the overseas audience and future business partners. As Arima explains, if a light novel author from a specific country became popular in Japan after getting published by Kadokawa, that could serve as an opportunity for the company to expand their business within that country.
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I think the formula is just being exhausted. I’m not sure what a foreigner could write if the Japanese are not turning to those markets naturally. This seems a bit of folly and lack of understanding on their part market demands change. Light novels have been exploited too long with overdone formulas. If they are turning to Western market, this definitely won’t end well.
Well yeah, everything’s too generic
Usually I would push back on comments because usually I do enjoy Isekai myself due to how the genre can provide differentiation after the death Isekai scenes play out. The issue with Kadokawa currently is not quantity, but quality control. There is great Light Novel authors as we have seen with Re;Zero, Overlord,Youjo Senki, Bakemonogatari, Mushoku Tensei, etc.But the main problem is a lot are mediocre, and they are rewarded by the Pacific Asian market that can not discern good from bad works, so the bad works are starting to become Anime and this is what we are having. Without Quality Control and oversight the only works we will have is basically very generic works that will begin to water down the Anime Industry and Light Novel industry as a whole.
I mean half the reason is that they want to push out so many isekais where atleast 70% are overdone stuff with no personality. Make unique stuff worth reading.
Americans would love to read tons of manga. We just can’t seem to get our hands on it in English. I hunt routinely for new manga. I can never find it.
Getting Western authors into the market won’t solve anything.. The issue is non translated product.. All the anime’s that don’t get dubbed and then the ones that do are unfinished because the “source material” never finished..
I think it’s interesting. Clearly they have acknowledged there are less people reading, id argue it’s because there’s a shift towards streamers and video creators in Japan.
But I also disagree some of the comments here, clearly the Japanese know the demand for isekai is huge there and that’s something non Japanese don’t relate too.
My assumption is they wanna try find the next shake up to the genre. Like how villainess stuff defined a new isekai subgenre that brought in a ton of readers. That or they’re just casting a larger net.
Its a simple numbers game. There are 120-130 million japanese speakers globally and 1.5 billion english speakers (20% of the planet). I strongly suspect there is a bottleneck at translation (from Japanese to english/etc), especially considering some of the fan translations ive seen (translating a book properly is quite difficult work!).
I really like some of the ideas and concepts in Japanese LN that seem to be born of cultural artifacts and differences from the west. But at the same time im seeing more and more western authors willing to embrace those concepts and run with them in riskier, or more “western” ways. So I can see why the publisher might want to do this for reasons beyond just english being a larger market.
Hollywood for example could really use a creativity lesson from Japan and their anime industry, so why not Japan’s LN industry pick up some tricks from the Wests fiction and literature industry? I know I personally have appreciated what western authors have started picking up from the Japanese LN industry.