@Clarabelle I can not recall any info on that, but it is completely translated and published, so not sure if they will update that or not...

I hope there will be a novel from my wishlist, even if the chance is probably low.

@SomeOldGuy Either that or science class lied to us.

@legitpancake Due to the amount of work that goes into physical prints, especially when combining 3 full books into 1, you shouldn't expect more than 1 hardcover collection per series per year. Especially when book 6 isn't even released digitally yet.

@malloc

It is first come first served, the lines to line up for panels are actually outside the convention center (for general attendees, ADA & Premier pass holders wait inside)

Every panel room has its own dedicated color, and you line up outside for that panel on the colored tape for that panel room, for popular panels people start waiting several hours before the panel begins to make sure they get a spot, for a panel like J-Novel Club you can probably arrive 15 minutes before hand and you should be more then safe.

@rahul-balaggan Phew, that‘s a relief.

@paul-nebeling That, or the new editor for Realist needs more time to catch up on the series. I think this is more likely than Overlap being slow with paperwork, considering they published vol.11 back in October.

With the 9th volume to be released on Sunday I somewhat feel sorry for how the story and series itself feels to got stretched so much. And the non-linear publications of side stories, prequels, epilogue after the 5th volume somewhat soured my overall experience.

I preordered the upcoming volume anyroads, but I cannot wonder if there is hope for the series to get any better. I personally wish it would have properly ended by now, with spin-offs / bonus volumes concluding the story or even laying ground for a sequel series as seen with Wolf & Spice.

I absolutely love Realist Hero, and at the moment it is my straight-up favorite light novel (though Bookworm is a close second and the main reason I put Realist Hero ahead of it is simply that more stuff has happened in Realist Hero, as far as official English translations go, so they might switch places later).

When it comes down to it, though, Realist Hero is ultimately another feel-good "MC solves all the problems" power fantasy LN, hence why things ultimately come fairly easily for him. The fact that there's an in-universe justification for why things are easy for him just highlights the nature of this series. It's ultimately different in nature from Bookworm, so I wouldn't really make any direct comparisons between the two. If anything, as far as its tone and nature goes, it's closer to Smartphone (albeit with less of the silly stuff, but hey, both have polygamy and country-building so...).

However, the way Realist Hero executes its power fantasy, at least for me, just works so well. Of course, it helps that Souma has no real OP powers and largely has to rely on his smarts and making good use of the more OP people around him. But I think what makes Realist Hero so good is how the story ultimately revolves not around "saving the kingdom/world" (despite the title), but rather about the characters' feelings and how they all have their own stories within the larger story. The frequent changes of POV helps a lot in this way, and I really like how many side characters have their own relationships outside of Souma's harem.

It's very telling that the very first scene of the story is Souma's grandfather telling Souma to find a family to care for. The first scene of a story should set the tone for the rest of the story, so why have a scene like this rather than, say, Souma talking about Machiavelli with friends or something actually related to "rebuilding a kingdom"? I think it really shows how the focus is really on "family", with the "rebuilding a kingdom" part being the framework that feeds into this theme. And that's what makes Realist Hero such a great series for me; it is a power fantasy that goes beyond just "doing stuff" and feels more like a personal story.

@legitpancake my bad then I didn't realize they were separated.

@MidnightTemplar

Hi there, we don't ever update the schedule with future volumes until the day it's going to be released. This is to avoid emergencies or last-minute problems from causing delays and upsetting people's expectations. In general, there is a 2-3 week delay between the last part of one volume of a given series and the first part of the next volume, but that can be affected by various factors as well.

Quof, the translator, posted in the part 2 volume 2 discussion with the following:

There probably will be a week gap before the next part due to some internal stuff, though the TL itself will still be going on and there will probably be a double-part again at some point.

@terabyte @LegitPancake thank you, much appreciated

@doublemangekyo Ah sweet!!!

@durask The first volume just came out in Japan like 3 weeks ago, so it might take some time to negotiate. J-Novel's biggest obstacle is definitely the publisher, Shinchosha, which JNC may not have any ties or contacts with (Sam may, but I've never seen him talk openly about it). Explaining JNC's digital-only nature, with paperbacks reserved for only best sellers, is particularly a difficult selling point for JP publishers that have never made a deal with JNC before.